The Woman He Traded Is Now His Equal novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Man Who Wouldn't Rescue

Byron's POV

Porter Aspinwall rang my gate at ten that night and did not give his name to the speaker.

I watched him on the camera.

He stood in the headlights of his own car in a coat and no tie, with his hair uncombed.

I could have left him there until morning.

I opened the gate.

He walked up the gravel with the stiff gait of a man protecting his stomach and came into my study without being asked.

I did not offer him a drink.

"Say it," I said.

"The lender is gone." His voice was hoarse. "Eleven projects, Costello. They called every loan this afternoon. Two hundred people work for me."

"I know the number."

"I need sixty million by Friday to keep the doors open." He swallowed. "Buy the paper. Make it a bridge. I'll sign anything."

I leaned against the desk and looked at him.

I had wanted this for six years, in a hundred small ways.

I had imagined his face. I had imagined what I would say.

What I felt was tired, and a little sick.

"No," I said.

"You don't mean that."

"I do."

"You got what you wanted. You got her." His voice cracked on it. "What else is there? You want me on my knees?"

"I don't want anything from you."

"Byron."

"You asked me to rescue a man who sold a woman for a deal," I said. "I won't spend a dollar to save you, and I won't spend one to bury you. Your lender made its own decision, watching a television."

His face went gray under the lamp.

"Two hundred people," he said again.

"Then you should have thought about them when you wrote her emails."

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