Page 54 of The Deals We Make
“I’m glad, because I didn’t want a legal hearing where I have to explain why I had your money in the first place. Although, some of my clients might believe it adds to my credibility.”
“So, you left, you got a new laptop, you raised a bit of money freelancing. How did you parlay that into the business you built?”
She takes a sip of her water, and I try not to fixate on the way her lips look on the glass. In fact, I try not to fixate on the way she looks right now at all, because it will lead us somewhere I’m not sure we’re ready for.
“It wasn’t intentional. But clients started to recommend clients. My rates started to rise. And so, I talked to an accountant after a while. A man called Adam. Rumor had it that he used to help cook the books for the Mafia before he went legit. That’s probably too big an exaggeration, but he was very comfortable discussing the things that skirt the law. He just turned seventy-five, and he’s still my accountant. I’m his only client, and some days I have to go to the golf course to find him. Every time I see him, he tells me he’s retired, and I tell him he can’t.”
I chuckle at the image of some former white-haired mobster dude on the golf course, with Calista hunting him down in a cart. “The business was Adam’s idea.”
She nods as she chews. “He told me I should go legit. Put as much as I could above board. I was making enough. He helpedme file back taxes, helped me set up my business, and created washing processes for any cash I brought in. Introduced me to some of his clients. And then, suddenly, I was wealthy.”
My baked potato steams as I cut into it. “You don’t just, poof, become wealthy.”
“Meh. I love what I do. I love what I’ve built. There are days I miss being on the front line. My superpower is finding weaknesses in systems. Being the CEO of a big company looks and feels a lot different to working with clients. It’s more people management and issue resolution. But occasionally, I step in. That’s why you saw me at the bank. The client needed me, then they saw my rates and balked, so I hacked my way into their business, found my way to the CEO’s office on a day that I knew he was going to be there, just to make a point.”
“I’m impressed, Cal. So, you still hack?” It’s a loaded question. I can’t help but think of the Sicilians. I want to know how she might have done it.
She puts another forkful of food into her mouth instead of answering, and I guess that’s an answer in and of itself.
If I want to gain her trust, I need to not push too hard. “I built a life with the Outlaws. Mom was disappointed I didn’t go to college. Lectured me about it just the other day that what I do doesn’t bring the family good standing. But she doesn’t complain when I pay off her mortgage or give my brothers and sister a shit ton of cash to buy their own homes.”
“How is Mrs. Williams?” Calista asks finally.
“You hurt Mom when you left.” Shit. So much for gaining her trust. “I’m sorry. That was unnecessary.”
Calista sighs and puts her knife and fork down. “There’s a lot about back then I would change if I could. Maybe I should have told you. Maybe I should have stayed. Maybe you shouldn’t have become an Outlaw. Maybe you and I would have amounted tosomething else in our lives, or maybe we’d both be in prison for some petty crime.”
I glance out the window. There’s a flurry of snow falling, and I see it swirl in the brightness of one of my outside lights. “If you could go back and do it all again, would you?”
It’s a question that haunts me sometimes. In the quiet of the night when I’m half asleep, when I’ve been out for the club and one of us got hurt or arrested or we have to lie low.
She shakes her head. “You know, I’ve thought about that, and I would. Everything that’s happened in the last ten, fifteen, years? It happened for a reason. It brought me to where I am today. That doesn’t mean I’m proud of every decision I ever made. I’m not. But, on the whole, I’d keep things the way they are.”
“You mentioned hacking to invest money in things I cared about.”
She looks at me, chewing a mouthful of food. Her eyes are wide, hopeful. I never noticed it before, but Calista is waiting for praise. I’m sure of it. “I did.”
I see the little hitch in her breath, and it’s fucking cute. “You did good. Taking that money and doing something good with it. I’m sure the organizations you gave it to really benefitted.”
Her cheeks go a little pink. She looks back down at her plate and cuts some potato. “Thank you.”
“No man in your life?”
Calista glances my way. “You’re asking now?”
I get what she means. When I’ve already pinned her up against the wall, when I’ve already kissed her. When I’ve already jerked off to the thought of her. “Yeah. I’m asking now.”
“I’ve had boyfriends, but they’ve never lasted.”
I finish my steak. “Why not?”
She shrugs. “I suppose the easiest answer is they’ve never meant more to me than my work. And none of the men I’vedated have been able to see past a woman who earned more than they did. Eventually, they run out of steam trying to figure out how to be with a woman more accomplished and capable than they are. And I get fed up with being with someone who resents me.”
And I realize now, as we eat food together, that I don’t want to beat her.
I want to see just how far she can go.
17
