Page 78 of Givin' Me Fitz!
We walked into the store, which had several customers, and I glanced around. Becca Isaacson, our store manager, was with a customer, so I walked over to where Ders was sitting against the wall near the front entrance. Spider was across from him with Tiny as the third security person in the room.
“Who’s in the booth?” I left the scheduling of guards to Derson.
“Hammer. Miri Rey’s with him.”
I pointed to Hobie. “Get Hammer and bring him into the office in a minute. I wanna talk to Becca.” He nodded and walked to the booth door while I went to the office. As I walked by, I motioned for Becca to follow me.
We went into the office and I closed the door. “We’re implementing a couple of new rules, Becca.” I motioned for her to take a seat in the desk chair as I propped my ass on the corner of the desk.
“Call Del and Kenton and the four of us can discuss it at the same time so we’re all on the same page.” Becca picked up the phone and dialed as she stared at me.
I was too close, so I pulled one of the chairs from in front of the desk around and sat down. I didn’t want to scare the poor woman.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Del. It’s Bones. I’m at Tumbleweeds with Becca. I’m sorry if I woke you. Can you hold on while we get Kent on the line? We’re having a little company meeting.”
“Sure, boss. Hey, Becca.”
“Hi, Del. Hang on.”
Becca repeated the process until she had Kent on the phone. These three were day, night, and overnight managers who took care of business for us. We’d checked all their backgrounds, which is why I knew Becca had nothing to do with the hold up.
“In light of the robbery, we’re going to implement some changes. If three club members aren’t here to ensure this place is secure enough for you guys to have customers, close the shop and call me. Everyone at the club will now be rotating through here. If only two come in, clear the store, lock the doors, and call me—only me.
“There are a lot of changes taking place, so please bear with us while we make sure you guys are safe along with the rest of the customer service reps. That shit show never should have happened. We’re hoping to hire about ten new reps, so if you know friends, have them fill out an application, but make sure you’ll vouch for them. Pass the word along to the other reps on your shifts, and for every hire, we’ll give the referring employee a hundred bucks.” Becca gave me a grin as she jotted down what I’d said so she could share it with her employees.
“Can they have a previous conviction for possession of marijuana before it was legalized?” That was Kent, our resident stoner. He hadn’t had any convictions for possession when we ran his background check, but I had the feeling he knew a lot of guys, so maybe filling the overnight shift would be easier than I thought? I fucking hoped so.
“No felonies or violence convictions, but anything else won’t keep them from working here. They’ll work on your shift, so be sure you can stand to be around them eight hours a day.” I told them we were continuing to make upgrades to security, and I addressed their questions. When the call finished, we were all on the same page.
There was a knock on the door, so I stood and glanced at Becca. “Could you type that up and send it to Miles at the clubhouse? He’ll make it pretty, and I’ll bring copies for everyone to sign and date so we know they understand. Float it to your people if you have a chance and see what they think. If there’s any feedback, I’d love to hear it.
“Now, I’m going to borrow your office if you don’t mind. I won’t be long.” I moved the chair to the middle of the space and opened the door for Becca. She took her pad with her and vacated the office so Hobie and Hammer could enter.
“Hammer, sit. Hobie, close the door.”
The older man came into the office and sat in the chair in the middle of the room. Hobie leaned on the wall behind him, cleaning his fingernails with a pocketknife.
I leaned against the wall facing him. “Just so we’re clear, if you lie to me, Hobie’s going to cut off a piece of you somewhere and he won’t stop until I get the truth out of you.”
“Bones, just ask me. I got a call from Abner. He wants to have lunch. Clearly, there’s something going on. What is it?” Hammer didn’t look afraid at all.
“Do you know who robbed us?” Straight to the point.
“Well, I’m guessing it was the Scorpions. Am I right? Do I win a prize?”Old smart-ass.
Hobie rolled his eyes and stepped closer, sliding the tip of the knife along the side of Hammer’s neck, drawing blood. Hammer lifted his hand quickly and wiped at it while Hobie leaned into his ear.
“I’m not fucking around, Hammer. Answer the man.” Itwasthe Cowboy way.
“Okay, Boyd tried to get me to go in with him on some fucked-up plan. Hell, I can barely walk up a flight of stairs, so I wasn’t about to do anything stupid.”
Hobie looked at me and nodded that he believed Hammer.
“Do you know who else was in on this shit? I mean, besides the Scorpions.” I had the feeling he knew exactly who was involved.
“Look, prez, I didn’t take part, okay? You know it was Boyd, and I’m guessing you know your old man had something to do with it. Stupid fucker wanted out but seems like he’s been keepin’ company with the Scorpions, and now they wanna fuck us up. What are we gonna do?”
