“Do I need more backup than Boykov and his men?” I asked. “I was under the impression this was before club hours, and we were meeting two professionals.”
“While Braxton believes he has a handle on all of his people he places with high-profile clients, I’m not so blinded. If either of these two is fucking us over behind our backs, it needs to be dealt with right away,” Jace warned.
I thought about it for a moment, then came to a decision. “Tell Ryker he better be there as my head of security for the Caprioni Family, or he’s useless to me, and I’ll put you in charge.”
“Ah…” Jace started, his voice full of panic. “Can I add that last bit if he doesn’t pull his head out of his ass? I’d really like to live through this day.”
“You understand the stakes. Do what’s needed so he does his goddamn job and stops acting like a jealous boyfriend. I need to call Gunner before he shows, so text me Ryker’s answer when you have it,” I stated, disconnected the call, and immediately called Gunner.
“Lady Astin,” he answered after the first ring.
I tried not to giggle at how excited he sounded that I was calling him. “Hey, Gunny, I need your help with something.”
“Anything, just name it. I’m always available to help however I can,” he cut in.
Waiting just to be sure he didn’t need to say anything else, I then started in on my request. “I’m meeting with Alejandro Molina, and I need to know the specifics of his lease agreement. More importantly, everything that has to do with security.”
“Certainly. Do you want me to send the entire contract and highlight the parts you need? Or just send those sections pertaining to security?” Gunner asked.
“No, send it all to me. I probably won’t be able to go over it in the next five minutes, but I’ll have it in case he challenges something. Oh, I’m at the corporate office and don’t have my tablet,” I murmured as I realized this fact.
“That’s no problem. It’s all a secure network you can log into on any of the coded tablets. I helped to make sure that the office was equipped with everything the other day, so there should be a device in the top drawer to your left. If not, let me know, and I’ll get one of my people to bring mine over,” Gunner shared.
I tugged open the drawer, and sure enough, there was a tablet. “Got it. So I just put in the code like I do for my tablet at home?”
“Yup.”
“Awesome, send that over as soon as you have it, and I’ll just wing it until then,” I responded.
“It’s pretty straightforward. He didn’t want to add security to his budget so we offered to include it in the rent,” Gunner explained.
“Okay, what if he wanted to hire his own people, could he do that?” I inquired.
“Certainly, we’d just need to input their information into the security database so they can be given a user ID and login code like our people do.”
Is that what Alejandro was fussed about? He wanted access to our systems, but our people were too loyal to allow him to use it to his advantage. Why?
“Astin?” Gunner called in a louder voice. “You still there?”
“Sorry, I missed that last part. Run it by me one more time,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face.
“If Mr. Molina wanted his own security free of using our system, he’d need to be moved to a different building. All the ones he picked have the more advanced security at his request, something about holding large amounts of cash in the building for poker games for some of his clients. I’m not sure what deal they made regarding that, but it was one of the items Jace commented on changing for future leases with Alejandro if he continued to expand,” Gunner relayed.
Great, just great. Now it’s not only Harvey we have to deal with, it’s Alejandro too, trying to make a move on our turf.
“Thanks for all the info. I’ll text you if I have any more questions,” I said, knowing I needed to get off the phone and at least glance over the file that was handed to me.
“Don’t hesitate to ask,” Gunner assured me before he hung up.
Grabbing the file, I flipped it open and found notes from all the previous meetings. Daddy hadn’t done much except make some changes to the rules security needed to follow. He ensured there was a list of all people who were to be let in no matter what and people who were to be kept out. It seems the man in charge of these men was an underling to Ryker, and it might be smart of me to have a chat with him to get his view. Alejandro was only going to give us part of the story—the one that made it sound important to change things.
A knock sounded. I looked up to see the office door open, and Mrs. Laningham escorted Alejandro in. “Let me know if there’s anything you need, Ms. Astin,” she said before leaving.
“What’s the meaning of this? I was supposed to talk to Colmazio Caprioni, not a whore who’s pretending to be someone important. If he doesn’t want to speak to me, then I want to hear it from his own lips,” Alejandro blustered.
“I suppose I deserve that after our first introduction but allow me to reintroduce myself.” Rising from my desk, I walked up to the man and held out my hand. “Hello, I’m Astin Caprioni, Colmazio’s daughter and heir to his entire estate. He had something come up and didn’t want to waste your valuable time, so he asked if I could take the meeting instead.”
Alejandro looked at me dubiously but reached out to shake my hand. “You’re not Angelica?”