Chapter 9
Lucius
I spend a couple hours dealing with the fallout from the fire before I’m able to grab a conference room with Eidith to talk about the Novus Rome land clusterfuck.
“Smithson left after a half-hour wait,” Eidith says without preamble. Then, for some odd reason, she puts her hand on my elbow as she adds, “He said he had another offer, and that he’d take it.”
I resist the urge to shake off her hand and smash my palm on the conference room desk. “Why? He has to know I'd offer more.”
She pulls her hand away, thankfully, and shrugs. “Your being late hurt his ego. Probably thought you weren’t serious.”
Fucking real estate moguls and their egos. “You couldn’t talk him down?”
As she shakes her head, not a single hair falls out of place on her sprayed-into-submission hairdo.
