Fix It Up - Mary Calmes Page 0,9

volume of his voice, because I couldn’t hear him over the music.

I opened my jacket so he could see the holster with my Beretta 92FS Brigadier on my hip, and when his head snapped up, I held up my ID holder with my driver’s license on one side and my multi-state CCW license on the other.

“You’re the guy from Torus,” he yelled over the thumping music.

“Yes,” I said, nodding.

The short blond-haired, blue-eyed man smiled at me as he grabbed my hand in both of his, holding tight.

“This is going to get better,” I promised, and he leaned forward, as did I, and we met in the middle so I could talk into his ear, which would be easier on both of us. “How many bodyguards are here?”

“Four,” he told me. “Do you want me to have them come meet you?”

“No, I’ll go find them,” I told him.

“When Sawyer called last night and rehired me, he explained that you were in charge. He said that you have final say on all staffing, as you were given direct access to Nick’s accountant.”

“That’s right,” I agreed. “Now, tell me where the sound system is.”

“Out there,” he answered, pointing. “In the living room behind the barn doors.”

It was an open floor plan, having been renovated before Nick Madison moved in, so the kitchen and living room were one enormous space.

“Okay,” I said, turning and grabbing the clipboard from the man who had been attempting to get Brent’s attention. He was trying to deliver a resort hotel’s worth of alcohol. “No,” I told him. “This goes back.”

“We were told this was an emergency and to get it here right fuckin’ now!”

“Well, you should learn to take payment over the phone,” I told him. “Get your truck and get this shit outta here.”

He threw up his hands, and I walked outside and called Rosalie Simmons, Nick Madison’s accountant. She picked up on the second ring, waiting for my call, as Mr. Cox had made her aware that I would need backup, and we had talked at length the night before.

“You must be there already,” she said instead of greeting me. “I can hear the telltale beat of his house.”

“Yeah, it’s a zoo,” I groused at her. “I’ve only been here maybe five minutes, and I can already tell it’s a mess.”

“Tell me what you need,” she prodded me, sounding both sad and worried. “I’m here to help you.”

“I need all his credit cards suspended, and keep the expenses to mortgage and utilities and necessities, the water bill and those kinds of things. No other money goes out of any of his accounts, for any reason, unless I know what it is. I need a spreadsheet with everything.”

“Absolutely, consider it done.”

“And anyone who’s got a card that Nick gave them, I want those cancelled immediately,” I told her, because I was guessing that people other than Nick were ordering all manner of items to be delivered.

“Oh yes, I’ve been waiting for that order,” she said, cackling. “You should see the number of cards out there. The chauffeur has one, the housekeepers. What about Brent’s? You want that one suspended as well?”

“Yep, everybody. The only one who has a card is me, starting now.”

“Done and done,” she apprised me cheerfully.

“I need new ones issued for the people I’m hiring, so if you could courier me out some blanks, that would be great.”

“On it.”

“I’ll probably be calling back.”

“Of that,” she said with a snort of laughter, “I have no doubt.”

“Thank you for helping and being on call. It should only be today and tomorrow.”

“It’s my pleasure, Mr. Barnes.”

“Just Loc,” I corrected.

“Loc,” she repeated. “We’ll chat soon.”

Hanging up, I walked back into the house, made my way into the living room through the crush of bodies, over the hardwood floors, found the sound system and, after a moment of searching for the main power button, gave up and just pulled the plug from the back, shutting it off, thrilled that the pounding bass was no longer reverberating through my body.

In my experience, yelling for people to get out never worked. “Fire” was one word I had been advised to use, but unless people saw smoke, no one moved. The only one guaranteed to clear a room was “raid.”

“It’s a raid! The police are on their way!” I yelled, trying to infuse my voice with the right amount of fear. “They’re after Nick! They know he’s got drugs! We gotta get outta here!”

Every time. Like a charm.

It was like watching roaches