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“Oh.” I hadn’t thought this far ahead. It probably looked quite strange, really. “Well it’s tonight. Drinks to unwind after work. But I think he’s just trying to butter me up.”
“Butter you up for what?” Charmaine leafed through a file of paperwork before setting it on a stack she’d started making. “Settling for the ten million dollars? You’ve just told us all the reasons that won’t work for you, so I can’t see that happening. You know, I think you might be almost as stubborn as he is. Patrick Crenshawe might have finally met his match in Carwyn City.”
I laughed. “Perhaps,” I agreed. “But it wouldn’t be to try to get me to agree to the ten million. He already knows that’s off the table for now. He’s given me six months to assess everything we can find here and make a case for a better deal from him.”
Charmaine raised an eyebrow. “That certainly seems to be a new tactic for Apex.”
I shrugged. “Well, he’s probably just trying to find a way to wriggle out of that six-month time frame, right? To try to get me to not take the whole six months, especially if it’s not a deal he usually offers.”
“I don’t know.” Wes sat down and rested his chin in his hand, elbow on his knee. “I’m not sure Patrick does anything he doesn’t want to do. If he’s offered you six months, that’s what he’ll give you. He won’t let you go any longer, but his reputation suggests he won’t try to short you, either.”
“He did also mention that I could stay on myself, that I wouldn’t even need to sell, so maybe if Gold Moon isn’t worth more than he thinks, that’s a viable option?” I phrased it like a question even though it was the only option if the remaining choice was to sell for ten million dollars. That would never be enough.
“I’m liking this guy more and more.” Charmaine grinned as she flipped through more paperwork, her movements suddenly happier.
“Me too.” Wes stood and moved a box from one side of the room to the other. I wasn’t sure it helped, but at least it made him look useful.
“With this six-month deadline in mind, where should we start?” This was a question I directed at Charmaine, even as I considered the mountain of paperwork in this office. If it was this bad in here, any other room that was designed to hold customer files and papers had to be so much worse. I nodded at the piles she was making.
“I see you’ve already started,” I said. “Can I help?”
She looked up and smiled. “I’m just rearranging some paperwork, really. It’s a mess in here. The files you really need to see aren’t here in the office. They’re at your parents’ house, actually. We were working on them outside the office to avoid any suspicions from Gold Moon employees if there was anything to uncover.”
“Okay,” I nodded.
Dad usually took sensible precautions, and if he’d believed that was the best way to untangle this mystery, I was happy to follow his lead.
“Perhaps we should continue to work that way?” I checked my watch. “Actually, are you okay holding down the fort here while I head over to my parents’ house and take a look at those files myself? I need to see them myself so we can work on them together going forward.”
Charmaine nodded. “Sure thing.”
“Great. Wes, are you coming?” I grabbed my purse from where I’d dumped it on the floor by the door and slung it over my shoulder.
“Yeah, I can tag along.”
It was pretty important that we both see any evidence, and I’d appreciate the extra pair of eyes on the paperwork.
“Charmaine.” I turned my attention back to the office manager, glad of her competence and the immediate trust I felt around her.
Dad hadn’t made a mistake in hiring her — that much was instinctive knowledge.
“Mm?” She looked up briefly. “This office will be much more orderly when you return.”
I grinned. “I wasn’t going to talk about work — just reminding you to meet us at Clover’s by eight.”
Her face relaxed into a smile. “Oh, I wouldn’t miss it,” she promised. “And I wonder if Patrick has an equally sexy pack member roaming around?”
My cheeks heated at her casual mention of Patrick, but I just gave her a quick wave as I left the office and headed to my car. “See you later.”
Wes followed along behind me, and I laughed at the eagerness in him. There was still something of the pup in Wes, even though he was more than old enough and had enough life experience to have that energy knocked out of him by now. He’d been my personal assistant for the past two years, and some days were probably more like an annoying brother, but I wouldn’t change him. Most days, anyway.
And today, especially, I was glad of his presence.
I seemed to be making a lot more decisions — quick ones, about the people I was meeting or about the situations presenting themselves to me, and it was good to have a sounding board.
“What do you think of Charmaine?” I asked, slipping into the car and buckling my seatbelt. I liked her, but it would be good to have that backed up.
Wes nodded. “I think your dad knew what he was doing when he hired her.”
