I smiled as I said the last part. I wasn’t sure how this morning conversation had turned into one of my business seminars, but I loved talking about it. That was another passion that I’d turned into profit—teaching. I loved to teach others things I’d learned that can help them do what they want in life. Lately, it had become my biggest passion.
Libby laughed. “Wow, that is interesting. I guess I’ll have to figure out a way to expand.”
“Sure,” I smiled. “If you need any more help, just let me know.”
Libby continued smiling. I loved to listen to her sweet laughter. I don’t think I’d made another woman laugh that much since Gina. It was a beautiful sound to have around.
“So, are you hungry? My maid Esmerelda is probably already here. She can make you anything you want.”
“You have a maid? I was actually curious as to why I didn’t see any staffing here yesterday.”
“Yeah, I have some staff, but usually only during the mornings. That’s just because I’m typically so busy in the mornings getting things ready for the day that I don’t have time to do things myself. But I only have that here at the house on the weekends. Yet, I still pay my staff a full time salary.”
“Well, that is nice,” Libby said honestly.
“They are great people who work hard,” I said. “I love to reward people for the work they do.”
This also applied to the driver I only occasionally employed and the pilot on my private jet. I used their services about once a month respectively, but they were basically on retainer and both were paid six figures a year. But they were the best at what they did and I paid them to be available when I needed them. I just didn’t need them that often… so their jobs had a lot of down time.
I went inside and took a hot shower. Then I got dressed and ready for the day in front of me. Then I woke up Toby and helped him get dressed for the day, sending him downstairs when we were done. When I arrived back downstairs Esmerelda was putting the massive breakfast feast on the table. Toby was sliding into his chair and wiping the last bit of sleep out of his face. Libby was also there, her eyes wide as could be at the massive helping of pancakes and syrup being laid out in front of her.
And then there was the sausage links, the bacon, and the scrambled eggs.
“I don’t think I can eat all of this,” Libby said with a smile.
“Just do the best you can,” I replied. “It’s so good, I think you’ll have a hard time stopping.”
Esmerelda filled up our coffee cups with hot, fresh brewed coffee, and then headed off to take care of laundry and changing the linen out.
“So, I checked with my office and they already contacted a great substitute for you at the school,” I told Libby as I buttered my pancakes and added more syrup.
“What? What are you talking about?” Libby asked.
“Well, I figured this way you could keep your school open and no one has to know anything about what happened. We can make sure not to arouse suspicion this way.”
“I’m pretty sure the cops are looking for me since my house was shot up and all that.”
“I checked with the Zefarris and they said that it’s all been taken care of.”
Libby let out some shocked laughter that even made Toby take notice.
“I don’t get what that means,” Libby said. “None of this makes sense to me.”
“Yeah, me either, really. I’ve been out of the game for a while.”
“What game, daddy?” Toby asked.
I patted him on the shoulder. “A grown up game, buddy. Eat your pancakes.”
“They have ways of taking care of things like that,” I said. “Or the Scarluccis did. That’s just how this works. They usually have a couple of crews. One crew is there to do the job, and the other comes in right behind them for damage control. It is a well-oiled machine. What can I say?”
I didn’t have much else to say about it. This was a bit new to me, too. I’d never been involved in anything on this much of a frontlines level. When I was involved I was a small level foot soldier, just a kid. I did vague errands, kept my mouth shut, and tried to learn. But at that age there was little hands on involvement.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Libby said. “But who did you get to substitute?”
“Someone from an agency,” I said. “Don’t worry, they’ve been vetted and checked out. I assure you, your class is in good hands.”
I tried to be more confident in my response than I actually felt. I didn’t really know the person that had been brought in for this, but my team assured me that all of my instructions had been followed to the letter.