Page 83 of Terms and Traditions

When I leaned back to catch my breath, I kept my forehead pressed against hers. “Have I told you how amazing you are?”

“Not today,” she whispered, and I could hear the breathlessness in her voice.

“Let me remedy that then.” And I kissed her again. Thoroughly.

Chapter thirty-eight

Nash

“Are you sure this will work?” Emmett asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest as he stared down at the papers littering the end of the conference room table.

It was late. City lights winked across the darkness outside the wall of windows as Emmett and Kelsi joined Stephanie and me for a debriefing. For Stephanie’s plan to work, we needed to crunch numbers and build a team. Not at all how I’d planned to spend the night before New Year’s Eve. But we were running out of time and options.

“I’m not sure of anything right now.” I heaved a sigh, messing with my hair. Pretty sure I was going to resemble Einstein at this rate. “But it’s this or settling for Nova potentially beating us to market without a fight. We’ve worked our tails off the last year for this. I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Could Hiram in any way be bluffing?” Kelsi asked from opposite me, beside Emmett. She tugged a loose piece of her ginger hair in concentration while she scanned another document.

“Doubtful,” Stephanie cut in from my side. “This was a calculated move and not the first time he’s pulled this stunt. There’s a pattern of corporate espionage. SkyLark, MLC. All circumstantial at best but—”

“With no paper trail,” I finished. “Until now.”

“Did you at least fire the traitor?” Emmett growled.

I thought about Samantha. She’d been so clever, and there was no direct proof linking her to Hiram on the Genesis servers yet. But Zara’s sticky note and USB drive had given us the clues we needed. Emails between Hiram and Samantha, a phone recording, and several pictures of them together. All because Zara had been worried he was having an affair. After the announcement, she’d connected the dots and decided she liked us enough to risk ticking off her husband.

It was enough of a connection for us. The hard part was not tipping Hiram off, but our early departure had likely already done that. “Her severance was effective immediately.” It’d taken a bunch of help from HR, but I’d paid her out handsomely—more than she deserved. I wanted her out of the office while we pulled this launch off. Anything to keep Hiram from knowing we were going to outmaneuver him to the finish line.

“So, you have a plan.” Kelsi waved a hand over the paper-littered table. “Where do we fit in? I know he’s Mr. Pennybags”—she jabbed a thumb at Emmett—“but what about me?”

I grinned as Emmett huffed at the moniker. “You, Kels, are the missing link. You’re the one with connections. You are the market.”

Her grin was feral, her eyes bright. “Oh, I like the sound of that.”

“Thought you might. And I’m not expecting you to do this for nothing, so name your price—”

“As if,” Kelsi scoffed. “I want this program to succeed as much as you do because selfishly, I refuse to give money to that egotistical tyrant.” She shot Stephanie a grimace. “Sorry, not sorry.”

Stephanie waved her off. “No offense taken.”

“I know twenty author and creator names in the field I could get on board, right now,” Kelsi continued with a snap. “Tell me when and you’ve got yourself an army of campaigners.”

I glanced at Emmett, the strongest voice of reason in the room. We had a plan. We had a team. But he was head of finance, and that was an avenue we had to consider.

He stood with his arms still crossed, silently assessing the paperwork in front of him, forehead etched with deep frown lines as he no doubt weighed every angle. “It’s insane,” he said at last, glancing between the three of us. “But a little insanity never hurt anyone.”

Something eased in my shoulders. We had a green light. An accelerated timeline wouldn’t be the end of us.

Stephanie slipped her hand into mine, lacing our fingers, giving them a squeeze. “We can do this. Not alone, but with all of us.”

I nodded, my mind sparking with a dozen next steps. “Now that it’s doable, it’ll go to the board in the morning. We’ll hit the ground running with marketing the day after New Year’s. I’m confident we can launch by the end of January. Thank you. Both of you.”

Kelsi offered a grin and a jaunty salute. She rolled her shoulders in a stretch and glanced out the massive windows lining the north wall. “Wow, it’s later than I thought.”

Emmett grunted. “Ryan watching the boys?”

“Yup, it’s pizza night and an action movie. I dodged a bullet.” Kelsi shuddered.

“You prefer corporate espionage to movie night?” I asked, biting back a smile.