shake my head as I crumple the paper and toss it into the trash. “No. No trouble.”
It’s a lie.
But I’m not taking the bait. If I have to make a choice between a billionaire who is disgusted by me, and Jimi who wants to draw me back into his world for whatever reason…I guess I’m picking the billionaire.
We’ll see how that goes.
14
Colby
“I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t care about their feelings. I’m not interested in what they think, Bill. They’re not my pals. You know what I mean?”
The voice on the other end of the phoneline is sour. “Listen, Mr. Raines, I know that. The boys know that. But you’re putting them in a dangerous situation, and they want to be compensated accordingly.”
I nearly spat into the phone. “Dangerous? From a little ground settling? Bill, you know as well as I do, the environmental impact report was clean. There’s no danger in Superbia.”
Bill, our director of construction, sighs. “The other Mr. Raines said you’d take care of it.”
Of course. Oh, naturally. Dalton’s too busy being in love to take care of business, so being the bad guy falls to me.
Seriously. The things I do for family.
"I'm not running a fucking charity, Bill. We have a contract. You familiar with contracts? You familiar with the law?"
Bill's laugh is quiet but respectful. “What are we gonna do, Mr. Raines, call the police on the construction workers?”
I’m rubbing my face. I wish there were some damned coffee in here. I should call Finn, get his ass out of bed, make him get me coffee. What time is it? It’s still dark out.
I’m startled to see it’s five in the morning.
I haven’t been to sleep yet.
God knows how bad I look.
No wonder I’m in such a foul mood.
“All right, all right. How much is it going to take to make them happy? A little extra in the pay envelope? What?”
There’s a little pause, and the longer it grows, the worse I know the news is going to be.
Bill finally clears his throat. “The engineer’s suggesting a cool million.”
“A million. Extra.”
“Between abatement, pillars, new drainage, hazard pay for the men—”
“There’s no hazard!”
“I’m just the messenger, boss.”
“Damn it. Damn it. Okay. Don’t do anything yet. Keep them working. Tell them you’ve delivered the message.”
My finger stabs the phone, sends the call into oblivion, and I fall back on the couch.
Shit.
Finn isn’t scheduled to come in until nine. Four hours from now. Four hours left to my own devices.
I’ll end up tearing the office to shreds.
When the office door opens, the sun is up over the horizon, and I blink back the brutal morning light. “God… What…?”
“Oh no,” says Finn, holding a tray of cups. “I thought I was getting here early!”
I rub my face. “Damn…what time is it?”
My clothes are a wreck. Suit jacket and tie crumpled on the floor, shirt half-buttoned, shoes for some reason very neatly lined up next to the couch. Pushing myself up, I look over at the clock. “You are early,” I tell him. “We said nine.”
He shakes his head and sets a coffee on the table next to me. The smell is enough to open my eyes, sharp and dark and piercing. I grab the cup and take a scorching swallow.
What’s he doing? Why is he picking up my clothes? “Hey, don’t do that.”
“You’ve made a mess. Were you here all night?”
“I told you, that’s what I do. Where are you taking my jacket?”
He looked at it disapprovingly. “To the dump? Did you sleep in it?”
“The plan wasn’t to sleep. I don’t know what happened.”
“Mary would kill me if she knew I was letting you sleep here, letting your clothes get all messed up.”
“Clothes aren’t a problem.”
“Says the man whose tie cost more than my rent.”
At this I have to grin. “Over there…closet. Find me something to wear.”
While Finn crosses the room, I have another bracing gulp of the coffee. It’s much, much too hot, but it’s exactly what I need to cut through the fog. It makes my tongue tingle from the caffeine. What is it, two pints of espresso shots? It’s like drinking electricity.
“What…the…hell…” breathes Finn, and his reaction makes me chuckle.
“I’m telling you, I sleep here a lot.”
He turns from the closet door. “So you keep an entire wardrobe in your office?” He walks in, far enough in that I can’t see him anymore, just hearing his muffled voice. “It’s like a freaking department store in here.”
“Get me a clean shirt too, will you?