He smiled, his tone slightly teasing. He knew I’d figured him out; he just wanted to hear me say it.
“Firstly, as you said, you’re a busy man—you wouldn’t waste your time on something if it wasn’t important to you. Second, Bradford Hills Institute is an educational facility. Their primary focus is education, knowledge. Melior Group is a business. Your bottom line will always be the bottom line. Clearly you believe you can learn something from studying me that will allow you to make money. My best guess would be a new method for delivering Light to your active agents remotely. That would be invaluable in the field.”
His smile only widened. “Very clever. I would genuinely like to help you, Miss Maynard.” I was no longer Evelyn. That was good—he was treating me with more respect. “But of course, you are correct. This is a business, and my team’s secondary purpose would be to develop technology with what we learn from studying you.”
Tyler remained reclined. “Victor, you’re trying to use my Vital as a prototype for new tech that could make you billions. Can you not see why I would have an issue with this?”
“Of course I understand your reluctance, but—”
“I’d like to be paid,” I cut him off. I was done with pleasantries and I was getting hungry. “This is business, and you stand to make a large amount of money. I want an hourly rate and a cut of the profits from whatever prototype comes from these experiments. I want my Variants to be compensated for their time too.”
For a beat, Victor watched me with a calculating look. “Fair enough. We can arrange an hourly rate for yourself, Mr. Paul, and Mr. Mason. As Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Zacarias are already employed by us, this will simply be part of their working day. And you can have two percent of the profits for the first five years on the market. In exchange, you make yourself available two times per week for a minimum of three hours.”
“Ten percent for the lifetime of the product, and Tyler and Alec get extra pay—this is well outside either of their roles.” Neither one of them needed the money, they were all rolling in it, but I needed to ask for things so Victor would feel as if he won when I finally agreed. “Three hours, two times per month. We all have lives, Mr. Flint. And you leave Josh and Ethan alone. Your recruiters don’t go after them. Ever. If they choose to join Melior Group at some point, then so be it, but they will not be pressured into it. No offense.” I threw a quick glance at Gemma, barely registering the look of surprised respect on her face. “And I’d like clearance for the three of us. I’d like Tyler and Alec to be able to tell me about their day at work without holding back any details. Those last two points are not negotiable.” I leaned away to drive my point home, crossing my legs.
“Five percent for the lifetime of the product, no extra pay for Tyler and Alec, three hours one time per week, and we’ll not actively recruit Ethan and Josh for the next five years. I’ll have to see what I can do about the clearance—it’s not only up to me.” He remained leaning on the table, his hands in front of him.
Tyler had told me as much about the clearance level—that it may be difficult to get, even with him and Lucian pushing for it. It couldn’t hurt to have another person arguing for us.
“You leave Josh and Ethan alone for good—as I said, that’s not negotiable—and we have a deal.”
He pressed his lips together and sighed, then stood and reached a hand over the table. “You have yourself a deal, Miss Maynard.”
I stood up and shook his hand firmly.
“I’ll have our legal team draw up the paperwork.”
“I’ll have mine look it over before I sign.”
“I would expect nothing less.” He laughed as he left the room. Everyone filed out after him, and Tyler led me to his office down the hall.
As soon as the door closed, I collapsed against it and took a massive, shaky breath.
“Holy shit.” I laughed and ran my hands through my hair, trying to calm my breathing, stop my heart from hammering in my chest. I had no idea a conversation could result in so much adrenaline.
Tyler tugged my hand from my hair and pulled me into his arms. He kissed