Chapter 7: The Coat Check

The topping-out party for the Lakeshore block was held on the roof.

There were heaters, string lights and two hundred people holding champagne.

I stood by the bar in the one suit I owned.

Gus introduced me to men who wanted to know what I thought of the lobby.

"He moved the stairs," Gus told them. "It's in the drawings. He moved them to where you'd actually look."

A man in a camel coat said the lobby was the best part of the building.

I felt my chest get warm and I looked for Margot.

She was across the roof in a black dress, talking to the mayor's deputy.

She looked up and caught me watching.

She looked away first.

"Don't," Gus said, cheerfully, into his glass.

"Don't what?"

"Whatever you're about to do with that face."

It was twenty minutes later when the voice came over the crowd, warm and carrying.

"There he is! The man of the hour."

Nigel came across the roof in a navy suit with a glass in his hand.

He was smiling the smile he used on investors.

Nobody had invited him.

Nobody had stopped him, either.

He walked straight up to me and stopped close enough that heads turned.

"Everybody, this is Nathan Boyle," he said, loudly. "He used to work for me."

He turned in a slow half circle so the whole roof was his audience.

"He left with my company's files and my plans, and walked into a competitor's firm. I thought you should know who you're toasting."

The people nearest us stopped talking.

"Nigel," I said. "Put the glass down."

"Don't tell me what to do. You're a thief, Nate. You took five years of Hearthline's work."

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