“He just wants in my pants,” she said, making a face as she laughed.
I laughed with her. “You are such a dork. Do you need me to do anything before I start making calls?”
“Nope, I’ve got it. Just send the next one in when he gets here, will ya?” she smiled up at me.
“What time is the next one?”
“He’s supposed to be here at nine thirty, so in about ten minutes.”
I got up from my chair and walked toward the door. “Alrighty, girl, just let me know if you need anything. Who should you be expecting? So I know who I’m sending back,” I turned and asked before walking out the door.
“Oh, right.” She grabbed the top sheet on her neat pile of papers. “His name is Sam Thompson,” she said, looking up at me frazzled
“Okay, I’ll send him back,” I replied as I walked out of her office.
I walked back to the front of the office and headed over to the desk Jules had assigned to me. She had stacked a pile of folders on it with clients I would need to call. We didn’t have a lot of work to do since a majority of the work was still being handled in Atlanta. Jules and I just had to get everything squared away here, so we could transition the clients to the new office.
As I was flipping through the files, I heard the door open and looked up to see who had walked in. It had to be Sam. I stood from my chair and smiled as I walked over to him. He was tall, maybe around six-foot, late twenties, with a lean build. He was dressed in khaki pants and a light blue button-up shirt, and his shaggy light brown hair looked disheveled. Either he’d been running his fingers through it, or he rode with the windows open, which I’m sure it was the latter since it was such a nice day outside.
“Hi, may I help you?” I asked as I reached him.
“Hi, I’m here for an interview. I’m Sam Thompson,” he smiled at me with his perfect white teeth and offered his hand.
He had an amazing Australian accent and emerald green eyes. Jules was definitely going to have a field day with this one. I reached out and shook his hand, keeping the smile on my face. “Nice to meet you, Sam Thompson. I’m Scarlett Moore.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” he replied as he pulled his hand away.
“Right this way, Sam. I’ll take you to Jules,” I said as I turned and walked toward the offices. “So you’re Australian, huh?” I asked, looking over at Sam as he walked beside me.
He turned his head and looked at me with a smile. “You caught on to that, did ya?”
I couldn’t help the goofy grin that appeared on my face. “It was hard to miss.” It wasn’t too deep of an accent, but it was definitely there.
Jules looked up from her desk just as we stopped in front of her doorway. “Jules, this is Sam; he’s here for his interview.” Jules looked at Sam and then back at me with a smile. I could tell what she was thinking just in that split second. She was thinking, “Holy hell, look at this man.” I smiled at her before walking back to my desk.
Sam was definitely a good-looking guy, but I hoped like hell she didn’t bring out her match-making skills again. I knew that look on her face. She always tried to set me up, but she wasn’t very good at it. I used Dave as an example the last time she tried to set me up. He was a great-looking guy, but he was too boring and we had nothing in common. Half an hour later, I heard footsteps on the hard wood floor. I turned in my chair and smiled up at Sam as he made his way toward me with a smile of his own.
“Hey, how’d it go?”
“Looks like you and I will be working together starting tomorrow.”
“That’s great, what time did she say you needed to come in?”
“She told me to come in at nine.”
“Okay, that’s what time I come in too. So, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He gave me a slight wave and headed toward the door. “Bring a notebook. There’ll be lots of info to go over on your first day,” I said staring at his ass.
“Got it,” he said as he turned and winked at me before walking out in the Los Angeles heat.
As soon as he walked out, I laughed at myself as I got up from my desk and hauled ass to Jules’ office. “Holy Hells bells, did you see his ass?” I blurted as I made my way to the chair I had sat in earlier. I noticed it was still warm from Sam sitting in it.
Jules looked at me and laughed, “Yes, I did, and I actually kept him back here talking longer than I needed to just so I could hear more of his accent. What the hell is it about a guy and an accent? He could have asked me to bend over this desk and I would have. All he would have had to do was keep talking. Oh my God, could you imagine him whispering dirty words to you in your ear?” She sighed and then looked at me. “I’ve got to stop thinking about it; I’m getting seriously turned-on.”
I shook my head and we burst out laughing. “What am I going to do with you, Jules?”
She just shrugged her shoulders and kept the smile on her face.
“So how many more interviews do you have today? There are ten desks out there. Are we really going to have ten agents here?” I really hoped not because that would be a lot for just us to train.
“No, I have four more interviews coming in today. I’ll probably only hire one more. That way we each can train one and still be able to update clients while they do the gopher work. Matt just wants us to transition everything for the first month and finish out the clients we had before we moved out here. Then, start really focusing on the LA clientele,” she said as she clicked away on her computer. “Matt contacted a lot of producers too, and that’s half the battle.”
“Okay,” I said as I got up from the chair. “I guess I’ll get back to calling clients.” I made my way toward the door.
“Okay, chica, just send the next ones in when they get here. Next are Mary, Doug, and then Phil.” She continued clicking away on her keyboard as I made my way toward my desk to make more calls.
The rest of the day flew by, and before I knew it, we were locking up the office.
We were located right outside of downtown LA, which would be convenient for our new clients. In Atlanta, we didn’t have clients coming into the office, but here it would be a different story since this is where most actors and actresses lived.
I told Jules I’d see her at home as I got into my car. After I had found out I would be moving to LA, I decided it was time to trade up the Accord. It was so old and needed work, plus I didn’t want to be driving it in the middle of downtown LA and end up breaking down. So, I bought a new-to-me, used Acura, and I loved it. It was my favorite color blue, and it had windows that would roll down when you wanted to them to−without getting stuck.
The ride home wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be since we didn’t leave the office until after six. Because Atlanta was three hours ahead, Matt wanted us to come in later and stay later so we were closer to working at the same time.
I was fifteen minutes from the apartment when I heard my cell going off. I reached down into my purse and pulled out my phone. “Joan” showed up on the caller ID. I didn’t really want to answer it, but it had been a while since I last talked to her, so I gave in.
“Hello.”
“Hey, dear, did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Nah, I’m just on my way home from work,” I said as I turned down our road and headed toward the apartment.
“How’s all that coming along? Are you all settled in yet?”
“No,” I sighed. “I still have a ton of unpacking to do, but I’m sure we’ll see it done soon enough. How are things by you?”
“Things are good here, dear. I went shopping with some of the ladies from church this weekend, so that was fun. But the reason I’m calling, and don’t get mad at me, I just talked to Bryce. I had mentioned to him that you had moved out there, and it seems that he hasn’t heard from you since Thanksgiving. I thought that you two had kept in touch.”
I had actually been putting off calling and telling him that I had moved. Things were left unsaid that Thanksgiving night, and I felt a little weir
d about what happened.
“Yeah, Joan, it’s just that things have been so busy with work, and we just haven’t kept in touch. I honestly forgot to even call him and let him know I was moving out here.”
“Well, no worries, dear. I hope you don’t mind, but I gave him your address and asked him to stop by and check on you from time to time. I hate that you are so far away from me now. It was bad enough with Bryce gone, now that you and I have gotten close, you’re gone now too.”
I could hear the sadness in her voice. I wasn’t happy at all that she gave Bryce my address, but I wasn’t going to say anything to her about it. I knew it would give her peace of mind and she would sleep better at night if I contacted him.
“Ok, Joan, that’s fine. I’ll try to give him a call tomorrow on my break,” I said, hoping to pacify her as I pulled into my apartment complex.
“That’s great, dear. Well, I’ll let you go while you’re driving. Call me soon. Tell Jules I said hello.”
“I sure will. Talk to you later.”
I hung up the phone, tossed it back into my purse, and then found a parking spot as close as I could to my apartment entrance. I grabbed my purse and made my way into the apartment thinking about my conversation with Joan. She was so sweet and I’d grown to love her, but she could be overbearing.
I sighed as I walked through the front door. Since she told Bryce I had moved, I would wait and see how long it took for him to call me, because I wasn’t calling him.
What the hell would I even say?
I woke up to the shrieking sound of my phone. Peeking one eye open, I looked over to see the damn thing vibrating on my side table. I was so fucking tired. Every night this past week, I was doing some type of work with Paul; whether it be money collecting or doing drop offs; the shit lasted until all hours of the night. Of course, after years of being in a band, you’d think I’d be used to staying up late, but this shit was a different kind of tired. This stress was kicking my ass.
Letting out a sigh, I stretched my arm out and grabbed it to see who would be calling me so fucking early. After wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I noticed it wasn’t as early as I thought and Max was calling me.
“Hey,” I answered through a yawn.
“Hey, man, did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Nah, just waking up. What’s up?” I groaned as I stretched my body out.
“Um … I was going to call you a few days ago, but−but I didn’t know if I should.”
Max was stuttering, which could only mean he was about to tell me something I didn’t want to hear. So I stayed quiet and waited.
“So, the guys and I went to the beach the other day and decided to stop and get some coffee on the way home.”
“Yeah,” I sighed impatiently.
“Yeah, well, you’ll never guess who we saw there.”
I sighed again, “Spit it out, Max.”
“Scarlett, Kade. Scarlett was there. And she wasn’t just visiting. Apparently she’s moved here and lives just on the other side of town.”
My eyes widened in shock and I immediately sat up in bed, running my fingers through my hair. “Are you sure? How do you know for sure? Did you talk to her? What did she say?”
“Yeah, man, we talked to her. She moved here with that friend of hers. Jaxon said something about her boss opening a new office out here, and when he mentioned telling you, she flipped the fuck out and said she didn’t want you to know.”
I let out a sigh. Of course she didn’t want me to know. “I’m not surprised, Max.”
“Look, I wasn’t going to tell you because I know you’ve been stressed and you’re trying to get all this shit straightened out. I just wish you’d tell me what the fuck is going on.”
I knew he wanted to be there for me, but this was not something I wanted my brothers to be involved in. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he knew enough to get his ass in trouble.
“I appreciate you telling me.” I was in shock and not sure what to do with this information. It had been eight months since I had seen or talked to her. I was actually a little jealous that the guys got to see her and I didn’t, but I couldn’t think about that. I had too much shit on my plate, especially after what had been going down that week. “I’ve gotta let you go. I’ve got to meet someone in an hour.”
I heard Max sigh, “All right, man, we need to get together soon, though. The band needs to know you’re alive. It’s been like, three months, since we’ve seen you and that was only for a few minutes in passing.”
I had been a really shitty bandmate. With all the shit going on, I never had time to think about what they were doing or going through. I was surprised they hadn’t dropped me and found someone to take my place, but knew they wouldn’t do that. Even though management was on my ass about getting things rolling again, I just couldn’t do it yet.
“You’re right. How about we meet up tomorrow, grab some drinks downtown.” I got up from the bed and headed toward the bathroom.
“Yeah, man, let me call Jaxon and Lucas to tell them. I’ll text you tomorrow night.”
I could hear the smile in his voice. It would be good to see my brothers. I needed to keep in touch before they told me to fuck off and find new friends.
“Okay, Max, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
I set my phone on the bathroom sink and rested both hands on the counter. I looked myself over in the mirror. I was starting to look like a bum. I needed a haircut and my beard definitely needed some trimming. Standing up straight, I moved over to the counter drawer and pulled it open to retrieve my trimmers. I’d just trim it up a bit and then jump in the shower. Then I had to head over to Frank’s instead of our usual meeting place.
I arrived at Frank’s around twelve thirty. I was thirty minutes later than he told me to be, but he was lucky I even got out of bed when I did. If Max had not called me when he did, I would have really been late.
Getting out of my BMW, I made my way up the steps of what I called Frank’s mid-sized white colonial mansion. It was two-stories high and had pillars all around it with a deck on the second floor that went the length of the house.
It was kind of ridiculous to have a house so big when the asshole lived by himself.
I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. I knew better than just to walk in the house. After my first month of working with the ‘family’, I learned the rules Frank had mentioned to me that first night I met with him; the night I decided to let Scarlett go.
Rule #1: Always show respect.
Rule #2: Never do business with the TraPani’s.
Rule #3: Never betray the family.
Rule #4: You fuck up, we’ll take you out.
The door opened and I noted that Frank’s bodyguard was the one to greet me at the door. He really must have trust issues if he didn’t answer the door himself.
Walking past bulging biceps, I made my way into the grand entryway. I took a moment to look around as I waited for him to tell me where to find Frank. I had never been to his personal residence before so I didn’t know where anything was located. The house was nice, but a little outdated and too feminine in my opinion. The flower wallpaper leading up the stairs past the foyer, really needed to go.
With all the money he had, you would think he would hire a decorator.
Finally, I was led through oak-finished French doors where Frank sat behind a huge desk typing away on his computer. I stood there waiting for Frank to acknowledge me while biceps exited the room closing the door.
When Frank was done typing, he finally looked up. “Have a seat, Nick,” he said, pointing to the black leather chair that was in front of his desk.
I took a seat and unconsciously started rubbing my palms on my jeans. I wasn’t nervous. Maybe a little on edge, since it was just me and Frank and I didn’t know what was coming.
Frank sat back in his chair squinting at me, making me think he was mulling something over in his head. He got a slight
smirk on his face as we stared each other down. “So … it seems working with Paul has been working out pretty well?”
I chuckled. “I wouldn’t say things were working out with me and Paul. I’d say I was getting the job done,” I objected.
That was exactly what I was doing. Paul and I had been out every night this week and every time I was the one that took charge. I went in and collected the money or made sure the merchandise was what it was supposed to be. Paul, on the other hand, would sit back and let me roll or he would be off talking to somebody in private.
On one of those occasions, I overheard him talking to a guy named Damien. I didn’t hear the whole conversation, but I heard him say the name Vic TraPani. After all these months, I still didn’t know what the deal was with the TraPani’s.
Frank smiled at me. “That you have, Nick. You’re actually adjusting better than I thought you would. Which is why I brought you here. I think it’s time you and I start spending more time together, so you can get the feel of what it is I do.”
I raised my brows in surprise. “You mean … the back side of the business?” I was in shock because I’d only been working with Paul for a week, but I was happy that whatever I was doing had caught his attention.
Getting up from his chair, he walked around to the front of his desk and leaned back on it as he stood in front of me. “Yes, Nick, the back side of the business,” he said amused. “There are many things that we will need to go over and that you will have to learn, but for now, we’ll just go over the basics. I will tell you a few things before I start showing you anything.”
Before he started going into detail, I needed to ask him about the rules. “I need to ask you a question before you begin, if that’s all right?” I sat up straighter in my chair. “I’ve been told the rules that everyone is to abide by, but no one has told me exactly who the TraPani’s are or why we never do business with them.”
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