Page 93 of Take Her

“Have you eaten lunch yet?” he asked.

“No. Why?”

He was standing in the doorway, waving me outside. I followed him, then became nervous as we went to the elevators, and he hit B.

“What are we doing?”

“We’re eating in the cafeteria.”

“Why?” I’d never been down here except for at night, when I’d been working janitorial. I even went out to get coffee from the coffee shop across the street, or brought it in from home.

“I want people to see that we’re a team.”

“Are they not just going to assume that I’m with you? I mean, like, dating?”

“Dating,” he scoffed—not at me, but at the concept—and I found myself thinking he was right. Whatever it was that we were now was well beyond it. “No,” he continued. “Because in the entire time I’ve worked at this company, I’ve never once shit where I eat. But when people run into you upstairs—in Mrs. Armstrong’s office—they’re always going to think you’re subordinate to me. So this afternoon, we’re going to take over one of the cages.” I knew he meant one of the meeting rooms that were on every floor of the building. “On the east side. It has the better view.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re full of windows and people need to see the two of us running this thing.”

“Did you find an analyst?”

“I did,” he said, grinning.

“How did you convince them?”

“I used my personal charm,” he said, and I gave him a look. “Are you implying I can’t be charming?” he then asked, and I groaned. “All right, there was a baseball bat involved.”

“I can’t believe you.”

“Because I’m amazing, I know. How did the books look yesterday?”

“I found it interesting that Corvo was so heavily invested in car washes fifteen years ago. But the math-mathed, if that’s what you’re asking.” I bit my lower lip. “Is there a second set of books somewhere?”

“I plead the fifth.”

Which meant that yes, there was—and I found myself wondering where the fuck they’d be hidden. Was there a secret safe in his office...or somewhere off site?

“How long will the process take?”

“Nero and I spoke earlier today. He’s got his PR people working up their statements now. This thing will be a dual push—we’re just one prong of it.” He held two hands in the air, and appeared to balance them. “We need to make investing in Corvo’s future sound like a sure thing, while at the same time making us sound innovative and daring—it’ll be a careful balance between legitimacy and novelty. Basically, a lot of talking out of both sides of our mouths—or our asses. But we’ll have the best people working with us.”

“With . . . us?” I asked. “With me, your lowly intern?”

“With you, my secret weapon.”

I squinted up at him, while he stared straight forward. “You weren’t just teasing?”

“The men we’ll be dealing with from here on out are of two calibers. Young and horny, and old—dinosaur old—and horny.”

I felt a spike of frustration at not being taken seriously, again. “So I’m just eye candy?”

He turned, and his eyes roamed up and down, giving me the kind of look that said he knew I had no underwear on—which was infuriating, given the context, as he continued. “Smart eye candy,” he said, with a slight nod. “You’re in the perfect position. Young, intelligent, and extraordinarily good looking—and you’re Nero’s daughter, which makes you incredibly off limits. Even the horniest among them will have to respect that.”

“Off limits to everyone but you.”

“It’s not my fault you need an extra father,” he said, shrugged, and went back to looking at the elevator doors. “It’s fucking twisted, but it’s growing on me.”

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