Going Down Hard (Ranger Security Book 4), page 17
He had and was still astonished. “It’s generous.”
And that was putting it lightly. In addition to the salary, the benefits were beyond amazing. Preferring that specialists lived in close proximity, Payne had purchased the entire building and renovated the upper floors into apartments. Though Jamie and Guy lived in Atlanta only part-time, Payne was in residence at all times in the penthouse suite. Considering he’d been in the service since college, Tanner had little in the way of personal belongings and even less in the home furnishing department. That he would be able to move right into an outfitted apartment was a perk he could genuinely appreciate.
“You’ll earn it,” Payne assured him. He handed him a laptop, a cell phone and a Glock 9 mm. “Tools of the trade. All of the software you’ll need to interface with our programs here at the office have already been loaded onto the computer. Numbers are programmed into the phone and your permit to carry concealed is in the laptop bag.” He shrugged. “Doubt you’ll need a weapon for this first case, but better armed than not, in my opinion.”
He wouldn’t need a weapon for his first case? What exactly did that mean? Tanner wondered.
“Do you need a car?” Payne asked. “I’ve got a couple in the garage.”
Tanner shook his head. He’d actually just traded in his old Jeep Wrangler for a new Black Rubicon.
“Here are the keys to your apartment,” Payne said, tossing them lightly to him. He released a small breath. ‘That covers everything but the briefing on your first assignment.”
McCann slid a folder across the coffee table to him. “It’s a bit unusual,” he said, and the small smile playing over his lips did little to inspire confidence.
Tanner flipped open the file and quickly scanned the first page. Theodore Watson, seventy-six, missing from his home for the past few days. He read on and immediately understood McCann’s grin.
“A treasure hunt?” he asked dubiously, glancing up at Payne.
Jamie chuckled. “In a manner of speaking. Mr. Watson is looking for his great-great-grandfather’s treasure. According to his family history, this particular grandfather had amassed quite a fortune in jewels. Afraid that the Union troops were going to seize his possessions, like many other people who lived in the South who had any wealth, he hid them.
Unfortunately, he died before he recovered them from his hiding place and hadn’t shared their whereabouts with anyone else.”
“Or he could have, and that lucky soul kept it for himself,” McCann pointed out. “The Watsons are practically royalty in the small burg of Begonia, Georgia. They’re old money. Lots of land.”
Tanner frowned. “So it’s his family who’ve hired us? Is Mr. Watson a danger to himself? Got any health issues that make his disappearance particularly disturbing?” Granted the man wasn’t exactly a spring chicken, but from the looks of this file he lived by himself, which would indicate that he was relatively healthy, at any rate.
Payne, McCann and Flanagan shared a look. “Tad Watson, Theo’s son, is more concerned with keeping up appearances than his father’s actual safety,” McCann explained with a twisted smile. “From what we’ve been able to discern, Theo has been looking for this treasure for more than sixty years, and is a bit on the eccentric side. Tad doesn’t approve.”
“He’s an embarrassment,” Jamie said, pulling a shrug. ‘Tad wants him found so that he can do damage control.”
“He’s throwing around words like senile and dementia and diminished capacity, Payne said. “Laying the groundwork to have him committed, or at the very least put into an assisted-living facility.”
Though he’d never met Theodore Watson in his life, Tanner found himself inexplicably annoyed on his behalf. What the hell was wrong with people? he wondered. Whatever happened to respecting your elders? Furthermore, this was the South. Eccentricities were typically celebrated. Crazy, so long as it wasn’t harmful, was charming down here.
“The senior Watson is much more philanthropic than his son would like him to be,” Jamie added with a grimace. “If he managed to put his father into a home, he’d be able to control the family finances.”
In other words, he was greedy. Impossibly, Tanner liked Tad even less.
“At any rate, the son has provided us with a list of probable locations his father could be,” Payne announced after a significant pause.
“He hasn’t looked himself?” Tanner asked, surprised.
Another uncomfortable look. “Tad is actually out of the country.”
“Flying over the Atlantic right about now, wouldn’t you say, Jamie?” McCann remarked. He tossed a handful of M&M’s down his throat.
Atlantic? Right now? Tanner frowned. “Let me get this straight. His father is missing, so he’s concerned enough to hire one of the premier security firms in the country...but he’s not concerned enough to postpone a business trip?”
“Actually, it’s a vacation,” Payne corrected, his voice chilly. “Italy. He’ll be checking in periodically and wants to be notified as soon as his father is located.”
How considerate, Tanner thought, utterly disgusted. He grimaced. “Right.”
“There’s also a list of acquaintances in there, people he might have contacted before he left,” Jamie said.
Tanner looked up. “He didn’t mention he was leaving to his son?”
McCann snorted. “I sure as hell wouldn’t, if I was the old guy, would you?”
He supposed not. Still...
“We know this isn’t exactly an exciting or glamorous first assignment, but it’s what pays the bills,” Payne said.
He didn’t give a damn about exciting or glamorous, and after a minute he confided as much. “I’m just...thankful to have a job, to have a place here. It’s more than I could have hoped for, particularly considering I made the decision to leave abruptly.”
Payne’s calm gaze found his. “We know exactly what that’s like. It’s why we’re here, you know.”
And he did know. Garrett had given him the abbreviated reason as to why Payne, McCann and Flanagan had left the military. They’d lost a dear friend and comrade, Danny Levinson, and each of them felt as if they were in part to blame. Couldn’t be any easier to live with that than what he was currently struggling with, Tanner thought.
Help me, he heard again, for what felt like the thousandth time. The tiny, faltering voice. Fearful yet trusting and so, so weak...
“It gets easier,” Jamie said, his eyes grave with understanding.
Tanner merely shrugged, hoping like hell that was true. It sure couldn’t get any worse.
* * *
“This one is staying,” McCann announced as soon as Tanner Crawford disappeared around the door frame.
“Ordinarily when you make predictions like that, I think you’re completely full of shit, Guy, but in this instance I think you might be right,” Jamie agreed.
Brian Payne silently concurred. Though they’d lost their past two employees to other career paths—and women—Forrester seemed different. There was a sadness, an ownership to Tanner’s grief that he recognized, as well. Hell, who was he kidding? They could all identify. Innocent blood on your hands was something they could all empathize with. Though Payne had realized that it wasn’t completely his fault that Danny had died, there was a part of him that would always feel responsible for his death all the same. Like Tanner, it didn’t matter that the intel was faulty, that he’d done everything he was supposed to do.
He’d lost a man.
And Tanner Crawford, according to Garrett, had had a child die in his arms.
Terrible stuff, that.
“What do you think?” Jamie asked. “You think he’s going to have any trouble making the transition to our way of life?”
Payne shook his head. “Not at all. You’ve read everything I’ve read. He knows what he’s doing. Was one hell of a soldier who simply lost the stomach for war.”
“With good reason,” McCann said. “Damn, how do you find your happy place after something like that? How do you move forward?”
Jamie passed a hand over his face. “I don’t know. Women and children, you know? That’s the stuff of nightmares.”
Though Garrett had been very vague with the details of Forrester’s last mission, Payne knew that it had involved the accidental death of innocent civilians. Payne had willingingly fought terrorists without batting a lash because he’d been fighting for the greater good against an enemy who wasn’t above killing innocent women and children. Conscienceless zealots bent on revenge and power. But if he was ever involved in a mission like Forrester’s, which had resulted in the death of those they were trying to protect... He didn’t know how he would cope and, frankly, was thankful that he’d never have to try.
“I liked him,” Jamie said. “My gut says he’s a good guy.”
“If we’re going to start talking about feelings, then I’m outta here,” McCann said, purposely lightening the moment.
“Kiss my ass, Guy,” Jamie told him, hurling an empty plastic soda bottle at his head. “You know what I mean.”
“Do you think we should have mentioned the chick?” Guy asked, shooting Payne a look.
The chick in question was Rhiannon Palmer— good friend to Theo—who was hell-bent on finding him, as well. Having been told by Tad—her ex-boyfriend—that Ranger Security was on the case, Rhiannon had already been in contact many times asking for updates. A local elementary guidance counselor specializing in emotional intelligence, she was pushy, feisty and had all the tenacity of a bulldog.
“She’s on the list of acquaintances,” Payne said, and smiled.
And she was now Tanner Crawford’s problem.
ABOUT RHONDA RUSSELL
A New York Times best-selling author, two-time RITA nominee, Romantic Times Reviewers Choice nominee, and National Readers' Choice Award Winner Rhonda Russell writes hot romantic comedy for Harlequin Books and Firefly Press, her indie press. With more than forty-five published books to her credit and many more coming down the pike, she's thrilled with her career and enjoys dreaming up her characters and manipulating the worlds they live in.
Rhonda previously wrote as Rhonda Nelson, but getting married necessitated a name change. She and her husband (aka The Sweetest Badass in the World) and their menagerie of pets happily make their home on a 166-acre farm in the middle of nowhere in a small town in Northern Alabama near the banks of the Tennessee River. If you’d like to see videos of baby ducks, spoiled turkeys who like to ride in the car, guineas who think they’re turkeys, then be sure to check her out Facebook Page Author Rhonda Russell.
More from Rhonda Russell
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The Maverick, #3
The Loner, #4
The Hell-Raiser, #5
Letters From Home, #6
The Soldier, #7
The Rebel, #8
4-Book Romance Omnibus
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The Future Widows' Club, #1
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Rhonda Russell, Going Down Hard (Ranger Security Book 4)
