Company Ink

by J. A. Cipriano

  “You’re welcome,” I managed as a slight lump formed in my throat.

  “I have to go,” he said, breaking off abruptly. “Shelley—”

  “The car’s waiting for you out front. Go on,” she said smoothly as she slipped a cell phone in her pocket. I hadn’t even noticed her using it. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  He nodded and practically ran out of the conference room.

  I let out a long breath and slumped back into my chair, totally stunned. “Was he serious?”

  “Of course, he was. Loman Withholdings owns at least a dozen casinos, two dozen hotels, a bunch of bars and entertainment venues. Basically, a huge slice of the Vegas pie. They won’t even feel losing this one.” Shelley smiled as she pulled the briefcase toward her and started shuffling through papers. “That was some miracle, by the way,” she added. “You’re a very interesting man, Mr. Roger Stevens.”

  “Well, thank you,” I said with a smile of my own. “And you’re a very interesting woman. That was a neat trick you pulled, having the car ready for him. Like magic.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “All of us ‘executive assistants’ can work magic,” she said, putting air quotes around the words with her slender fingers. “By which I mean, we do all the work, and the company takes all the credit.”

  “I hear that.” Maybe I didn’t know about being an executive assistant for a casino owner, but I knew all about being an underappreciated employee.

  “Do you?” Shelley shoved the briefcase aside and set a stack of papers on the table. “Mr. Stevens, you seem like a smart man, and you’re obviously wealthy. But do you know the first thing about running a casino?”

  “Please, it’s Roger,” I said as I straightened in the chair, suddenly interested in where this conversation might be headed. “And I’ll level with you. I have no idea how to run a casino … but I’m guessing that you do.”

  “Very observant,” she said with another one of those tiny, flirty smiles. “I practically run this place already, and to tell you the truth, I’d like to continue doing that.” She leaned forward and pushed the papers toward me, giving me a generous view of her very fine cleavage. “So, if you’re looking to hire a general manager, I know someone who’s perfect for the job.”

  “I must be looking at her right now,” I said with a smirk. “But what about Peter? Doesn’t he need you?”

  She flapped a hand in the air. “I’m one of half a dozen executive assistants at the company, and I’m not even Peter’s personal assistant. In fact, she should have been here instead of me, but she took a vacation day today,” she said. “So, I’m hoping that makes today my lucky day.”

  “You know, it just might be,” I replied. “Let’s say I’m interested in retaining your services. How much is it gonna cost me?”

  “You’re worried about that? I got the impression that money was no object for you,” she said as she slid her chair back, stood and started around the table toward me, her heels clicking on the marble tiled conference room floor. “Don’t worry. I’m a bargain.” She circled behind me and started rubbing my shoulders in a way that made me hold back a groan of pleasure. “You give me a salary of five hundred grand, and I’ll make sure you take in a hundred times that much every year. Maybe even more.”

  I could definitely get behind that kind of profit, especially since it was another source of real money. I didn’t even have to worry about making my investment back since Peter Loman was actually giving this place to me, which I still couldn’t believe.

  “Well, Roger?” Shelley whispered in my ear, sending a shiver through me. “Do you think I’m worth it?”

  I grinned. “Hell yeah, I do. You’re hired.”

  23

  A few hours later, I’d signed all the paperwork, and we were settled into our new temporary digs.

  I’d made sure we had the fifth floor of the place to ourselves, offering free upgrades to the guests already staying there. All of us had our own suites, and there was still plenty of room on the floor to spare.

  At the moment, Felicia and Maggie were outside talking to the contractors I’d hired at five times their regular rate to get started right away on rebuilding the base, and to work fast. For that price, the company had agreed to have three crews on rotating eight-hour shifts, so the construction would be going nonstop until it was finished.

  There were just a few things I hadn’t filled them in on, like the crocodiles. That was what Felicia was explaining right now.

  I had Cami and Marty in the main room of my suite, which I had to admit was really damned nice. The couch, loveseat, and chairs were butter-soft leather arranged on a thick plush carpet around an oversized coffee table, facing a plasma TV with stereo speakers that had to be at least seventy inches. There was a kitchenette behind the living room area, two bedrooms off the back of the suite, and a Jacuzzi in the giant bathroom.

  “So,” Cami said as she leaned forward eagerly, showing a whole lot of the ‘anime character’ breasts I’d given her earlier. “What about this suit you want me to make for you?”

  “I vote for an Iron Man suit,” Marty said as he fiddled with his phone, probably texting Lisa. I couldn’t blame him. She was the girl of his dreams, but for years he’d been too shy to even speak to her. Then he’d ended up saving her from an abusive boyfriend, and the rest was history. “You know, cool weapons, visor display, rocket boosters,” he added, tossing the phone on the couch next to him. “Awesome stuff like that.”

  I nodded. “Something that goes together like the Iron Man thing, a suit that assembles itself, would probably be ideal. That way I could have it with me but not wear it all the time,” I said and looked to Cami. “But you’re the rocket scientist. So, you tell me what you can actually make?”

  “Pretty much anything, given enough money and time, honestly,” she said with a smile. “But I’m definitely thinking nanites here. I’ve already worked with them on the voice command function for the pen, and I’d love to do this with nanites on a larger scale. It’d be self-assembling, and you could probably carry it in a briefcase or something.”

  “A briefcase, huh?” I mused, trying to picture it in my mind. Mostly what I saw was the briefcase being kind of a pain to carry around, or possibly getting stolen. “What about something hands-free, like a backpack?”

  “Yeah … that might work,” Cami said as she nodded slowly. “Scratch that, it’ll definitely work. If I make it out of the same polymer I used for the voice command suit, I’ll actually be able to incorporate the backpack into the armor.” She made an absent scribbling motion in the air and looked around for a minute. “Got a pen and paper somewhere?” she said. “I mean, not that pen. Just something I can write with.”

  “Not on me, but I can get one,” I said as I produced my pen and wrote Cami has a notepad and a pen. When I finished the sentence, the items appeared on her lap.

  She jumped a little and grinned. “Thanks.”

  “Hey, hold on a second,” Marty said as Cami started scribbling away. “I thought this Presley guy was erasing everything you create.”

  “He can if he knows about it, and for now, I don’t think he can,” I said with a shrug. “And I want to say it’d be really petty of this guy to get rid of a notepad just because I created it, but he seems like the petty type. So just make sure you get some actual paper and transfer your notes as soon as possible.”

  Cami gave me a thumbs-up with one hand, while still writing with the other. “Okay, so I’ve got portability, backpack, weapons, visor display, rocket boosters,” she said as she made a last note and looked up. “What else?”

  “Can you make it impenetrable?” I said, thinking of all those soldiers and all their guns. “I’m not really interested in being shot.”

  “No problem. I’ll make sure that even the visor is bulletproof.” Cami wrote something down. “What about an AI? I can get Maggie to help me out on that, build a smaller version of the AI we had in the base. For stuff like temperature regulatio
n, GPS, weapons guidance systems, probably motion detectors and proximity alerts. Yeah, we’ll definitely put that stuff in,” she said without waiting for me to confirm as she jotted down more notes.

  I laughed. “I think you’ve got the idea. So, I’ll let you take it from here, and you can surprise me with whatever you put into it.”

  “This is gonna be so cool! I can’t wait to get started on it,” Cami said, flipping the front page of the notepad back to start writing on the next page. “I just need to put a quick shopping list together.”

  Marty raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, and where are you going shopping for all the stuff you need to build a high-tech weaponized suit of armor? Mad Scientists R Us?”

  “Something like that,” she said, flashing a quick smile. “There’s plenty of places to get these things. You just have to know where to look. Okay, I think that should do it for now,” she added as she finished scribbling and tore the second page of the notepad out. “Who’s hitting Mad Scientists R Us with me?”

  “What the hell, I’ll go with you,” Marty said as he got up from the couch. “I’ve always wanted to see where mad scientists shop. I’m sure Lisa will come, too.”

  “Awesome. And let’s bring Vanessa with us,” Cami said as she folded the list and tucked it in her pocket. “I know she’s been saying she wanted a few new outfits, and I need more clothes that fit me and my new rack,” she said, adjusting the rack in question as she winked at me. “We can just turn this into one big shopping excursion.”

  Marty groaned. “Do we have to?”

  “Yes, we do. And Lisa will love you for it.” Cami got up and stretched, bouncing on her toes a few times. “You can carry all of our stuff for us. Let’s go!”

  I wished them luck, and Cami walked out of the suite trailing a reluctant Marty behind her.

  Once they were gone, I settled back on the loveseat with my pen to try and figure out a more permanent solution for keeping Presley off my back. The line about no one being able to see what I wrote had faded even more. I wasn’t sure how much safe time I had left, but I knew it couldn’t be much.

  I decided to start with the guy’s real name to see if it would take, and tried writing, Henry Aaron can’t use his pen. The line vanished instantly. I wrote Henry Aaron is in a coma, but that disappeared just as fast. Neither line worked when I substituted Presley for Henry Aaron either.

  Maybe if I made it more general, like some of the lines that had worked before, it would stick. I switched to writing the person who’s after me instead of a name, but the commands winked from existence. Finally, I wrote, The person who’s after me believes I’m escaping to Canada.

  That one actually stayed. I didn’t know if it was because I hadn’t used a name, or I’d related it to what Presley wanted, for me to leave Nevada, but I’d take it.

  Just as I put my pen away with relief, thinking we might actually be safe long enough to rebuild the base and prepare to go up against Presley, there was a knock at the door of my room. I opened it to find Ronnie wearing one of the super-soft hotel bathrobes, looking at me with a hopeful expression. “Can I come in?” she said.

  “Sure,” I grinned as I moved aside to let her in, and then closed the door. “What’s up? Is everything okay with your room?” I said, heading back toward the couch.

  “Everything’s fine. I just … well, I have something for you,” she said.

  “Oh yeah?” I stopped, turned around and looked at her. When I did, she opened the robe and dropped it on the floor.

  She was completely naked beneath it.

  My dick sprang to attention as she walked toward me, putting a little wiggle in her walk. Being a former Miss Tennessee, she really knew how to strut, and her breasts with those hard, dark nipples really were amazing.

  “So, Roger,” she said as she slowly crossed the room with a smile. “I hope you don’t mind. I noticed that everyone else left, and I was hoping … well, that we could finish what we never got to start earlier. In the limo, I mean.”

  I barely got the chance to nod before she was in front of me, dropping to her knees and undoing my pants. Her hands slid down, and she squeezed me just right, causing me to gasp and moan. “God, you’re really hard,” she said, sliding her other hand up my shirt. She shivered, and it made her nipples stand out even more. “All over.”

  “Yes. Absolutely,” I finally said as I started to stand. “Do you want to go in the bedroom, or …?”

  “Actually, I’d rather you fuck me right here. If you don’t mind,” she said as she looked up with a sexy smile that made me groan in pleasure. “I’ve always wanted to do it somewhere that I might get caught.”

  I smiled back. “That works for me.”

  24

  I’d grabbed a shower before Cami and Marty got back, already missing the awesome perfect-temperature showers courtesy of Maggie’s AI that had been destroyed in the attack. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long before we were up and running again.

  Once we’d set up a temporary lab for Cami in one of the conference rooms, I had everyone gather in my suite. I wanted to make sure they were caught up on the latest, and then introduce them to my new casino manager. I’d asked Shelley to come up to the suite in about twenty minutes after I’d had a chance to discuss things with my team.

  “Well, first things first,” I said once everyone had taken a seat. “Presley won’t be looking for us here, at least not for a while. I don’t know how long it’s going to last, so we all need to stay alert for any sign of trouble. But hopefully, we’ll have some time to regroup, recover, and get back to normal.” As if there was anything normal about my life or my friends’ lives now, but what the hell? We were making a new, more awesome normal.

  Skye raised an eyebrow at me. “So, if he’s not looking for us here, does that mean he’s looking somewhere else?”

  “Yeah, I sent him on a wild goose chase to Canada. Figured that was a big enough place to keep him busy for a while,” I said with a smirk. “I think this command might be fading too, like the last one, but it’s taking a lot longer. We might have enough time to be ready.”

  “I should only need a few days to finish the suit,” Cami said, rubbing her chin as she thought aloud. “I’ve got all the materials, and with me, Maggie, and Marty working on it, it’ll go pretty fast.”

  “That’s great, and the bulk of the base should be finished in less than a week with the 24-hour construction schedule, which is great because we’ve been trying to keep the pen-related modifications to a minimum,” I said pleasantly surprised with the progress. At first, I’d just wanted them to build the barebones of the base, and then had planned to modify it, but I had no idea what the other pen bearers could do. No, doing this one without shortcuts was definitely the right path.

  “Yep,” Amy said, glancing up from the behind the screen of her laptop. “They’re definitely on schedule thanks to all the money you’re paying them.”

  The room laughed as everyone nodded their agreement.

  “Yeah, money has a way of motivating people.” I smirked. “Now, about the Medallion. I told you what happened at the meeting, and that I hired the former owner’s executive assistant to run the place. She’s going to be here in a few minutes to meet all of you. But what I wanted to ask is, should we let her know about the pen?”

  A murmur of discussion shot around the room, and Marty was the first to speak up. “I don’t know, man. It seems kind of dangerous to tell more people about it, and you keep ending up having to fight people who want to take it. I mean, first Wayne, and now Presley.”

  “True, but they’re both pen holders,” I said as I considered my friend’s words. “So far, no one I’ve actually told about the pen has tried to take it from me. Maybe I’m just a good judge of character, but I don’t think Shelley is going to turn against me either.”

  “Yeah, that might have something to do with the five hundred grand in salary you’re paying her,” Felicia said with a crooked smile. “Let me tell you that when I was
a guidance counselor I’d have done way worse things for a lot less money.” She smirked.

  “I think it’s just that we all know you’re a good guy,” Gail said, to nods and mutters of agreement. “There’s no need for any of us to betray you to get what we want because we only have to ask for something and you’ll give it to us.”

  Marty laughed a little and waved a hand in the air. “Maybe so, but she’s already getting what she wants. So, why should we even bother telling her about the pen, right? It won’t make a difference whether she knows or not. Which means we might as well keep it between as few people as possible.”

  “Actually, there is a reason I want to tell her about it,” I said. “The profit from this place is going to be another legitimate, real stream of revenue, and I want to make sure it’s as much as possible. So, I’m going to use the pen to make Shelley the best casino manager in the world and let her know so she can work with her new abilities.” I paused and looked around with a half-smile. “Unless any of you guys want to start spending fourteen hours a day running a casino and hotel?”

  “Nah, man,” Marty said as more negatives and head-shakes came from the rest of them. “The job’s all hers.”

  “Well then, I guess it’s settled,” I said, just before there was a knock at the door of the suite. “And it looks like she already has perfect timing down,” I added as I headed across the room toward the door. I looked through the peephole to make sure it was actually her and then opened the door.

  Shelley gave me a dazzling smile. “Mr. Stevens. Roger,” she corrected immediately. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

  “Not at all,” I said as I stood aside and gestured for her to come inside. “I wanted you to meet the team.”

  She walked past me, and her smile turned to faint surprise. “Well. You certainly have a lot of team members,” she said as she looked at the other nine people in the room. “I haven’t seen any of them on the casino floor. Is this your backend team?”