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“Wait here. If you want this, we start now.” He had a deal with Fin, but he still had to sell it to the rest of the company.
“But I—” She looked down at herself, the crazy cute outfit meant for fun, meant for the seduction she’d hoped might follow.
“There’s an event on Saturday night. You need to be ready.” And he needed to go put his case to a few family members before that could happen. This was going to be controversial. But he couldn’t see another way. “Thanks for the picnic. Don’t leave the room. Don’t touch anything.”
He left her with a bemused expression and headed for Zeke’s office, tapping on the open door. “Conference room in five.”
Zeke’s eyes came up. “Problem?”
“Solution.” He went in search of his sisters and Rory, then headed for Halsey’s office. Found him finishing a call and waited for him to disconnect. “Board meeting.”
“About?”
“Don’t look so worried? I haven’t done anything bad.”
“You mean today? You can’t blame us for feeling uncertain.”
“I don’t.” Uncertainty belonged outside the family.
With Halsey in tow, he headed for the conference room where everyone was waiting. He slipped into the chair at the head of the table.
“What are we here for, Cal?” asked Halsey. He’d stayed standing. Hoping for a quick meeting.
Cal took a breath. This had the potential to go very badly, except Fin had reminded him that self-interest and ambition were all powerful.
“I have the opportunity to make the Everlasting deal bigger than first planned. There’s a lot of interest. The pitch has gone better than expected, and I’ve hooked some prime assholes. I need to move on additional marks. It means a lot of entertaining.” He glanced at Rory, who dropped her eyes to the table. “I need a partner. On my own, I’m the lone wolf. I’m a threat. What I need now is a One Night Wife.”
“He’s right.” All eyes turned to Rory. He hadn’t banked on her support. “The One Night Wife keeps the other wives and girlfriends onside. She prevents any suspicion Cal is philandering and she acts as the favor. It’s a smoother operation all around.” She looked at her hands. “I can’t do it.”
“No one expects you to,” he said.
“You have a plan.” Halsey took a seat. “Are we going to like it?”
They were going to hate it at first. “I want to bring in an outsider.”
“No,” said Zeke. “No.”
“Hear me out. I’ve combed the ranks of the Archer, Robins, and Johns cousins, and there’s no one suitable. The outsider wouldn’t know anything. Only that we’re helping each other out, a business deal. Someone who has as much to lose as we would if things went south. Someone dependent on me, who I
can control.”
“Fin,” Zeke said. “Why didn’t I see that coming?”
Time for the Finley Cartwright story. He left out the kissing but told them about meeting her at the Blarney, about Dollars for Daughters, and testing how desperate she was with the Marilyn prank, and the offer to teach her to pitch. Finishing up with a description of how she did at the retrospective.
“She wants the money. Mentally, she’s strong but thinks of herself as a failure, as a flake. She’s out to prove herself. She knows it’s going to be difficult to get what she wants without me. We already have a dependency and a reason for her to play inside my rules. She’ll be the favor and need never know we’re running a shell game. She’s being conned the same as everyone else. And when we’re done, she walks away free and clear and none the wiser.”
“Except that she’s into you,” said Zeke. His posture was fortress nope.
“That works for us. She’s an actor. She can play the part of love interest easily,” he said, and felt a pang of discomfort when Rory turned her face away. “It’ll be strictly business between us, specifically to avoid any moral dilemmas.” He looked at Zeke. “What was your impression?”
“She’s smart and funny.” Zeke’s posture didn’t change. He wanted everyone to know he was opposed to this. “She’s a fast study, and she had no trouble charming the art crowd. I like her. I don’t like this. Outsiders are a risk, and we don’t need it.”
“I don’t like it either,” said Halsey. “I agree with you about Fin. She’s a useful asset. But the concept of an outsider so close to such a big scam makes me nervous. No outsiders is a hard rule. I don’t see the need to break it.”
“I’m calling Mom—”
Cal cut Tresna off. Round one had gone about as well as expected. “The alternative is that we back off a few commitments. Drop the cult bust, pull back on funding for the Pacific clean up. Let retribution against shysters running small time cons go.”
