Deadly Testimony (Safeguard #2)(76)

“These last couple of days are probably not going to be representative of what Safeguard does. But I figure the situations will come up.” Here, she was fishing some. Nguyen hinted at future collaboration. “Maylin’s sister, then Kyle, neither of those contracts was what we’d normally anticipate.”

Diaz only smiled.

Okay then, he was going to make her tell him her decision first. Probably reserving whatever he was thinking to change her mind if what she told him wasn’t what he was hoping for. The old, contrary part of her would’ve wanted to do exactly the opposite just to prove he couldn’t tell her what to do.

But she didn’t want to be that person anymore.

“They were a challenge though. Both of them. And we did some good in a personal way.” She tapped her heel against the floor. “You didn’t like those sorts of jobs for us, and I agreed because they could get messy as hell. But, they have their moments.”

Seeing Kyle hug his sister and nephew, spending time with Maylin and her younger sister, those had been incredibly rewarding moments.

“I think dealing with the personal complications is a good thing. I don’t want to lose touch with the people we’re working to protect and I think there’s a lot to learn about personal security.” She met Diaz’s gaze steadily. “I’d like to stay on with Safeguard, if you’ll have me.”

Leaving, even going back to Centurion Corporation, would take her down a path to become colder, more solitary. She’d forget how to laugh and Kyle had only just reminded her how much she enjoyed the feeling of warmth it gave her.

Diaz broke into a grin. “Like I was going to let you leave without a fight.”

She rolled her eyes. “I could see you getting ready to talk me around. Trust me.”

“Glad I don’t have to.” Diaz rose to his feet and crossed over to his desk, picking up a tablet. “I’ll get a contract drawn up for you. Standard two year. A couple of perks added for your renewal.”

“You mentioned organizational changes?” She figured he was planning to tell her, but wanted to draw it out a little longer. Torture.

“A couple.” Diaz turned and leaned against the edge of the desk, holding out the tablet to her. “You’re being promoted. I need a right-hand person to run this division and you’re it. Salary to be increased along with the responsibility. In the field, we’ll be partners.”

“Partners.” Interesting. “You’re not rebuilding the fire team?”

“Ours won’t be structured the same way, no. For Centurion Corporation, fire teams work. Safeguard isn’t going to get as many contracts willing to employ four resources or more. Probably never going to need a squadron all at the same time. So I’m organizing us into two-person teams. We’ve got about two dozen resources either on contract or waiting for assignment at the moment. I’d like to expand us by another fifty percent. There’ll be some future training, too, on working in pairs.”

Ah. She liked the idea. Of course, some engagements like the bigger parties and private charity events could still require a larger set of personnel but they could still be organized to work in pairs.

“Makes sense.” She studied the tablet. Victoria’s name was at the top, her partner marked as TBD. “But Marc is going to be out for a long while.”

Diaz sighed. “Yeah.”

“You could have had me working solo.” She’d leaned toward it before and was still probably the best in the division for it.

“Could have.” Diaz shook his head. “But you’re best qualified to be my second. Victoria is better at training up a new person in a team. I’m going to find her a new partner. Someone fresh.”

“That’ll take some shaking out.” Victoria and Marc had been close.

“It’ll be your responsibility to oversee it.” Diaz sounded very happy to hand off that particular assignment.

“Joy.” Maybe it wasn’t too late to reconsider.

“I plan to have you get to know each of our new hires, make sure I didn’t f*ck up the hiring process. Confirm they’re a good culture fit in the first few weeks.” Diaz moved around to the other side of his desk. “You’ll be in charge of intel in general, nothing you haven’t been doing already. So this is sort of an expansion on those responsibilities.”

She narrowed her eyes. Casual as his move was, was he retreating?

“We’ve actually got a new hire. Not going to be a field operative.” Diaz lifted his chin to indicate the tablet in her hand. “Man’s a project manager. He’ll be responsible for keeping our in-progress contracts organized, draw up new statements of work or change orders, and build a finance team to handle invoices, expenses and all that. I figured you could get started with the on boarding process for him.”

“And what’s our on boarding process?” She tapped the tablet’s screen to pull up the new hire files and froze.

“I figure you could establish that as you went.” Diaz said quietly. “Maybe you could figure out which office is going to be his for starters. He’s over in one of the pods waiting.”

*

Kyle was pacing when she walked into the pod. Turning to face her, he swallowed hard. She didn’t look happy to see him.

“You’re here.” Her voice was quiet, neutral.