Now it was Cole's turn to be confused. Surely Tommy knew they would be moving and looking for somewhere to live together. “You're really giving both of us a relocation bonus?”
“I wasn't aware that being married meant you were one person.” Tommy's amusement came over the line clearly and Cole felt his face heat up, but before he could explain his thought process, Tommy chuckled. “Don't worry, my accounting department doesn't make mistakes.”
“If I was just hiring you, it’d be one relocation bonus adjusted to take Lana into account. But since I’m hiring both of you - two employees, two employee numbers, two relocation bonuses. The only difference is you each got the single-person rate instead of a couple or family.”
Between all the bonuses they received for joining Sloane Consulting and the check from Cole’s first op - which legitimately made him weak in the knees - they only needed to stay in the dorm Tommy provided for a month before finding a house that was perfect for them. It was a gabled Victorian on Marlborough Road in Ditmas Park, with a wide porch, lilac bushes along the fence, and a huge oak tree out front. Within four months of moving to New York the previous summer, they were living in their dream house, and well on their way to being completely debt free, something they never would have achieved if they stayed in Kentucky.
He walked into Tommy's office to find Nissa perched cross-legged on the end of Tommy's desk, looking faintlyannoyed and Thorn sitting in an armchair, his legs stretched out in front of him, arms folded, looking exasperated. Tommy looked up and smiled broadly.
“Cole! Perfect, take a seat.” He gestured to the chair in front of the desk and when Cole was seated, he turned and pointed a remote at the whiteboard screen behind him, bringing up the picture of a pretty girl who he had said hello to a few times in passing when she came to visit Thorn on the Security Services training floor.
“Isn't that your…” Cole waved his hand in a circle, looking at Thorn and Nissa for help. “Sis…ter?” he guessed. “Evie, right?”
“Sort of.” Tommy nodded, frowning slightly. “You guys have met?”
“Sort of?” Cole was really not sure what was happening and the way Nissa and Thorn kept sharing looks wasn't helping. “Said hi to her a couple of times in passing. Why?”
“Right, sorry. You would have seen her around the tower, it's fine.” He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, looking disappointed. “Anyway, yes, this is, for lack of a better term, my sister, Evie Stanley.”
“Lack of a better term?” He looked at the picture for a moment and then back to Tommy. They were clearly related. Evie looked like a younger, softer version of him. “What else would you call her?”
“Very old family friend.” Tommy smiled at the picture with so much love and affection in his expression that Cole looked at Nissa and raised his eyebrow. She shook her head minutely and gave him a subtle hand movement that told him not to question things.
“Riight.” Cole nodded, still not understanding what was going on, but hoping Thorn or Nissa would explain things later. “Okay, what about her?”
“Evie is Oscar Stanley's daughter.” Thorn said gruffly.
Cole blinked. “As in the Oscar Stanley who hired Thorn to kidnap and kill you?”
“Yep.” Tommy nodded. “She's nothing like her father.” He paused, looking thoughtful for a second. “Or her mother.” He shook his head and smiled again. “Anyway, at some point during her father's trial, public sentiment turned against her.”
“Didn't she testify against him?” Cole interrupted, leaning forward in his seat and grabbing a candy from the bowl on the desk.
“Yes, she did.” Thorn shifted down in his seat and rested his head on the back, staring up at the ceiling. “But that does not seem to matter.”
“She's been getting hate mail almost daily since the trial, but there is one group who is getting kinda specific.” Tommy picked up a stack of letters and passed them over to Cole. “And it's starting to worry me.”
“Like how specific?” Cole pulled a letter from the pile, unfolded it and began to scan it. “Is she aware that someone is potentially following her?” He frowned, slowing down when he read times, dates and locations.
“No. She is not.” Cole looked up from the letter and saw that Thorn was giving Tommy the stink eye.
“I told you, Thorn.” Nissa sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “I checked into it; it's a group of college students who were upset that Evie got chosen for the AI internship here last year and is using the trial and public backlash to harass her in the hopes she wouldn't apply again.”
“But she did, and she got it again.” Thorn pointed out, his voice and tone were even and calm, but Cole could see the tension in the big man's shoulders and neck. “So, they could escalate.”
“Exactly.” Tommy pointed his finger at Thorn. “And before you say anything,” he swung his finger over to Cole. “I had nothing to do with her getting chosen. All identifying information is removed by the COO of Sloane Tech and the choice is made by the heads of each department.”
Cole held up his hands, palms out. “Never crossed my mind that you would play favourites.” This whole thing was proof of that. Nissa clearly thought whatever Tommy was about to ask was a waste of time, while Thorn didn’t think it went far enough. “So, what do you need from me?”
“I don't want Evie to know she's potentially being targeted.” Tommy dropped down into his chair, scrubbing his hands over his face. “She has enough on her plate. But I do want her to be protected. Just watch over her from afar. She spends most of her free time with me and Nissa or Thorn and I synced her calendar to my phone and put a tracker on hers the last time she was over, so I'll be able to provide you with where she is, where she'll be and when she’ll be there.”
“She will not be happy when it comes out you have someone following her.” Thorn shook his head, his eyes not leaving the ceiling.
“Well, she won't let me assign her a bodyguard, and she's received death threats.” Tommy shrugged and opened his laptop. “You good with this, Cole?”
“Yeah, sure, I don't have anything else right now, send me what I need to know.” Cole stood up, glancing over at Thorn. “Thorn? You got time to fill in whatever gaps I might find?”
“Yes.” Thorn nodded and gripped the arms of the chair, pulling himself to his feet. “Let us go.”
