Page 52 of Recruited By the Billionaire

“This community wants a winning football team this upcoming season. They want us to make the right draft picks. They want us to win our opener at home. They want us to just win at all costs. They will go ballistic if the state’s attorney, an elected position by the way, decides to prosecute their beloved owner’s girlfriend. They’ll start a recall petition to get her voted out. And she knows it.”

“Oh, I see,” said Royce. “So it has nothing to do with the truth. Just politics.”

Jerry nodded. “Right.”

“Wrong,” said Robert. “It has to do with politics,” he admitted, “but it’s also the truth.”

Royce and Taymar hung on again, and they looked at Frankie. But Frankie and Robert were staring at each other. No human being had ever been as good to her as Robert was to her. It wasn’t even close.

And she didn’t care who knew how she felt about him in that moment. That was why she went to him, sat on his lap, and wrapped her arms around him. Then she laid her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her too.

What touched Royce the most was that his eyes were squeezed shut as he held Frankie, as if it was all true. He wasn’t just saying that to protect his organization. Robert Marris had claimed Frankie Clark as his one and only. She was still digesting that one.

And the politics of it worked too. Because later that evening, after everyone had left and as Robert and Frankie were eating dinner alone in his home, the state attorney held a press conference of her own and announced that no charges would be filed against Francesca Clark because the evidence pointed directly to self-defense.

Frankie and Robert high-fived across the table, but then Frankie, so happy, hurried over to Robert and hugged him. Robert pulled her onto his lap and kissed her.

And then she looked into his eyes. “Now that we’re officially an item,” she said. “What’s next?” A part of her was hoping he’d say marriage, children. But he didn’t go there.

“I think it’s high time,” he said to her with all sincerity, “that you meet my children.”

Frankie had not expected him to say that at all. In the two months they had been dating, he never once even mentioned his children to her, at least not beyond the fact that he didn’t hate them. She thought it was a touchy subject he’d rather not share with her. And she respected that. For him to now want her to meet them was shocking. And pleasing too. But given what she’d read about them, the question was a simple one for Frankie. Will they want to meet her?

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

RJ was at home, seated on his living room sofa, and Nelso Trabelsi and his partner, Ahmed Cherif, were seated on the sofa with him. They had the blueprint spread out on the coffee table. They were finalizing the details.

“At midnight, security leaves and additional cameras switch on,” said RJ, pointing out the security checkpoints.

“Is this Automatic?” asked Nelso.

“It’s automatic, yes. Unless there’s an override because of grounds activity, such as a midnight crew coming in before games.”

“Can you override it?” Ahmed asked.

“As grounds supervisor, I’m the main person who can do the override. After I override the cameras, I’ll bring in the grounds crew. Only it’ll be your men.”

“No good,” said Ahmed. “You override the cameras, they still can retrieve footage later.”

“I thought of that too.”

“And how do we solve this?” asked Ahmed.

“At the end of the crew shift,” said RJ, “the override hard drive has to be removed in order to restart the system.”

“And what happens to the hard drive? Are they stored away?”

“Only if something happens during crew shift,” RJ said. “If nothing happened, then the hard drive is tossed in the recycle bin for reuse. But I’ll take it with me. Your guys will come in, handle their business, and get out. I’ll grab the hard drive, kill the lights, and get out too. Then I’ll sign off that it’s ready for game day.”

Nelso looked at Ahmed. If he was in agreement with the final details, then it would be a go. If he wasn’t in agreement, a no-go.

Ahmed leaned back, and then he nodded his head. “It is okay.” Then he smiled. “It is quite good actually.”

Nelso smiled, too, and happily extended his hand to RJ. “Then we have a deal, my friend.”

RJ looked at that hand. “I’ll shake it when I get my down payment.”

Nelso looked at Ahmed. Ahmed gave a nod. Nelso grabbed the briefcase by his side and sat it on the coffee table atop the blueprints. He opened it. “Five million up front as agreed,” he said.

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