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ChapterSixteen

TATI

“—is up seven percent compared to last quarter, which is phenomenal; we’re seeing the results of all the things you’ve been working to put in place,” Keira said from beside me in the car, holding up her tablet to indicate the numbers, even though I was driving and couldn’t really look at the screen.

Giving me a debrief I hadn’t asked for.

For three weeks now, she’d been falling just short of outright refusal to keeping me in the loop, insisting everything was under control, and I could be comfortable focusing on my “healing”, whatever that meant.

At this point, I was antsy.

I was trying to give Keira her space though, to thrive in the role.

She was notably young for the responsibility, only twenty-five. But she’d been Tali’s friend, then became mine after Tali’s passing, then got inked. She was smart as hell, organized as hell, and damn near family, so when Blue and I had to rebuild our chain of command it was an easy decision to place her in the secretary role.

It was approaching a year and there was never a moment I’d regretted it.

Especially when she did things like this, noticing that I was over my involuntary sabbatical and not even waiting for me to ask for the update.

She just went with the flow.

“Kingston sent over the fact sheet for a bar he’s looking at on the strip,” she continued. “He wants to know if we’d be interested in part ownership. I went ahead and looked over the

details and madea recommendation to Blue since there was a cutoff time on that one.”

“And what was your recommendation?”

“I think it’s a good investment,” she answered, with an affirmative nod. “The Whitfields have a Midas touch, and all the right connections to insulate against most bullshit. Any partnership he offers us is going to be worth looking into.”

“I agree. What else?”

“Well, speaking of him, I have an update on progress with the dispensary. We’ll have to have theMarauderssquared away first, but our suppliers are ready to fulfill an order at any time.”

I nodded. “Good. And what about the growers?”

“Still pulling together land packages for us to review.”

“Okay. I want you to make sure they understand that’s not a priority; we have a lot of irons in the fire and a lot of cash going out. We should probably dam the flow a bit.”

Keira’s eyes went wide, lips parted in surprise, but she quickly covered with a smile and a nod. “Uhh… okay, definitely.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, not at all. I’m making the note now.”

“Hey,” I said, putting a hand over her screen to stop her tapping away. “Look at me.”

She hefted out a little sigh, then did as I’d asked, meeting my gaze briefly before I had to look at the road again. “Yes?”

“Is there a problem?” I asked, in a tone that made it clear I wasn’t fucking playing. Ireallydidn’t take it with her often, but I was picking up some weird energy that I needed to understand.

Now.

“No.” She sighed again. “I just… when I brought all this up to you, it was just an update, not an opening for you to start being the boss again.”

I frowned. “Keira… Iamthe boss,” I said. “We’re not going to have a problem stepping back into our lanes, are we?”

“What?No,” she insisted. “You’re misunderstanding what I mean.” Keira reached over, covering one of my hands on the wheel. “Tati, I cannotwaitto turn VP shit back over to the VP.” She laughed. “But… I also don’t want you stressed about work shit when you’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

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