Page 67 of Tell Me What you Think

"That was…" Olga starts with a nervous laugh.

"Reckless," Marina finishes. "But necessary."

"Very necessary, yes," Olga agrees, and they both burst out laughing.

Marina hits the right floor button and this time they each press themselves against opposite walls—Marina with her arms crossed, Olga twisting her hands together.

"Do you want to see each other tomorrow?" Marina asks, and Olga feels completely exposed under the weight of her gaze.

"Of course. Where? My place? Yours?" she rattles off, machine-gun fast. "Or would you rather go out somewhere?"

"Mine. I think before we go out anywhere, we should have a conversation and figure out what this is."

"Yeah… yes, absolutely."

The doors open and both step out at once.

"Eight o'clock. Bring clothes for the weekend if you don't have other plans."

Marina says it and pushes open the conference room door like it's nothing, holding it for Olga.

"We're going to have to make this fast," Javier says after greeting everyone. "I've got another meeting at seven."

Marina doesn't answer. Olga hands one copy of the report to him and another to Jordi, then walks them through the problem while they focus on the lines she's underlined.

"What the hell?" Jordi says.

"They have it signed with their clients. They handed us the contracts without that page," Marina finishes.

"And are we sure it's only these five? That they haven't pulled anything else on us?" Javier asks.

"Confirmed. Olga, who first noticed the missing appendixes, went through all the contracts, and the analysis team's been cross-referencing the data against the originals to find what was missing. There's nothing else."

"Bastards," Javier mutters.

"I can't see Duarte being bold enough to pull this," Jordi says.

"Maybe not him, but Roca's a crafty old dog," Marina says. "Either way, who did it doesn't matter—what matters now is deciding whether we move forward or walk."

"What do you propose?" Javier asks her.

"We don't walk," the vice president answers without hesitation, leaning her forearms on the table. "We sit down with them and put this in front of them. No accusations, no throwing around the word fraud, no hostile faces. We simply renegotiate the acquisition price. They need to sell and the deal's already pretty far along."

"And those five clients?" Jordi asks.

"We put together an offer attractive enough to make them want to stay with us—but on our terms. If they accept, we lose nothing and we get the discount we'll have earned by making the Nauta people squirm. If they leave, we're no worse off."

"I like it," Javier says. "Get that meeting set up. I want you in Lisbon next week putting these guys in their place. Good work—you too… Olga," he adds after a beat, reaching for her name.

"Thank you."

Javier leaves the room and Jordi shuts his laptop to bolt to his next meeting.

"See you, ladies," he says before walking out and pulling the door shut, while Marina starts gathering the papers in front of her.

"You're really beautiful when you're angry." Marina turns at the sound of Olga's voice, a smile tugging at her lips.

"And you're getting very bold."