Lila

When she stepped into the office everyone stared. She almost stopped dead to check behind her, the eyes that met hers were so uniformly wide. But she realized they were just surprised and uncertain how to treat her. So she greeted them without holding eye-contact and strode through the wide lobby, and up the hallway to her office where she dropped her purse and laptop, then turned to go find Chris.

​​

But she didn't even have time to go ask where he was, or search his office. He must have been told that she was there. Because when she turned around he was standing in the door looking half-wary, half-pissed.

"Why did you go to the Penthouse?" he said. "We thought you were still at the Police and we were starting to get worried. If the driver hadn't reported in I would have sent people out to find you. Where have you been?"

"I needed some time to clear my head," she said, proud of herself for how steady her voice was. "Call the staff in. All of them. Every single one that we can spare, get them all here. And I want you to record what I say to them so we can share it with anyone who can't make it."

Chris didn't move, his eyes hard on hers. "Lila, what are you doing?"

"I'm telling them the truth," she said, turning back to her desk to unpack her laptop and get ready to work. "I'm not going to leave any stone unturned. I need their help. And I need them to know I'm their boss now, so we don't have any confusion. I need their loyalty."

"We talked about this, the uncertainty of change—"

"Chris, I don't give a fuck!" she yelled and they both froze.

Then, shoulders tight and jaw hard, he slowly turned to close the door to her office and lock it, then turned back and walked over to her desk, his face stone. "I'm the Operational Manager. I'm the one who's supposed to manage the staff."

"Great, then I'll tell them that. I'll tell them to go to you with their issues, and I'll apologize that I don't know better how to help them. But they are going to know that Dane Daniels isn't their boss anymore and I don't give a shit what you think about it, Chris."

He stared at her and his brow furrowed. "What happened."

"Nothing. I'm just… sick of all this."

"Did the cops—"

"I'm back in the Penthouse and I have the staff moving everything of mine there. I won't be leaving. Even if Dane comes back."

Chris's head jerked back, "What do you mean, even if Dane—why would Dane coming back make you want to leave?"

"I'm just saying, this is the only change the staff will see. He's gone, and I'm here, and you're, here. That's it."

"Lila, I don't think—"

"So help me, Chris, can we for once just do something without having to fight for it?"

They stared at each other for a long minute, then he looked down and away. A minute later he circled the desk to stand in front of her and put his hand to her arm. "What's wrong? What's happened?"

The softness surprised her and she had to swallow tears again. "I got another video. I gave it to John. He's going to see if it's real."

Chris slumped. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Have you given it to the Police?"

"I will after John reviews it."

He took a deep breath, then nodded. "Okay. I'll call the staff in. We should be able to have most of them here in a couple hours."

"Thank you."

He took a deep breath. "You're sure I can't help you with something, because I want to, if I can. Even when we fight, even if things are tough… I'm here for you, Lila. For real."

She blinked and nodded. "Thank you. I know that. I do. I just… right now I just need to get some stuff done so I can feel like I don't have it hanging over my head. And… if I need anything later, I'll let you know."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

He rubbed her arm again, then turned away, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he walked.

She watched him walk out and made sure he closed the door behind him. Her breath was to quick and shallow and she felt a little light headed, but she had to do something. Had to be moving. She couldn't just sit around waiting. And she had to get her mind away from those images of Dane…

With a frustrated growl, she opened the laptop and sank into her chair and proceeded to distract herself with accounts and numbers for a couple hours, until Chris told her they were ready.

*****

"I know this has been a really scary and unsettling time, and I'm so thankful to you all for sticking it out," she said, standing at the front of the largest conference room, packed with staff, mostly standing. There were even people in the doorway and hall. "I'm sorry if you've felt like you don't know what's going on, but honestly, for a few days there, neither did we."

"Are you okay?" someone asked from the back and Lila almost choked.

"Honestly, I've been better. And it's probably going to be a long time before I'm good. But thank you for thinking to ask. The reason I wanted to call you all here is because what I'm about to say, I wanted you to hear from my mouth." She hesitated and swallowed. The room was utterly silent, filled instead with wide eyes and worried looks.

"The thing you all need to know is that Dane is… not going to be a part of this business anymore, as far as we can tell. He is… otherwise engaged. And we found out yesterday that he put in place provision for the business in the event we ever met these kinds of challenges."

They all kept staring, so she just kept talking.

"As of yesterday, I am now the CEO of Daniels Security—which, I know, is a shock. You should know that Chris is both Operational Manager, and second shareholder. He will be absolutely central to our continued success, and I know that would be impossible without him. But what Dane has done is… separate himself from the business. And he did it primarily to protect you.

"There will be difficult times ahead. I'm expecting more clients to cease services. But I think you'll be surprised how many will stick with us through this now that it doesn't have to be associated to the questions around Dane. I think he knew that, which is why he put the legal steps in place.

"This is all very scary and there's been a lot of change and disruption lately, so I wanted you to hear this from me: Nothing more is going to change. Your jobs will stay the same. Your hours will be the same. The frustrations and victories of this kind of work will continue exactly as they have. You will show up, do your job, and you'll be appreciated for it. No matter what is happening my personal life, or Dane's, or Chris's, this place is our sanctuary. All of us. Do you understand me? We have people to protect, and no matter what they might think of Dane, or me, or Dane's past, the truth is that their safety is, and always has been, Dane's first priority and focus. And this move continues in that." She paused and took a deep breath before she did her best to meet eyes with every person as she spoke.

"We are here to carry on the idea that everyone deserves to feel safe in their own home, and their own skin. Our clients may not know or care what's happening behind the scenes. But they care very deeply about whether we show up when they need us. So we will keep doing that. Do you understand me? No matter what you might think of Dane, you know that he was always committed to the safety and security of our clients. So we will be too.

"Now, I know you'll have a ton of questions, but unfortunately I have a meeting to get to. So I'm going to ask you to keep going about this business for the next few days, then when a few more details are ironed out, I'll get you together next week.

"Until then, Chris is your first point of call—if you need something, or there's a practical question, he's your man. Thank you for coming, I know for many of you this was an inconvenience. I'm grateful that our staff are so responsive and committed. And I'll speak to you again in a few days. Chris? Did you want to come up and answer any questions about shifts, or practical things they might need to know?"

He blinked. "Uh, sure. Yeah."

They exchanged places, and Lila did what Lila always did. She sank to the back, behind the crowd. Then she waited until all their attention was on Chris.

Then she left.

*****

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