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“About the Okada deal.” Aidan sank into his chair, frowning. “Kaito Okada and his team left after one night. That wasn’t how this was supposed to go.”
“Kaito and I talked,” I said. “We didn’t need four days. He gave me his offer. Now we have to discuss it.”
Aidan frowned harder, his dark and handsome features severe. “I hope that means there’s a deal.”
“What deal?” Noah came through the door—tall, his hair dark blond and mussed, his skin lightly tan. His entire being shouted California, even though he was a Chicago native like the rest of us. “Jesus, it reeks in New York when the weather is warm. I’ll take L.A. any day, even with the exhaust fumes. Scotland, it looks like Ava finally cleaned you up.”
I grunted in response.
“Let’s do this.” Noah dropped into one of the other chairs. He was wearing a dress shirt and dress pants, like me, but his were cut differently—slimmer around his waist and skimming his torso, the better to show off his shoulders and biceps. All of Ava’s talk about fashion must be rubbing off if I was noticing these things. I should probably go punch someone or shoot something to get my testosterone back.
“Alex will be here in a second,” Aidan said. He had barely glanced at Noah before looking back at me, his gazed fixed as if he was trying to figure something out.
“What?” I said.
His voice was unreadable. “How did it go with Ava?”
“It was fine. You’re looking at the results.”
“Not the clothes,” Aidan said. “I mean, how did it go with her? Tell me the truth. Because Samantha told me this morning that Ava left town. She told Samantha about it because she didn’t want to talk to me. In fact, I haven’t talked to Ava at all, and I have the feeling it has something to do with you.”
He’d always been smart, my best friend Aidan. Perceptive and ice-cold. It was why he was so good at real estate deals, but right now it was starting to annoy me. “Ava is fine,” I said. “If she doesn’t feel like talking to you, then I guess you have to wait until she changes her mind.”
“Or I could ask you what’s going on.”
“What’s going on?” This was Alex, coming through the office door. He was tall and lean, dark-haired, wearing tan dress pants and a blue shirt that made his eyes look more blue-green than usual. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to the elbow, showing the tattoos on his forearms. “What the fuck did you drag me from Dallas for, Dane? Hey, your hair is gone.”
“Not all of his hair,” Noah said. “Just the pretentious man bun.”
“It wasn’t pretentious,” I argued.
Alex shrugged. “Whatever you say.” He closed the door and sat in the last unoccupied chair. “How was the meeting with Okada?”
I looked around the room at them, these three friends I had known forever. I had wrestled with Okada’s offer for days, and in the end I’d realized I couldn’t make this decision alone. I was part of Tower, and this decision was as much theirs as mine.
“Kaito Okada is working on advanced cancer treatment,” I said. “It’s top secret and he’s putting all of his resources into it. But he doesn’t want our money.”
“Then what does he want?” Noah asked. “Money is kind of our thing.”
“He wants me.” I leaned back in my chair, suddenly tired at the sound of those words. “He wants me to leave Tower and go work for him in Japan.”
“No,” Aidan said. “Absolutely fucking not.”
Alex and Noah exchanged a glance. “Okay, wait,” Alex said reasonably. “That’s it? That’s the entire offer?”
“I get to work on the cancer project,” I said.
“He’s got to be fucking kidding with an offer like that,” Aidan said. His voice was cold, which meant he was pissed off. “We’re not doing it.”
“I’m not sure it’s up to us,” Noah said, his gaze fixed on me, thoughtful. “It sounds like it’s up to Dane.”
“We’re partners,” I said. “We’ve been partners since we were twenty-one. So, yes, you all get a say.”
Aidan made an angry noise, and Alex said, “You’re asking us to tell you whether we want you to quit?”
“I don’t know what I want.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’ve been going over this for days. You know I don’t contribute to Tower the way the rest of you do. I don’t travel and I suck at sales. No one wants me to go to a meeting if they can help it. Aidan sent Ava to make sure I didn’t fuck this entire meeting up, and Kaito still flew home the next day.” I dropped my hand. “I don’t have a driving desire to go to Japan, but it’s a big opportunity. And I’ve never really been a venture capital guy.”
Alex laughed at that. “And the rest of us are?” He looked around. “None of us knew what we were doing when we started this. Half the time I’m m
