Page 19 of Mayhem
"Of course,"Richard said, shaking both hands. "I'll be in touch."
The three men exited the building, andNik and Paetyn went to Nik's car.
"When they accept the offer, let me know. I'll wire half of it into your payout account," Paetyn informed his friend.
Paetyn was sure they all had several accounts. However, he and Nik had an account dedicated just to their payouts from the percentages they owned in Cruz and Kieran's companies.
"I take it you want to set up a tattoo studio for Erin,"Nik said as he made a left.
"Yes. Cruz and I discussed it when she told us she was moving to town. I'm sure she'd try to use the second bedroom as a studio, as Chayse did, but Chayse was taking pictures of people she knew. Having strangers traipse in and out isn't safe."
"I agree with you. Even though people she knows or thinks she knows could be just as dangerous as people shedoesn't."
Paetyn knew that Nik was referring to Micah. If given the chance, he knew his friend wouldn't hesitate to put his hands on him again, and Paetyn couldn't blame him. Sometimes crazy people needed multiple ass-whoopings before they learned their lesson, and after being told everything that happened, Paetyn was sure Micah was. Any person that would lie to their parents and introduce their ex to them as their current girlfriend and manipulate them to get them there with veiled health concerns was a sure-fire sign that they weren't all there.
When they pulled up in front ofParadise 826,they entered through the back door into the kitchen, where Nik's chefs were already waiting. Since the menu wasn't extensive, coupled with the capacity of the lounge, Paetyn had helped him hire four chefs in different positions.
Once greetings went around, Nik pulled up the two main dishes and one dessert he wanted to add to the menu. The dessert would be a specialty item, along with one of the main dishes, for a while. He hadn't told Paetyn what they were when he'd asked him to show his chefs how to cook it.
"You can cook these, right?"Nik questioned, and Paetyn cut green eyes at him, causing Nik to laugh. "I'm just fucking with you, Mr. Culinary Genius."
Paetyn rolled his eyes. Leave it to Nik to quote articles when he wanted to bother Paetyn. Instead of responding, he went to the sink and washed his hands. This would take a few hours. More if the chefs were unable to get it the first time.
As Paetyn went through showing the chefs how to make the main dishes, he constantly had to keep Nik from trying to eat whatever he could as it was being prepared. However, he noticed that Nik was paying close attention. Paetyn knew that he might also be teaching Nik to make it at a later date.
The dessert was the last thing they worked on, and everything went well until they were taken out of the oven. All of them except for Paetyn's fell. They tried it again, and only two of the chef's desserts fell this time.
This time, Paetyn watched them prepare it one at a time to see what they were doing wrong. They were making individual servings of the dessert, so with prep and cook time, it only took eighteen minutes to make.
As Paetyn watched them, it turned out that they were whisking it too hard instead of fluffing it. This time, when they came out, they were perfect.
While the chefs and Nik enjoyed the food, Paetyn put the recipes with the tweaks he'd made into the tablet they used in case they forgot how to make something. The one Nik had chosen was good, but Paetyn knew that the small changes he'd made to it made it better. So, he wanted to ensure they had it.
When they finished eating, the chefs thanked Paetyn for coming out, to which he told them it was no problem before he and Nik left. When Nik called him, he'd been atAficionado, so they headed back there.
Once they pulled into his restaurant's parking lot, the men said their goodbyes, and Paetyn decided to head to one of his favorite little shops. He had something he needed to pick up.
Cruz hung up the phone and leaned back in his seat. As good as the business opportunity was, it gave him a headache. He knew it would be challenging when he decided to go into security and try to break the mold with a security system thatcouldn'tbe rivaled. However, when he came across potential clients like the one he'd just gotten off the phone, it always made him regret it for a millisecond.
Clients often wanted Cruz to install the devices personally or oversee them as the technician did. Cruz didn't have time for that. He installed the ones he wanted to and the ones he needed to himself. Outside of those, Cruz allowed his technicians to do their jobs.
He didn't have one technician whose training reports and videos he didn't look over himself before certifying and hiring them, and his scouts made sure to set up at the technical colleges in the state and surrounding states every career fair they had.
While this new client was the owner of a casino that was opening in several months and wanted an entire setup of his security system, Cruz didn't plan on doing it himself. He would make an appearance or two because with larger clients, sometimes just seeing his face tended to appease them. He would assign several of his lead technicians to do the installation.
Cruz was tired of the day and ready for it to be over. He knew that was mainly due in part to the fact that tomorrow, they'd be making their attraction known to Erin if she hadn't figured it out for some reason. Typically, they made this clear to the womanthey were pursuing together, but Cruz wasn't sure his patience would allow him to talk to her about it when he wanted to act on it.
They'd chosen Wednesday to tell her because Cruz typically worked a short day in the middle of the week. He spent that entire time in the technology lab, hands-on with software development and engineering. To him, there was no point in having two degrees if he wouldn't use them both.
Cruz picked up his phone and went to his contacts. He scrolled to Erin's name, well, Maly since that was what he had her saved as. His finger hovered over her name momentarily before exiting his contacts and locking his phone back. He decided to wait until after he'd left work to check in and see how she was settling in. It'd only been three days since they'd moved her things in, and they both decided to give her time to enjoy her new place by herself for a little bit.
Looking at the time, Cruz found that it was a quarter past four. He didn't have any more meetings and could answer whatever emails he received the rest of the day from his phone or laptop. So, he decided to leave early.
Cruz shut everything down, grabbed his phone, and left his office. He placed his thumb on the reader and locked his office door. He threw his hand up in a wave to his assistant and went to the elevator.
Once on the first floor, Cruz nodded at the two security guards sitting at the desk. They were the only ones who could be seen, but at any given time, there were six security guards on the first floor and two on all the others. He kept more in the tech development lab because you could never be too careful in his line of work.
Even his control room required two people to access it, and the only two people who could were himself and Paetyn. So, if Cruz wanted to check it or run diagnostics, he had to confirmPaetyn was available and their body temperatures were normal. Too high or too low, and the readers wouldn't register.
