“Chloe,” I say. “Strictly speaking, it’s not her job, but it needs someone discreet, careful and totally trustworthy.”
Anders nods.
“You realise if you don’t find anything…,” he says.
“Then we have to pay him off,” I finish. “At least this way there’s a chance he doesn’t get anything.”
I let out a breath. There was a risk Anders would disagree with my assessment of the evidence. If he backs Piotr and not me, I’ll be walking out of the building jobless.
He whirls around. “But this way the payout may well be bigger. That’s what Harriet told you, didn’t she?”
I gulp. My tongue won’t move so I nod.
Anders draws closer. “So, what you are saying is, you gambled the future financial health of my company for the satisfaction of firing him?”
Well, when you put it like that… My eyes drop to the floor. Shit.
He bends to bring his head level with mine. “I’m proud of you,” he whispers.
It takes me a minute to process what he’s said. Then my eyes lift and I see his shining. He straightens. “I couldn’t have played it better. The fucker deserved it all. The only thing that makes me feel okay about missing his dismissal is how much more it would have rankled that it came from you.”
“Yes. He was rather miffed you left me in charge.”
“I left you in charge for a reason.”
“Because I wouldn’t rock the boat?”
“No. Because the number one focus for Piotr, and to a certain extent Ahmed, is their own success. Your focus is Cerium’s success.”
His compliment makes me blush. At least I think it’s a compliment. Maybe it just means I’m a mug. But before I get carried away, Anders's eyes cloud and his brows draw into a frown.
“What I don’t get, though, is why you didn’t tell me immediately after? If I hadn’t walked in today, when would I have found out?”
I squirm at the reproach in his words. “I was going to tell you, honestly.” I feel like I did when I was seven and my dad caught me eating the birthday chocolates he’d bought my mum. I rush to explain. “It’s just that you were so happy your dad was better. I wanted you to hold on to that feeling for as long as possible. I was going to tell you when you called on Sunday. But you never did.”
He considers me, his eyes like Jedi swords. Then a slow smile curves around his mouth.
“You care about me. You cared so much you didn’t want to upset me.” And suddenly I feel exposed, like I’ve given him too much hold. I could kick myself. As Dana had said, I’d held all the power. But I’ve just given half of it away. Anders now knows how personal this has become for me. Cora, the professional, would have told her boss directly. Cora, the half-in-love-with-her-boss-and-refusing-to-admit-it, did not.
I need a redirect. What would Cora, the professional, do? Straightening my spine, I match his gaze. “After all this, I think I’m due a pay rise,” I say. “Because both Ahmed and Piotr are paid way more than I am and yet, you gave me charge.”
But the damage has already been done. His smile only broadens until his dimple winks into existence. I’m a fly caught in his web. He quirks one eyebrow. “I think we can sort something out.”
“Before you go spending all Cerium’s money, don’t forget we’ve still got a problem with marketingThe Obsidian Sigil. What are you going to do about that?”
“Easy.” His smile broadens to a grin as he opens his arms wide. “Nothing.”
“That’s suicide!” Ahmed croaks at the reconvened management meeting when Anders unveils his grand plan to do no pre-launch marketing at all.
“Think about it,” Anders is bouncing on his toes, his hands talking almost as fast as he is. “No-one knows our launch date. We never announced it. They got one hint at the convention earlier this year and then nothing.”
He looks around the group expectantly but none of them are getting it. “We lean into that. Our launch becomes the biggest secret in the world. Well, the gaming world. I don’t pretend to know the nuclear codes.”
He goes on patiently, as if he’s explaining to Effie. “We’ve got how many on early access? Two million?” He looks at Scarlett.
“A little over,” she agrees. The gameplay we released for early access had been wildly popular when we opened it up over a year ago. A million had signed up in the first week. We’d slowly added more over time as word spread.
“What’s going to happen when they wake up one morning to findThe Sigilhas dropped?”
