The Outfit Clash: I'm Told to Strip novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Not For Sale

"No," I said.

The oldest trustee didn't blink.

"You haven't thought about it."

"I don't need to."

"Thirty years on this board, Georgia. I have watched people say no in this chair and lose everything they said it for." She tapped her cane on the rug. "If you lose Monday, the Sternes run this school. Patrice keeps her office. That girl gets expelled. The lab opens again by Christmas."

"And if I win Monday by handing them Will, they run me," I said. "They'll know my price. Next time they won't ask for a law student. They'll ask for a contract."

She looked at me for a long moment.

Then she picked up her sherry.

"Your grandfather would have taken that deal," she said.

My stomach dropped.

"And he'd have regretted it until he died," she said. "He told me so himself, about a different one. Twelve years ago." She drank. "Go home, Georgia. You're still one vote short. I'd find it if I were you."

I walked back across the green in the dark.

Will was sitting on the steps of north-quad under the porch light with two coffees.

He handed me one.

"How'd it go?" he said.

I could have lied.

I could have said it was nothing. Trustee business. An old woman and her sherry.

He would have believed me for about a day.

"She can get me the seventh vote," I said. "If you disappear."

I told him the rest, one flat piece at a time.

He listened with his coffee halfway to his mouth.

Then he set it down on the step.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, do it."

I stared at him.

"I'll withdraw the complaint tonight," he said. "Maddie can testify without me. Your assistant can take her to the hearing. I'll stay at my place on Monday and watch the stream like everybody else."

"No."

"Georgia, it's one vote."

"I said no. I told her no. It's done."

"Then call her back and tell her yes."

He stood up.

So did I.

"Do you know what my mother said in that kitchen?" he said. "They find the one person you'd hate to lose, and they make him the price."

"I know what she said. I was there."

"Then you know how that story ends. The rep said no to everything except his brother. And they closed the mill."

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