“I’m not talking about being worried about you physically,” Lila corrected. “I was talking about the stress you’ve been under since your friend died.”
Noelle shook her head. Had she not explained this properly? She mostly tried to be nice, but there was no way she was pretending Madison had been her friend. “Oh, she was not my friend. She was always trying to get me fired. It was weird since I’m super nice and everyone loves me. But Madison took one look at me and decided we were some weird enemies or something. I never figured out what I did to deserve that. We came in at the same time. We worked on the same kinds of projects. We were the only women on most of those teams. We should have been friends.”
“Or she’s one of those women who can’t stand having other women around,” Lisa offered. “I’ve known lots of those. Did she get along with the men?”
“Oh, yeah.” She flushed as she realized how that could be misconstrued. “I mean she didn’t date them or anything, but she was nicer to them. Only the ones in charge, though. She was pretty mean to the men who worked under her.”
It was why the techs liked to work for Noelle. If they were given a choice between the chick who baked them cookies and the one who yelled at them and called them morons, they usually picked cookies.
“Lisa’s right, and I should know. Women in STEM don’t merely take crap from men,” Lila explained. Her stepmom had worked in the medical field for years. She now ran Papillon Parish’s only clinic. Noelle remembered how hard it had been on her in the beginning. “Women can be incredibly competitive and not nice about it. But I wasn’t really talking about that. I want to make sure you’re taking this seriously. Do you truly believe someone might be trying to get your research?”
She was desperately worried that what had been happening to her and what happened to Madison were connected, but she wasn’t going to mention that part to her stepmom. Her parents were already freaked out enough by the fact that someone had stolen some samples from her lab, and she was almost certain someone had been on her laptop. They didn’t need to know that she thought someone had murdered her rival. “That’s why I’m going to meet with these people you want me to talk to. But I can’t exactly afford a security team, you know.”
She made good money, but she suspected she couldn’t afford McKay-Taggart rates.
“I wouldn’t worry about getting a bill,” Lisa said. “Big Tag owes Remy. He’s been doing side work for him for years. He’s got his bodyguard unit built up again, but he still likes to send Remy out from time to time, and that means he’s got to give us the family discount. Which means I’ll send him some jambalaya. Don’t discount that. Tag has like a hundred kids or something. It’s a lot of jambalaya.”
Lisa winked her way, reminding her of the secret they had between them. A discount on Big Tag’s security services wasn’t the only reason she would be meeting the McKay-Taggart crew.
She was starting a BDSM training class and she did not need her parents to know about it. She wasn’t ashamed or anything, but her stepmom wasn’t kinky, and her father needed to believe she didn’t have sexual needs in any way. It had been Lisa she’d gone to about the possibility of visiting the club she’d hopefully join at the end of her training—Sanctum. Lisa and her husband, Remy, still went to Sanctum any time they were in Dallas, and Remy had done enough favors for his old boss over the years that Ian Taggart was willing to take her on as a trainee.
She started on Thursday, and going to the club was a big old bright spot in her life. Sex was hard for her, and she hoped this would help her find the ease with her body she dreamed about.
“Does Remy know who’s going to be assigned to her case?” Lila asked.
“I don’t know that anyone needs to be assigned to me.” She sat up straight because her stepmom had the most serious expression on her face. It was the same one she had when she went into battle. Sometimes Noelle had been on the wrong side of that stare. She walked today because her stepmom was a warrior who never gave up on someone she loved.
“Of course they’re going to assign someone.” Her father stepped out onto the deck, stretching his big body and taking a deep breath. “Damn, that smells good. Remy, that new marinade smells like heaven.”
Remy, joined her dad. “It tastes even better. I got the recipe from Big Tag’s brother, Sean. You’re going to love it.”
Lila looked to Remy. “Do you know who they’re assigning to Noelle’s case?”
“I’d like one of the senior partners on it.” Her dad was suddenly incredibly serious. He probably had a list somewhere, and whoever ended up with her case should understand that her dad would run a check on him. “Liam O’Donnell is a solid guy, and I like his partner, Erin Taggart. I would be comfortable with them. Or his brother, Theo Taggart. Any of the more experienced operatives would do.”
“Good, then you’ll be happy.” Remy took a seat next to his wife, reaching for her hand as he usually did. “Hutch has been with McKay-Taggart for over ten years.”
She had no idea who Hutch was. In her mind she pictured an older man, probably in his forties or fifties since he’d been with the company for over a decade, and from what she understood almost every employee at the company came from the military, mostly Special Forces, which meant they’d spent a lot of time in the military. She did the quick math. He could be early forties maybe, but probably with a wife and a couple of kids.
“Hutch, the horndog?” Her father’s eyes had widened as he stared at Remy. “That’s who Big Tag put on my baby girl’s case?”
Remy gave him a seemingly apologetic wince. “He’s the computer expert, man. Her problem is based around computers. Hutch is their go-to guy for tech stuff.”
Her oldest brother was suddenly at their dad’s side, pulling on his T-shirt. “What’s a horndog?”
Noelle felt her face flush because unfortunately she understood her dad’s completely outdated lingo.
“It’s a particular type of dog who likes to sniff around women,” her dad said. “I’m worried about him sniffing around your sister.”
Her brother looked up, showing a heartbreakingly adorable grin. He’d recently lost his two front teeth. “Don’t worry about it. Noelle always smells good. She always smells like cookies.”
Only because she baked a lot. The only guys she attracted by smelling like cinnamon and sugar were kids who begged for sweets. She certainly wasn’t going to have some beefy security guy panting after her. He would probably be some muscley dude who spent all his time in the gym and had completely cut out carbs.
“That does not help my case, Jason,” Remy said under his breath.
That was the moment her dad took a Frisbee to the side of his head.
“Sorry, Dad. Kevin’s got bad aim.” Jason picked up the Frisbee and ran off again.
Her dad rubbed the side of his head. “Fatherhood wasn’t this physically painful with you, Noelle. Though now I’m worried about Big Tag’s choices.”
“Armie, Hutch is the guy for the job,” Remy explained. “He’s been doing all the cyber work for McKay-Taggart since Adam Miles left to form his own company, and before you ask me about hiring them, I do not work for Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch and you cannot afford them. Trust me. If Big Tag needs something from them, he’ll call them in.”