Arrogant Brit

Sure, we would lose a rec center and the only homeless shelter within a twenty mile radius in the process, but Harold Verger had deep pockets—the kind that could not only pay off the code enforcement officials, but could go a long way in supporting Harvey Enterprises in all manner of future endeavors.

That was the rub. From what my father had told me, Mr. Verger had a very good shot at becoming a US Senator very soon. Money could buy you many things, but if you wanted real influence, you needed to know the right people. My father would very much like to know a senator. He’d very much like to have done favors for one, so that that senator might be amenable to returning those favors in his more prestigious future. And what my father wanted, my father got, even if that meant tearing down a perfectly good building to get it.

Only he wasn’t going to do it. He was going to make me do it. I wasn’t completely heartless, though. I’d first seen the job as a moral quandary. Homeless people already had it rough. Why make it rougher by eliminating one of the few safe spaces that they had?

I kept telling myself there were always more safe spaces, and there was plenty of land in the city. The non-profit organization keeping both the rec center and the shelter open could always open some new ones. It might take a year or two, but it would get done.

“Young man, I was a lawyer for twenty six years. Don’t lecture me on the law. I was under the impression you would take care of this without any questions being asked,” Mr. Verger said. “Your father made certain assurances.”

I could feel my temples throbbing. Though I hadn’t thought about her in weeks, I would almost have preferred a conversation with Jane to one with this guy.

“All right, Mr. Verger. I’ll get the ball rolling on Monday. We’ll have that homeless shelter knocked flat in three weeks or less. The recreation center might take a bit longer, but I’ll personally expedite the process. You have a nice weekend, all right?”

“You too, Mr. Harvey. Oh, and tell your father I say hello, will you? I’ve got a hankering to play some golf next week. Let him know I said so.”

I forced a smile into my tone. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.”

I could barely contain my excitement when Mr. Verger finally hung up. I couldn’t imagine that man as a senator, with the kind of power to make decisions that could affect all of America. He was incompetent, fidgety, uncertain, and a complete worry-wart. Then again, I couldn’t think of a senator who wasn’t completely ill-suited for the job in one way or another. I guessed there was always room for one more.

I turned around, taking my Bluetooth earpiece out and nearly running straight into Maddy. It wouldn’t have been the first time we collided, and I grinned at her as I shook my head.

“Maddy, we’ve got to stop meeting like this…”

“How could you?” she asked me, her voice barely above a whisper. She looked utterly horrified, and it took me a few seconds to realize she’d overheard the conversation I’d been having on the phone.

“Oh. You mean the shelter?”

She stared at me. “Of course I mean the shelter. And the recreation center! And oh God, what else is there?” Then she waved her hand and shut her eyes. “No. Don’t tell me. Really. If there’s more, I don’t want to know…”

“Oh, come on,” I said, moving past her and into my bedroom. “It’s urban renewal, nothing more. The condo development is going to bring in a lot more money for the city than a homeless shelter ever did, and it will reduce crime and vagrancy. Ten years from now, you won’t even recognize the city center. This is a win, Maddy. We should celebrate.”

I turned back to see if she was coming, but she hadn’t moved. I sighed, leaning against the wall. “Come on. I’ll take you anywhere you’d like. Do you like seafood? There’s this place over by the marina. It’s a bit of a drive, but the lobster is worth it.”

“I can’t even comprehend this right now,” she said, taking a seat on the edge of my bed. She shook her head at me, eyes pinched. “Urban renewal? Extrajudicial? You’re talking about a criminal conspiracy. Are you fucking serious right now? I know that part of the city. You’re going to help someone build a fancy pants condo development and knock down a homeless shelter and a rec center for disadvantaged kids?! Have you lost your mind, Preston? Never mind that—have you lost your soul?”

I watched the red-orange hues of the dying sun light up her face. They complemented her anger perfectly. She looked like a painting, the portrait of a woman on the edge of rage. It was stunning.

“Look,” I told her, “this is business. Mr. Verger has connections and my father still has the final say. You know how it is. It’s still about getting the biggest piece of the pie, no matter what you have to do. I don’t like it, but I’m not running the show here. Not yet. I have to do what I’m told just like everyone else. I mean, come on, Maddy. You should know this better than anyone. If I don’t do this, my father will.”

“Yeah,” she said. Her face had tightened. Anger had turned to disappointment. “I just didn’t think you would do something like this. You seemed different. You told me you were going to save the world…”

I shook my head. “I’m not a saint, Maddy.”

She shook hers too. “No, I know that. But this is something I would have expected from your father. Not from you.”

Now that struck a chord. I could feel the snarl in my voice before I’d even answered. “I’m nothing like my father. You know that.”

“Do I?” she asked me, looking up at me again. Her green eyes searched mine the same way they had back at the restaurant the day she’d lost her job. She was looking for an answer, but this time, she’d already asked the question. “Do I have any idea who you are at all?”

“Of course you do.” I sighed. “Look, Maddy, you’re blowing this way out of proportion. Non-profit groups get funding all the time. Charitable donations are tax-deductible, for fuck’s sakes. Sure, we’re going to shut the shelter and the rec center down, but once it’s gone they can build on some other parcel, maybe something with a view out past the suburbs.”

“You actually think the homeless give two shits about a view?” she snorted. “You can’t just shove them out of the city and forget about them. You sound like a true one-percenter.”

“One percent? You’re the one who cried for help. I didn’t hear you complaining when I wrote you that ten thousand dollar check,” I argued. “Or when I hired you. Or when I paid you, for that matter.”

“Don’t you dare throw that money in my face,” she hissed, launching up from the bed. “You gave me that money to help me out when I was nearly destitute. And the rest you paid me for good, honest work. I haven’t been your kept woman, Preston. I earned that money working for you!”

“Which is why you should do what I tell you now and get in the goddamn car!” I was seething. I didn’t like this. I didn’t like the way she was challenging me, like suddenly she knew more about business than I did, like she had any idea what it was like to be me, Preston Harvey, the son of a billionaire whose first and only love had ever been cold, hard cash.

And yet I did like it. In fact, I loved it. Maddy never looked more beautiful than when she was standing up for herself. She had a backbone stronger than most men I’d known in my lifetime, and when she had a mind to, she put up one hell of a fight.

But I couldn’t stop the words from coming out of my mouth now. There was too much momentum, too much frustration welling up inside me, rattling my bones. “You work for me, which means my decisions are your decisions. If I say ‘jump,’ you say, ‘how high?’ If I tell you that what I’m doing is the right goddamn thing for my company, then you shut up and accept that maybe the guy with the Harvard business degree knows what the fuck he’s talking about. If those are things that you can’t handle that, then…”

“Then what, Preston?” she asked me. Jane had always had a heat in her, a passion, and a deep, ugly anger too, but Maddy was different. Her flame was brighter, stronger than any I’d ever seen before. It

danced higher, more beautifully than Jane’s ever had, and I was drawn to it like an unlucky moth gazing upon its flickering shape, mesmerized by how wild and effulgent she was. “Then you’ll fire me? You’ll send me back to my shitty apartment with some savings and hope I land on my feet? Maybe if I’m lucky, you’ll throw in an excellent job reference too, as long as I don’t make a scene like Jane did when I storm out.” Her lip curled in a defiant sneer. “Is that what you do to everyone who dares to tell you like it is, or just the women?”

I hated hearing that woman’s name leave her lips. It poisoned everything it touched, and the last thing I wanted to imagine was anything tarnishing Maddy’s sweet, soft, supple lips.

I stared at them, unable to look away. They were set into a firm line, one that meant she wasn’t going to back down. But I needed her to. I needed her to stop, because with every word she spoke, something hungry stirred inside of me.