Jack find out who she is

 *****

 7

 Find out who she is Jack

He stopped by the security office and plopped down in Jack's chair as he looked up, he told him. "Her name is Zarita Ionescu or something like that and she works here. She is in Accounts Receivable and neither one of us knew who the other was. I want you to find out everything you can about her. I believe her that she didn't know I was her boss. Her shocked look pretty much told it all."

"Or was it, oh shit the jig is up and he knows," Jack asked.

"No, she was upset and was about to walk off the job because I found her. See I knew she was a bolter. Check her out for me I can't lose her over the fact I have money. She will have to get past that," Preston told him looking concerned.

"Does she have something she can use against you?"

"Only my sexual preference and she is kinkier than I am so not really," Preston told him then shook his head. "She wouldn't do that. She will just try to disappear, and I am not letting that happen." 

"Ok leave it to me I'll find out who and what she is," Jack said and escorted him from his office. He had work to do and favors to call in. He was not so sure she was as innocent as he thought she was. The first thing he did was hit the employment files. 

He found her quickly she was a relatively new hire she had been here almost nine months. Peggy gave her great reviews and top raises, but she was not getting rich that was for sure. He printed off her file and went out the door. He would use the same ploy he always uses; they are looking to move her up at work and she needs a security clearance. 

He called a friend at the police department and asked him to do a criminal background check on her. Maybe she was a scam artist and Palmer can't see past the apparently good sex she offers. Hookers offer good sex too.

She received a text an hour later and walked back into the file room to read it. 

Meet me here in room 2332 as soon as you get off of work. We have to work this out. 

Preston AKA Jim J OOOOOXXXX you have to work with me. No way can I lose you. 

Jack pulled up in front of her apartment and let out the breath he had been holding as he drove to this bad area of town counting down the addresses. "How can he be attracted to a ghetto girl," Jack asked the inside of his car. He prayed it would still be there when he came out as his eyes darted looking for trouble. The building was covered in graffiti. It looked like someone for years tried to cover it up but gave up a few years back. He found the manager's apartment right as he stepped inside the building. An older woman answered, and an old man slept in a recliner just feet inside the door. "I'm sorry to disturb you but do you know a Zarita Ionescu? I believe she is a tenant here." 

"Sure, she has lived here since she was a little girl. The poor thing she lost her mother when she was barely eighteen. We worked with her, so she could stay here for a few years until she got on her feet. She likes the job she has now and pays the rent on time every month. She is a good, sweet girl. She had a friend stay with her for a while. They both lost their jobs last year. So sad but she bounced right back, but that other girl is kind of flakey. We rented her an apartment, but she likes to party. Our sweet Z never did that. We haven't even seen her with a boyfriend in years. Why do you need to know about our girl," the woman asked after rambling on about her unsolicited for quite a while.

"She is up for a promotion at work and will be handling a lot of credit card numbers and cash and we need her to have a security clearance. I just need to talk to some of her friends if you know of any." Jack asked being as humble as he could. This woman was a fountain of information he could see she cared for her. That was apparent the longer she talked his opinion was changing about this girl. Maybe she was a decent person and Preston had a winner. 

"Oh, how wonderful she could use a pick me up about now she looked so tired Sunday. I think she has found another job on the weekends. Don't quote me because I'm not sure. She doesn't have boyfriends. So yeah Trudy in 3-D is a friend she is home now she works the night shift. Then Terence is in 3 F he is gay, but they are friends. I have heard them talking many times in the stairwell. 

She is in 3 A she has been since she was nine. Her poor mother moved them in here after her husband died and she was sick all the time. They lived off social security and her mother's disability. The EMT had to come and get her so often. We kept our sweet Z many times so child protective services would not take her. That little girl has had a rough life. Her father died when she was seven, he was a wild one and very rough on Z and especially her mother as we understand. 

We figure that is why she had so many internal problems before she died. You know this used to be a nice neighborhood," she said looking out the door with a nostalgic look in her eyes. We had flowers in the planter boxes and then all the trash took over." She said and then got back to him and continued her rant "Zarita is as smart as a whip she is taking college courses at night she is going to make it someday. I hope this job will pay her enough to be able to move to a better place. We would hate to lose her, but she would be better off not living here. We worry when she is late that something has happened to her," the woman told him seeming very proud of her girl as she calls her.

 "So I take it you trust her?" Jack asked.

"With my life," she told him smiling brightly he could tell she was loved by her. "She could have stolen for me a thousand times she has free reign of my apartment. She has never taken a penny. She has helped me count rents and helped us collect rents over the years. If I had a daughter, it would be Zarita. She is a caring sweet girl. I would trust her with your money, and she'll tell you if someone is stealing too, she is an honest girl."

"Thank you ma'am the third floor D and F right," Jack asked getting his bearings.

Trudy was a hipped-up mess barely dressed when she answered the door. "I notice you're a drug user is Zarita," Jack asked, and Trudy fell into a mass of hysterical laughing at the question. 

"Hell, no she doesn't even drink. Her father was a drinker and killed himself one night wrapping himself around a pole. She said he was mean and would beat her and her mother for nothing. No, she doesn't do drugs and no drinking either. I was homeless, and she helped me. I have gone down the wrong path. She warned me, and I lost my job already," she told him looking disgusted at herself. She expects to be in jail for selling to minors.

He left her to sleep it off she was beyond his help and apparently Zarita knew it too. That was another point for her. She knew when to walk away from a mess.

Terence was another mess. He worked from home when the need arrived, he told him flirting the whole time they spoke. To him, he looked like a walking AIDS case. 

"She is a doll, if I was not gay, I would be all over that J-Lo booty she has on her. She has a boyfriend, but she knows nothing about him, and he knows nothing about her. She calls it anonymous sex and seems to be enjoying him. He seems a little obsessed with her. She uses my laptop for e-mails, and he was upset when she didn't contact him. I think she finally gave him her number he stopped writing."

"Well if you could have sex with that cute thing with no binding ties wouldn't you," Jack asked to keep him talking this man knows a lot about their relationship. 

"If she had a dick yes. That girl is a sweetheart is all I know. Sure, she gets horny who doesn't. I think two years between men is plenty. I can't go twelve hours without some kind of release. The last guy took advantage of her good nature and hurt her. I can see why she doesn't want this new guy or any guy in her life. She wouldn't be out with this guy if that stupid bitch at her job hadn't talked her into joining that dating site. More like fuck me dump me site. She closed out her account fast. She was not into that,"

"So, you consider her trustworthy?"

"Oh, hell yeah if she borrows something, she gives it right back clean and ready to go. She is a good kid. She can borrow anything I have, and she has borrowed some strange things for a straight couple. Hey, live and let live I say." 

Jack came away from his apartment with a dozen questions he was sure Preston was not going to fill him in. He went back to work straight down to the A-R room he wanted to meet this sweetheart with a wild side who had his boss in a panic. 

"Hey Peggy, I came down the see where we are going to put this scanner and to make sure it is secure from hackers," Jack told her scanning the room for this woman. 

A young woman with a mass of curly black hair and a body that would not quit stepped out of the file room. He knew it was her by the sign above the door. She smiled, and his crotch clinched. Lord, he could see why Preston didn't want to lose her. Hell, he would dump the wife, kids, and home for just a chance with her. She was an exotic beauty that was for sure. He sees what Terence was saying about her ass. Good Lord, she could fill out a pair of jeans.

"So, you're Zarita. I figured that out because you came out of the filing room. I'm smart like that," Jack said as he flirted. More like made a fool of himself he was so flustered. "I came down to check out the security for the IT guys," he told her sounding like a bumbling fool. "I was told you're a pretty girl and they weren't lying. So, do you know where they want to put the scanner?"

"No but we do have this whole room and once the file cabinets are empty, we'll have all kinds of room," Z pointed out and backed away to allow him entry. He was way too interested in her. He was not someone she would be interested in at all. He was too short with a potbelly. He was actually a little scared by the way his eyes bugged at her. 

He stuck his head in the room as his phone pinged, he took that as a clue to leave and stop acting a fool. Making his way back up to the office area his phone pinged again, and he read the text.

The only reference to Zarita Ionescu is a complaint of domestic violence two years back. A boyfriend had beaten her broke her arm busted a few ribs. He got nine months and a restraining order. From the picture, she took a pretty bad beating. There is nothing else on her at all, not even a driver's license. She is clean.

Jack went in and plopped down on Preston's chair as he had done to him telling him, "Wow what a sweetheart. Everyone loves or would love to love her. Her landlords think of her as a daughter. She has lived in the same apartment since she was nine. Her mom died when she was eighteen. He went on to tell the tale of his beautiful girlfriend's sad life. 

She has no credit history or driver's license she is only twenty-four. Some boyfriend took advantage of her good nature. What that means you will have to ask her. I met her, and she is a beauty if you decide to dump her let me know. I can dump the family and be kinky with her too."

"I think not she is mine as long as I can keep her and apparently, she is younger than I thought," Preston said and shook his head she was just a baby. 

"Figures you would be stingy like that," Jack teased.

"You're too old to keep up with her. I'm like a dead man walking and drained after a day with her. She is exhausting but good and fun to play with," he said with a flustered look. He was worried about how his conversation with Sonya would go later. No, it is Zarita he has to remember that.

"You want to tell me what she borrowed from Terence that you enjoyed," Jack asked and watched his face turn bright red.

"She likes vibrating toys and he had some. They have saved me when I'm tired. To put it bluntly."

"So, you're not Superman and you do get tired."

"I do after about ten hours and a little vibrating goes a long way for that young lady," he told him dismissing the whole thing. "So, she is not a thief or a devious blackmailer. She is broke but trying to better herself not by blackmailing me." 

"In my opinion no. She has some loud mouth friends who think the world of her," Jack told him. "Go for her my man. She looks to be worth the fight. I would tell her you were checking up on her. Her friends will the second she gets home. It might dull the sting." 

"Sure, anything else you can tell me to drive her away," Preston lamented. Checking the time, he had twenty minutes before five. He decided to just wing it. No matter how he tries to find the words to convince her to give him a chance it all has to come from the heart. 

He walked to the room he reserved and prayed she would come. No sex just talk was his last thought as he entered the room. Flowers and a fruit basket sat on the tables adding to the decadence of the room. "She is going to hate this." He should have picked one of the cheaper rooms. He only reserved this room for an hour. He called housekeeping to have them remove the flowers and fruit but realized he was running out of time. They would probably meet her in the hallway.

"Never mind next time wait for me to ask for those kinds of things to be put in a room," He complained and hung up thinking his staff was such suck-ups. Taking them to the bedroom he has no intention of using he closed the door as a knock came to the door. "She wasted no time," he said and hurried to answer the door.

"I'm not here to fight with you. So how do you want to handle this," Zarita asked when she stepped into the room, she was apprehensive about this whole thing.

"Come in and sit down first," Preston told her he could see she was close to running in her eyes. He took her hand and walked her to the couch and sat on the coffee table in front of her, so he could judge her reaction as he spoke. He needs to be able to tell if he is digging himself into a hole quickly.

"Ok, you have to know how much I care about you. We can come to a mutual agreement on how to handle this," Preston told her beseeching with his eyes.

"Everyone is going to call me a gold digger," she said with more hurt in her eyes than he had ever seen before. He hated this he wanted his smiling Sonya, not a sad Zarita.

"I know you're not and that is what matters to me. Everyone else can think what they want. I know my sweet girl. You are so far from a gold digger that I have ever met. Let one person call you one around me and I'll set them straight. I am not losing you over my income. It should be something to be happy about. We can travel you can have nice things and I will love you forever," he told her holding her hand unwilling to let go of her.

"How can you say that you don't know me outside of the bedroom," she said and looped her fingers over his because he is wonderful in the bedroom. 

"Please sweetie could you let me be in charge out of the bedroom? I'm good at making money and I don't live my life at the office." 

"Ok so let me ask you this. Why were you sitting in a bar all alone and sad?" that statement hurt her soul and she wanted an answer now. That they are more than a sex buddy's information. "You were willing to hook up with the first woman who comes along," she dropped that one in too, and wanted an answer. 

"Well, I'm going to take those backward. You weren't the first woman to come along that night. Two others came on to me, but I think they knew who I was. Now those were gold diggers. I saw the man you were to meet he came in right behind you, and I thought you deserved better than him. Now you are the one who propositioned me. I wanted to take you to dinner and dancing. You have to understand I'm a man and you are one fine-looking woman. As for sitting in the bar sad, it was because of my dear mother. She set me up with a ditz of a woman Friday night. She was planning our wedding during our first dinner date together. I was pissed and thought a couple of drinks would calm my nerves before I had to go home and put up with my meddling mother. 

You walked in acting like you knew me. I put things together very fast. You thought I was from some dating site and before I knew what was going on, I had the most memorable night of my life. Then you disappeared leaving me devastated. I ran after you, but you were gone. I had to get the desk clerk to issue me a new key, so I could finish getting dressed," he said with humor in his voice over the scene. "That is when I found your note with the e-mail address you left for me. I sat for almost a week very upset that I couldn't find you."

"So, you live with your mother?" she asked with a thoughtful tone in her voice. Preston chuckled that was all she took from his frustrated rant.

"No, she lives with me she has nothing. My father cut her off about eight years ago after a huge fight. She never moved out she just stayed away from him. I have no idea what the fight was about. So, I take care of her. She is an old meddling pain in the ass at times. She wants grandchildren before she dies. I was a late in life what!" Preston told her. 

"And you own five hotels," she asked still unsure of this whole thing, but she was relaxing. She has to remember he is just a man. Isn't this what she has been praying for a rich man to come and save me? Ok, he didn't have dark hair, but he is tall and very handsome, and he has lots of money. So let's see where this goes.

"Yes, here, Boston, New York, Pittsburg, DC, and here all are doing well. All five stars. This one is the biggest because it holds the corporate offices also. My father started the business here and died here."

"I'm sorry he is gone. I can tell you cared for him." 

"Yes, I did. I have to tell you I had you investigated today."

She took her hand out of his, "Is that so," Z asked. "Did I pass your test? I guess so or I wouldn't be here right," she said standing and starting for the door.

"Calm down," he told her and reached out to take her hand back. "My first thought was she was going to blackmail me, and it had all been a setup. You had a video of us, and I was going down. But as we talked in the file room, I realized that it wasn't you. Z I'm a man with lots of money and I have to protect myself and my hotels which employ thousands of people from con men. 

"From Gold diggers, blackmailers like me right," She accused and stood and backed away from the couch. 

"Yes, but I know that is not you. My security man went to your apartment and spoke to a few people, there and they all love you as do I. They trust you as do I. Put yourself in my shoes. Wouldn't you be suspicious if a handsome man came on to you out of the blue? I think someone up above was watching out for us and had us meet. Out of the blue, I decided to stop at that seedy bar and meet you within ten minutes. Maybe my father and your mother both want the best for us. 

"You asked me to marry you," Z said rocking on her heels she did not know whether to stay or go. Her heart was saying stay but her brain was screaming run. 

"You can't fire me if I say no," she told him she knew her rights she paid attention in the seminar. She was tired of men coming on to her in this place and was getting ready to complain to the higher-ups. She guessed that was him.

"I know I would never do that to you. I could give you a raise. You're very smart and the scanner will save us lots of time and tons of money." 

"Could we meet at the old place, but you pay? At this point, I'm not eating. I do want to see you. This whole thing is kind of crazy. I just want our old life back," She told him and sat back down. She did care for him and didn't want to stop seeing him maybe it could go someplace beyond the hotel room, but she wanted to take it slow. She had to make sure he wouldn't turn on her.

"Sure, that would be fine is it just Saturday or Friday too?"

"Sure both. I don't want to lose you, but I need time to think about this. I wasn't looking for a man in my life I just wanted to feel something," she told him sounding so defeated. "If I told someone we were dating would you be upset," she asked.

"Who Terence, he loves you, you know."

"I know he is a sweetheart."

"The only problem with telling him is he knows about my ass play. You told him right."

"Yeah, I did. You know that Jack guy came on to me when we met," She told him to show they both had friends who you can't trust.

"Oh yeah, he told me he would leave his wife and children for you. I told him to back off you're mine," he told her and extended his arms and she filled them. They stood hugging for a few seconds and then he said, "I will meet you Friday night, and Saturday we are going apartment hunting. Even your landlord said it was too dangerous for you to live down there now. Trudy has already lost her job. You need to move out and start a new life with me," he told her letting her know he knew a lot about her. 

"I know I have been thinking about moving for actually years, but I spent too much lately on you."

"Let's go down and I'll buy you dinner here," he said and stuck his hand in his pocket and brought out a wad of cash. "This is yours buy some food. If you don't take it, I'll come to your place and bring you groceries. There is no telling what I would buy," He teased he had never been in a grocery store in his life. It may be fun. He passed her the money letting her fumble with the wad. 

"You know if we do have dinner it will be out," Z told him.

"True so how do you want to handle this?"

"I guess we can be dating. You may not like me in the real world," Z offered. 

"Same for you I may be too uptight for you," Preston offered.

"Nah I'll loosen you up just like your ass. You'll be ready to take on anything," she teased. 

"People can't know about that stuff," Preston protested very quietly.

"I know, but I know what you like and that is what is important. We share the important things," she told him giving him a come and get me look.

"Nope, no sex. I asked you up here to talk, sex can't be the only thing we have in common," he said but it was important.

He took her down to the lobby and selected the least expensive restaurant in his hotel. He chose it for two reasons, one she had on some tight jeans that showed her beautiful ass, and two he didn't want her to freak out at the fancy dinner prices. She is naïve to the world of money, and he will drag her into it slowly. 

They had a nice meal the wait staff watched them for a while, but she didn't know any of them. He walked her to the bus complaining the whole time that he could take her home. She patted his chest and got on the bus back to the real world the one she came from. It did feel good to have her belly full of something besides peanut butter and stale bread. 

Terence stopped her in the hall all grins. "So, you're up for a new job girl."

"Yeah that is the offer," she said that must have been what they told them to get them to open up. Great friends tell anyone her life's story. "I did find out today that Jim is a millionaire. He still wanted to see me and even asked me to marry him. I told him he was crazy," she said, and Terence looked at her like she had three heads.

"You're the one who is crazy. Passing up a man with money and is good in bed. That is hard to find girl, you're the crazy one. Girl, I would stop all my crazy ways if a man with money wanted me. Shoot yeah come here baby I will keep you happy," he said nuzzling up against her.

"There is more to happiness than money. I have heard of a lot of rich people committing suicide," she said and pushed him away. She wasn't his surrogate sugar daddy.

"More people die of disease or hunger from being poor than rich kill themselves. I guarantee you miss peanut butter girl."

"I have money now. He gave me back the money I gave him for the room."

"Good for him I hope I get to meet this guy."

"You may, but you can't say anything about his sexual preference," Z warned she could just see it now him teasing him about his ass play and causing all kinds of problems for both of them. 

"I would never do that. I may talk about sex in general, but I never say so and so only like blow jobs or so and so gives lousy head. I don't talk about people it can cause all kinds of trouble."

"Exactly and that is what my man is afraid of, so I will not talk about him, and neither will you. Ok." She set him straight she hopes.

"Got you, so, in general, he is fantastic in the sack," Terence said as Z shook her head, but she knew he was just teasing. 

In the morning she took her rolling grocery basket to work with her. She felt like an eighty-year-old woman when she dragged the thing behind her, but with the amount of money he gave her, she planned to stop and buy groceries on her way home. She hoped one of those meatheads who are always trying to get in her pants would carry her basket up the stairs for her. Terence already knows if he hears her call out, "Hey Terence," he is to come to his door and look menacing at whoever is giving her a hard time. He may be gay, but he is big, and everyone knows he carries a gun. 

In his younger years he was jumped numerous times now he carries all the time. He will shoot you and tell the cops he is the victim of a gay hate crime.