"I always wanted to stay there."
His left eye ticked, like he was counting to ten before popping. But then, he leaned closer, giving me a shark-like smile. "Fuck Lincoln. If the guy were here, he'd bebeggingfor this opportunity."
I couldn't help myself. "Except he's dead."
"Yeah? Well he'd come back forthis.We've got a big expansion coming. California, then Texas. Gimme five years, and we'll have centers in every state."
Sure, Buckaroo."Then why do you need me?"As if I didn't know.
"Not you specifically." He leaned back, oozing false confidence. "But we're entertaining offers. That's all I'm saying."
"So, you're selling out?"
He looked offended by the mere suggestion. "No. We'repartnering. Big difference." He held his arms out wide. "Sharing the profits."
I almost snorted. "Andthe liability."
And this, sports fans, was the reason he was looking for partners.From what I'd learned during the past few hours, the company was a dumpster fire waiting to happen. Hell, I could already smell the garbage smoldering underneath.
But here and now, Evan shrugged like it was no big deal. "Liability's part of the gig. You know that."
"Do I?"
"Hell yeah."
It was my turn to lean forward. "From what I hear, you've got more liability than most."
And of course, he played dumb."What do you mean?"
"Oh, come on," I laughed. "You hired a PR firm to clean up the mess."
Something shifted behind his eyes, and he hesitated for a beat too long before asking with feigned confusion, "You mean…Thatcher-Hale?"
"That's the one."
He made a scoffing sound. "They're not aPR firm. They're a consulting group."
He could scoff all he wanted. It didn't change the facts.
I matched his scoff and added a smirk. "Same difference. And I heard howthatwent."Was I tweaking him? Hell yeah.But I wanted to see how tightly he was cranked.
Sure enough, that vein in his forehead started to throb. Still, he managed an easy smile as he said, "If you're talking about that pitch at the Halstead, that was nothing."
I gave him a dubious look. "Nothing, huh?"
He waved it off like a mosquito. "A joke for a day or two, that's it. And just so we're clear, we fired the firm that same day."
Yup, they had.And the firm had fired Tessa Sinclair.Orshe had quit. The details on this remained murky.
But now, we were finally getting to the reason I was here. I leaned back in my seat to ask, "And how about that consultant?"
He frowned like it didn't ring a bell. "What consultant?"
I laughed. "The one who raided the booze."
"Oh,her?"He shrugged like public meltdowns happened every day. "What about her?"
"Is she still working your account?"
