“In my experience, it usually is,” he admitted.
Hunter glanced between them, his gaze landing on Brantley when he said, “We’re aware you’re both accustomed to bein’ boots-on-the-ground leaders”—Hunter held up a hand, thwarting Brantley’s prepared argument—“which you will remain.” He exhaled with a smile. “However, you’ll also be considered executive management within our infrastructure. With that comes a few additional responsibilities. Financials, sales, whatnot. But you’ll be assigned a personal assistant and a bookkeeper to deal with your office work. If the need arises, we can get you a spot for an office manager, as well. A complete clerical staff’ll free up your team, allowing them to dedicate one hundred percent of their time to the cases.”
Brantley knew JJ would be pleased with that.
“The assistant I just hired…” Brantley glanced between RT and Hunter. “If it’s all the same to you, we’d like to utilize her.”
“Hire whoever you see fit. You will maintain operational control.” RT got to his feet. “But what Hunter’s leavin’ out is the other executive responsibilities. You’d be required to show up a couple of times a month for meetings, keep the board and the other teams up to date on what you’re focused on and how you’re spendin’ your money. As well as the paying clients you’re accumulatin’.”
“Payin’ clients? The ones we help don’t usually need our services again.”
“If they’re lucky, that’s true. But they’re not the clients we’re lookin’ to deal with. However, we provide myriad services.”
Brantley nodded, understanding.
“As for spendin’, we’ve got a relatively foolproof budgeting system, which we’ll go over so you know where your funds are allocated.” RT motioned to the barn. “And if you’re in agreement, we’d like to rent some space for some of our agents.”
Brantley glanced at Reese, looking for confirmation he was in agreement with any or all of it.
“We can move those funds around in the budget,” Reese said, which Brantley took as full agreement.
RT pulled out his phone, tapped something on it. A second later, Brantley’s phone chimed, as did Reese’s.
“Those are your individual welcome packets, outlinin’ salary, benefits, and the like. We can discuss those further whenever you’re ready. We’ve got the same packets for each of your current team members, with the exception of the new assistant since we weren’t aware. But we can have it by early Monday mornin’. It’s all covered. Like I said, we’re thrilled about this expansion. And I personally think it’ll benefit all of us in the end.”
Brantley agreed. He knew they’d have access to resources they hadn’t even had with the state. Plus, and probably most importantly, they’d have some organization. As much as he loved his team, that was one thing they’d yet to master.
When the rest of the team arrived, Brantley had regrettably informed them of the governor’s decision to disband the team. He was surprised there hadn’t been too much pushback. Aside from Baz and Charlie asking about the pensions they’d been promised they could keep, which he’d told them he would have to follow up on.
Once everyone had settled down, they spent a couple of hours mapping out what the new task force would look like under the umbrella of Sniper 1 Security. RT and Hunter had stayed under the guise of offering their insight, but Brantley got the feeling they stuck around because they wanted to see how the team meshed.
It’d been slow going in the beginning, what with Jessica James—known simply as JJ—having a tantrum after learning not only had her personal life gone up in flames, her professional one was in a state of chaos as well. Luckily, they’d managed to talk her off the ledge, and once she was on even ground again, it didn’t take long before she was leading the charge.
As for Charlotte Miller and Trey Walker, the newest members of the task force, they were still in that awkward stage where they acted as though they had little input on the subject matter. Every so often, one or both would speak up, but it had taken Reese’s continuous attempts to include them before they were contributing as true members of the team.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Sebastian Buchanan, a.k.a. Baz. Everyone knew the man was dealing with a personal problem, which happened to be in the form of a one-night stand that had the potential of becoming a life-long relationship. In an effort to lick his wounds, Baz had gotten shit-faced on New Year’s and gone home with a woman. Turned out, that woman—Molly Ryan—was convinced she was pregnant, although it had only been a week and was still too early to confirm. Needless to say, Baz wasn’t in a good place, what with dealing with that and working through his feelings for JJ.
Perhaps because of Baz’s personal crisis, JJ was in rare form, taking full control of their most recent development by claiming she was in charge of the reorganization. That, of course, meant everything had to change, including the layout of the barn.
Good thing the rest of them were pretty casual about the whole thing.
“You know what? I think I’ll leave y’all to this,” Brantley suggested shortly after RT and Hunter had left. The absolute last damn thing he cared about was where desks were placed or who sat where.
“And just where are you off to?”
“I’ve got a couple of errands,” he lied. “Then we’re headin’ over to the festival. It is Saturday,” he reminded everyone. “Y’all should probably do the same.”
Chapter Two
Travis Walker propped his head on his hand and stared down at the beautiful woman still sleeping beside him, the soft morning light peeking in through the window allowing him to see. It was one of those rare moments, the kind where he could simply remain still, his brain not erupting in chaos, allowing him to enjoy the peacefulness.
These past few months, or maybe the past few years, had done a number on him mentally. He was dealing with so much, and it seemed every time he turned around, there was one more thing to add to his to-do list. A wife, a husband, five kids, a highly lucrative business … they all wanted a piece of him, but it seemed there was rarely enough to go around. He wasn’t complaining, because he had a great life. Rather, he was just more aware of these rare moments.
Travis watched for long minutes, waiting until Kylie stirred, her internal clock signaling it was time to start the day. Because Gage had gotten up with Maddox a short time ago, Travis was going to take advantage of these few minutes he had alone with his wife.
“Mornin’,” he whispered when she rolled onto her back, her arm sliding up over her eyes as though she wasn’t ready for the day to intrude.
“Already?” she mumbled around a smile.
Travis tugged the sheet gently, allowing the soft Egyptian cotton to glide down and reveal one dusky pink nipple.
“What are you doin’?” she whispered, her arm sliding away, eyes opening, adjusting to the light.
He smiled, loving the way her nipple puckered as though beckoning him. “Startin’ the day right.”
“Kinda like you ended the day right with Gage in the shower last night?”