Page 37

“Wasn’t the construction already stalled?” Cornelius asked, his glasses, tie and floating pencil the only things indicating he was sitting in the seat across the table.

Rowan sighed. “Yes, Cornelius.”

“Proposed by who?” Troy asked, bewildered.

Rowan crossed his arms over his chest. “Me.”

“What are you up to?” Raina narrowed her eyes.

“There’s a new prospective client who needs a considerable change to their display. The usual won’t cut it. It’s a very…eccentric hoard. They’d like to include apartments,” Rowan said.

“Who is this client?” Troy asked, shuffling through his papers and looking stressed. “I’ve seen nothing of this.”

“They contacted me personally and I told them I would handle it. They’re a very important client and they’d like their identity to remain a secret.”

“What kind of cloak and dragon shit is this?” Raina demanded. “You don’t talk to clients. You don’t have people skills.”

“My people skills are just fine. Right, Cornelius?”

The tie quivered. “Uhhhh…”

“See?” Rowan said, glaring at his sister.

She snorted. “Does Dad know about this?”

“I sent him an email this morning.” Rowan gave her a smug smile. He didn’t say that he hadn’t looked at the response yet. It was Schrödinger’s inbox.

“New plans are going to take at least a month. We have to get the whole thing signed off again with building regulations and legal!” Troy’s hair was sticking up on end just thinking about it.

“This new client will be worth it,” Rowan said firmly. “And this way the building moves forward.”

“How?” Cornelius asked. “Isn’t that bitey human still there?”

“I’ve sorted that, Cornelius.”

“You have?” Troy asked. “Since when?!”

“I worked over the weekend, of course.” Rowan coughed. Even he was having trouble with his own bullshit. “It was very…productive.”

Raina’s intelligent eyes saw right through him, but she placed a hand on her husband’s arm. “Calm down, honey. This is a good thing. As soon as everything is approved again it’ll be smooth sailing.”

“I need to go crunch the numbers,” Troy muttered, shaking his head.

He got up, taking his papers with him.

“The rest of you can get back to work too. I’ll inform you of your new workflow as we wait for the project to resume,” Rowan said.

The team shuffled out of the room, whispering to each other.

Only Raina stayed behind…and Cornelius.

“Is there anything you need, Cornelius?” Rowan asked.

“Oh, uh, no. I was just assigned to take the minutes and you’re both still in here,” he said, his cat print tie seeming to adjust itself in midair. It was ginger cats today.

“Right. Well, the meeting is over, so you can finish that up.”

“No, Cornelius, stay,” Raina drawled, tapping her claws on the table. “I want a record of me murdering my baby brother.”