Chapter 4 - The Exit Strategy“Shall we get a drink, Victoria?” I asked smoothly, ignoring the pale, sweating faces of the two men.
“I thought you’d never ask, Daniel,” Victoria murmured, a genuine, radiant smile breaking across her face for the first time all night.
She looped her arm through mine, her fingers no longer trembling at all, and we turned our backs on Richard Halston and Julian Vance as they frantically pulled out their phones to check their emergency stock feeds.
As we walked away toward the illuminated terrace, Victoria leaned her head slightly against my shoulder.
“You realize,” she whispered softly, “that you just destroyed a multi-million-dollar corporate merger with a single sentence.”
“Technically,” I replied, guiding her toward the bar, “I just performed a basic risk assessment. And by my calculations, we’re going to need a very large glass of wine before we explain this to the board on Monday.”
May you like
Victoria laughed—a real, melodic sound that turned heads all across the terrace.
“Monday can wait, Daniel,” she said, raising her glass to mine. “Tonight, you’re still my date.”
