by M. P. Lodi
Noah said, “How the fuck did that guy get five hundred K in bail, and why was it set so low? This isn't very comforting to hear, Agent Barbrent.”
All eyes were fixed on Noah.
“Sure, I'll tell Jackson, he's right here with Jen. You need to speak with him?” Jackson stood up and put his hand out for the phone, but Noah shook his head.
Noah said, “Oh, okay...I'll be sure to tell him.” He put the phone down after ending the conversation and looked at Jackson. “The F.B.I. said you have some voicemail messages and asked that you please answer your cell when he calls. Did you leave it on vibrate again?”
Jackson reached into his pocket and took it out. He looked worried. “I spoke to him earlier, what gives?” he asked Noah, then going through his phone he said, “He left three messages.” He and Jen exchanged a quick glance. No doubt they realized that their hours of sexual escapades, with their phones on vibrate, often made them miss calls. They missed Noah and Em's calls many times over the last several weeks. At least the two were having lots of sex.
Noah shook his head, walking out from behind the bar. “What the fuck is wrong with the justice system in this country? We have illegals coming over the border committing rapes and murders and the government deports them, then they come back in over the border again and again. Now a person who was going to kill us all is let out on five hundred K bail because he had no criminal record and merely minor arrests when he was a juvenile? What the fuck is wrong with this country?”
Jen looked like a ghost as Noah walked over and handed the Toasted Almond to Emily. She said, “Are you kidding me?”
Emily put her hand on Jen's arm.
Jackson asked, “How the hell can they let that criminal out?”
Noah walked over and sat down on the big sofa chair facing the TV, but turned around while seated. “It seems he stashed money away somehow.” That whole story about how he and his brother were working with the Gambino's out of Queens and Brooklyn looks true. The prick disappeared after being released. The F.B.I. had him tailed and lost him.”
Jen put her hand over her mouth, then put the same hand on Emily's leg. Em and Jen both looked super worried. Noah turned back around to face the TV after shaking his head as he watched the ladies act scared.
Jackson walked over to the large sofa, left of where Noah sat. “We have to increase security immediately. This isn't good.”
Noah sighed. “No shit, Sherlock.”
Noah clicked the remote, then pulled the lever to make the foot rest shoot out from the chair. He looked like he wasn't worried about a thing as he took a nice long sip of his drink.
Jackson sighed. He shook his head and looked at Noah. “Why are you so calm? This guy is a trained killer. He might be hunting us even now.”
Noah stopped sipping his drink to turn his head and say, “That is a good possibility.” He then took another gulp and turned back to face the TV.
Jen said to Em with a shaky voice, “Can you two stay the night, we'll have extra people on duty.” There was no reason for Jen to be so scared. It wasn't like the man was in the mansion with them. Noah could hear it in her voice. She was already a wreck.
Noah turned around again and Emily looked at him as he glanced back over to the two ladies. With one eyebrow raised, he started nodding yes and said, “We can stay the night. I'm glad I have a full carry license down here. That prick comes at us again, he won't be leaving our presence alive.” He patted the left side of his chest, where he kept his Glock.
Jackson walked over to the bar and made himself a drink. Noah looked at Em and Jen holding hands, like two scared women. He smiled after taking another sip of his drink. “Don't you two worry. I have a bone to pick with that prick. I'll protect us all.” Sure, it was bravado, but Noah was confident in handling himself well, just as he did back in New York over the summer. It was Noah, after all, that knocked the gun out of the hand of the very man who was just released. He also knocked him the fuck out, justifiably. He had been the hero of the day this past summer, and had to duck away from the media. They all had wanted to interview him, and he turned them all away. One reporter from ABC he had wanted to knock out, as well, for not getting out of his face. Jackson had held him back. Damned media scum.
Jackson dropped some ice into his glass. “On a lighter note, we'll send Jen and Em's Aunt Diana, and Em's mom, out of the country on that vacation we promised them. Jen, call your aunt tonight and tell her it's time for fun. That will keep them out of harm’s way and happy. I'll go talk to security now to put extra people on in New York at that house, as well, just in case.”
Noah put on a video channel, and playing was Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi. “I love this song,” he said. “That's how I want to go out. Fighting for what I believe in. I so hope that asshole comes here.” They all hushed up, as Noah watch the video, turning up the volume.
As the video played, Noah turned around briefly and saw Jen, Jackson, and Em all staring at him. Noah turned back around, with his feet up and drink in hand, to watch the video. He could feel all of their eyes on the back of his head. He glanced back again and saw them each exchange glances, then they all looked back at Noah as he returned his focus to the video. Noah began singing along badly...
Shot down in a blaze of glory
Take me now but know the truth
I'm going out in a blaze of glory
Lord I never drew first
But I drew first blood
And I'm no one's son
He paused the video, and with his eyebrows high, he slowly turned and saw how all three of them were still staring at him.
“Come on, what the fuck people? We all have to die. God already knows when we'll all be at the pearly gates. Like my Viking ancestors believed, live life to the fullest, and take no prisoners. That's my motto in life. I'm not worried in the least. In fact, if that prick is hunting us, maybe we should hunt him first. What do you think, Jackson? It's not like we don't have any resources. I can get together a few bucks for a team of private detectives. Hell – you and I can both hire a small army of mercenaries. We already have a full report on that prick from our own PIs. Why should we fear this lunatic and have our women,” he gestured at Jen and Em, still holding each other, “scared to go to sleep at night?”
Jen was legitimately afraid. Em looked like she was merely supporting her friend.
Noah said, “When in doubt, attack, as George S. Patton said.”
Jackson seemed to like that idea, and had a gleam in his eye as he picked up his cell to make a call.
Jen looked at Noah, then Em. “Would you both mind staying with us from here on, until this is over? I feel a lot safer with you both here, not just tonight.”
Em said, “Of course honey. I'm sure Noah is okay with that, too.”
Noah turned back around to face the TV and unpaused it. Then, without turning around, Noah put his right thumb straight up into the air.
Jen
The next day, all four of them took a drive to the new HQ of the company. They went with a limo, Em's Audi, and lead and following cars filled with security. If anyone were to come at them, they wouldn't survive the attack. Jackson's security people were all experienced former cops and soldiers who'd been in combat. They were led by one former secret service agent who had guarded President Bush.
Jackson's father had planned on moving his company to Texas a few years back. New York state was not very business friendly. Jackson always told Jen that his father had said that if you didn't have to keep your business in New York, you should leave the state.
After first going to Noah's office, Em hadn't had a tour of the new building yet, so the three of them left Noah in his office to make a few planned calls. Meanwhile, Jen, Jackson, and Em looked over the building. After grabbing a snack in the cafeteria and watching some of the kids playing in the day care center, Jackson had them follow him into the new call center floor, which took up most of the fourth floor of the company's Dallas HQ.
“I
like the design of the call center. You did a nice job of clustering the desks for the teams,” Jen said to Jackson, who waved to her and Em to follow him to a team of employees on the phones. There were five people at their stations, wearing headsets and taking calls. Each station had two computer monitors. The three of them stood at the center of the team, as the desks were designed to cluster around a central point. Jackson pointed to one rep on a call and softly said, “You see how she is on the client's website? Not only do we do sales, act like receptionists and everything else that a client needs, but we guide website visitors on the client sites, and help them find products, too. Up-selling is the norm. The more successful our clients are, the more they brag about our company.”
Jen said to Em, “Jackson's father never believed in advertising. Word of mouth was the only way to expand the business due to the business design.”
One of the stations beeped. The team member, with short brown hair and glasses, answered, “Argyle Components, how can I help you?”
Em turned to Jen and Jackson. “Being the company that's behind so many others, you guys had to not advertise, right? I mean that's part of the package you sell to clients. What's the saying? No one will ever know that Virtualofficestaff.net is answering their calls? Or any of the thirty names of the websites that you guys have.”
Jackson had this proud smile on his face. “My father worked hard proving up the concept, and was one of the founders of the entire virtual office sector. He was a man ahead of his time. Any business can save a fortune on staff, headaches with government taxes, payroll, and so on. He realized that we could never offer references to callers due to the business design. Our clients didn't want anyone else, other than their own friends, possibly, to know they used our services.
“Sometimes clients would lie to their own families about using us, making it look like they ran a Fortune 500 company, and impressing them, as well. With our staff always ready to act like their own employees, maintaining the façade is easy. If that's what the client wants. We're always there to make the client happy. That's the name of the game. Plus we're a tax write-off for them. Everyone wins when any kind of organization becomes a client of one of our companies. We impress the hell out of Fortune 500s, small businesses, charities, doctors, lawyers and so on. We make them money, and save them even more money. They brag about our company to their fellow entrepreneurs and each person they refer to us gets them a free month of service. From there, you build a monster business. We all profit and we all do well.”
Em nodded. “I'm glad Noah is working with you in sales. He loves dealing with the larger accounts and said he has a knack for it.”
Jackson nodded. “He does, he has the perfect personality for sales. Outgoing, loud yet intelligent, and he isn't afraid of anything. I was surprised that he even wanted to work with me. He doesn't exactly need the money. It's more of a challenge for him, but I'm guessing he'll grow bored soon. He tends to have interests that jump around. He was telling me about that tactical group he was running out of Kentucky. Some private security operation that he has meeting with us to help us deal with our own problems.”
Jackson waved them both over to one of the reps on a call. He pointed at the screen and said, “That's one of the accounts Noah landed last month. It's a huge national real estate company that needed help in saving money. We helped them to quickly downsize and get rid of half their offices, anywhere they had more than one in a city, saving them a small fortune in rent and salary. They let go all of their receptionists and now we've made them over thirty-eight percent more profitable. That's according to their own estimates. Tell me they aren't happy.” Jackson smiled.
Each of them listened as a rep with long, black hair said, “Hold on one moment, I'll buzz you in.”
Jen looked at Em and Jackson. “We can buzz them into an office in a state hundreds of miles away? How cool is that?”
Jackson nodded up and down. “More than that, the one she just buzzed in had an appointment with a rep thousands of miles away. That office is in Maine. We do that for doctors and lawyers and every field, all day long. We really do play like we're in the office with the client at their locations.”
Jackson started walking to the back, where stations were being set up for another team. He turned to Em and Jen. “Come over here, we can talk there.” He pointed to a group of chairs in the center of the desks.
“It is better to talk away from the reps.” They walked about fifteen feet, toward some chairs in the middle of another future team being put together. Six desks with two computers, monitors, and wires all over.
Jackson said, “We pride ourselves in having no background noise at all. What that means is we promise our clients that no one that calls any client will ever be able to tell that that they aren't calling the company itself, and they will never know that they are calling a big call center. We, in fact, are the only company that acts as the company called, and we answer in the company name, too. That's part of our biggest promise. That, and the fact that we pay our people well, not like the typical answering service or call center. That helps with less turnover and gives clients consistency.”
All three of them sat down on the swiveling office chairs. Emily twirled all the way around, like a kid would, and then stopped as Jen and Jackson stared at her, smiling. Em looked at the chairs, and felt the material of the one she was sitting on with her hand. “These are real comfortable, too. I have to hand it to your father. Lorenzo Russo was one of a kind. I wish I could have known him.”
Jackson's eyes glistened, ready to tear up, as Jen put her hand on his leg and rubbed. She kissed him on his cheek, then turned to Em. “Hey, when's Noah getting here? He said he'd only be a few minutes.”
Jackson stood up. “Damn it, I was supposed to meet him at my office. You two wait here, I'll go get him.” Jackson looked at them both, with the confused look on his face that he often wore when his ADD had him off on a tangent. He looked at his cell. “Shit he tried to text me minutes ago.” He kissed Jen on her cheek. “I'll be right back.”
Jen and Em watched as he walked past the other team towards the elevator in the hall.
Em swiveled to face Jen “That man of yours really has a bad case of Attention Deficit Disorder.”
“Tell me about it. He says, ‘There was something I needed to tell you, but I forgot,’ at least three or four times a day. Yesterday, he was on the net looking up ADHD and then went to the Drudge Report instead. I asked what happened to the ADD site, he goes, ‘I couldn't wait for the page to load.’”
Emily laughed.
Jen said, “That's Jackson for you.”
Em looked around as if to make sure no one could hear them as she leaned closer to Jen. “Remember when I lent you those police handcuffs, did you bring them down to Texas?”
Jen blushed a little. “Yeah, I have them at the house. They came in handy a few times. I never told you how I had Jackson dress up as a cop for our own private Halloween Party. Talk about holiday bondage, I never had so much fun before on a holiday like Halloween. You want to talk a pulsating holiday...that was it. Having my own sexy muscled man arrest and molest me had me in total ecstasy for hours and hours. The only bad thing is, those things hurt. They're too rough on the skin.”
Em put her hand on Jen's thigh. “I'm so glad for you. I knew you two were made for each other. Hey check this out.” Em started looking in her iPhone. “You have to see this.” As Jen leaned in to look, she continued, “It's a video of this kid. It's called 'Listen Linda' and it is so frickin funny. This kid is hilarious.” They started watching the video, and by the end of the brief clip, Jen laughed it up.
She said, “Listen Linda,” mimicking the cute kid who said that to his mother.
Em said, “Did I tell you—”
Noah interrupted, booming, “There they are, the two most beautiful women in all of Dallas, and the country.” He said that as if he was just seeing them both for the first time in weeks. They did just drive to the office toget
her not even an hour earlier. Noah could be a little weird at times. One moment he has one personality, and the next he'd disappear, then come back with another.
Jen looked at him. “Shhhhh. We have to be quiet around that call center team there.” She pointed to the women on their headsets.
Jackson was right behind him. Noah acted like he was sneaking closer with each step, tip toeing over and afraid to make noise. He came over and sat on a seat next to Em. He kissed her on her lips. Jen and Em watched his theatrics and smiled.
Noah said to her, “Jackson and I were just talking. You and I have an appointment for lunch at Fifty Six.” He turned and said to Jen, “Wolfgang Puck's restaurant.”
Jen put her nose in the air with her finger under it before saying, “I refuse to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars on lunch. There are people who are hungry in the world. Homeless, too. It’s a terrible waste.”
Jackson shook his head. “Don't get him started. We've all talked about this for years.” He then walked behind Jen and kissed her on her hair.
Noah looked at Jen. “Let me just say, I've heard that argument since I was a kid. My father would say, ‘clean your plate, there are starving people in India or Africa.’”
Jen nodded “Well, there are.”
Noah looked right at her, shaking his head no. “Yes, there are, and I told him he could send that food to them when I didn't want to finish it, but in the here and now we have food, we have wealth, and what's the whole point of working our assess off and building a business empire if we can't enjoy what the money brings? Correct me if I'm wrong, Jen, but you do live in a mansion in north Texas. You don't live in some modest one bedroom apartment, now do you?” He looked at Jackson, then back at Jen while holding his palm out.
Jen said, “Yes, but Jackson wouldn't settle for anything less.”
Jackson nodded in agreement, then hugged her from behind her chair.