* Jana *
I left the boardroom with the same calm stride I'd entered with, but my pulse was a drumbeat under my skin. Not from nerves, those burned out of me years ago, but from the thrill of pulling this off in plain sight.
The others saw a designer offering strategy. Lawrence saw a competent asset. None of them saw the knife I kept behind my back.
The deal he was pushing was airtight on paper, but every airtight deal has a seam. A shipment delay, a manufacturing hiccup, a supplier with fragile loyalty. And I'd found it, hidden three contracts deep in the distribution clause. If I leaned on the right vendor, just a little, their "unexpected" setback could slice his profit margin in half.
Half for him meant leverage for me.
But leverage alone wasn't enough. Not with a man like Lawrence
