“I was hoping you might be able to help with an introduction to Jackson Graham over at Soleil Energy.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know him. He could walk by me on the street, and I wouldn’t recognize him.”
“Can you ask the Walshes if they would do it?”
I’m not comfortable with this conversation. “I’m sure you’ll find your angel funder,” I tell him, taking a step back. “You’re certainly resourceful.”
I give Yolanda a nod, and she begins to walk me out. “I’ll see you later,” I call to Tomas.
“That’s it?” he says. “That’s all you’re willing to do?”
He grabs my arm, and in two seconds Yolanda has him flat on his back.
“You don’t touch her again. Understand?”
A crowd forms to watch the spectacle. Lying on the floor, he holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, no problem.”
Yolanda points me to the elevators, and we get in.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“Just doing my job. No one is supposed to touch you unless you want them to. I could tell when he touched you the first time it was unwelcome. I was going to discuss it with you once we got to the car, but then when he grabbed you, I had to put him down.”
I giggle. “I think he definitely got the message.”
She smiles. “Couldn’t help myself.”
She walks me up to the office. “I’ll need to go to Clear Security to file an action report. If you need anything, Greg and Stan should be here. I’ll be back before lunch to escort you.”
“I’m not sure of my plans quite yet.”
“No worries.”
Once Yolanda is satisfied that I’m securely in the office, I don’t know what to do. It’s stunning to think I have nothing to do without a computer.
On my way to grab a coffee from the kitchen, I notice Mattis isn’t in yet. I wonder where his spineless self is hiding. But I forget about him as soon as I enter the kitchen. I debate a donut or the egg-and-meat thing warming on the food bar. It smells like heaven, but the calories would negate all the swimming I did this morning. I grab a banana instead.
As I walk back to my office. I see Claire has arrived.
“Hey.” I peel the banana and take a bite.
“How was your night?” she asks.
“Good. I didn’t work much, but I’m okay with that. I’ll get more done over at Landon’s this afternoon.”
“Did I see Yolanda leaving?” Claire asks.
“She said she had to file an action report with Clear Security.”
Claire stops what she’s doing. “What happened this morning?”
I’m not clear what she’s asking for a moment, but then it hits me. “We went to the Y and swam, and when we were walking out, I ran into Tomas. He hit on me, and I rebuffed him, as I was leaving, he grabbed my arm and Yolanda took him down.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
She motions through the glass wall to Landon. He comes in, and she shuts the door. We sit at the round conference table Claire has in her office.
“Tell us what happened,” she says.
I walk them through my morning’s adventures, which concluded with Tomas lying on the floor of the Y.
“That asshat,” Landon exclaims.
Claire looks at Landon, and I see a subtle nod. “We wanted to talk to you about Tomas and the new world you’ve entered.”
What is she talking about?
“It’s no secret that we bought your company, or that you were paid ten million dollars,” Claire explains. “We know you gave some of that to your team, but the public doesn’t. You are the face of Translations. People are going to crawl out of the woodwork with ideas they want you to finance or introductions they want you to make. And many will be interested in your money.”
“You need to be cautious,” Landon interjects.
Claire holds up her hand. “Yes, you need to be cautious. People who’ve been around, like Chrissy or Bob, are fine. More concerning are the people you’ve lost touch with that suddenly reach out—like a man you dated in school.” She gives me a look. “You can work with Yolanda to figure out when she needs to step in, though it sounds like you’re figuring that out already. She’s an expert at reading people’s intentions and your reactions. She’s there to protect you.”
I nod. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“Not everyone has bad intentions. We’re only suggesting—as two people who are a little farther ahead on this same road— that you be careful who you meet, and pay attention to what’s going on around you.” Claire reaches over to me. “Yolanda will hang out with you for a while. It’s the hardest thing to adjust to. Landon and I have kept a pretty low profile with Disruptive, so at least we’re not recognizable like Nate Lancaster.”
“He can’t go anywhere without a team around him,” Landon says. “And the list of suspects in his wife’s murder is huge. I think he wonders if he’s next.”
Nate and Cecelia Lancaster founded a high-tech prosthetics company and became famous overnight. One of their daughters was kidnapped at one point, and Cecelia slipped her protection detail last fall and went missing in Las Vegas. They found her body six weeks later. Since then Nate’s grief has been on the front page of every tabloid. I can’t imagine the pain of living like that.
I know Claire and Landon are right, but this part of my new reality is depressing.
“Jim will be here in a little over an hour,” Claire says. “He’ll probably want to talk to you about this, too. I promise there aren’t many action reports.”
“It’ll get easier,” Landon adds. “My team will drop me places, so I can blend in at a bar.” He adds
