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He nodded. “I’d like to bring business and jobs to other areas and give the employees a beautiful place to live without inflated cost of living prices. I want it to be—for lack of a better word—a monument to me and to Whistler Industries. I’ll need to keep my headquarters here just to have the ease of people getting in and out from around the world, but I’d like this place to be more about what Whistler Industries really stands for.”
After letting him get coffee and a scone, she passed him a proposal she and Lucy had worked on most of the night. He opened it, glanced at the bottom line, and closed it again.
“Are the numbers good?” he asked.
“They are. We might be able to do a little better on the property itself…”
“Tell me what the numbers can’t—is it someplace you’d want to work? Will it be conducive to my getting the kind of hydro and electric I need for Norle’s manufacture? That kind of thing.”
“Without having exact specifications, I can only say for what I know about Norle’s composition, I believe so. And even though Wyoming’s winters can be brutal, I believe we can place the plant and offices so that the geography itself helps keep your costs down and still affords spectacular views for the offices.”
Whistler nodded. “Show me,” he said, looking toward the screen she had lowered from the ceiling.
Delaney spent the best part of the next hour walking him through the mock-ups she’d made of the proposed projects. She felt it was going well as she had his rapt attention and he asked intelligent questions that she was able to answer.
Wrapping it up, she stepped away from the screen. “I have screen shots of everything I showed you in the proposal along with some notes along the lines of what we’ve talked about as well as a general budget.”
She was a bit disappointed when he simply slipped it into his briefcase without saying anything. “I’d normally take this back to my office, look it over in detail, go over it with my CFO and all the usual corporate bullshit. But the fact is, Delaney—can I call you Delaney?” She nodded. “I like you, I like your designs, and I like your moxie. I’ve done that group appointment thing quite a few times. You’re the first person to ever walk out. I like your style.”
“Thank you, I suppose.”
“Cards on the table, Delaney, I’ve done my research on you. You work to make your buildings not only beautiful and functional, but to look as though they are a part of the environment. I know you like to use old building sites and incorporate their history. I like your idea of Wyoming and the Winds—that’s gorgeous country—but I think we might want to nestle the site into the mountains themselves.”
“Like build the plant inside of one of the mountains? That might not be possible. That’s a protected area…”
“Yes, but with your designs and my money, I’m willing to bet we can. After all, we’re not looking to build a casino. I’ve got an idea of where I want to be. How about if I get you the geo coordinates and send you and your sister—Lucy, isn’t it?” Again, Delaney nodded. “I’m assuming that’s who you’ll want to use for the real estate coordination on this thing…”
“Yes, Lucy is the best at what she does, and I trust her absolutely.”
“Then I trust her, as well. There’s a place that’s spoken of in legends called Dragonwyk. It’s supposed to be stunning…”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.”
“Most people haven’t. I came across it in some obscure references and some written oral history. It sort of tickled my imagination. You know how that is, I’m sure. In any event, I’ll arrange for the corporate jet to take you and Lucy out there. We’ll arrange for some place nice for you to stay. You figure out when you want to start.”
“The sooner, the better.”
Whistler grinned as he stood. “As I said, I like your style. I’ll have my CFO take a look at the numbers just to make sure you covered everything, which I’m sure you did, then I’ll have my legal department draw up the paperwork. But consider the job yours,” he finished extending his hand.
Delaney took it, again surprised by how clammy it felt. “Thank you, Mr.—”
“Elron, please. After all, we’re going to be working together on this. You’re going to give me a building that every other tech mogul will drool over, and I’m going to make you famous.”
Delaney couldn’t suppress the grin. “Thank you, Elron. You won’t regret it.”
He walked out with as little fanfare as he’d entered, only this time, she noticed the bodyguard as he moved away from the entrance and flanked Whistler before helping him into his limo. As she watched them pull away, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up again, and a little voice whispered inside her head. “He may not regret it, but will you?”
What worried her most was that she didn’t have an answer. Only time would tell.
Chapter 5
tevryn
Tevryn had been splitting his time between keeping an eye on Whistler and his movements and watching over Delaney. Truth be told, he’d planted listening and tracking devices so that he could monitor Whistler electronically so he could stay close to Delaney. She was, after all, his eternal flame. It had been an odd notion to find he even had an eternal flame, much less that she was human.
Sitting across the street from her office in the coffee shop he watched as Whistler’s limo pulled up and the driver got out to open the door. Whistler went inside, and Tevryn regretted not having bugged Delaney’s home, office, and SUV. He would need to see to that as soon as possible. He chuckled when he realized his resistance to doing so wasn’t a result of not wanting to invade her privacy, but rather knowing how pissed she’d be when she found out.
He knew Whistler had an appointment to see Delaney about some kind of job designing a new plant to manufacture Norle. He also knew his mate had called Whistler on his bullshit practice of jerking people around and appeared to have gained the upper hand in their negotiation. Whistler never took meetings anywhere other than his corporate headquarters in Bellevue, and yet here he was in Issaquah.
