_OceanofPDF

4
L O G A N
“I think we should win,” Byron said. “That’s what I think.”
The conference room we’d occupied for the past four hours still smelled
of dinner, and the halls outside it were quiet. The head of supply and the VP
of operations were catching my brother up on shit he would have known if
he’d been around.
“There’s no point to winning the contract if we overpay for it,” I said.
“We can make money back,” Byron said as if there was nothing more
obvious. “Losing damages our reputation. Forever. You want to risk that for
a few pennies on the dollar?”
This fucking guy. He couldn’t read an EPS report or between the lines
of an MD&A, but here he was tossing numbers around as if he were on a
Mardi Gras float.
My phone rang. Mandy.
“I think we should pick this up in the morning,” I said, standing.
The operations VP closed his folder.
I slid into the hall, whispering, “Well?”
“You owe me,” Mandy said.
“She in?”
“Open to the idea. It’s going to cost you.”
“How much?” I closed the door to my office.
“A strategic buyout of her father’s company.”
“I need you to be more specific. This WalMart or the corner store?”
“If I tell you who she is, you’re on for a meeting. Okay?”
The interior walls of my office were glass, and I watched Byron walk
down the hall with the VP, talking like a man making a point. Probably