“I don’t know what you would do,” James said as he stopped next to me. “You’d be missing a few more shipments, I guess.”

“I’ll be watching you.” Brent pointed his finger at him.

“You flatter me.” James grinned, and Brent let out a frustrated grunt.

“Do you need anything else?” Brent asked me.

“No, for now. You may go.”

He nodded and stormed off. James opened the door to the tech room for me and I entered.

“Hey,” Meg said, holding a bag of chips. “I wasn’t expecting you guys so early.”

“It’s 10 am,” I said, and she straightened in her chair and glanced at the clock in the corner of the screen of the nearest computer.

“Oh, right.” She’d probably been working on something during the night, because there were dark bags under her eyes. Having James here with her to help her with the messages would at least take some of the workload off her and Felipe.

I should probably find an additional member for their team, but it would be hard to find someone with such knowledge who I could trust. Spies and moles would be just looking for an opportunity to get to me. Felipe and Meg, on the other hand, had been with us for years, ever since they were children, because their fathers had worked for my family.

“I have some business to do,” I said. “Will you two be okay here?”

“I’m pretty sure we can manage without you,” James said as he took a seat at the desk that Meg had prepared for him.

I looked at her, and she nodded.

“Yeah. Go. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Good.” I headed for the door. I had to pay a visit to some of my men and make sure they were ready. Besides, they always seemed to work harder and better when they knew I could stop by at any time.

***

ONCE I RETURNED, AN unusual noise caught my attention and I hurried down the hallway. There hadn’t been any alerts or alarms triggered, so I assumed we didn’t have an intruder, but then why were so many voices shouting?

Right in front of the tech room, a group of men was gathered, and some of them were bleeding. James and Brent were in the middle of the circle, their faces angry and their fists raised. Oh God. I rolled my eyes. I should’ve known something like this might happen, but I didn’t think they’d be such idiots to immediately get into a fight simply because I wasn’t around.

“Hey!” I yelled, just as James’ fist collided with Brent’s jaw. They both had blood and scrapes on their faces. “Stop it! Now!”

They turned their heads toward me.