“What do you want?” she asked.
He opened the car door from the inside. “A translation. A second set of eyes. A very expensive problem may be hidden inside a merger contract I’m supposed to sign tomorrow morning. My attorneys say it’s clean. My instincts disagree. You saw something in seconds tonight that trained professionals missed. I want to know whether the language says what my people claim it says.”
“I’m not a corporate attorney.”
“I’m not asking for legal advice. I’m asking whether words mean what other words pretend they mean.”
That, unfortunately, was exactly the kind of question Casey had spent years answering.
“And if I say no?”
“You go home. You keep the check. Life remains difficult.”
“And if I say yes?”
Preston took out a pen, wrote a number on the back of a folder, and handed it to her.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Casey stared at it.
It was enough to buy breathing room. Enough to pay debt, treatment, rent, maybe even hope. Not forever, but long enough to remember what hope tasted like.
She looked up. Preston was not smiling. He was not flirting. He was studying her like an instrument he had finally found after years of using inferior tools.
Oddly, she respected that more than pity.
“I’ll need coffee,” she said.
Something almost like amusement flickered in his eyes. “Done.”
The boardroom of Ashford Capital was on the fortieth floor of a glass tower in Midtown, all steel, shadow, and clean lines sharp enough to cut. When Casey arrived just after one in the morning in her borrowed cashmere sweater and waitress slacks, four attorneys from one of the most expensive firms in New York were waiting with expressions that ranged from annoyance to disbelief.
The lead partner, Bradley Thorne, looked at Casey as though she were a janitor who had wandered into earnings season.
“This is my independent consultant,” Preston said before Bradley could object. “She’s reviewing the German addendum.”
Bradley actually smiled. “With respect, Preston, our Berlin team has already reviewed every clause.”
“Then you won’t mind if she does it again.”
The room settled into a tense quiet. Casey put on her reading glasses, opened the folder, and began.
Leave a Comment