Page 36 of Snake

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She’d seen two ginormous motorcycles parked beside the entrance, so she wasn’t surprised to see two bikers in the mayor’s office. Badger Ness, the Horde president, and Aaron Kohl, the VP. Everybody called Aaron ‘Double A,’ with which he was apparently fine, but Autumn couldn’t bring herself to do so. ‘Badger’ was difficult enough to call a grown man who was at least a decade older than she was.

All three men stood when she entered the office.

“Autumn!” Mark Kennerman enthused in that too-friendly way of all politicians, even the interim variety. He grabbed her hand and practically snapped the bones with his shake. “It’s good to see you. You know Badger and Double A, of course.”

“Hi, Mark,” she said and subtly flexed her hand before she took the one Badger was offering. “And yes, hi, Badger.”

“Hey, Autumn,” Badger replied. He smiled sidelong. “How’re you feelin’ today? Heard you had quite a night.”

Though she felt a new flutter of embarrassment, she didn’t let this one take hold. Instead, she smiled. “I had a good time, yes. And I’m feeling great today, thanks for asking.”

She turned to the last man in the room. “And Aaron. Hello to you, too.”

“Really wish you’d call me Double A, ma’am,” Aaron said, taking his turn to shake her hand. “Feel like I’m gettin’ sent to the principal’s office when I hear that name. Makes me clench up.”

Both men in leather had been much more gentle when they’d taken her hand than the guy in pressed khakis, a blue Oxford, and a striped tie had been.

Also what was it about these bikers and their distaste for the names they were born with?

“Okay, Double A,” she conceded. “I’d hate to make you clench.”

Mark laughed robustly at her very minor joke. Badger and ... Double A offered humoring smiles.

“Please, sit,” Mark said, indicating a leather chair just like those the Horde men had been sitting in, but set slightly apart and turned to face theirs.

Autumn took it. “Thank you for meeting with me, all of you. I wanted—”

That was as far as she got before Badger leaned forward and cut her off. “Before you get started, I want to let you know that the club met first thing this morning. We talked, we voted, and we put this together.” He picked up a manila folder from the corner of Mark’s desk and handed it to her.

Autumn took it, feeling wary but showing only curiosity, and opened it. A neatly stapled sheaf of papers sat inside. Typed across the top of the first page was the heading OFFICIAL BID: HEARTLAND HOMESTEAD PROJECT, SIGNAL BEND, MO, SIGNAL BEND CONSTRUCTION.

Though she should have simply read the bid and shown no surprise about it at all, Autumn got no farther than the heading before reflex shot her head up.

Despite her shock, she kept her voice calm and professional when she addressed Badger. “I know what this is, obviously, but I’m surprised, so I’m not sure what it means. You’ve been fighting me on this project since the beginning. What changed?”

Double A turned to Badger, Mark turned to Badger, but Badger kept his attention on Autumn.

“A few things changed,” he answered. “But I’m not gonna tell you everything. What I will say is you have done deals now. That’s a change, so we talked things out.”

Badger’s focus hadn’t shifted from her, but Autumn noticed something odd in her periphery, where Mark sat. She didn’t make sense of it in that meeting, but later she’d realize that his politician’s grin had collapsed, and he’d swallowed hard enough to move his whole body. He was afraid of Badger, and some kind of threat had been made.

But in the moment, Autumn kept her attention on the man who’d handed her an olive branch.

“We’ve got some specific terms,” he said, “and you and I, we’re not negotiating. We did that up nice so you’ve got all your Is and Ts dotted and crossed, but that’s not a bid so much as a statement.”

Autumn formed a specific smile on her mouth. It was meant to convey interest, a willingness to consider, but by no means an intention to simply roll over. “Well, this is an interesting development, for sure. Let’s see what’s here.”

She began reading the bid. For the most part, it was fairly standard. In financial terms, they were on the high end of reasonable, but in a range she could work with—and she hadn’t intended to lowball this project, anyway. That was something she’d really pushed Chase on.

A truism in the construction business is the ‘contractor’s triangle’: there are three aspects to a job: speed, quality, and cost. A client gets to pick two. You can have cheap and fast, but it’ll be made of cardboard and spit. You can have good and fast, but you’re going to pay for it. You can have good and cheap, but you are going to wait forever to see the finished project, while your contractor squeezes you in on slow days.

Most of MWGP’s neighborhood commercial developments were cheap and fast. Autumn wanted good and fast, and she’d gotten Chase to bite—and he’d bite her if this failed.

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