Charlotte PoV

  When I stepped off the lift onto the executive floor of Miller Hardlight Sces everything was dark and quiet. ly what I would have expected for a Wednesday afternooher the pce went under, or Be must have been sulking again. Crossing the abandoned floor, mentally each porized window to clear as I went, I made my way to Be’s office. The only person still at their post was Anthony, Be’s personal assistant. The man nodded respectfully to me as I strode past.

  Even though the door was locked, it opeo my personal codes. The smell of expensive syic alcohol hit my he instant I stepped into Be’s office. I’d expected to find the man himself behind his desk, sving away like usual, but instead I found him reed in one of the expensive purple lounge chairs he kept for eaining guests. He was wearing one of his over the top purple suits, a crystal bottle oable o him, gss in his hand.

  “I’ve never seen you drink during a workday,” I said quietly as I stepped up o him aly pulled the gss from his hand. “Feeling guilty about something?”

  “Please don’t tease me right now,” he moaned, sinking further into his chair. “I feel bad enough as it is.”

  I perched on the chair across from him, pg the drink oable o me, out of his reach. “Then why the hell did you do that? You heard the news; you knew why Evelyn and the others attacked the cil building, yet you still tried to interfere. That’s not like you.”

  “You know why,” Be groaned. “It’s Evelyn. Ever since I met her, she’s been nothing but standoffish, and aggressive towards me, atitude rubs me the wrong way. She treats me like a corporate stooge! I’ve spent years trying to ge things for the better. How many hours and billions of dolrs did we spend lobbying for the cil to implement reforms? To get harsher penalties for pahat sacrifice their iured servants, break tracts, and take advantage of the citizens? For real monit and polig of the corporations? It robably too much, looking back, but it was w! We were making a differen the lives of the people in this city.”

  He sat up and ruffled his hair. “I’m proud of my aplishments! The opinion of just one person shouldn’t make a differeo me. Why do I let her get to me so much?”

  “Do you want my opinion?” I asked.

  “Please,” he replied, sloug in his chair.

  “I think there are three reasons she gets to you. The first is, she’s an uy resident, one of the people you’ve been uo help over the years. Despite all the money we’ve sunk into public work projects and politig over the years, we’ve never once been able to get a toehold in the uy. The residents just don’t trust outsiders, and who bme them? They’ve been screwed over by nearly every other entity in this city.”

  I stood up and walked over to Be, pulling him up until he wasn’t sitting in a slouymore.

  “The sed reason is she doesn't want to work with you. Not only does she not like corporations, but she refuses to join the Family. You’re so used to people falling under your charms that when someone doesn’t, you don’t like it.”

  Be groaned. “And the third?”

  “Whes her mind to something, she gets things done. She doesn’t care about the rules, the ws, or what other people think--she just does it. And she’s effective. You’ve been w so diligently to ge the system from within, for so long, that it bothers you when someos more done by ign the rules.”

  “I… ’t deny that.” He tried to slouch down, but I didn’t let him.

  “Now, darling, please tell me what was going through your head when you ‘rescued’ the cil members. I know you heard about what happened below. This couldn’t all have been about Evelyn.”

  “It wasn’t. I just kind of panicked, okay? Like I said, we’ve spent years trying to ge the system, and I thought it was w until I heard the cil tried to take dote. Everything we’d worked towards was discarded by the cil the instant it was ve. What’s worse is, before I could even begin to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it, Evelyn and her friends decided to just tear dowire system. I saw years of woing down the drain in seds. I offered the rest of the cil members sanctuary and locked them in rooms downstairs until I could figure out what to do.

  “Now that I’ve had time to actually think about the issue, I admit that removing the current cil and repg them with a more reasoernative is better. I just felt like things were moving too quickly.” He sighed, “It’s like you said; I probably bmed Evelyn because she was trying to institute serious ges, while I’ve been stuck making minor improvements.”

  “If it makes you feel aer, Evelyn’s involvement was entirely driven by the fact that people were in danger and the fact the cil pissed her off. It was entirely driven by emotion and the o help others it wasn’t politically driven at all. She doesn’t want anything to do with choosing a gover or participating in an interim gover she just wahe cil out,” I expined, sitting on his p.

  “That doesly make me feel aer. It just means she’s a better judge of character, aing things dohan me,” Be pouted.

  “She just has different priorities than you,” I replied, patting him on the back.

  Be seemed to collect himself. He sat up a little straighter and nodded fidently. “I’ll just have to do better iure. Stop letting what Evelyn does get to me, and trate on my own projects. If I learn anything from this, it should be that I o think outside the box more. We probably could have done more if I had been willing to bend the rules just a little bit.”

  “That’s the spirit,” I said with a smile. “You should probably apologize to Evelyn. But ter; she was really pissed at you earlier.”

  “Apologize?” he replied indignantly. “She beat me once I released the cil members to your custody. Did you know that?”

  “Then you should also send a hank you gift to Hel ter too. Apparently Evelyn was so irate that she o be sedated before ing here,” I told him. “I’ve seen what she does when she’s angry. It usually involves that massive bear of hers and immense property damage to her target.”

  “Right. Apologize to Evelyn and thank Hel--got it,” Be said.

  “Good,” I said, leaning forward and pg a kiss on his forehead before standing up again. “Now darling, it’s almost diime, and we have reservations, but I refuse to go anywhere with you while you smell like a distillery. Please go use your private bathroom to get ed up. I’ll have Anthony deliver a fresh suit.”

  The man nodded and pushed himself to his feet before heading to the back of the small office. “Wait for me, love; I won’t be long. When I e back, I’ll look like a new man.”

  “I ’t wait,” I replied with a smile.