Steal: A Bad Boy Romance by D.G. Whiskey

but Nick’s narrowed eyes found
mine, flicked down to my cleavage and back up before darting back to his
screen. I rolled my eyes.
    “Good.
She’s been a dead weight for a long time. That doesn’t change the situation
here, though. You have three months to give us the best sales quarter in
company history, otherwise you either get on your knees or you get the hell
out.”
    “I
have an idea about how we can do that,” I said, ignoring Nick’s proposition as
if I hadn’t heard it. I slapped the paper bearing my quick calculations onto
the desk. “A marketing strategy that could explode ARCANE’s awareness in our
target demographic.”
    That
got his attention. “Is that right?” He picked up the paper and scanned it. “You
want to give away our services for free? Are you an idiot?”
    I
gritted my teeth. “It’s a proven tactic. We suffer from a lack of awareness
about our services. We offer a great product, but no one knows about it or why
they should use it. If we give it away for free to highly influential charities
in the financial sector, it will increase our exposure among the exact people
who have decision-making power at private firms.”
    Nick
stared at the paper before folding it over and setting it back down. “I don’t
like it. Never give a quality product away for free, Katherine. If you don’t
get paid, you’re losing.”
    I
shook my head. “That’s complete bullshit, Nick. If we donate services to these
charities, we could end up with triple the number of paid subscriptions coming
back at us. Our margins are more than high enough to take the hit.”
    We
stared at each other. For once his gaze didn’t settle a foot below my eyes.
    “Take
this away,” he said, pushing the paper across the desk. “Come back tomorrow
with hard numbers, not these bullshit estimates. If the numbers make sense,
I’ll think about approving this campaign.”
    I
ripped the paper off the desk and stood. “They will.”
    He
might have stared at my ass all the way out the door, but I never looked back
because I didn’t want anything to detract from this small, hard-won victory.
    The
only problem was coming up with better estimates by tomorrow.
    I might have to stay here all
night.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER 12
    ~ J AMES ~

 
    The sun hung low in the sky,
lighting lingering trails of mist with a reddish gold sheen. It was an alluring
look, as though San Francisco was a city of magic out of a fictional story.
    I
pulled out my phone as I strolled along Market, firing a text to Kat. The plan
was solid, but she had to be in the office alone for it to work.
    Are you still working? All by
yourself again?
    The
duffel bag shifted over my shoulder, and I shrugged it higher up. It contained
everything necessary to execute the data-gathering part of the mission. Unlike
a military black ops mission, this was a whole other bag of tricks.
    The
phone beeped.
    Yes. Everyone left a few hours
ago. I barely noticed. Working on something big and awesome for tomorrow. Might
be here for the rest of the night.
    Perfect.
    A
quick turn down Fourth Street, and Kat’s office came into view. It was a newly
renovated building with a handful of startups as the
tenants, and the renovations had been targeted accordingly. There was a bike
room complete with repair equipment, a boutique coffee shop in the lobby, a
green wall and waterfalls in the hall leading to the elevators.
    Just
like any office building, there was a security guard, and multiple checkpoints
that required a magnetic access card. The first one was on the exterior doors.
    Leaning
against a wall of the building next door, I placed myself so that none of the
cameras pointed my way. Even at this time of night, there would be a few people
coming and going from the building—it was the nature of startups and the people who worked at them.
    From
my spot hiding in plain sight, I waited until a pair of young men in jeans and
sweaters came into view