Page 68 of Walking Red Flag

“Reliable people?” I teased. “What are those?”

“Exactly,” she sighed. “I had a promising interview last week. It’s one of my sister’s castoffs. Not in a bad way, but in a way that she wants more hours and different hours than what my sister is capable of giving.”

“I have a few suggestions for you if you’re looking for some reliable people…” I paused. “But they’re men.”

I saw her wince.

But if I could get some people that I trusted in here to work that would also have the benefit of knowing how to protect her if shit hit the fan…

“How reliable?”

I chuckled. “They’re prospects for the club. They’re all good kids, but they don’t exactly know what they want out of a career. We’ve been cycling these twins through our various businesses, but they haven’t found anything they like yet. And if the jobs they have are early, they can still do their classes in the afternoon, and their club duties at night. That would be the best case scenario for them.”

“Tell them to come out and interview on Wednesday. Early morning, though. I have another interview mid-morning.” She looked at me then, making me wonder if she knew why I’d suggested those two.

I’d been thinking about it for a couple of hours now.

Since Shasha had told me that Lyle Pennington had put a hit out on Milena.

I’d thought about what would be the best way to keep her safe, without actually telling her that I was trying to keep her safe.

One of those initial thoughts was getting people around her that I could trust implicitly.

I made a mental note to call Simeon and Conway, the twins, and tell them that I needed them after she left.

They’d get a giggle out of the fact that I needed help for my ‘future wife’s coffee shop.’

They were actually twenty-year-old future engineers that were in college to later go into the Navy as officers.

They knew exactly what they wanted out of life.

But they got bored easily, and they liked getting passed around to all of the businesses. They were born with a thirst for knowledge that I’d never seen before in my life and soaked up everything like a sponge.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they went into the Navy with more knowledge than any other person before them.

My second “protect Milena” moment this morning came when I’d had the great idea to professionally and expertly make it to where there were hidden cameras everywhere in the shelving that I was installing. I’d messaged Shasha with the dimensions of the smallest cameras he could find, and together we’d figured out the best way to install them.

Within an hour I’d had the cameras in hand, and a man that knew what he was doing with wiring, and we’d completely installed eight cameras in the front of the building, got them all online, and then planned out where the ones were going in the back so he could follow up behind me and wire them when needed.

That way, if someone so much as blinked in any corner of the shop she was in, we were going to know about it.

“Okay, what now?” Milena asked softly. “Where do we go from here?”

I grinned at her.

“Since you’re here, can you help me find my pencil?” I quipped.

She smiled then, revealing a set of perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth.

It almost made me feel self-conscious.

My own teeth weren’t straight.

I’d been in the process of getting braces when my sperm donor had decided to commit his final crime that would take his life.

When the dust had settled, the estate had been frozen solid, and no money had come in or gone out for a whole year while the vultures fought for their pieces of pie.

In the end, my braces had been one of those things that I’d placed to the wayside, meaning to come back for them later, yet not bothering when the world looked different after Copper went to prison.

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