Vince smirks. “Three hundred thousand, Scout. For the duration of the project.”
“Th-thousand?” I stutter. The numbers don’t quite make sense in my head. I never imagined I’d make that kind of money in my entire life, let alone in one go.
“Yes.” He responds as if I’m trying to make a joke, but I’m not. Not at all. “You’ll be leading our coding and design teams under my brother, who will be introducing new technology for the entire team to build. This is top secret and requires you to not ask too many questions.”
“Wait. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this… how did you find me?”
“How I found you is not critical, but what you do with my offer is.” His voice flattens, as if he’s starting to tire of the conversation. Which, he’s clearly rich and influential, so of course he is. He probably resents having to come into this building at all.
I slowly blink at him as he waits patiently for my response.Requires you not to ask too many questionsthrows up a whole hell of a lot of red flags, but then again, the offer of three hundredthousanddollars turns those flags a nice shade of green. That kind of money, while obviously a drop in the bucket for him, is life-changing for me. I could pay off our debts, put some money in savings–
“Is this long-term?” I blurt out the question. “Are there more jobs after this one, or is it a one-off?” That kind of money makes even a one-off job feasible, but I want to know where his head is at.
“If you succeed in bringing quality work to the table, it will be.” Vince narrows his eyes at me. “Your thoughts, Ms. Summers—Scout?”
I know the money should be my primary driver here, but even more so than that is the idea that this could be a challenge. Arealchallenge that involvesrealstakes, and if I’m being honest with myself, that excites me even more than the money he’s offering.
“I’ll do it.” I quickly nod, and he relaxes back in his chair with a grin.
“Wonderful.” He pulls out a piece of paper from his jacket, an odd choice on a hot summer night, and unfolds it, handing me a gold pen as he pushes it across the table. It’s my contract, which I’m sure in any other scenario, I should have a lawyer look at before I jump into such a proposition. A random man walking through my doors to offer me an obscure job in an undisclosed location for an erroneous amount of money is risky as hell. I know that. But also, what the hell do I have to lose at this point?
I want the challenge, but Ineedthe money. My family needs the money, and even if my gut is telling me that this is a situation I should sleep on before signing the dotted line. I’m already scrawling my name on every page that requires it. If this is something fucked-up, I might be in more trouble than I am already, but hell, I’m barely treading water as it is.
I slide it back to him, and Vince takes it, looking through each page.
“Great,” he finally says, standing to his feet with a grin. He stretches his hand towards me, and I grab it, shaking with a confidence I don’t quite feel. “I’ll message you with details of the location. Your start time is tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Don’t be late.”
“I never am,” I tell him with a grin plastered on my face that doesn’t quite meet my eyes. I don’t want him to think I’m anythingbutconfident about this. “Thank you, sir.”
He smiles pleasantly. “You can call me Vince. We won’t be seeing much of each other, I don’t think. But we can dispense with the pleasantries on both sides.”
“Vince,” I agree.
“Tomorrow, then,” he says. Then he’s gone, vanished like the Ghost of Christmas Future, future bank account brought out of overdrawn status, that is.
I drop back into my chair, rubbing a hand across my face.Shit.With the promise ofthatkind of money, I can quit both of my jobs and get some actual sleep tonight. For the best, probably, because this kind of job is going to require me to be on my A-game, not exhausted and foggy-headed.
Immediately, I throw all of my things in my satchel, hanging from the hook on the wall, and stomp over to my manager’s desk.
“Mike!” I call, so he can hear me over the robot game he’s playing with exploding condiments in space. He whips around, alarmed, as he pauses the game.
“What?”
“I quit.”
“What?”
“I quit!” I call a bit louder, and he scratches a spot above his forehead before taking off his headset.
“Why are you not working?” He glances back at my empty office.
“Iquit.” I exaggerate, so he hears the words coming from my mouth without asking me anything else.
“You— Why?” His bewilderment tells me he genuinely has no idea this job is horrible, considering the demanding hours and barely legal minimum-wage pay.
“Mike–” I warn, and he shakes his head.
“Well, I’ll mark your two weeks—”