The Woman He Traded Is Now His Equal novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Signed Natasha

It was raining when I came out onto the steps.

A black car sat at the curb with its engine running.

Byron Costello got out of the driver's seat without an umbrella and came around to open my door.

"How did you know where I was?" I asked.

"Your friend Dee told me." He looked at the townhouse behind me. "She said you'd gone to a lunch you shouldn't have to sit through. I thought you might want a ride after."

"How did Dee get to you?"

"She called the Costello switchboard and wouldn't hang up until they put her through. She said you were stubborn, and that I should be on the street in case you needed a car." His mouth moved. "I've never been given instructions by a nurse before."

I got in.

The wipers beat against the glass.

For a few blocks, neither of us spoke.

I watched his hands on the wheel. The thin pale scar across the back of the left one caught the light from every passing streetlamp.

I had caught myself looking at it three times since Friday.

I looked out the window instead.

"Rhys Balfour told me something at the door," I said.

"Porter's finance man."

"He said that three years ago somebody from your office kept phoning Porter's line, asking for me. And that Porter told him I'd said no."

The car did not slow.

But I felt the whole of Byron go quiet.

"It wasn't someone from my office," he said. "It was me."

I turned to look at him.

"You called for me?"

"I called twice. Then I wrote." His eyes stayed on the road. "I wanted you at Costello. I'd been losing bids to Aspinwall Capital for two years, and every one that beat me had a margin note in it I would have paid a million dollars to have on my own team."

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