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And he wanted to talk immediately.

I made a weak excuse to Jade before I went to town hall. There was a delicate hope in my chest that this would be a productive meeting, but the second Kevin opened his mouth, my hopes were dashed.

“Call them off.”

I crossed my arms. “And what do you propose I do? Tell them all that this is worthless? I’m not going to do that.”

“You have a lot more power here than you think you do.”

“Why should I use it? Are you going to work with them?”

“I was going to work with them. Now I won’t.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Work with them? You push someone to sell the land to you. You got snarky at the town meeting and pissed them all off. There’s no way you’re working with them.”

“This is how business goes. I thought a successful man like you would understand.”

“I see past dollar signs. Let me know when you see reason.”

“You have your head up your ass just like them.”

“Maybe I do. Or maybe I care about what they want.”

“And you hide. Did you forget about that part? They don’t trust you.”

He was going for what hurt, and I had to resist the urge to give in. “I have a plan for that,” I lied. “Just like I have a plan for you.”

“I’m not backing down. The more you people push, the harder I’ll push back.”

Dammit. I had no doubts this was how he’d gotten so many data centers built before. He was aggressive and wanted to grow his company as quickly as possible.

I hated that he’d chosen here to do it.

“The next time you request a meeting with me, it had better be to give up. Have the day you deserve, Kevin.”

I walked out of the office without another word. My jaw was tight when I left, but I had a text waiting for me.

Jade

Where the hell did you go? I heard that Atticus came over to watch the kids.

Gabriel

I had an errand to run. Did they wake you up?

Jade

They always wake me up, but I couldn’t sleep after all that excitement anyway. What kind of errand? It better not be trying out the buggy races. I hear we’re all banned from ever doing it again.

Gabriel

Just an annoying work thing. I’m heading back now.

By the time I returned to my own apartment, Jade had come over. She was sitting at the table with Atticus, and they were discussing the race.

“We should get real buggies or maybe some kind of go-karts. The race was super successful.”

Atticus only shook his head. “You’re going to have a hard time convincing Henry to let that ever happen again. Then again, I bet Simone would enjoy it while she’s in town. Gabriel seemed to as well.”