Page 30 of Final Drive

“I know.”

“They’ll be cruel in ways nobody else in the room would notice. They’ll find the soft parts and press.”

“I know that too.” I squeeze her hand once. “I’ve been managing people like your parents my entire life. They aren’t going to surprise me.”

The maître d’ takes us through a dining room full of the low murmur of old money. Chandeliers, white linen, the particular ring of good silver on good china. I catalog all of it on the way through, because information is armor and I’ve never once regretted having more of it.

James and Margot Callahan are already seated in the private room. James is tall and silver-haired with a posture that suggests either military service or a lifetime of believing himself the most important man in any given room. Margot is beautiful in a preserved way, her face smooth and empty, her blonde hair swept back.

Margot’s smile freezes when she sees me.

“Reese.” James rises and buttons his jacket. “We said to come alone.”

“You said it was a family matter.” Reese’s voice holds steady even though her grip doesn’t. “Tyler is family.”

The silence that follows is a tactic, meant to stretch until somebody gets uncomfortable enough to fill it. I don’t.

“Tyler Wu.” I put my hand out to James. “A pleasure, Mr. Callahan.”

He shakes it. Brief, firm, assessing. “Wu. Any relation to the Boston Wus?”

“My grandmother is Margaret Wu.”

Margot’s eyebrows move a fraction. The Wus are older money than the Callahans, and my grandmother made sure I understood that breeding cuts in both directions.

“Please, sit.” Margot gestures at the chairs across from them with the smile back on and brittle at the edges. “We weren’t expecting a guest, but I’m sure we can accommodate.”

I pull out Reese’s chair before I take my own. A server arrives with water and menus, and the choreography of it is as familiar as it is suffocating.

“So, Tyler.” James settles back. “You row with our daughter.”

“I do.”

“What’s your major?”

“Physics and economics.”

“Ambitious.” He makes it sound like a diagnosis.

“Practical. Physics tells you how systems work. Economics tells you how to profit from knowing.”

His eyes narrow. He isn’t accustomed to being corrected at his own table.

“Tyler’s one of the top students in the program,” Reese says. “Three PhD programs are recruiting him.”

“How nice.” Margot’s tone puts it somewhere near the opposite. “And how long have you two been seeing each other?”

She leaves a gap before the last three words. I file it.

“We’re getting to know each other. The team spends a great deal of time together.”

“I’m sure it does.” Her smile sharpens. “Eight men and one woman. I imagine all sorts of things develop.”

Reese’s hand tightens on her glass.

“The team dynamic is professional,” I say. “Reese is an exceptional coxswain. Her technical work is why the boat is fast.”

“Technical work.” James says it the way you’d hold something at arm’s length. “Is that the term now?”