Chapter 14: Not Only the COO

The freeze came off at ten that night.

Dunhill's lawyer stood in a judge's hallway in his socks.

He argued that the Chair's office account belonged to a company, not to a wife.

The judge agreed, and the payroll was safe.

Jack read me the order at eleven, standing in my office on the sixtieth floor.

His tie was pulled loose and the city was lit up behind him.

"They froze the wrong entity," he said. "Hargrove's lawyers will be back tomorrow with a better argument."

"Then tomorrow I'll have a better answer."

"Yes, Chair."

"Don't call me that."

He stopped with the order in his hand.

"What should I call you?"

"You called me Ms. Bannon in the car."

"You told me to say what I meant."

"I did."

I came around the desk.

The floor was empty, the cleaners had gone, and the only light was the lamp on the credenza.

"You're my COO," I said. "Nothing else, until he's finished. Remember?"

"I remember every word."

"He was in a cell this afternoon."

"Yes."

"His mother bought him out with a quarter of a million dollars in cash."

"Iris."

"So he isn't finished, and I'm breaking my own rule, and I want you to say something about it."

He put the order down on the desk very carefully.

"I'd say you're a bad influence on the Chair's office."

"That's not what I wanted."

"No." His voice dropped. "You wanted me to say I've thought about this every day for two years."

"Have you?"

"On the elevator. In board meetings."

He almost smiled.

"Last winter you took your shoes off under the table at the budget review. I read the same page nine times."

I laughed, and it came out unsteady.

I put my hands flat on his chest.

"Break it," I said.

He kissed me.

It wasn't the car, and it wasn't careful.

His hand went into my hair and the other pulled me against him by the small of my back.

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