She came around the side of the desk and perched a hip on it. Rogers now saw that her heels bumped her height up several inches. Without them she was really about five-five.
She said, “You former military? You look it.”
“Something like that. I don’t want to fill out any paperwork. And I prefer cash. If that’s a problem, I can leave now.”
“You don’t get to make the preferences,” said the big man. “She’s the boss. She calls the shots.”
Rogers rubbed the back of his head, the sensation more a tingling than a pain. He looked up at the big man. “So why aren’t you the bouncer? You’re big enough. The boss afraid you can’t cut it?”
The man looked ready to drive a fist right through Rogers’s face. “Where the fuck do you get off—”
“Karl!”
The woman stood and walked over to them as Karl took a step back.
“Karl is my security chief. He stays with me.”
“You need security?”
“I’m Helen Myers, Mr.?”
“Paul. Just call me Paul.”
She looked at Karl. “He vets the bouncers. That’s part of his job as head of security.”
“Okay.”
“And we normally run a background check on potential employees.”
Rogers turned to leave.
“Wait,” said Myers.
Rogers turned back around.
“Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“I had some trouble and I paid my bill on it. I’m a free man. And I really need the job. But I’m not going through a background check. No harm, no foul. Thanks anyway.”
“Just hold on for a sec.” She studied him for a few moments.
“Okay, Paul, I’m going to turn it over to Karl now.”
Rogers looked at Karl expectantly.
Karl stepped forward and gave Rogers a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Let me see how you do visual sweeps.”
Rogers turned his head to the right.
A second later his hand reached out and caught the haymaker Karl had planned to land on his chin.
Caught and held it.
Karl tried to pull free but couldn’t break Rogers’s grip.
“What the hell!” he exclaimed.
Next, Rogers gripped the fist so tightly that one of the man’s knuckles popped out of joint.
“Shit,” cried out Karl. “Let the fuck go, man.”
“Please release him, Paul,” said Myers.
Rogers let go and stepped back, putting his hands behind his back and standing at attention.
“Son of a bitch,” said Karl, holding his injured hand. “What are you, some kinda freak?”
Rogers looked at Myers. “How much does the job pay?”
Myers said, “Five hundred a night. Hours are eight to two in the morning. We’re closed on Mondays. We get a lot of soldiers and they can get rowdy. And none of them are lightweights. They all know how to fight. That’s why the pay is what it is. I can’t guarantee that you won’t get injured. That’s what happened to the last bouncer. You will have to sign off on that disclaimer.”
“I haven’t finished vetting him yet, Ms. Myers,” said Karl, glaring at Rogers.
Rogers glanced at him. “I’ll arm wrestle you, if you don’t mind a blown-out rotator.”
“I usually do a little boxing with the new guys,” snapped Karl.
“I wouldn’t advise that,” said Rogers. “It would not be a fair fight.”
“You little prick!”
Karl kicked out at Rogers, who sidestepped the thrust, clamped down on the leg, and effortlessly flipped Karl off his feet. An instant after Karl hit the floor Rogers straddled him, wrenched his arm behind his back, and put him in a chokehold that had Karl’s eyes rolling in the back of his head.
“Stop, stop!” cried out Myers.
Rogers immediately let go and stepped back.
“Do I get the job?” he said calmly.
He sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at the smartphone. He’d never used one before. They were only coming into vogue after he had gone to prison. But he quickly figured out how it worked.
He went online and did some more digging on CB Excelon Corp.
His searches becoming more advanced, he skipped from one site to another until he found something interesting.
Former CEO retires and moves to the Outer Banks.
The story was about five years old. Chris Ballard had founded and run Ballard Enterprises and its successor, CB Excelon, for many years. The “CB” obviously stood for Chris Ballard. He had subsequently turned the reins over to a new regime. Now eighty, Ballard was retiring to a more leisurely life on the sandy beaches of North Carolina.