Because, unfortunately, I had no faith that NME Services would hire security until we had a lot more employees. And even then, I didn’t have a lot of faith that one man getting paid fifteen bucks an hour to chase off people would be much of a defense against what I had seen the Bandits do.
“All right, I appreciate you coming in Derek, and we will let you know within three days if we would like to move forward.”
I didn’t think Derek was any the wiser. He shook my hand with the same vigor as he had when he first walked in, and his smile was the same as when he had first pulled up. But there was little doubt that if I recognized him from only his eyes, he recognized me from everything else. And he would have connected it to the man who had punched him and knocked him out in a women’s bathroom.
“Thank you,” he said. “Oh, one more thing. When you pull up my criminal history, you might see some pending charges for a bar fight I got in, but I assure you that those are being dropped.”
“Oh, OK, well, thank you for letting us know in advance.”
And for removing whatever sliver of doubt there was left.
With that, I escorted Derek out the door and walked back to my office. But I didn’t do any work. I sat at my desk and waited until I heard his bike pull away.
And the instant that happened, I stepped outside—far away from the building so that Elizabeth wouldn’t hear any of my conversations—and called Brock. He answered on the first ring.
“Tara?”
“Are you free for dinner tonight? Somewhere private?”
* * *
Brock had me meet him at an old-school diner, a place called Southwest Dine, and sat us at the very back of the booth. I hugged him when I saw him, but there was nothing overtly sexual. He could pick up I was anxious, and I didn’t bother to hide the fact that I was.
“Listen,” I said when the waitress finished confirming we wanted water. “You know how the Bandits and you guys got in a big fight about a month ago at Reapers?”
Brock chuckled.
“Cole won’t ever let us forget it.”
“Yeah, well, one of them came in to interview today.”
The humor in Brock’s face vanished instantly.
“If they know that we’re there, we need help,” I said. “Brock, I need you back at the office. I need you to protect me.”
Brock let out a prolonged sigh, nodded with his eyes down, and hitched his breath. I waited patiently for him to respond. I had to hope that he would see things differently now.
“You wanted to know what happened in my past?” he said. “You want to know why you shouldn’t trust me to do that?”
I bit my lip. This was the story I’d pushed him so hard to give, to the point I’d nearly ruined everything. And now that I had…
“Be warned, this is not a pretty story. It’s a gruesome, terrible story.”
“It’s OK,” I said. “I can handle it.”
I was just guessing. But if I wanted any hope of having Brock as security, let alone something more…
“Eight years ago, I was dating this girl named Rachel, my high school sweetheart of sorts,” he said. “Rachel had some friends whose boyfriends were Bandits. It was sickening, even that, because the boys were all like, four or five years older, but they were dating high schoolers. We knew the Bandits were trouble, but we stayed away mostly. Well, one night, one of Rachel’s friends suggested that Rachel join her and some of her friends for a sex party. She declined. The friend’s boyfriend came and said she had no choice. Rachel slapped him and walked away.”
Brock gulped.
“She told me about this, and I promised that I would do whatever I needed to protect her. Like, whatever it took, no questions asked. And then…”
Brock’s breath hitched.
“One night, we were walking in a park near here, Stidham Park, if you know it.”
“I do.”
