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“I don’t remember I had the last word.”
“You didn’t bother to have it. You just ignored mine.”
“I chose not to engage you again in front of everyone, decided to do so in private. As I am doing now.”
“You shouldn’t have. I have nothing more to say.”
“So do you only take exception to leaving your own project behind?”
“I take exception to being forced to.”
“Your results won’t evaporate if you shelve them for a while.”
“I see no reason to while I’m making progress.”
“There are many reasons, scientific and financial. You’ll also gain expertise working on my projects, your own work would eventually benefit.”
“If you think I need expertise you shouldn’t want me working on your projects.”
“I meant added expertise. I wouldn’t have paid all that money if I thought you were anything but the best.”
She waved his placating response away. “You didn’t pay anything for me. That hundred million—”
“Two hundred million. Half of which is funding for phase one of all the projects I have planned for you.”
She forced her open mouth closed. “What’s a hundred million dollars more, huh? But whatever you paid was for our collective services and obedience, probably for the rest of our lives. Now that you’ve found one troublemaking apple in your bushel, you can always toss it out.”
“I have no intention of tossing you out.”
“Well, I intend to jump out of the cart myself.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re contemplating quitting?”
“I’m done contemplating.”
His expression went blank. But though there was nothing to read in it anymore, she felt she was getting the first real glimpse of what he hid beneath the polished exterior of the genius surgeon and suave businessman. Something lurked below his placid surface, something more sharp-edged than his state-of-the-art scalpels. Someone utterly ruthless. No, more. Someone lethal.
Which was stupid. Whatever else he was, this man was a healer. He didn’t end lives, he saved them. All these feverish thoughts must be the sun frying her brain. Or was it such intense and close exposure to him?
Then he spoke again, sending her every hair standing on end. “It’s clear contemplation has nothing to do with your decision. I wouldn’t even call such a knee-jerk reaction one.”
He again sounded like when he’d been addressing their assembly, making her realize how deliberate and calculated he had been in comparison to how he’d been talking to her now. He had been out to subdue and mesmerize everyone. He was trying to make her bow to his will now.
Well, he should have realized by now that his tried and true methods only backfired with her.
Bent on walking away this time, she stood as tall as she could. “Call it what you like. I quit, Dr. Balducci. I’m sure my loss will be nothing more than a negligible annoyance, since BIL is chock-full of those who will ecstatically do your bidding.”
“You can’t quit, Dr. Accardi.”
“Because the lump sum you paid included my price? Just a sec...” She took the bag off her shoulder, rummaged for her wallet, pulled the money she found and stuck the bills out to him.
“What’s that supposed to be?”
Extending her hand as close as she dared get to him, she met his glowering with her own. “I don’t know what the going rate per head was, but taking into account the premises and everything else, I’m sure I didn’t cost you more than that.”
His eyes fell to the notes before he raised them to her, full of mockery. “I assure you, you cost me much more than that.”
She refused to lower her hand. “You let me know exactly what I cost you, and I’ll pay for my freedom in installments. Consider this the first one.”
