Chapter 4

Lester POV

Tank informed me about an hour after I dropped off the file to invite Stephanie to interview for the office manager position. At first we weren't going to open an office manager position in Trenton with all four members of the leadership core team being in one location and in the office but we realized pretty quickly that the amount of tasks that pulled our attention away from the more monotonous duties not hiring one would lead to burnout. Now with Ranger away on business and out of contact and Bobby, the 4th leadership core team member and head medic, down at the Miami branch assisting with the annual company physicals we were drowning with all of the paperwork and procedural crap.

Unfortunately the only applicants we had gotten so far were a woman with completely fake everything and flaming red hair who spent the entire interview flirting, a short dwarf like man with an attitude, and a guy who didn't even make it to the conference room before Ranger sent him packing. We still weren't quite sure why Ranger said no to the last guy but we never questioned Ranger's ability to read someone.

Now we finally had a qualified candidate so I was excited when Stephanie agreed to come in for an interview at the end of the week on Friday.

Stephanie POV

I was surprised when I found the envelope and money along with a business card in my coat pocket when I got back to my parents after visiting Rangeman. On the card was Hector's email so I decided to email him my thanks once again. I used google to translate my message into Spanish but I also included the English version in case the translation was incorrect.

Later that evening I saw that he had responded to my email.

"Hermana,

Thank you for the treats myself, Hal, and the guys really enjoyed them. If you are ever in need of anything please do not hesitate to call. I gave you my number for a reason.

Sincerely, Hector

P.S. I do speak English but please don't tell anyone ;)

Also, This email will self-destruct in 45 seconds."

Sure enough 45 seconds after I made it to the last line the email disappeared as if it never existed. I looked up Hermana on the internet just to be sure it wasn't a weird nickname and he was trying to flirt with me. It wasn't that I was worried about him linking me but I wasn't in the best place right now as I still needed a job so I wasn't really looking for anything. Google told me it meant sister so I figured it would be safe to add Hector's number to my phone.

Turns out it was a good thing that I did because on Tuesday when I returned to my apartment in Newark I found someone had broken in and trashed the place. Turns out whoever robbed the place robbed about six other apartments in the area in which the residents were also gone for the holiday. I wasn't super upset about it though because I didn't really have anything too valuable for them to steal. My dad had made me put all of my valuables including jewels and documents in a safety deposit box. So they only got away with the TV, my laptop which was quite old anyways, and a few other gadgets were missing though so I called the police and filed my report and put my copy of the report in my purse so I could file the insurance claim.

The bad part was now I didn't feel safe in my apartment or really my neighborhood since it was clear they knew that I was gone. The lock had been broken so I had to wedge one of my dining room chairs under the handle until my landlord could replace it. It was then I remembered that I now had a friend who worked in security so I decided to give him a call to see if there was anything I could do to add to the security of my apartment. He picked up on the first ring and when I talked him through my predicament he just said that he would handle it. I tried to argue that he didn't need to do anything crazy and that I just needed some recommendations but he hung up before I could finish the sentence.

Three hours later a knock came on my door and Hector walked in with a box in hand and my landlord. He then instructed the landlord to fix the lock while he surveyed the rest of the apartment. After my landlord was done and left to go back to his basement Hector installed a chain lock that I could lock when I was there and a floor lock then he noted that he could add locks to the windows if needed. Then he helped me lock down my laptop remotely so whoever had it couldn't steal any of my information and so he could put a trace on it and hopefully be able to track it down.

It was starting to get late so we ordered a pizza and talked about what I should know about Rangeman. He told me about the different branches in Atlanta, Miami, and Boston. The leadership core team and how I would only probably meet 3 of them since the 4th who was also the CEO was out of the country on business but that was all he could tell me since the rest was classified. He talked about how all but three of the men were former Military and he was one of the ones that wasn't. I asked him how he got into the company and he mentioned that he owed the boss a favor and it took off from there. I asked a few more questions about the atmosphere, benefits, and responsibilities of a security company before he had to leave to get back to Trenton. I bid him farewell with a few extra brownies and then locked up my apartment with my new installations.