Page 60 of The B!tch List

As my fingers linked with his, it felt like my heart had been jumpstarted. Immediately I pulled my hand back and went back to cooing over Tia as Shaw coughed.

“Thanks. Anyways, you want me to dump the trash for you.”

“Please. Oww…” Tia pulled at my hair and before she could put it into her mouth, I disentangled her tiny fingers from it. “That would be great.”

As Shaw walked over to the trash, Tia’s gaze followed him and when he glanced over and waved, she went all shy and nuzzled her face against my chest. God, even his daughter had a silly crush on him. Not that I did of course. Not in a million years!

When she didn’t lift her head, I knew she was falling asleep, so I put her back into her stroller and dropped the back so that she was lying down. As I checked her, Shaw came up by my side.

“She fallen asleep?”

“Yes almost, is that okay?”

He nodded. “The trash is done. It was fucking heavy. You shouldn’t be lifting that.”

“Tell old bitch Baker that.”

“Well you can when you resign.”

“Hah.” I laughed humorlessly. “That won’t be happening.”

He tilted his head and grinned. “What? Are you’re going to run your own pre-schoolandwork here?”

My heart started to thud. “W-what?”

“I’ve got proof that Ruthie and Jennings colluded over the bid. Well,” he said giving a one shouldered shrug. “It looks that way.”

I closed the distance between us. “How? Why?” I covered my mouth with my hands. The hope that maybe I was going to fulfil the dream that just a month ago I didn’t know that I had.

“I told you about bidder collusion, right?” I nodded, unable to speak. “I made a few calls to suppliers and bingo, four suppliers confirmed that Jennings had deliveries due in six weeks. All to be delivered to the bank.”

I gasped. “They really just gave up that information. For real?”

He grinned. “I was honest that I was the lawyer working on behalf of the purchaser, I just didn’t mention which purchaser.”

“So what happens now?”

Tia moved in her stroller and both Shaw and I looked down at her, but when she let out a little contented sigh we straightened.

“What were we saying?” Shaw asked.

“You were going to tell me what happens next.”

“Oh yep. Okay, so I’m going to speak to Ruthie’s lawyer about it.”

“Not Ruthie?” I asked, feeling a tinge of something odd in my chest.

Shaw shook his head. “No. I don’t want anything to come back and bite our asses on this.” His jaw was tight, and I got what I thought was probably his court game face.

“Will he question how you got that information?”

“He might but the point is, Nance, I have the information. How I got it doesn’t matter. I’m going to suggest that he speak to his client about changing her contractor at the very least and if she does that, I’m guessing Jennings might revisit the bids.”

I dropped my head back and looked up at the sky, with a groan.

“Hey,” Shaw said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “There’s a real good chance Jennings will kick back on her bid if he doesn’t get the contract. If I were you, I’d secure a contractor. You don’t want to get the place and then can’t find anyone to do the work for the next six months.” He grinned. “Just don’t use Jennings.”

He reached to the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a card. “Here’s the card of the guy who did Hunter and Ellie’s place. He did an amazing job.”

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