“I’m sorry.” She regretted asking and sympathy welled up.

“You didn’t know. There is no harm in asking questions and we welcome them. We ask many ourselves when we don’t understand something. I know you didn’t mean to offend me and I hope we never ask any questions that offend you. It wouldn’t be our intention.” He climbed out of the driver’s seat. “I will return to escort you to lunch. You need an officer at your side while you are on NSO property. We apologize but it is necessary. There are cameras inside all of our buildings and even outside. We had to implement this security measure and it is for your safety as well as ours. You working here will make you a target to our enemies. It provides you with a safe work environment.”

She slid out of the seat since the Jeep didn’t have doors. “I knew that about the cameras. It’s in the information packet I had to read before I applied for the job and I know I need to be patted down every day.”

He paused next to her. “I’ll introduce you to the male you will work with.”

Slash opened the door for her and Zandy stepped inside a large, open office space full of file cabinets and two large desks. A man sat behind a computer, glanced their way and grinned as he stood. He approached them.

“Hello. I’m Richard Vega. You must be Zandy Gordon.” He flashed a grin at Slash. “How are you doing today, Slash?”

“I am good, Richard. Here she is.” He frowned and his gaze narrowed. “Remember what you were told. You don’t want to share sex with this one.”

Zandy’s mouth fell open. She jerked her head to stare wide-eyed at Slash but he just spun on his heel and left. Her new coworker laughed.

“That came out wrong. They just crack me up.”

The man returned to his seat, grinned, and she gaped at him.

“I was told why you left your last job. He meant to say that I am not to sexually harass you. They kind of talk in a way that can come across badly at times.” Richard chuckled. “Like that. I’m sorry but it was funny. You should have seen your face. I swear I’m not a lunatic. Will you have a seat? That will be your desk right there.”

She relaxed and took a seat. The chair was comfortable and she just dropped her purse on the floor, still watching her new coworker. Richard Vega was in his late thirties, Hispanic, with lightly graying black hair and laughing, light-brown eyes.

“New Species, well,” he chuckled, “they take some getting used to. They are really good folks. I just hope you have a great sense of humor because you’ll need it.”

“That did come out wrong.” She smiled.

He laughed again. “The last man left because he moved to Arizona to help his daughter with his grandkids. I didn’t sexually harass him if you’re wondering.”

Zandy laughed. “That’s always good to know. Is there anyone here who doesn’t know why I left my last job?”

“Probably not. They are looking out for you, believe it or not. They wanted to make sure it never happens to you again. As an employee, they will be protective of you. Toss out the rule book for standard work policy if you had one. You’re in a whole new world.”

“I’m starting to see that.”

His smile faded. “My wife got sick last month with a bad case of the flu and had to be hospitalized. We have two small children. Not only did the NSO send flowers to my wife but they invited my children to come to work with me since I insisted on working. They sent two of their women to play with my kids all day to keep them amused. They are amazing and then to top it off, when I took my wife home, they had food delivered to us for a week. They said it was just to help out my family. Those are the kind of people you’ll be working for and I wanted you to know that.”

“Thank you for telling me. They sound great.”

He suddenly smiled again. “Yes. So when they slip with their words just know it was unintentional. Laugh a lot. I do.”

“I understand.”

“Are you ready to learn what you do? I hope you have a good sense of humor because you’ll need it with this job. Otherwise you might get pretty pissed off.”

“Why?” She didn’t like the sound of that.

“We’re the incoming-mail department. All the hate mail, the fan mail, all of it, comes right to us. It’s our job to read it, separate it and respond to it. And keep in mind we are supposed to reply nicely no matter what.” He stood and pointed. “See those file cabinets?”

She studied the few dozen file cabinets. “Yes.”

“That’s where all the hate mail goes, the death threats, and the really scary shit.”

Zandy gave him a horrified look. “There’s so many of them.”

“You should see the second floor. That’s storage. These cabinets are just from the past five months.”

Shock tore through her. “All those are full of hate mail?”

“And death threats. Yeah. Keep your sense of humor if you have one. You are going to need it. If something comes in that is really specific or just gives you the willies, bring it to my attention immediately. Those we hand over to the FBI.”

Her gaze drifted around the large room at all the cabinets and it made her chest hurt to see the kind of hate that people were capable of.

“The sad part is that these people are just amazing, hell, better than the people I’ve known all of my life. They have to deal with all this hatred every single day. The good part about the job though is we do get a lot of fan mail too. Those are fun and nice. Hand it over if you find something really great. I like to give those to the NSO so they think some of us are decent people.”