The Chauffeur (#41) The Limo Companies
Introduction:
Getting back to LA my mind was buzzing.
By PABLO DIABLO
Copyright 2019
CHAPTER 1
Getting back into LA, my mind was buzzing about the things that I saw on the trip by various limo companies. When the jet parked, there stood Fred with the trunk open, and the back door open waiting for us to deplane. Of course, my mind worried about the relationship between him and Mom.
The three ladies all wished Fred a good afternoon as they got into the limo. I stopped and pulled Fred aside.
“Fred, I’m surprised to see you here. Is everything alright between you and Mom?”
“Sir, everything is fine. We just needed a couple of hours apart. You and Jill do this all the time, you go off on business and she stays home working like a dog preparing for the upcoming stock event after the first of the year. Melanie and I are doing just the same thing, we’re taking a small break. Plus, I’m still supposed to be your personal chauffeur and when I’m not doing my job it puts a strain on Paula to send someone else who will handle you properly,” he says to me.
“Oh, now I’m being handled,” I say laughing, which causes the normally stoic Fred to laugh as well.
Jennifer leans out the open door and tugs on my belt pulling me into the car. All three of the ladies give me a kiss and tell me how much they enjoyed the trip. Ronda, still acting like a wife put her arms around my neck and kissed me long and passionately. When we broke from the kiss, I just smiled at her.
Fred headed towards the Chateau; all the ladies were excited to be back home. It took a bit for Fred to get us through the traffic, but he did. When he pulled into the courtyard, the very first thing that I noticed was the new windows on the house. All four of us were happy to see that John got everything finished without my phone or Jennifer’s phone blowing up. When we got out, I asked Fred to please wait for me as I wanted to go to the Happy, Happee Limo and see Paula.
He got our luggage out and we walked into the house. We surprised everyone. Jill looked like a beat dog.
“Darling, what’s the problem?” I ask.
“Oh, this stock conversion, it’s kicking my ass,” she says before she kisses me.
I just moan as she always is a great kisser. We hug and hold each other as the other three bounce around the house all excited that they are home. As I stand in the living room with Jill, I see Amy start to come towards us then turn around and leave us be.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” I ask.
“No, not yet, but after Christmas, there will be a need,” she tells me.
When we break from the embrace; she heads towards the kitchen and I head towards the bedroom. As usual, I open my suitcase and just dump the clothes into the hamper. I hang up my suits in the closet and toss the luggage aside into the closet. I think about Aurora and wonder if she still has her company showing up and cleaning. I ignore the question in my head and go back outside to Fred who is diligently waiting for me.
We get into the limo and head to Happy, Happee Limo. I put the privacy window down to chat with Fred.
“Are you and Mom having a good time?” I ask not knowing where to start.
‘Yes, we are. She’s quite the woman. I never would have guessed that a woman of her age has so much passion,” Fred tells me.
“Woman of her age?” I ask laughing a bit.
“If you tell her I said that I’ll deny it,” he says laughing back.
“Fred, can we talk for a bit as we drive back to the Happy, Happee Limo?” I ask.
“Of course, sir,” he answers.
“Good, do you think that I’m taking this company in the right direction? I want to make sure someone other than the playgroup sees what I’m doing,” I say to him.
“Sir, I hope what you are doing is right. I keep buying more and more stock in Jaxson, Inc. Every time I get paid, I spend some on buying more shares of the stock,” he tells me.
That answer from Fred made me feel a bit better, someone other than me has faith in what I am doing. It’s not like I can’t trust the playgroup, but I’m sleeping with most of them and I wanted an opinion of someone that I’m not sleeping with, although Mom is playing with Fred.
When we finally reach the garage, Fred parks the car in the ‘get ready’ place. I didn’t know it, but Fred walked across the parking garage to get into a nice Ford Mustang. Fred’s Mustang was one from the 1980s. It was white with two blue stripes that ran from the tip of the hood to the back bumper. When he started the car, you could hear the V8 roar to life. Fred slowly and carefully drove out of the parking garage. He waved at me as he left the garage.
I went inside and took the elevator to the offices of Happy, Happee Limo. When I stepped off the elevator, I just walked into the office. A nice young lady came over to me asking me if I needed to lease a limo.
“No, I’m here to see Paula,” I told her.
“Um, is she expecting you because she is very busy,” she tells me. I hand her my business card. The young lady walks away from me towards the big castle doors, which I had completely forgotten about. In just a few minutes, Paula came running through the call center and made a leap into my arms. After kissing me repeatedly, I heard several of the phone people giggling at Paula’s action.
“Hello Darling, I’m glad to see you,” I say to her.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m so happy to see you,” she says to me.
I pull her into her office, past the two castle doors. Once the doors closed behind me, she pulls me close and kisses me passionately.
“I would like to talk to you, privately. Can we go to dinner?’ I ask her.
“Darling, you know that I would follow you to the ends of the earth. Where would you like to go to eat?” She asks me.
“How about that nice salad place you like, what’s it called, Sweet Tomatoes?”
“You’d go to Sweet Tomatoes? It’s a salad place, no steak, no chicken, heck no fish either,” Paula says to me.
“C’mon dear, grab some keys. I’ll drive,” I tell her.
“WAIT, I can’t handle you agreeing to Sweet Tomatoes AND your driving!” She tells me.
“Then tell me what you want. You know that I’ll go anywhere you choose,” I say to her.
“Um, how about that Greek place on the Sunset Strip. I always like that place but working so much here I don’t get to go hardly at all,” she says to me.
“Then the Greek place it is. Grab some keys and let’s go,” I tell her.
She grabs a set for a Town Car as we get on the elevator. We take the elevator to the 2nd floor. We pass the security guard and head to the parking garage. We take the garage elevator to the car ready level. When we get off the elevator, she directs me to the proper vehicle. I hit the unlock button and open the passenger door for her. She kisses me as she gets into the car.
I get in and start the car for us to head to the Greek restaurant that she likes out on the Sunset Strip. As I’m driving us, she moves closer to me.
“So, tell me, darling, how are Dakota and John?”
“Both are doing great. John is now an assistant to Dakota. We’re preparing him to take over as my assistant when Dakota goes into labor,” I tell her.
“JOHN is an assistant to Dakota? I’m not sure who I root for in that pairing,” Paula says.
“I say root for Dakota, right now she doesn’t have hormonal issues, but they’re coming,” I say to Paula.
“Well, you’re back and you didn’t say anything about issues with the jet. I’m guessing that the jet is fine and anything that the maintenance people found was turned over to the police,” she says.
How are you doing my darling?” I ask her as we pull into the restaurant parking lot.
“Oh, I’m fine. I miss you and all of the group at the house,” I park the car, get out and run around to open her door. I hold my hand out as she steps out of the car.
“Thank you, kind sir,” she says.
We walk into the restaurant, with her clutching my elbow. Once inside, we get seated at a booth. I order Paula a glass of nice Greek wine. They bring over a cheesy dip with some toasted pita triangles. We spend a few minutes feeding each other and laughing about it.
“So, tell me my darling, why did you want to go out to dinner with me?”
“Because we haven’t been seeing much of each other lately,” I say to her.
The beautiful Greek waitress comes and takes our order. Paula orders a large Greek salad with two sides of the dressing. I order a Gyro with extra tzatziki sauce and extra tomatoes with no onions. The waitress asks me if French fries are alright for my side. I giggle to myself about the fries which makes Paula ask why the giggle.
“Oh, because Dakota has stuffed my face full of ketchup covered fries more than once,” I tell her which makes her giggle as well.
“Obviously, you have something you want to talk to me about, what is it?” Paula asks.
“How are the two limo companies doing?” I start.
“They’re fine. Happy could be doing better, but Black Car is knocking it out of the park,” she tells me.
“What is the issue with Happy?”
“The client card is dropping off fast,” she says.
“Any idea why?”
“I think that since it’s now traceable by spouses, it is losing its luster,” she says.
“We didn’t think of that did we?”
“No, not at all. Doing the cash thing, was risky, but it was nearly untraceable, but the card is very traceable. Now, single clients don’t mind using the card, but ones with a spouse care and are dropping off,” Paula tells me.
“How do you suggest we approach that issue?”
“Revisit the client list. Anyone involved in a relationship of any sort should be sent back to the cash-only list. The single ones can still use the card. This makes both parties much happier,” Paula tells me.
“Then do it. You are running the things in the limo world, so make it happen. You don’t need my permission,” I tell her.
As I’m telling her this, I feel a shoeless foot begin to caress my cock. She must be taking classes as she is sitting there rubbing my cock with her foot but remaining stoic above the table. I smile and reach down and begin tickling her foot. She tries her very best not to giggle, but the sensation on her foot makes her laugh out loud. Finally, she puts on the pouty face and reluctantly removes her foot from my crotch.
Again, the beautiful waitress brings us our food, which looks delicious. Paula digs right in having a spoonful of the potato salad. I put the extra tzatziki sauce on the gyro and take a big bite. We both agree using moans that the meal is delicious.
“Paula, I do have a secondary reason to take you to dinner,” I start.
“I figured as much.”
“I saw some things at other limo companies that could help us through the slow times of the year,” I tell her.
“Great!”
“One item that I saw was one company holds Christmas light tours. The manager of the company scouts out the great neighborhoods that have lots of Christmas lights and the company takes the family on a trip through the town showing them all the great neighborhoods, all for one fee. That way instead of trying to get through traffic the whole family gets to do something together,” I tell her.
She ponders what I have said and likes the idea. She says that with the years she’s been at Happy the two weeks prior to and immediately after Christmas the limo business takes a huge drop in car rentals. However, New Year’s Eve every car is being used.
“Where are we with contracts with some of the top hotels? When I started with Happy, we had to patrol the top end hotels to help their customers for a contracted fee that was added on to their hotel bill. Do we still do that?” I ask.
“No, well…. not really. Many of our contracts have not been renewed but I don’t know why. I’ve been much too busy running things that I haven’t had any time to contact these hotels and find out why,” she says.
“Do you need an assistant?”
“That would be nice,” she says.
“Do you have anyone that you think is ready to be promoted?” I ask.
“Well, of course,”
“Then promote them. It’s not like I have an assistant manager tree out back of the Chateau. You know your people, promote and make your life easier,” I tell her.
As we finish up our entrée, I order some Baklava, one of Paula’s favorite dessert.
The beautiful waitress brings the dessert. Paula moves from one side of the booth to the other putting her arms around my neck and kissing me. We spend a couple of minutes kissing before stuffing bites of the dessert into each other’s mouth.
Once we finish making a spectacle of ourselves, I pay the bill. Paula and I walk out to the car holding hands. When we get to the car, I open the door and she kisses me again.
“Damn, I’ve missed you,” she says to me.
“Then come home with me. Everyone would love to see you, you’ve been missed,” I say to her.
“Really?”
“Yes, Really,” I say.
“Then take me home darling,”
We get into the car and off we go heading towards the Chateau. When we get there, again I look at the property across the entrance road and think to myself that I just need to buy the property and be done with it.
CHAPTER 2
As Paula and I walk into the house, several people welcome Paula. She is greeted by most of the playgroup, including Jill.
I don’t know what it is, but Jill looks very tired. Clearly, the stock conversion is taking its toll on her.
Amy and Donna are hugging on Paula and telling her how much she is missed at the house. I see Dakota, again in one of my tee shirts. She smiles and flips the back again to show me she’s not wearing any panties. I just smile.
I see John eating a sandwich. I put my hand on his shoulder which causes him to jump up and ‘man hug’ me. He is so excited to show me the finished product of the house and the windows. I let him lead me around so he could tell me the stories of certain windows. The front windows he spent more money and had the frames reinforced with steel slats to help prevent any stray bullets from bursting through the window frame and hitting someone inside.
John made me proud, he completed the job that I assigned him, and the finished product looked great. I liked his idea of spending the additional money to strengthen the frame of the front windows, something that I had not considered.
As I looked at everyone who was hugging Paula, I noticed no Aurora.
“Amy, where is Aurora?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember the last time I saw her. It probably was before you left on the trip,” she tells me.
“Hmm……interesting,”
BJ and Danni come out of the kitchen to hug me. BJ looks beat-up, mentally speaking.
“Darling, why do you look so tired?” I ask BJ.
“This stock conversion that Jill is doing is kicking the holy crap out of us. If you think that I’m looking beat-up you probably should go check on your wife,” she says to me.
I look around for Jill, I see her at the kitchen table also eating a sandwich.
Putting my hands over her eyes, I ask, “Anything left for me?”
“Not at the moment,”
“Then come with me,” I say to her.
I take her by the hand and lead her down the hallway to our bedroom. Once inside I shut the door behind us and pull her to our sleep bed.
“Darling, how can I help you? BJ says that this stock conversion is really taking it’s toll on you and her,” I say.
“There really is nothing you can do at this point. I will need you and a few others to help come the week after Christmas,” she tells me.
“So, you’re telling me that there is nothing I can do to help you right now?” I ask.
“Well, you can hold me. How about that?” She says to me.
I put my arms around her and pull her in tightly to me. She slides one arm underneath me as we entangle with each other. I just lay there holding Jill as she is holding me as well. We are together, our bodies all entangled when I heard light snoring. Jill had fallen asleep in my arms. I just smiled and laid there holding her. Sometimes it feels relaxing when your special person is in your arms.
Since I still had my shoes on, I worked hard at kicking them off my feet without waking Jill. It took several attempts, but I finally managed to accomplish removing my shoes.
After about a half hour, I felt myself also fighting sleep. I let myself succumb to the slumbering monster.
When I awoke from sleep, I felt very refreshed. I got up, stripped down and headed into the bathroom to take a shower. Jill, my darling wife, slept peacefully in our bed.
I took a long hot shower, letting the water run freely over my shoulders and back. There’s something about being back in your own home. Hotels are nice, but your own home is great.
After a long hot shower, I shampooed my hair before rinsing off. I stepped out of the shower to much cooler air to dry off. Once I was dry, I went back into the bedroom, where Jill was still sleeping to put on a pair of shorts and a white tee shirt.
I step out of our bedroom to head towards the kitchen. Heading down the hallway, I hear Mom having a wonderful time, with Fred I assume, but it could be anyone of Mom’s choosing.
It dawns on me that I still haven’t seen Aurora. I stop in the kitchen and of course, my protégé is eating. He’s sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Froot Loops, something about eating cereal anytime other than breakfast.
No one seems to know where Aurora might be. It puzzles me so much that I decided to head out to the pool houses. The first one I go to is, of course, the home where the twins and Belinda live. I knock, it takes a couple of minutes before a set of feet make their way to the front door. When it is opened, it is Belinda. She is completely shocked by seeing me.
“Where is everyone?” I ask her.
She just points towards the studio. I kiss her on the cheek and head over to the studio. As usual, I knock but I hear sounds of sex coming from inside. I turn the knob and I am really shocked at what I find. Aurora is the center of being fucked senseless and being filmed. Allison is holding the camera as both CG boys are fucking Aurora. One is behind her ramming her hard and the other one is fucking her mouth deep enough that she is continually creating spittle and gagging.
Her eyes are almost rolled back into her head as she is obviously in a state of pure sexual bliss.
However, I was disappointed that what I had asked for wasn’t followed. I was clear that none of the playgroups was to be filmed and in a porn movie. Here, Aurora my ex-girlfriend was being fucked like a common street whore. To be honest, I really wasn’t sure if I was madder at the two CG boys and Aurora or with Allison. I chose to address this at another time. Allison was doing what she does by filming and directing the participants whereas the two CG boys have been staying at the house and have been trusted to guard the house and our family.
When I went back inside the house, John asked, “Did you find Aurora?”
“Oh yeah, certainly not how I expected to find her,” I told him. Walking right past him, I headed towards my bedroom to check on Jill. As I headed down the hallway, Fred was coming out of Mom’s room.
“Fred, may I chat with you a couple of minutes?”
“Certainly sir,” he replies.
“How much influence do you have over your two nephews?”
“Well, to be honest, I’m actually surprised that they have listened to me as much as they have so far. Why do you ask, has something happened?” Fred asks.
“Sort of. Your nephews are out in the studio with Aurora making porn. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I only had one thing that I asked of Allison, to not film any of the family so I’m at a quandary. Am, I annoyed at Allison, or at your nephews and Aurora? Hell, maybe I’m just annoyed at all four of them,” I tell Fred.
“I think their actions have a lot to do with whom they are dating. What do you call those girls that are renting your pool house, the porn twins? They have been whispering in the boy’s ears how easy and lucrative shooting porn is now that they are out of the Coast Guard. I really can’t help you on Aurora, I have no idea why she is involved, I’m too busy with Melanie,” Fred says to me.
“You know Fred, I’ll address this with them later on, not right now when I’m really annoyed at them,”
CHAPTER 3
Going out to the TV room I found most of the group. Dakota patted a spot on the couch for me to come to sit by her. She turns sideways on the couch and puts her delicate little feet in my lap. Instinctively I begin giving her a foot massage, once again Jennifer makes a point that she hasn’t gotten a foot massage by me yet. Dakota responds that maybe she isn’t making Daddy happy enough, which causes both ladies to giggle.
I hear the buzzer for the front gate. The two chefs look at the security monitor and call me over.
“David, you should probably come to see this,” Bobby says.
I get up from the couch, where I was nice and comfortable to check out the security camera and the front gate. There stood two heavy set guys holding a box that looked poorly wrapped.
“Hello, who is buzzing?” I ask.
“We have a package for David Greene. Is he home?” One of the men asks, who has an obviously east European accent.
“No, I’m sorry. Just leave the package at the gate,” I tell them.
“We must have a signature,” The other one says, who also has an accent.
“Well, Mr. Greene is out of town right now. If you leave your card in the box there, I’ll have him call you when he gets back into town,” I tell the two guys.
“When should we expect him to return?” The first one asks again.
“In a couple of days. Like I said, if you leave a card, I’ll have him contact you when he returns from his business trip,” I say to them as I watch them turn and walk back down the road. In my head, I now have a reason to pursue owning the road to put a secondary gate back down at the beginning of the property.
I notice that they didn’t leave the package, which made me wonder what did they have inside it. I texted Special Agent Fernandez to call me at his convenience.
Sammy asked everyone if shrimp and yellow rice sounded like a meal everyone would enjoy. Surprising no one, John was the first to agree it sounded like something he would eat. However, both Dakota and Jennifer teased him about what is it he ‘wouldn’t eat’. Everyone laughed, even John.
I pulled John aside and sat him at the dining room table to chat with him.
“Have you and Diane picked a wedding date?”
“No. We can’t seem to agree on a date. I thought it would be romantic to have the wedding on Christmas Eve, but she seems to think that it would be ‘cool’ to have it on New Year’s Eve,” he tells me. Her wanting New Year’s Eve sounds ridiculous to me, but I’m going to check with Jill just to make sure I’m not missing a woman thing.
“Be nice about it, but gently keep suggesting Christmas Eve,” I tell him. He nods his head in agreement.
Sammy called everyone to the kitchen as he had made a special salad complete with walnuts, strawberries, shredded cheese, two types of lettuce, and some spiral cut squash. He also created a balsamic vinegar dressing to go along with the salad. Everyone took a small plate of salad. John made one for Diane and took her a bottle of water. He also grabbed another bottle and handed it to Dakota. She was surprised that he keeps an eye on her as well as Diane.
I let the ladies make themselves a plate of salad before I made one for myself. The salad was nice, not my specific taste as I’m just stupid enough to really like the most useless lettuce of all, iceberg. A nice big wedge of iceberg with tomato slices and dressing makes me very happy. However, this new salad had all the women buzzing about how tasty it was. John and I just shrugged our shoulders as we looked at each other not enjoying the new salad like the women.
I could smell the shrimp cooking in lots of garlic. I sent Amy down the hall to retrieve Jill and Melanie to come to dinner. She padded off to get them.
It was several minutes, but Mom, Fred, and Jill all came out to the dining room. Jill came over to me and sat on my lap putting her arms around me and kissing me.
“You were still in the bedroom, so I’m guessing that you were still sleeping,” I say to Jill.
“Oh yeah, it was nice to not be working on that damn stock thing. Something smells really good, what are they making for dinner?”
“Well shrimp and yellow rice is the entrée, but Sammy made a special salad that all the ladies like,” I tell her. She gets up and goes into the kitchen and makes herself a small plate of salad and takes a bottle of water. In my head, I was kicking myself for not getting my wife the plate of salad and a bottle of water.
I looked around, Paula, Amy, BJ, Danni, and Diane were all sitting at the dining room table. Jill and Dakota chose to sit in the kitchen to eat. Fred and Mom sat in the kitchen as well. Mom really loved the salad telling us all that it reminded her of a salad her chef back in the Hamptons would make her occasionally, but that Bob didn’t like it at all, so it wasn’t made very often.
As usual, John was the first one finished with the salad and ready for the shrimp and yellow rice. However, he waited for Diane to finish her salad. He took her empty plate and tossed it in the trash and made her a shrimp and yellow rice plate. She was surprised by the amount of shrimp John put on her plate. She tried to protest, but John wasn’t hearing it. He just smiled at her, leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. She playfully slapped him on the shoulder before digging into the food John brought her.
I follow the lead that John set. I get up and make a plate for Jill, putting an extra scoop of yellow rice on the plate since I know that yellow rice is her favorite type of rice. I also get her a second bottle of water. When I carry them over to her, I kiss her passionately on the lips, she tasted like the strawberries on the salad.
I heard my phone buzz. I pick it up off the kitchen counter.
“Hello, this is David,” I answer.
“David, It’s Special Agent Fernandez. I’m assuming that your calling because you heard about the arrest of Lt. Horowitz,” he tells me.
“Actually, no. I had not heard. I was calling you because we had two large men with Russian type accents show up at our main gate today,” I tell him.
“Really? WOW, I didn’t think that they would have enough balls to come to your house. I figured they would go after you when you were out,” he tells me.
“Horowitz was finally arrested eh?” I ask.
“Yep, big scene. When they came to arrest him, he pulled his service weapon out and took a shot at the US Attorney. What a fool, he won’t see the light of day except when he will be in court,” Fernandez tells me.
“David, for the next 24 hours please don’t go anywhere. I want them to return to your gate,” he tells me. I agree not to go anywhere. I ask if any of my people should go to their jobs which he says should be fine since they are after me and not the others.
“Can I send him a message through you?”
“Um, sure. I’ll probably have to tell the US Attorney just to keep everything above board,”
“Tell him that David Greene wishes him well-being someone’s wife in prison and that I hope he doesn’t get passed around too many times because a brother loves a pasty white boy as his bitch,” I tell Fernandez. He laughs out loud.
“The US Attorney will laugh his head off at this one. He already likes you because you like to stay under the radar. You don’t take a grandstanding position which makes his job much more difficult.
“Jose, when we had the shooting here, there was a nice lady that seemed to take charge on the scene until Captain Perez showed up. Who is she?”
“You have to be talking about Heidi Longmire. She works her ass off. If she’s not in the field, she’s at her desk finishing up paperwork. She’s tough, she’s a bulldog, and she’s a former Marine,” Fernandez tells me.
“Jose, there’s no such thing as a former Marine. Once they get through boot camp, they’re Marines for life. I should know, I married one,” I tell him.
“Well, OK David, why did you ask?”
“I have a guy who works his ass off with his own business. He probably works 75 hours a week. He looks great, he’s a big guy. Do you know that movie that just came out Aquaman? Well, he could be the star’s real-life brother. He is the owner of the business that I use to help keep my house clean,” I tell Jose.
“Oh crap, you’re one of those people…. a matchmaker,” he says laughing.
“Well, I do introductions and let them work things out. Right now, I’m about 50/50 I get things right about half the time,” I tell him.
“And the other half?”
“Crash and burn. It usually takes a couple of weeks before the two people want to speak to me again,” I tell Jose with a laugh.
“OK, how about this, I’ll ask her to come to see you ask about the two Russian guys at your gate. She’ll be interested in that and you can do whatever it is you do from there, sound good?” he asks.
“Sounds wonderful,” I say smiling even though Jose can’t see it. We say our goodbyes and hang up.
CHAPTER 4
After the conversation with Jose, I looked around for Jill. Once again, I found her up in the office doing more work and BJ was with her.
“Darling, is there anything that I can do to help you right now?”
“No, go away, I’m busy right now. I love you but I need to not be bothered,” Jill says to me.
“I love it when your Marine comes out of you,” I say as I turn and sit down at my laptop. I need to log in to work on some emails as I know that they are building up.
I call Rob our IT guys first.
“Hey Rob, how’s the project going?”
“Wonderful, now that I have some help. We’re moving through the system. Oh, you never told me what to do about the 3,000 people in the four casinos,” he says.
“Keep them. I think the cash flow would be good for our over-all business financials. I visited one in Phoenix. Very nice place and for a Tuesday morning it was hopping,” I tell Rob.
“OK, that means we have just added 3,000 people to the list,”
“No, it doesn’t. Federal and State laws require fingerprint and photo ID to work at the casino, so we shouldn’t have to look any of them up,” I tell Rob who sounded relieved that we didn’t just add a bunch of people.
“The group your girl from Toronto got for me is making great headway. They are banging them out at a great clip,” he says.
“Just so you know, we’ve only found two people who are still on the payroll and no longer working for us. I’ll send your email the information about them, but I think they were both in the Dallas area,” he tells me. I’m not surprised, that HR lady was trying to do some shady shit and she got caught.
“Well Rob, keep at it. Let me know if you need anything,” I tell him before we end the call.
I begin to look over the emails, there is one from Roger Johnson once again. He tells me that he has 4 former Secret Service people to act as my personal and Jill’s personal bodyguards when we leave the Chateau. He said he had dinner with a friend of his that works for the Secret Service. He mentioned that the agency was losing good people to outside employers. He wants me to meet with them and decide. I emailed back that I will consider it.
I start with the usual, removing the duplicate emails. Then I scan through to find what looks to have an immediate need. I see an email from one of the trucking managers saying thank you. They have received all the new order, many more tires than they were expecting but the quality of the tires is phenomenal. Independent truckers are very happy that they can put new steering tires and new drive tires on their rigs for about 40% less than most other places. Even with the triple order, he still has a list of nearly 500 independent truckers. He also mentioned that the recap trailer tires are flying off the shelves. The independents are happy that we are making them very affordable. I email him back to keep doing what he is doing and congratulate him on making this project a success.
I look over the numbers for the Pinetree. Some areas are spectacular, and some are dismal. Dallas is still one of the worst places in the whole system. However, one of our districts in Seattle has completely collapsed as that district now sits on the bottom of the entire company. I pick up the phone and dial up the district office. I get a nice lady who tells me that none of the district managers are available. When I ask why I’m told that their day is over, and they have all gone home.
“Um, Ma’am. What you’re telling me doesn’t seem to make sense. You are still working, but they have all gone home,” I say to her.
“Mr. Greene, that’s the way it has always been here in Seattle. They are done at 3:30 and I’m done at 6,” she tells me. I thank her for her honesty and decide that either they’ll change their ways, or we’ll have lots of new district managers. I look over the management files that I have. I create a plan B to be ready for my upcoming unexpected visit to Seattle.
There is another email that catches my eye. It’s from the City of Beverly Hills. They tell me that they are very interested in selling that piece of property and they give me a price. I feel that the price is a bit high, but I take their offer anyways to have control over that piece of land and put a second gate back down at the beginning of the private road.
It dawns on me that I haven’t chatted with Jennifer since we have returned. I close my laptop and head downstairs to find Jennifer. I find her and drag her to the table in the kitchen. Of course, Sammy has this nice delightful lemon cake with a cream cheese frosting. I cut Jennifer a slice and one for myself. She reaches into the fridge and pours her and me a glass of milk each.
As she is giggling and trying to stuff a slice of cake into my mouth, she realizes that I’m downstairs to talk seriously.
“Jen, why aren’t you at work today? I pay you good money to be at the office plus you need to start visiting the buildings that you think we should purchase,” I tell her.
She looks down at the cake slice and pushes it around with her fork.
“I know, I’m sorry David. I let myself get all carried away with the excitement and fun that is happening here. I rationalize why not to go into the office. Can I have a second chance before you fire me?” She says to me.
“Jennifer, look me in the eyes. Better. I’m not looking to fire you. However, I am paying you good money and I do expect certain things. For example, how is the district office conversions going to the new towers that we have purchased? Have you started on getting the Eagle cleaned? How about that poor old lady we met that was cleaning the toilets, has anything been done about that? Have we finished emptying all the district office buildings in LA and have we started selling them off? I’m not mad. I’m not looking to fire you. However, I do ask that you spend the 8 hours of the day at your office with Diane and working on all these projects. I know that I’m asking a whole lot, but if you need more help just tell me and we’ll get you some. Fair enough?” I say to her.
“Yes David, for all you do for me, it is most certainly fair. I’m sorry and will do a better job for you,” she says as a reply but in a tone like a kid in trouble. In my head, I just wanted to rattle her a bit not make her feel like a whipped dog. Hopefully, I just rattled her.
I lean in and kiss her. She whispers in my ear that she and Diane have agreed to alternate driving to work since they both have new trucks. I like that idea, that way they can chat about things on the way through traffic to the Hawk. I suggest that they might want to include Danni as her car is only in fair condition. They tell me that they will make the offer to her.
As Jennifer and I finish up, I look at the clock and notice that it’s almost 8 pm. I head back upstairs to our office to see if I can get Jill to stop for the night. She declines telling me that she needs just a little more time to get to her stopping point. I walk over and kiss her and tell her to try and be not too late coming to bed tonight. BJ just smiles. I kiss her on the cheek as I walk past her out of the office.
I head to the TV room; Dakota pulls me down next to her.
“What are you all watching?” I ask.
“We’re watching Under the Tuscan Sun. It has Diane Lane. It’s pretty good, so hush,” Dakota tells me.
I watch a few minutes of the movie and decide that I’m just going to go to bed. As I get to my bedroom, I shed my clothes and step into the shower for some hot water therapy. As my head is underneath the shower, I feel the cool air hit my ass telling me someone just stepped into the shower with me. A small pair of hands cover my eyes.
“Guess who Daddy?” I hear.
“Um, my darling Dakota?” I ask.
I hear her giggling. I spin around and put my arms around her and pull her into me for a long passionate kiss. She pushes me back against the wall underneath the shower head. We stay locked in a long kiss.
“Daddy, I only want to be held by you. I’m loving you holding me more and more if that’s alright,” she says to me.
“Of course, my darling. Let’s wash each other, dry off and head to bed where I can put my arms around you and hold you until we both drift off to sleep,” I say to her. She pushes my head underneath the water and begins to shampoo my hair. As I rinse off, I do the same for her. I think to myself about how the hormones have shown themselves, but so far in a good way. She might be as tough as a Marine, but lately, she is wanting all the warm and cuddly stuff.
We finish cleaning each other and step out of the shower to dry off. I look over her beautiful body taking great care to gently dry every inch of her body. She does the same to me. We throw the towels into the bathroom hamper and head to bed. Neither one of us even bothers to put on any clothes. I do stop and plug my phone into the charger.
“Darling, we need to get a couple more phone chargers for this bedroom. You, Jill, me and whomever else sleeps in here everyone needs their phone to charge up. Let’s order about 5 chargers from Amazon and have them delivered, sound good darling?” I ask as we casually walk to the bed. I get into the bed first. Dakota gets in right after me and pulls herself against my body. I put my arms around her, and she does the same thing to me. We kiss for quite a while. When we break from the kiss, Dakota turns over and wiggles her back up against me. I feel her tight little ass and it takes a large amount of control not to just take her right there, but I am able to refrain.
It takes about a half hour of just me holding her before I hear her lightly snoring. I pull her in a bit tighter and hear, “I love you, Daddy,” before another snore. I whisper in her ear, “I love you too my darling.”
It’s not much longer before I drift off to sleep. Jill, of course, is still in her office working with BJ. With all the work that BJ has done lately to help Jill, I think that I should give BJ a raise, not a huge one but enough of a raise to let her know that we appreciate all the hard work she is doing.
Of course, I’ll run this past Jill before we do it.
CHAPTER 5
When I woke up in the morning, I found a pair of arms around me holding me tightly from my back. I knew it wasn’t Dakota as I could see her little tight body right in front of me. I gently turned onto my back and it was exactly whom I thought it was, my darling wife Jill.
I sat up and quietly got off the bed. I went into the bathroom went through my normal morning duties. Since I took a shower before going to bed, I skipped the shower.
Remembering what Fernandez told me, that I should stay at the Chateau for the next day made me start putting a list together to do some work from the house. I put on a pair of shorts and a white tee shirt and grab my phone and head out of the bedroom. It dawns on me as I’m making my way to the kitchen that we don’t have an exercise room, something that we should get for these days that I’m unable to go anywhere.
When I get to the kitchen, Sammy asks what I would like for breakfast. I ask if he could make me a basic cheese omelet but with fried potatoes and onions to go along as a side. While he is putting that together for me, I run upstairs to the office to get my laptop to do some work downstairs for a change.
When I return to the kitchen with my laptop, I find a glass of pineapple juice waiting for me courtesy of Bobby. I open my laptop and begin doing some work since its still early, barely 7 am. I do hear some stirring of people waking up and getting ready to go to work. I expect to see Diane and Jennifer in about an hour all ready to go to the office today since my little discussion with her yesterday.
I log into work email and find another truckload of emails for me. I go through and delete the duplicates.
The first thing that I go to is the Dallas districts of the hotel and the restaurant chains, once again Dallas is near the bottom of both brands. Clearly, it’s becoming time to make changes there. I start with the restaurant group. I break down each restaurant by the district manager. The worst ones seem to be the ones with the most tenure, so in theory, it should be exactly the opposite. However, what I see is that both the veteran managers and the veteran district managers seem to have given up. All veteran management are doing poorly. Hell, they just basically suck. I need to get the broom out and make a clean sweep.
Next, I look again at the Seattle group. They are still at the bottom of the company. I’m sort of confused as they show a 90% occupancy rate, so why zero profits? I begin to look at hotel by hotel in the area. What I find is that nearly half of the occupancy comes from a travel site that I have never heard of. I make a note of the travel site and open a new window on my computer to visit this website. On the surface it looks legit, but when you try to drill down and pick some days the website closes and boots you out. I suspect that this goes back to what the FBI told us about bogus vacation plans that are fronts for human trafficking.
This makes me nervous, so I send an email over to Fernandez telling him about the bogus vacation travel site that is causing issues in a new city, Seattle.
I send out an email, company-wide that until further notice we will no longer be accepting vacation bookings from the new website. However, before I hit send, I decide that I should chat with Fernandez first. He may want to let them keep up their shady tactics to help catch them. I figure another day or two probably wouldn’t hurt, but I do look at the bookings across the company and see several cities that are getting bookings from this same site.
Dallas still has me puzzled so I go back to the financials for that market. I look at the Pinetree, specifically the unit that I met the President of Operations to discuss the issues. I see no travel reports from the district managers, nor do I see any travel reports from the President’s board, something that he promised me when Jill and I were there. I shoot him an email asking how things are going in the Dallas market, even though I already know.
As I’m reading some financials for the night, Sammy is standing next to me holding a plate with my breakfast on it. He has to clear his throat to get my attention.
“Sir, may I say something to you?” Sammy asks.
“Certainly,”
“You and your wife are mirror images of each other. When you guys get into work, it’s like the whole world stops around you. You focus so much on work, that things that are happening right around you go unnoticed,” he says to me.
I sit and ponder what he just said as I shovel another of his delicious omelets into my mouth.
“Sammy, thank you. That was very insightful,” I say to him.
The normal gang begins to show up to have coffee or breakfast before heading to work. Jennifer and Diane look wonderful. I smile and give both a little kiss. Danni shows up a couple of minutes later.
Both Donna and Sharon show up, each one wants one of the chef’s delicious omelets, which prompts Jennifer and Diane to decide to ask for an omelet as well.
I generally ask the room, “Where’s Paula?”
“I think she’s in the shower,” Diane tells me.
“Ok, I wasn’t sure if she was still here or if she left us,” I reply.
“Are you kidding, she’s been missing us and working like a dog at the Happy and Black Car,” Diane continues.
“Would you say she needs an assistant?”
“She told me last night she’s going to promote two people. She says she needs one person to watch things at Happy and one person to watch things at Black Car,” Diane continues telling me.
“That is good news.”
I go back to working on my laptop as things around me are preparing for people to leave for work. Jennifer and Diane ask Bobby if they could each get two fried egg sandwiches on toasted sourdough bread to take to work for a mid-morning snack. He starts right away on their request as Sammy hands them each a plate of the omelets that they requested.
I feel a playful slap on the back of my head. It really surprises me. I spin around to say something smartassed, but I see my lovely Dakota being all playful. I’m not sure if it’s her or me, I feel like she is beginning to have that pregnancy glow about her. Although I don’t see it with Diane.
“Good Morning Daddy,” she says to me before I get a kiss from her.
“Good Morning Darling. Sleep well,” I ask being all coy.
Dakota doesn’t answer, instead, she pours herself a cup of coffee. She reaches into the fridge and pulls out the pineapple juice and refills my glass. I get a smooch on the cheek as she turns to put the juice back into the fridge.
I get a text from Rob, the IT guy. It just says call me as soon as you get the chance. I know that any text from Rob this early is not good news. I decided to finish my breakfast before dialing him up.
John finally makes it to the kitchen. I’m shocked that food has been cooked and given to people and John wasn’t anywhere to be found. John and Dakota are both dressed to head to the Hawk, I tell both that I’m staying here per Special Agent Fernandez and that they can get back into some relaxed clothes which makes John happy. Just before he heads back to his bedroom to change, he asks Sammy to make him another of his special fully-loaded omelets. Sammy jokingly says, “Oh, you want another John special. No problem,” causing everyone to giggle a bit.
I finish my omelet and dial-up Rob.
“Good Morning Rob, what’s going on?” I ask.
“Well, everything is great except for our entire system is down east of the Mississippi,” he tells me.
“So what brand is down?”
“Everything. We got hacked while I slept. I’m calling in some close friends that I trust to help us. This hack affects us across the board, all brands. However, it’s odd this was an attack to take down our system, this was not a hack to get credit card numbers as none of those files where opened,” Rob tells me.
“Rob, I trust you. You take the steps to get us back up as soon as possible and call any of your friends that you believe can help restore us. Also, once everything is back up, let’s take a hard look at all of our security measures to help prevent this in the future,” I tell him.
“You know that this means the verification ID project is at a standstill,” he reminds me.
“That’s OK. I’ll call Madison and I’ll let Sharon know. You just do your voodoo to get us going again,” I tell him.
“Yes sir,” he says before hanging up. I turn around and ask Sharon to come over to the kitchen table. She gets up from the dining room table and comes over and sits down next to me.
“Sharon, we got hacked last night. Everything in our company, across all the brands east of the Mississippi, is not working. The ID verify project is at a standstill. Rob is working to get us back up but he doesn’t know how quickly it will be,” I tell her.
“How long do you think it will take?” Sharon asks.
“Don’t know. Let’s go this way, the people you have at the Hawk we can slowly continue to work, but the group in Toronto is dead in the water now, so just do what we can do and don’t worry too much. I just wanted to let you know so when you get calls….and you’ll get calls…you can tell them that we have a system issue and it is being addressed. If you get any media calls, refer them to my new PR person,” I tell her. I see her look on her face of worry, she knows it might just be a long day ahead of her.
I call Donna, Paula, and Jennifer over to the table as well.
“Ladies, we have an IT issue in all brands. Every computer of ours east of the Mississippi is currently down. You may or may not have issues, for example, Donna, I don’t know if this will affect any bookings or not. The system may not allow you to put in any reservations until Rob resolves this issue. If you find that the system won’t allow you to put in reservations, go to the cabinet and get the manual forms out and put some on everyone’s desk. Make lots of copies and put someone you trust to handle all the paperwork to sort it all,” I tell her.
“Can I have John? I trust him,” Donna asks. This makes sense, he knows our system and he is respected at the call center.
“Yes, you can. Will someone go tell John to put his call center clothes on as he’s needed at the call center,” I say to the room.
“Paula, I have no idea if this will affect you since you’re only West Coast, but you’ll find out soon enough. Jennifer, let’s not stress out the system today. Make your calls to find some small companies to handle the cleanup of the Eagle and a janitorial company for that nice old lady who is cleaning toilets. Stay off the system as much as possible, instead, you and Diane can make phone calls and work on getting rid of some district offices,” I tell Jennifer.
“Where do you want me, Daddy?” Dakota asks.
“Right here. You’ll probably be needed to make phone calls as well. We will need a print out of every hotel, every restaurant, every district office across the company. Let’s start printing those lists out now. Go upstairs to the office and log in and start printing. I don’t know if we will need all that information or not,” I tell her.
About this time, BJ and Danni come scuffing into the kitchen. I tell them what has happened, BJ thinks we need to wake Jill and let her know what is going on. I tell BJ to do just that.
“Danni, you will probably get lots of phone calls about the system, just let them know that we are currently experiencing a technical issue and that our IT people are working on it. Do not say anything else, got it?” I say sternly.
“Yes sir,” she replies.
“Alright, those of you who are ready and have eaten, head to work. This may be a long day for all of us,” I say to the room. People get up and are milling about to get to the vehicles and head to work.
I dial up Maddie to let her know what’s going on.
“Maddie, good morning, it’s David Greene,”
“Sir, do you know that the computer is down?” She asks.
“That’s why I’m calling you. We have a system issue. The IT department is working on it. If it is not restored by 1 pm your time, just send everyone home. We’ll address it again tomorrow. If you get any calls from the media direct them to our corporate office in New York. If you have any questions, call my cell directly. Got it?” I ask.
“Yes, sir.” She replies before she hangs up.
Jill comes out to the kitchen.
“Darling, we were hacked during the night. Rob is working on getting the system back up and running, but they hit all our brands east of the Mississippi. Can you work without getting on the system today?” I ask her. Jill just looks stunned. She sits and ponders what to do as we have never discussed this scenario.
“Let me think about it for a bit. You really think I should stay off the system?” she asks.
“Yes, until Rob tells us what he finds. Right now, we have no idea what the hackers were after or if they just wanted to cause us issues.
I see a new email flashing on my laptop. The title of the email reads “YOU SHOULD HAVE PAID,” now I know before I even open the email who this is from. I dial up Special Agent Fernandez; it goes to voicemail immediately. I figure he’s in court or something and will call me back when he can.
Something tells me that I should drop the security shutters on the back side of the house. I get up and head to each window on the back side and poke the buttons to have them work their way down and lock into place.
I step out the back door and head to the pool house. I knock on the door and wait for an answer. Oddly it is Allison that answers the door. I explain what is going on and that the four of them and whomever else is around should come into the main house just to be safe. I see in Allison’s face that she is expecting to get yelled at. Maybe later, but right now I just want every one of the family safe. She says she will get everyone to come into the main house. I remind her to bring an overnight bag just to be safe.
After she closes the door, I head to the studio and lock it down to protect the assets.
I see that the second-floor windows are still not secured. I go back inside and up the stairs to the second floor to drop those security windows. I hit each room and poke the buttons to drop the security shutters and lock into place.
Once all of them are locked in I begin dropping the front security shutters on the second floor. I figure that there is no need to leave them open. It comes to my mind that I need to lock the garage door as well. Once I’m back downstairs, I head out to the garage and put the carabiners in place to lock the garage doors.
So here we are now at 9 am and I have the house in about 75% lockdown mode. It dawns on me that Mom and Fred don’t know. I head down the hallway and knock on Mom’s door.
“Come in,” I hear. I gently open the door and see Mom and Fred still in bed but underneath a sheet and blanket.
“Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that we have the house in partial shutdown mode. Jaxson, Inc. was hacked last night and all of our computers in all the brands have been compromised east of the Mississippi. Dakota and I will be making lots of phone calls to assure our units across all the brands that we had an IT issue and will be back up and running soon,” I tell them.
“Can we help in any way? Maybe we can make a few phone calls,” Mom asks.
“That would be a great help. I have Dakota printing out contact information for all units of the company just to touch base with them and assure them we are working on the issue,” I say to her.
I thank them for their help and head back to the kitchen. My cell phone rings. It is Special Agent Fernandez.
“Hey David, I see I missed your call. What’s up?”
“We were hacked during the night. Every computer for Jaxson, Inc east of the Mississippi is down. I also have an email that I have not opened that is titled ‘You should have paid’. I have the house in 75% lockdown mode. All of my people are at their jobs. Dakota and I are here in the house making phone calls to units on the east coast trying to assure them we know the system is down and to just sit patiently until further notice,” I tell him.
“David do not open that email. I can guarantee it has either a trojan horse virus or a worm. Either way, it will compromise your system. That lady that we talked about will stop by your house shortly. I’ll give her your cell phone number so when she’s at the gate you can let her in and close it right behind her. Give her your laptop, but do not use it any further,” he tells me. I thank him for his help and go back to the kitchen where I close my laptop and unplug it from the wall.
Suddenly being a chauffeur sounds much easier and I am wishing I was back there once again.
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER, PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE…THANKS, PABLO DIABLO.
