“Okay. Send him in when he gets here.”

Kathy stood and smoothed down nonexistent wrinkles in her skirt. “I’ll go and get coffee and cake,” she announced. She left, and Riley stared down at the file with the label of Tom’s name.

His first call as soon as she left was to his dad. Thank God Jim answered. He’d understand why Riley was so hesitant to do this. He had to know how difficult it was for Riley to let go of any of this. Surely?

Instead he got something very different.

“About time you took someone else on,” Jim Bailey said firmly. “You’re working too many hours, and you’ll drop the baton at this rate.”

“But—”

“No buts, son. It won’t hurt to spread your workload a little, get a sounding board in, someone with your instincts.”

“But what if he isn’t as good…” as me, Riley finished internally.

Jim chuckled. “You will never find someone who you think is as good as you at working for CH. But he’s young and he’ll learn from you.”

“Young? I’m only five years older than him.”

“Only five years in age, but you have a generation of experience. Just talk to him and see what you think. Oh, and your mom asks if you and Jack could bring the kids over for dinner, she has a new mac and cheese recipe she wants to try out for Max.”

Max’s absolute favorite food was mac and cheese, and Riley loved that his mom was making the effort; still, something had to be said. “She does know he’s the only one who likes that stuff?”

Jim’s chuckle turned into an outright laugh. “She’ll find a way to put cheese sauce in dessert as well, you wait and see.”

Riley ended the call with his dad and checked the clock. Kathy was deadly serious about this if she’d gone across the street for coffee and cake. That was normally his job and the only time he got away from the office. Still, the break gave him time to clear some more paperwork from his desk. By ten thirty he’d worked his way through anger, resentment, and was now on the resignation leg of giving in to having someone work with him.

Tom arrived, and with coffee and slice of cake, he was shown into Riley’s office where Riley was pretending to work. He gestured for Tom to sit and kept on pretending long enough to push down the nerves. In his head he had interview questions. How? When? Why? But none of them really happened.

There was Tom looking all fresh-faced and wide-eyed in a suit, balancing cake on his knee and holding the coffee in his hand. His dark hair was curly and cut close to his head, his brown eyes warm, and he was smiling. No, grinning. Shouldn’t he be nervous or something?

He placed the plate on the desk and balanced his coffee on it, then stood and extended his hand, which Riley took immediately. “Tom Hendry,” he said. His hand was warm from the coffee and his tone enthusiastic. He sat down as soon as he’d finished.

“Riley Campbell-Hayes,” Riley offered even though he really didn’t need to.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, sir,” Tom began. “Officially, I mean.”

Riley didn’t tell Tom he should call him Riley, he just forged ahead with the one question that wouldn’t leave him alone. “What happened at Santone?” Riley asked in response. “Why are you leaving?”

Riley wished he could pull the words back when Tom’s smile fell and the confidence that held him upright slid a little. He looked startled even though he had to have been expecting the question at some point. Maybe he just didn’t expect it so early on in the interview.

“Personal reasons, sir.”

“Riley.”

“Riley, sir.”

“Just Riley. I’m going to need more than that if I let you in here.” He gestured at his trays of files and folders, at the rolled maps and the piles of mail. “Santone has a lot to gain from you working with me. You could take the information from here and sell it big back there.”

Tom pulled himself up straighter in his chair and looked affronted, but he managed to school his features to become calm and composed. “The implication at Santone was that I had hit the glass ceiling. That because I am not a family member, I wouldn’t move much beyond office manager. And…”

“And?” Riley prompted.

“JJ made a pass at me.”

Riley sat back in his chair, he’d had no idea JJ was gay or bi or whatever. Interesting what you found out in a job interview.

“And you weren’t interested?” Riley asked. He immediately realized he’d asked the wrong way, that his question sounded all kinds of personal and certainly not politically correct. “My apologies, I meant, there are no subsequent issues following on from this? Are you taking things further?” Jeez, was he supposed to even ask that either? The two halves of Riley warred. On the one hand, he wanted to march Tom to Jim and offer legal support for anything and everything that had happened to Tom at JJ’s hands; on the other, he certainly did not want to make enemies at Santone. In the end compassion and his own innate confidence he could handle anything won out, and he knew the answer wouldn’t matter even before Tom gave it.

“No, I’m not,” Tom said. “It’s not worth my time, nor my money, and I’m not a kid. I floored him with one hit, and he didn’t come near me again. Although I’m thinking hitting him just reinforced the whole you’ve hit the glass ceiling problem.”

Riley let out a snort of laughter, then composed himself quickly as he realized he needed to remain professional at all times. Still, Tom smiled.

“Do you go around hitting all your bosses?”

Tongue-in-cheek, Tom smiled as he answered, “Only the married ones in the closet who push their luck.”

Riley nodded his head in agreement. “So tell me a bit about your experience…”

They talked for ages, cake forgotten, coffee cold as they discussed ethics and economies and oil. Riley found himself relaxing with each passing minute. Tom really knew his stuff, and he’d be wasted where he was at Santone. Here at CH he could be a partner in the workload, and Riley would give him the space to follow his instincts. Riley only really had one more thing to check. He pulled over the closest map, the Alpha four plotting source map that he’d been putting to one side for weeks as a to-do item. The site started on this side of the US/Mexico border, passing over to Nuevo León, and the potential was huge.

With the help of the private sector, Nuevo León had new highly trained state police, policía única, and they were working hard to replace police officers suspected of corruption, as well as strengthening the law. They wanted the billions in energy investment that was out there, and they were courting companies like Hayes Oil to invest.

Riley didn’t unroll the map, simply handed it to Tom.

“Tell me what you think,” he said.

Tom hefted the map and slid off the clip. He glanced at the desk, then at the floor, then out of the door, then back to the floor. “Can I?” he asked, gesturing at the carpet.

“Go ahead.” Riley did all his best work poring over maps while sitting on the floor with his legs crossed.

Tom rolled out the map and used a tape dispenser and his own cell phone to hold down either edge. Settling himself in a crouch, he examined the map.

“Wow,” he finally said. “Seriously? Are you doing anything with this? Because working on the border is tricky.” He looked up at Riley. “But there are incentives, and Nuevo León has all the new security initiatives, and the places are open for business. The fact that the field starts this side of the border, we could—sorry, you could… wait.” He moved to his knees and peered closer, and Riley hitched his pants and sat opposite him on the floor. Tom was tracing a river bed and frowning. “You’d need to—”

“I know—”

“And are we—?”

“Maybe.”

They didn’t need to say much more; they were both on the same page here. Riley didn’t really have to make a decision about whether or not to hire Tom. The enthusiasm in Tom’s eyes was enough for him to put absolute trust in the same instincts he used with oil exploration and ethical investments.