Page 68 of Outcast
They filed out one by one. Axel paused on the threshold, the last to exit. “I never much liked bankers.” His gaze landed on me. “Maybe you’ll prove yourselves too.”
I gaped, shocked he’d go there.
Dad barked a laugh. “Fair enough.”
The door closed behind Axel, and I turned to Dad, feeling a little queasy now that it was done.
“How upset are you that I went rogue like that?”
“I’m not upset, Emory. Sometimes in this business, it’s a judgment call,” he said. “We’re not like those big banks where everything is black-and-white. You weren’t wrong to remind me of that. But…”
“You’re worried.”
“Not for the bank,” he said. “If they default on this loan, we’ll foreclose on their property. Considering how reluctant they were to sell it… Well. It won’t be a good outcome for them, will it?”
I sighed. “No.”
“They’ve got their second chance if they qualify for this loan. There won’t be a third.” He clapped my shoulder. “Let’s just hope you haven’t only delayed the inevitable.”
My heart tumbled. Maybe Dad was right and it would beworsefor them to try and fail than to cut their losses now.
I didn’t want to watch them bleed out—but what if my fix only made it more painful in the long run?
My phone buzzed on my desktop. I dropped into my seat and picked it up to see a text notification.
Gray:
You’re my hero. You just saved me.
Emory:
It’s not a done deal just yet.
Gray:
Close enough. We’ll make it work. We have to. Thanks for vouching for us.
Emory:
Well, I owed you a rescue. If not for you, who knows what might have happened on that roadside?
Gray:
I guess we’re even then. But I’d still like to thank you. Maybe with dinner at our place. You need to check out the property anyway, right?
My heart skipped. For better or worse, I was committed to this course of action now. And really, it was better to give the guys a chance.
They were survivors. They didn’t deserve to go down without a good fight.
Emory:
Dinner sounds great.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Gray
Emory arrived at six thirty,dressed in ripped jeans, a tight T-shirt, and a smile that tempted me to take him straight upstairs. It was a far cry from how he’d looked at the bank this morning, tense and contained in a business suit.
