Page 131 of I Am Sin

He walks in my office and sits down across my desk. “Shoot.”

I take a seat. “Tell me if I’m being too picky, but I was looking through all the paperwork on the mountaintop project yesterday, and I found something that bothered me.”

He cocks his head. “What’s that?”

“One of the pipelines.” I pull out the blueprint and trace my finger along the proposed pipeline. “Maybe I’m reading the design wrong, but it seems to be a little too close to one of the?—”

He gestures me to stop talking as he swallows another bite of bagel. “I know what you’re talking about. Ledbetter and I have had words about it. Then I was told to shut up.”

I frown. “So you agree with me. It could be a problem.”

“I did some research on it.” He looks over his shoulder and lowers his voice. “Yeah, itcouldbe a problem. But it probably won’t be.”

I gesture to the pencil tracing I made yesterday. “But with some minor adjustments we could eliminate the possibility altogether.”

He holds up a hand. “I know. But those adjustments will increase the budget by about two million dollars, Diana. And that’s the problem.”

“I don’t think the firm is hurting for money,” I say.

He presses his lips together. “No, but the more money the firm has, the better our bonuses are at the end of the year.”

“Marcus, this is a huge project. People will be paying top dollar to go to this mountaintop resort for the time of their lives. They deserve to be safe and comfortable.”

“And they most likely will be.”

I shake my head. “This firm has to have tens of millions of dollars in reserves. I don’t understand why this is such a big issue.”

He rolls his eyes at me, and already I know what’s coming.

I was raised with money. A fucking ranch heiress. Of course I don’t think it should be an issue.

So I’m surprised when he says, “If it makes you feel better, Diana, I agree with you. But I also need my job. The firm is well protected with liability insurance.”

“Any liability would be a PR nightmare.”

He doesn’t reply.

I sigh. “Besides, don’t we have a fiduciary obligation to design the best structure possible for our client?”

“Depending on how much they pay us, yes.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t tell me they’re not paying top dollar for this.”

“No, I can’t tell you that. Because we associate architects don’t get to look at the books. I don’t know how much we’re being paid for this project. All I know is that Reynolds won’t put in the extra money to tighten it up. That’s what Ledbetter told me.”

I shake my head. “I don’t like this at all.”

“None of us do, Diana, but it is what it is.” He shrugs. “This is business. Corners get cut. Money is everything.”

“Money shouldneverbe everything.”

He narrows his eyes. “Maybe not to someone who has an unlimited amount of it.”

There we go. I should’ve known. I open my mouth to respond, but he holds up his hand again.

“I apologize. That was out of line.”

I cross my arms. “You may think I’m some spoiled little brat, and I suppose part of that is true to the extent that I’ve never had to worry about money. But I don’t take it for granted.”

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