Almost made a guy wish that we had to handle pack politicsorthe concerns of modern capitalism, but not both.
Living out in Idaho with next to nothing made a lot more sense after figuring out how to juggle both. It took a lot.
In any case, between Grant’s challenge and the business and now the wedding, I could hardly begrudge anyone a few extra treats.
Actually, it might be time for me to dig into that basket after all. I might’ve seen some cheese twists earlier...
I watched Kent rifle through the basket while I fantasized about them.
Gods, Cheri had mentioned some kind of crab puff appetizer for the wedding...
I needed to eat lunch, didn’t I?
Finally, Kent landed on something he wanted, snatched it out, and carried it over to my desk as he tore open the packaging.
He picked out a piece of chocolate for himself before offering the tray to me with a raised eyebrow.
“Thanks,” I said and took one, and damn if it weren’t worthy of the fae high court.
With a happy groan, I sank back in my seat and let the chocolate melt on my tongue.
He left the chocolates on the edge of my desk as he went to pour us a couple mugs of coffee. He brought them over with cream and sugar, and if I was a little generous with both, whatever. It’d been a long day and we hadn’t even hit lunch yet.
For the past few weeks, I’d been leaning on Kent pretty hard to look after the day-to-day runnings of the executive suite while I had been twisted up about Grant’s power play. He wasn’t the first guy I’d turn to for looking after our business partnerships. Kent’s brand of charisma worked on some people, and very much did not work on others, so it was better to keep him within Crescent.
Jillian handled most external relations, but Dakota had taken point with Igarashi. On the rare occasion they had to interact with someone that wasn’t him, they’d seemed acutely dissatisfied. Well, with the exception of Igarashi Minori, who seemed to like Jill and me just fine.
Nevertheless, Kent had aWolf of Wall Streetvibe that worked for keeping things rolling up here.
“So we’re ready to roll out the new lineup. Just need to get an okay from you and set a date.” He took a big slurp of coffee, and I lifted my cup for a sip too.
“Everything all at once?”
Kent shrugged. “We were thinking we’d keep it small, to start. Half a dozen potions—for luck, sleep, the basics.”
“And nothing that’d get us in trouble?”
Mages across the globe did more than take the edge off the hardest parts of life with their potions. Sometimes, they caused those same problems they were usually trying to solve.
Curses, plagues, you name it.
Crescent didn’t need the liability for that kind of thing.
“Nope!” Kent confirmed with a grin. “We’re not helping anybody turn anybody else into a toad. Notyet.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Not ever.”
“You’re no fun at all, bossman.” He took another sip, looking at me seriously over the rim of his cup. “There’s money to be had here, you know? If what we’re selling is harmless without humanintervention and intention, we’ve got a fair amount of plausible deniability. Humans get away with that shit all the time, right? Guns aren’t the issue; it’s what people do with them.”
I took a deep gulp of warm coffee to stop myself from telling Kent to fuck right off with that. With my wolf riding so close to the surface, it’d be all too easy to lash out at people who didn’t deserve it.
Even if Kent maybe deserved it, a little.
“I’m not interested in selling guns, Kent.”
He held up his hands in front of him. “I’m just saying, there’s not a whole lot of difference in selling ingredients and in selling the potions outright. Maybe somebody wants to turn all the slugs in their garden into toads.”
“How are toads better than slugs?”
