I press a hand to my forehead. “And he was giving us only a hundred dollars a week for food, for clothing, for all expenses, for gas.”
“He starved you two,” Otto confirms. “For no reason.”
But I shake my head. “Not Elsie. I always made sure Elsie ate.”
But they hear the words I don’t say, that I made do with what was left, and I starved. I’d been sickeningly thin a year ago. I’m not anymore, my body back to the shapely curves I know, but my body still remembers the bone deep hunger that never went away.
“So, we take that money from him,” Otto growls suddenly, anger coming off the screen in waves. “A single tip to the FBI and they’ll fully investigate, especially with this much proof. We send it right after the Tech Gala.”
“Which takes care of finances,” Wylan says as he sips his tea. He pulls out a small whiteboard and holds it up. The words “Finances,” “Social Standing,” and “hot bod” are scribbled across it like we’re literally in Mean Girls and this is just a teenage game. He crosses out the word “finances” with a flare. I can’t help but smile at it. “What about his social standing?”
“We go to the gala,” Dagen declares. “Otto_Bot hacks into the system and airs all the dirty laundry with a nice little video while we stand in the crowd and watch.”
“Easy enough,” Otto says. “He’s also stolen from most of the people who will be in attendance. They’ll wanna know about that. Besides, the other rich people won’t want the FBI snooping around their own illicit affairs and won’t speak up.”
“Bravo,” Wylan sarcastically claps. “Maybe he’ll wear one of the suits I cut the stitches in, and they’ll come unraveled throughout the night.” He looks at me. “You sure I can’t go kill him yet?”
“No killing,” I reiterate. “We can’t stoop to that level. I’m a mother trying to set a good example.”
He shrugs. “Suit yourself, crumpet. But men like him don’t quit ‘til I put ‘em six feet under.”
Dagen shoots him a look that Wylan doesn’t seem to care about, but I just wave away his words.
It’ll be fine. It’s all gonna be fine. It has to be.
Twenty-Eight
Ava
Wylan and the Otto_Bot screen leave, but Dagen lingers in the kitchen, his eyes on me. I busy myself with cleaning up the dishes from last night’s spaghetti.
“We should discuss the program marketing,” he says. “I’d like to pay you a finder’s fee and hire you to work on the integration of it into my security systems. It’s a permanent job opportunity.”
I drop the plate I’d been scrubbing and turn to him. “But what about my job with Goliath?”
“I’ll pay you triple your salary once the marketing plan is finished. That’s in addition to the offer for the finder’s fee itself.”
I blink. “Do you just throw money at solutions all the time?”
“Yes,” he answers honestly. “Is it working?”
I laugh. “If I work for you, you’ll still be my boss.”
“And?”
“It’s fairly unprofessional for my boss to be looking at me the way you’re looking at me right now,” I point out.
He smirks. “So, it’s unprofessional of me to kiss you?”
“Incredibly unprofessional,” I nod as he stops in front of me. He reaches up and touches my bottom lip with his thumb. “Is this protecting your investments, too?”
“Maybe,” he breaths as he leans down. “If you’re in love with me, you won’t go anywhere.”
I snort. “And what makes you think I’ll fall in love with you, Dagen Fox?”
“Call it a hunch,” he teases.
“A hunch,” I muse, leaning into him.
