Chained to My Bodyguard Until the Trial novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Offer

The conference room on the nineteenth floor had a view of the lake and no windows that opened.

Joan had chosen it for that.

Nico sat at one end of the long table in his cream sweater, with a stenographer at his elbow and Joan at his right.

Ray stood against the wall behind him with his hands folded, in a clean black suit and the navy tie, as still as a post.

The gauze under his cuffs showed white at both wrists, and he had stopped caring who saw it.

Across the table sat a gray-haired man in a gray suit, Kroll's lawyer.

At the head of it, with a coffee he did not touch, sat Alden Kroll.

He was fifty-four and tanned, with swept-back silver hair and a navy three-piece suit, and a gold pen turning over and over between his fingers.

He had not looked at Nico yet.

He was looking at Ray.

"Mr. Scanlon," he said pleasantly. "I understand you've left Cushing Shield. I'm sorry to hear it. Ms. Cushing spoke so highly of you."

"I'm sure she did."

Click went the gold pen.

"We're here," said the lawyer, "because my client believes there has been a misunderstanding."

"We're here," said Joan, "because your client asked the court for ten minutes. It is now a quarter past."

"Then I'll be brief."

The lawyer slid a folder across the table.

"Mr."

"Stavros."

"You have a fine career ahead of you."

"You're young, you're talented, and you have a very large amount of stress on your shoulders."

"My client would like to lift it."

Nico did not touch the folder.

"A consulting contract."

"Five million dollars, paid over three years, from a firm that has no connection to Kroll Maritime."

"A letter of recommendation from the CEO himself."

"Relocation, anywhere you like."

"Athens, if you fancy the sun."

Nico lifted his head.

"I have never been to Athens."

"Wherever, then." The lawyer waved a hand.

"In return, you would sign a short statement."

"The documents you copied were incomplete."

"You misread them."

"You were under pressure, and you regret the harm to the company."

"You'd like me to lie."

"I would like you to clarify."

Click went the pen.

Nico looked at the folder for a long time.

Ray felt his own hand want to move, to rest on the back of that chair, and he held it still.

"Is it recorded?" Nico asked.

"It is," Joan said.

"Every word?"

"Every word."

He nodded.

"Then I'd like to say something for the record."

The stenographer's hands lifted.

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