I wanted to push her more, talk about Lindsay, ask her where she was the night before, if she was maybe out clubbing. I could have even said that I saw someone who looked just like her, but I decided that it wasn’t necessary.
She knew. The way she watched that necklace, it was obvious that she knew what it was. What she thought it was, anyway.
“Tell me something, Margaret. Between us girls,” I said, leaning closer on the table. “What are you really after here? Is it the new weapons that you want?”
Margaret blinked. Her lips parted, then closed again. A single second—and I got all the confirmation I needed.
I smiled.
“Because if you’re here just trying to take advantage of my baby while he’s grieving, then we cannot be friends.” I blinked my lashes at her lovingly.
“Oh!” she said, so relieved her face brightened up. “Oh, no. Of course not. We just want to cooperate with Bennett Technologies, that’s all.” And that’s also how I knew that she was most definitely not in charge of any of this.
In fact, none of them were. They were here to gather information on us, and they didn’t even have the authority to make deals. Though the vampire looked the part, he didn’t call the shots, either.
I was going to drill Margaret a bit more, tease her with half sentences just to see her reactions, but then Freddie spoke.
“All of what you’ve told us sounds amazing, Noah. I’m sure in the future, our shareholders will be interested in investing in such things. But what we’re here for tonight is something we’ve only heard whispers of.” He was talking in a whisper himself.
“In a minute,” Dominic said, holding up a finger even before I noticed the waiter coming our way with our cakes.
Chocolate. Finally.
“Thank you,” I cooed sweetly and dove right in, but my ears remained on Freddie. Margaret didn’t touch hers yet, though. She had her fingers intertwined and she watched Noah intently.
“Not so fast, baby. You know you get bloated,” Dominic whispered to me.
“But it’s chocolate,” I said with another one of those pouts that had already become second nature to me. I liked pouting—and it probably had something to do with how his eyes stopped on my lips just a second longer every time I did it.
“Just take it slow,” he said, then winked again and turned to the others, who were watching us, smiling to hide their irritation. We both pretended not to notice. “You were saying?”
“Yes, the reason we’re here tonight. We’ve heard rumors that Michael Bennett has been working on something…special these past years.” He touched his fingers together, like he was searching for the right words to say. “We’re very interested in seeing the prototype, and our shareholders are willing to put a lot of money on it.”
Dominic leaned back in his chair and wrapped his fingers around his chin. “How much money, exactly?”
“Ten digits,” Freddie said almost reluctantly, and his cheeks turned a bit pink. He was lying, though his eyes remained on Dominic and he didn’t even blink.
“That’s a lot of money,” I said in a whisper that I hoped made me sound in awe.
Freddie smiled at me. “It is, indeed.”
“Let’s say I know what you’re talking about,” Dominic said. “Let’s say I tell you that there is no prototype, only raw data that will most probably take years to get through.”
They all hung on his every word. “Yes?” Freddie breathed.
“Let’s say I’m willing to sell that data as is, without making any guarantees about what you can find in them.”
“Okay,” he said impatiently.
Dominic held back from speaking for a full loaded minute. “Would your shareholders still be interested?”
Freddie didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“I won’t sell it a dime under two billion,” Dominic said. “And the price is non-negotiable.”
The men and Margaret looked at each other for a moment, and I couldn’t tell if they were pretending or not.
Then, Freddie smiled big. “That won’t be a problem, but we will need to see what we’re buying before we can commit to that price.”