Watch Me

Mike let out a heavy breath and dropped the papers he’d been pretending to examine. “Please, Nik, I’m fucked.”

Normally, I would have made light of what ordinarily would have come off as a bit of melodrama, but there was something in Mike’s tone that had me holding my tongue.

Mike fell silent and then looked in the direction of the ring which we could see a little bit of from his office. The building was actually an old warehouse in Brooklyn that Mike had gotten for pretty cheap but that was also falling down around our ears. I had firsthand knowledge that Mike and his wife had invested every penny of their savings to start Smithfield Security. It was a dream Mike had had from the time we’d first met. He’d been desperate for me to go in on the business with him but my own financial situation hadn’t allowed for it.

“What’s going on?” I asked even as my stomach filled with dread. Although I hadn’t been able to partner with Mike, he had taken me on as an employee, specifically a training role so I never had to work in the field. The hours were steady and I wasn’t risking getting my ass shot off every second of every day while protecting a client. Not to mention I didn’t need to do the whole polite thing.

I really sucked at the polite thing.

Mike took a long time to answer but I didn’t press him. For whatever reason, the DNA gods had blessed me with an infinite amount of patience… well, a certain kind of patience, anyway. When people were being stupid and risking not only their lives but mine as well, then my patience went out the window.

“If something doesn’t change, we’ll lose this place in a few months.”

That was enough to knock me back into my chair. I’d known Mike was stressed about the company’s finances, but I’d never dreamed it had gotten so bad so fast. Granted, I’d also been too embroiled in the challenges of my own personal life to even consider that Mike had been struggling.

“How?” I asked before I could stop myself. “I’m not judging—”

“No, I know you’re not,” Mike interjected. He settled his elbows on the desk. “Economy, competition, mortgage, take your pick. Plumbing’s fucked, the HVAC is on its last legs, equipment is falling apart but surprise, surprise, no one’s all that interested in loaning money to a start-up security company whose only clients are a few low-level celebrities and executives.”

"Fuck," I muttered. "Mike, you know that if I could swing it, I'd—"

"I know you would, Nik. But even if you could, I wouldn’t let you. With the stuff you've got going on at home…" Mike shook his head.

"Tell me what you need," I said as I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees.

For the first time since I’d stepped foot into the office, Mike looked somewhat hopeful. "Clifton Hayes," he began. I couldn't help but widen my eyes at that. Before I could open my mouth, though, Mike waved his hand in front of me and said, "No, it's not for him. Well, not directly."

I couldn't help but feel a dash of disappointment. Getting the business of someone like Clifton Hayes would be huge. The man had more money than God. His security needs would likely be above and beyond what Mike could even currently handle, but if he could somehow score even a piece of the man's business…

"Hayes is looking for someone to cover one of his up-and-coming executives. I talked to the old man myself and while he didn't say it in so many words, I got the impression he's not so happy with Premier these days. I mean, the man's not exactly a talker, and maybe I'm just seeing zebras instead of horses, but the situation is so unusual that I've got to believe it means something."

Mike was getting excited so I said, "Dial it back a notch, buddy. Gonna need the whole story."

"Right, right." Mike took in a deep breath before continuing. "So anyway, Premier has been providing the security for Hayes since, well, ever. So you’d think they’d go with them to cover this one guy, right?"

I nodded but remained silent.

"Well, turns out they did, but the client put a kibosh on that. Doug over at Premier clued me in. He says they've assigned four different guys to this particular client and not one has lasted more than a week. Guy says he doesn't need protection."

Mike and I practically rolled our eyes at the exact same time. I was already getting a bad feeling in my gut. But I held my tongue. I owed Mike that much.

"So Hayes calls me up personally… I guess maybe Doug planted a bug in his ear. Anyway, Hayes calls me up last week and asks if I've got someone who can handle this guy. And me thinking God himself has called me up stupidly says of course without even thinking it through. Hayes hands me off to his assistant who gives me a few details about this exec, but that's it. Like I said, he's an up and comer in the company and rumor has it Hayes is grooming him to take over."