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“Perez saw to it personally”

I snort “So that no one with half a brain could question it, obviously”

“Yep As soon as he finished it, Shane blessed it And here we are”

“You have a degree in finance and an MBA You know this is”—I shake my head—“I hate to say catastrophic, but—”

“That’s why, despite all the shit you pulled, I called you You don’t kno bitter it was to realize I couldn’t save Reservoir myself”

Sloan, like me, doesn’t handle inefficiency or incompetence well But this is different “Baby—”

“I told you not to call me that I’m not your baby”

We’ll see about that… “You lack the experience to save this company on your own Evan and I started Stratus just out of college on a shoestring budget, with nothing but cockiness and a prayer We row Stratus into the business it is But you’ve never worked with a co for survival You can’t be sure what cuts will help and which will just twist the knife deeper and leave it to bleed out”

“I figured that out”

She doesn’t say she was afraid ofdecisions, but I see it on her face I soften Damn it, she’s the co to I should want to bury Reservoir alive—and her with it

I don’t

“I’ll help you, like I pro will truly improve until Bruce Rawson kicks Shane out of the CEO’s chair”

“He’s not prepared to do that”

Is the oldwith his health? “Then I don’t knohat to say If we e the situation today, what’s to keep Shane fro?”

Sloan presses her lips together and glances out theMy guess? That question already occurred to her, and she doesn’t have an answer