When my eyes rested on the woman in the front row, with long caramel-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail, I knew the evening wasn’t a total bust.

“This is a waste of time,” I’d complained earlier in the day to Laurel Khan, the woman in charge of PR for Drake Towers. “Council’s going to vote next week, and Manny tells me we have the votes we need.”

“Manny is a lawyer,” she’d replied. “He doesn’t have his ear to the ground. I do. There’s a group of concerned citizens who are creating quite a stir about our project. I’ve heard through the grapevine that they’ve got TV crews at the town hall meeting.” She looked stressed. “They’ll play this like we don’t care about the little guys. You’ve got to go and argue our side.”

“Fine.” I didn’t have to go - I owned the fucking company, and I didn’t need to do anything I didn’t want to do. Except I really wanted to build Drake Towers. Call me vain, but I wanted to make a mark on the city I’d grown up in.

The woman in the front row was beautiful, but beautiful women were a dime a dozen in my life. She was glaring at me as if she hated me, also a reaction that I’d seen before. There was no obvious reason I couldn’t take my eyes away from her, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away.

“Ryder,” Bianca interrupted, giving me a wide smile that made me uneasy. “Shall we get going?”

“Sure.” I dragged my mind back to the matter at hand. My instincts were telling me that Bianca Russo was going to be trouble, and I couldn’t afford to be distracted by a pretty face.  

* * *

The initial portion of the meeting was as dry as toast. The mayor’s speech almost had me nodding off. When Bianca took to the podium, I paid more attention. She had no reason to oppose the project, but we had history, the two of us. From past experience, I knew she wasn’t always rational about these things.

Sure enough, Bianca finished her prepared address and looked at the audience. “I know that some of you have questions and comments for Drake & Partners,” she said, with a smirk in my direction. “We are fortunate to have Ryder Drake himself with us today. He’s the architect of the project, and is more than qualified to address any issues you might have with it.”

Any issues you might have. The way she phrased it, it was almost an invitation for the audience to complain. My expression stayed neutral, but in the back row, Laurel frowned. Bianca’s words weren’t a ringing endorsement. She wanted something, and I had a feeling I’d find out what that was soon enough. Damn it. Bianca had a block of councilors that voted in lockstep with her. If she wanted to, she could make things very uncomfortable for us.

My brown-haired girl got to her feet. “If I might make a statement,” she said softly. The guy next to her, a scruffy, hipster-type with the requisite flannel shirt and dark wash jeans gave her a supportive pat on her shoulder, and my eyes narrowed. Who the fuck was this guy, and more importantly, why did I care?

“My name is Zoe Robinson, and I’ve lived in Toronto my entire life,” she started. “When I was a little girl, we didn’t have a lot of money, but I never felt poor. I could play in the park on the waterfront to my heart’s content, never having to worry that I wasn’t welcome.”

Her tone turned steely. “Unfortunately,” she continued, “with the Drake Towers project, that park will become a thing of the past. Access to the waterfront will be reserved for the rich, and our children will have no place to play.” She gave me a pointed look. “Toronto is becoming a city with no room for the working poor,” she said. “I ask the city not to make it worse by approving this project.”  

Zoe Robinson was good. So much more than a pretty face. She had an authenticity that was impossible to fake, and it was obvious that she spoke from her heart. When she finished, the audience burst out in loud, enthusiastic applause. Other speakers followed her, telling their own stories about the vacant lot that was the future home of Drake Towers, but none of them had the impact that she did.

Finally, when everyone had finished speaking, the man sitting next to Zoe got to his feet, a challenging look on his face. “Mr. Drake,” he said loudly, “What kind of accommodations does Drake & Partners plan on making so that ordinary citizens will continue to have access to the lake?”

Fury rose in me, swift and sure. This wasn’t a town hall meeting - this was an ambush. Hipster Guy wasn’t speaking to me. He was speaking to the TV cameras in the room. And I’d bet money that Bianca had known about this.

Laurel deserved a raise. Our original plan had been to send a young PR rep called Josh to this meeting, and he would have floundered, badly.

Not me. I’d sat at the negotiating table many times in my life, and I didn’t lose very often. I knew how to play this crowd, and it was by doing the unexpected.  I pushed back the anger I was feeling at Bianca’s duplicity and got to my feet, smiling pleasantly at the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I said, “I can assure you that we have no intention of blocking off access to the lake.” Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. A city by-law mandated that the public must have access to the water. “Furthermore, while our original set of plans didn’t include one, after listening to all the speakers tonight, I’m convinced that adding a public park and a playground to our design is the right thing to do.”

I kept my eyes on the audience, smirking inwardly at Hipster Guy’s obvious dismay. He hadn’t expected me to accede to his demands.

Good.

Bianca was looking like a problem.

I couldn’t let this group of citizens become another one.