Chapter 66 TWO WEEKS

Chapter 66 TWO WEEKS
NOVA'S POV

I sent Castellano three sentences the next morning sitting at the kitchen table before Riley finished making breakfast.

Mr Castellano. Your message was unexpected but not unwelcome. Give me a few days to consider what you are proposing and I will be in touch.

I read it four times before I sent it. Then I put my phone face down on the table and picked up my coffee then sat with the particular feeling of having done something that could not be undone.

Riley kept a plate in front of me without commenting on the fact that I was staring at the wall.

His response came while I was getting dressed after eating the food Riley gave me that morning.

Take all the time you need, Miss Sinclair. I am a patient man. I look forward to our conversation.

I stood in the middle of my bedroom reading those two lines and the word patient sat in my chest in a way that had nothing comfortable about it.

The patient meant he had done this before. I waited for someone. Let them believe they had room to breathe while he arranged things around them quietly.

My mother had probably heard something similar from him once.

I put my phone in my bag and went downstairs.

Elias was in the entrance hall pulling his jacket on, his car keys already in his hand. He looked up when I came down the stairs and his eyes went to my face immediately.

"He responded." I came off the last step and reached for my own jacket from the hook by the door.

"What did he say?" Elias held the front door open.

"That he is a patient man." I walked through into the cool morning air. "Which tells me everything I need to know about how he operates."

Elias fell into step beside me down the front steps. He didn't offer anything back immediately, just walked with me to the car and opened the passenger door and waited until I got in before going around to his side.

He started the engine and pulled out down the drive while the gravel shifted under the tyres in the quiet morning.

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We got to the office around 9am and we both parted ways to our various offices.

I saw three acquisition files waiting for review on my desk. Two emails from David Park about documentation he needed from my department.

And a note from Jasmine sitting on top of everything.

Page four of the Harrington counter documentation. Look at the signatory.

I kept my bag down and picked up the Harrington file then turned to page four.

The signatory on the counter documentation was a lawyer from a firm I didn't recognize. I turned the page and looked at the firm address printed at the bottom in small type.

My stomach dropped.

The same address as one of Castellano's shell companies in Isabella's ledger.

I had stared at that address long enough across enough late nights that I would have recognized it anywhere.

I sat down slowly in my chair and looked at the page for a long moment.

Harrington wasn't just a deal with Castellano's money sitting somewhere inside it.

Harrington's own legal representation was running directly through Castellano's structure.

Which meant the people on the other side of this acquisition had never been independent at all.

I picked up my phone and called Jasmine.

She picked up before the second ring. "You saw it."

"When did you find this?" I turned slightly away from the glass wall of my office, dropping my voice.

"Last night around eleven." The sound of her moving around, papers shifting on her end. "I thought about calling you but I wanted you to see it yourself this morning." She paused. "I also sent a copy to Callum's office before he arrived."

"Jasmine. The emails Park sent me this morning. What is he actually asking for?"

A brief silence. "Forward them to me."

I forwarded them to her email without hanging up.

I waited for her to read through them before giving me any reply.

"He wants the internal financial projections for the next two quarters," she said carefully. "Acquisition targets and projected spend." Another pause. "Nova, if those numbers reach Castellano before the investigation moves—"

"I know." I looked at Park through the glass, sitting at his desk two cubicles down with his coffee at his elbow, completely ordinary. "Draft a response from me to Park. Give him projections. But take them to Callum first so he can adjust what goes out."

Jasmine was quiet for just a moment, working it through. "You want Castellano receiving numbers that look completely real but tell him nothing useful."

"I want him to be comfortable," I said. "Comfortable people stop looking for what they think they already have."

"I'll have something on your desk in twenty minutes." She hung up.

I put my phone down and sat back and looked at David Park through the glass.

I watched him take a sip of his coffee and turn back to his screen.

Minutes later, my office door opened and Jasmine came in with a draft printed out, closing the door behind her with her shoulder because both her hands were full. She put it on my desk and stood back.

I read through it. The numbers were adjusted precisely enough that they would satisfy Park without giving Castellano anything he could actually use. Jasmine had found a way to make the falseness invisible inside the formatting.

"This is good," I said, looking up at her.

“Thank you,” She smiled and went back to her office, closing the door behind her.

The door opened again and I raised my head up to see Callum entering my office with files in his hands.

The same one Jasmine had sent to my desk this morning.

He walked to my desk and dropped his copy of the morning's documents flat on the surface between us then looked at me.

"Harrington's lawyer," he said.

"Castellano's address," I said back.

He nodded once. "The deal was never about the acquisition."

"It was about getting their people through your door with legitimate access." I looked at him across the desk. "Jasmine's draft is ready. Park sends before noon."

He looked at me steadily. "And Matthias?"

I picked up my phone and typed without hesitating. "Hey baby! Can we have dinner tonight?” I hit send and put the phone face down on the desk between us.

Callum watched me do it without saying a word.

My phone buzzed almost immediately.

Matthias: Perfect. I'll book somewhere. I have something I want to show you.

I read the message and looked up at Callum.

He was already looking at me with something sitting in his expression that he wasn't going to name out loud.

"He has something to show me," I said.

Callum picked up the Harrington document from the desk and looked at it. "Then we need to know what it is before anything else happens."

He took the document from my desk with him and walked back out to his office.

I watched him go with the weight of Matthias's message on my phone screen.

Something to show me.

I picked up my phone and stared at those four words and felt the hairs on my arms rise slowly underneath my sleeve.