Hal parked behind PTES in the spot closest to the door. I shook my head and mumbled about the Rangeman parking karma. When Hal chuckled, I knew I spoke those words aloud. "Wait until I open your door," Hal said. His thumb brushed over the back of my hand before he unbuckled his seat to slide out of my SUV.
I rolled my eyes but complied by waiting for him to open my door. Hal was only doing his job as my bodyguard. Ram parked behind us. He exited the vehicle to follow us inside. My cousin, Marjorie, was at the reception desk. She smiled. "Welcome to PTES, Stephanie. Dad should be here soon. Please, take a seat." Ram left to check the area. "He's cute," Marjorie said, following Ram with her eyes. "Is he available?" Her chair tipped when she leaned too far. Marjorie caught herself before falling over.
"Yes. I'll introduce you after we finish the meeting," I replied, smiling as Marjorie situated herself in the chair and shook her head to clear it from the vision of Ram's backside. Hal chuckled and placed a protective hand on my lower back.
Marjorie caught Hal's protective stance and my reaction by melting into his touch. Without uttering a word, Marjorie knew Hal and I were dating. Speaking Italian, Marjorie said, "Your boyfriend is cute," making Hal blush.
Though an explanation wasn't necessary, I said, "He speaks Italian, French and Spanish."
"Oops," Marjorie giggled, a lovely girlish sound. I joined in the laughter.
Hal gripped my hip tightly before promptly shaking his head. I wondered what he was thinking to make the blush disappear. Before I could question Hal, Ram called, telling Hal the coast was clear. I finger-waved at Marjorie and followed Hal to the waiting room.
We settled in the waiting area. Ram leaned against the wall, keeping an eye on the entrance to the space. Hal sat beside me with our backs to the wall, facing in the same direction as Ram.
Uncle Vincent arrived five minutes later. We followed him to the conference room. "I'm afraid your guards have to wait outside the room," Uncle Vincent said. He allowed Ram to secure the room before I entered.
There were a few empty seats in the room. With a wave of his hand, Uncle Vincent motioned for me to sit in the empty chair on his right. Glancing around the room, I recognized a few familiar faces. A few men I knew from high school winked when I caught their eye. It wasn't a flirtatious gesture but one of acknowledgment. Uncle Vincent stood to talk to the workers. I had expected over fifty employees. The room held thirty-five men and women, including Uncle Vincent and me.
Everyone sat straight in their chairs, awaiting the announcement from the CEO. I was impressed with how Uncle Vincent commanded the room. It reminded me of my Merry Men's reaction to Ranger.
"Thank you for coming here today. I will update the others once we conclude this meeting. Some of you know I accepted the CEO position until the rightful heir could take the reins. Today, Ms. Stephanie Plum will assume ownership of PTES. She is the heir, and I have already relinquished the company into her care. Stephanie has asked me to share the CEO title with her for the undetermined future. With my engineering background, I will remain the top man for decisions regarding technical engineering and consultations for civil, mechanical and structural engineering. Stephanie will consult with our clients regarding their IT needs. She has a working knowledge of how our Rangeman software works. Stephanie will work with Roland and Rick to improve their program. She will beta the software to ensure accuracy and help the team find the bugs. Any questions?"
"Ms. Plum, are you planning to take computer programming courses to assist the IT department?" Larry asked. He was a year ahead of me in elementary school. His family moved to New York after he graduated grade eight.
"I have taken a few computer courses at Douglass College. My marks were acceptable, but I understand most of what you learn about programming is hands-on. Only a portion of what you learn at school applies to situations in the real world. However, I am willing to learn more about the technical services we offer to assist our clients in finding the right team to meet their needs," I replied. A few men shifted uncomfortably in their seats. I wondered if they thought I would override their recommendations. "I know you're concerned about the IT department, and I want to reassure you that I can do my job."
The phone on the table rang. I raised my brows as Uncle Vincent put the call on speaker. "Vince," he said.
"Hi, Mr. Plum. We have a call on line one regarding a computer outage at the Button Factory. Is someone available to take the call?" Marjorie asked. Uncle Vincent looked to me for my input. I nodded.
"Patch them through," he replied.
"Hello, I'm Stephanie. How may I help you today?" I asked.
"Oh. I was expecting to speak to Javier," the man answered. I looked around the room for someone to claim he was the man Jimmy mentioned. The man with dark blond hair raised his chin, indicating it was him.
"Javier is here. Please explain the situation," I directed.
"The foreman running the line discovered the machines weren't aligned properly. He tried to fix the issue on the computer terminal, but it shut down. We have a blue screen," he explained.
"Have you rebooted the system?" I asked.
"We restarted the line," he replied.
Smiling, I explained, "Sometimes when my computer is acting strangely, I shut it down for twenty minutes, then turn it back on. Most times, it fixes the issue. Would you like me to remain on the line while you reboot?"
"I'll call you back in twenty minutes," he replied.
Javier smiled once I caught his eye. He approved my recommendation. We continued the meeting. As promised, Jimmy Alizzi called. Marjorie transferred the call to the conference room. Again, I answered the phone. "Did it work?" I asked after my polite greeting.
"It did. Thanks for helping, Stephanie," he replied.
"I'm sending a team to check your network computers at two. They will assess the network security and check the firewall to ensure nothing got downloaded into the server," I said. I left out my suspicion that Jimmy or one of his male employees watched porn on the company computers. Those porn sites were notorious for sending malware to the men and women accessing the sites. Jimmy thanked me for the assistance to get his workers back to work on the line.
"Why did you offer to check the computers?" Javier asked. I knew he was assessing me to ensure I could handle the demands of the IT department.
"People rarely clear their browsing history. I want to know if anyone accessed the Button Factory's computers to grab financials using remote access or onsite," I replied.
"What does your gut tell you?" Uncle Vincent asked.
"Someone watched porn, unintentionally downloaded malware and infected the network. Restarting the line computer was merely to get them running," I answered.
Javier leaned back in his chair. His pose eerily reminded me of Lester. Javier's blue-green eyes sparkled in amusement. He was too old to be Lester's brother. I wondered if they were related. Extending his hand across the table, he said, "I'm Javier Santos," emphasizing the "Santos" part of his name.
"Lester's father?" I asked. Javier nodded. I wondered why Javier doesn't work for Rangeman as their IT specialist.
"Yes, Lester is my son, and I'm not working for Rangeman because they don't want their clients to accuse them of planting bugging devices or spy software on their computers," Javier explained. It was logical, but Hector could still hack into their systems when necessary. Hector wouldn't risk putting Rangeman in that position.
"I can see that," I smiled. "Do you have a troubleshooting manual?"
"Not yet, but we can build one together while I'm catching you up to speed. The clients should only try the basics to repair their system. We always dispatch a team, as you had, to review the network computers to ensure their firewalls are efficient," Javier replied. I nodded and caught Uncle Vincent's eye to continue the meeting.
The other men and women asked me questions about my vision for PTES. "I need to learn more about the company before I can visualize how we should expand in the future," I replied. Hazel smiled at my response. I tried to remember which department she belonged to. It had to be one of Uncle Vincent's technical engineers. "Does anyone else have a question?" I asked, smiling at everyone in the room.
"When are you planning to work a full day?" Larry asked. My smile disappeared. I had to grieve Grandma.
Forcing a smile on my face, I replied, "Monday. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone."
Since there weren't other issues to discuss, Uncle Vincent dismissed everyone. I remained behind with Javier to arrange times to meet. "My grandmother passed away yesterday. I have a busy week arranging everything for the cremation and celebration of life in two days. Could we meet on Monday?"
"I'm sorry for your loss. Please let me know how I can support you during this time," Javier said. "Though from the stories Lester and Carlos shared, I'm sure you'll bounce back. They said you're resilient. I can already tell they weren't exaggerating."
"Thank you. I'll let you know if I need anything," I replied. "Honestly, most of it is me hiding in Denial Land and not facing the issue." Javier chuckled as though I was joking. He stopped once he realized I was honest.
"I'm looking forward to working with you. My son says you have a unique perspective and will get me to see issues from a different angle," Javier said. He jotted a number on the back of his business card and handed it to me. "Call me if you have to change our appointment on Monday."
"Thank you," I replied. "I'm looking forward to learning more about your department."
"Your department," Javier quickly corrected. "Bruce is retiring. He's one of our computer technicians. We're advertising for his replacement tomorrow." It was a job I knew Hal could do. I wanted to recommend him, but being the CEO of PTES, I couldn't show favouritism to a potential candidate. Who knows? Maybe Hal won't want to work with me at PTES. There was no point getting ahead of myself. Javier opened the conference room door, breaking me from my wandering thoughts. I was curious about how much Lester had told his father about me. It was something I had to worry about on another day.
Javier greeted Hal and Ram as he exited the conference room. Hal and Ram probably met Javier outside Rangeman, but none indicated such a familiarity. Their exchange was brief yet polite, with a modicum of respect.
I brushed my hand on Hal's arm, barely touching the skin as I passed him. My fingers twitched, wanting to grab his hand to hold. Being on duty as my bodyguard, he respected the boundaries and remained professional. Hal's eyes danced in amusement while his face remained unreadable. It was only because I knew him so well that I could see the thoughts expressed in his eyes.
We returned to the reception area, where Marjorie talked to her father. He leaned against the edge of her desk with one ankle crossing the other, a pose which reminded me of Grandpa Plum. Uncle Vincent glanced up as we approached. He stood up straight, reaching into his pocket to remove a device. Uncle Vincent passed me a blue fob. "Press the button to access the parking garage. Your spot is closest to the elevator," he said.
"Thank you." I waited until he left before introducing Ram to my cousin.
Marjorie blushed when I introduced Ram by his given name, Eric. She gasped when Ram shook her hand. I could feel the electricity rippling between them. Like me, Marjorie had horrible luck with me. It seemed as though her luck was about to change.
Ram and Marjorie exchanged numbers. Deep down, I knew they would develop a serious relationship, making Ram my family. He was always like a brother to me. Hopefully, Ranger and the other core team members won't have a problem with Ram dating my cousin.
Rangeman had a strict policy of not dating clients. However, they could date other employees, provided they didn't have direct contact during service calls. Technically, Hal was dating a client, and so was I.
With a finger wave, I said goodbye to Marjorie. She winked at me and smiled when Hal and Ram gave a simple one-fingered salute, a gesture made by raising a single index finger in the air. Ram once told me it was a nonverbal way to wish someone good luck. I googled it and learned it meant showing agreement or simply greeting someone.
Hal walked beside me with a protective hand on my lower back. Ram followed close behind, watching for threats we couldn't see. When we climbed into my SUV and secured our seatbelts, Hal asked, "Stephanie, when you asked about my computer programming skills, were you planning to hire me for PTES?"
"I'd be lying if I claimed I wasn't. Your mom mentioned you wanted a job working in your field. She said your Naval background involved computer technology and programming," I replied honestly. I don't want there to be secrets between us. "But now that I'm CEO of the IT portion of PTES, it would be showing favouritism if I hired you. Unless…"
"You have someone else review my resume and conduct the interviews," Hal said, finishing my thought.
"Exactly," I replied. "The department has a job opening, which Javier will post tomorrow."
I stared out the window, letting that news filter through Hal's mind. It was his choice. If he wanted to apply, I wouldn't stop him. However, the decision to hire him would not be mine alone.
