He saw the smile that was in her eyes vanish with his cold reminder. Then she slipped her hand off his arm and rested back on her lap. “How much further?” Her tone now void of any emotion.
“Just a few minutes. It’d be easier if you lived closer to the office.”
Charlene laughed. “You’d have to pay me a lot more for that to happen. The rent even on the outskirts is triple what I was paying back home. I can only imagine what you guys pay. But by the looks of this car, I don’t think that’s something you worry about, do you?”
She made a sound like it was a bad thing to own such a car. His Koenigsegg was pretty much the only thing he splurged on besides his penthouse. It was his baby. As he pulled back onto the roadway, he replied, “You’re correct. There are certain benefits to being a Lawson.”
“Well I would never buy anything like this. It’s not practical at all. Just think you probably could buy a house…” Charlene looked over at him and said, “You could buy that apartment building and fix it all up. No one would need to be displaced.”
He could hear the excitement in her tone, but it wasn’t practical. And definitely not about to happen. “That building will be rubble by the end of the week.”
“You can’t be serious. That was their home.”
“I don’t joke about work. Ever! And for the record, that place wasn’t a home.”
“What about their possessions?”
“They can buy new ones,” he said. He didn’t see anything worth keeping in there.
“Seth, some things can’t be replaced. They don’t have a monetary value. Like photos of their loved ones. Didn’t you see them hanging on the walls? And there was a Christmas tree still up. The decorations looked homemade. You cannot let those things be destroyed.”
He hadn’t given any of that any thought. It was all about shutting that place down. Which it was. Thanks to his connections in the city, the inspector showed up early afternoon and notified the landlord it was being condemned. That meant the legal system worked in the favor of the tenants. Kind of.
“I think it is too late for them at this point,” he said.
“It can’t be. Lawson Steel has so much pull in this city. Heck, everyone knows who you are. Say the word and I’m sure you can arrange something so they can go inside one last time. Just long enough to retrieve what is important.”
“Their lives are important. That place is a death trap. No way can they go back inside,” he said firmly.
“Seth, please,” she begged. “You can build the tallest skyscrapers. Surely you can figure something out.”
Damn she was good. How did she make him feel guilty for doing what he felt was the right thing? He made sure that each person was going to have a place to live, have clothes on their backs and food to eat. Hell, that was more than many others would’ve done. Yet now it all seemed so mechanical, like filling an order, just meeting their basic needs. Charlene might be starry eyed, but she noticed things that he didn’t. They were things that his mother would’ve noticed too, and he liked that about Charlene. At least right now. Other times, it was inconvenient and really was only going to slow things down.
“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll make a call first thing in the morning.” That was going to have to suffice. Even what he’d pulled off today had practically been a miracle. Calling in more favors so soon wasn’t smart. And it was going to draw unwanted attention to Lawson Steel.
Charlene reached over and touched his hand again. In a soft gentle genuine tone, she said, “Thank you. Your trying means a lot to me.”
She took this very personal, and Seth never got personally involved in anything. Hiring Charlene was a mistake for a reason he hadn’t even seen coming. She’s good at talking me into what I never thought I’d do. That’s dangerous. Maybe not to the company, but definitely to him. There was another thing he needed to address in the morning. Charles needed Charlene to report directly to him so Seth could remain focused. He pulled his hand out from beneath hers and gripped the stirring wheel. She was a distraction he wasn’t going to allow to continue.