Page 16 of A Light in the Dark
Dust ruled the basement, but it lacked any signs of moisture, a good sign the shoring had been done properly. “This is good. Dirty but good. I’m guessing the old owner never went down here, but this could be turned into habitable space.”
“And your home has something similar?”
“After we’re finished here, we can swing by,” I promised. “I’m not currently using my basement for anything, but it’ll be my next project.”
The first thing I would do was shore up the floors so if the water level did rise, the basement would be sealed. The magic required to keep water out but generate sufficient air to prevent asphyxiation would cost me, but if I stayed in the area, I feared I’d need such a working.
A basement abode might be a wise idea.
Acknowledging I allowed my worries to run away with me, I pushed the thoughts aside and focused on my current job, which involved getting a general idea of how many repairs needed to be done before the place became habitable. I headed into the kitchen, grimacing at the sorry state of the cupboards, stove, and sink, all of which had seen significant wear and tear.
The rest of the rooms, excluding the bathrooms, had escaped with cosmetic damage. Both bathrooms would need new tubs, toilets, and vanities, as the porcelain suffered from cracks and would spring leaks sooner than later.
I handed over my list of findings to my boss so he could decide how much to tell the realtor. Mr. Accor reviewed thelist, nodded, and said, “How long will it take to prepare the offer?”
“About thirty minutes. I have the papers with me. There’s a coffee shop up the street. We can handle it there, and I can get the acceptance by this evening.”
“I’ll need ten minutes to pitch the boss, but he’ll bite.”
I’d met my boss’s boss’s boss, the owner of our company, once and only once. The man had reminded me of a hawk, ready and willing to swoop in and dispatch his prey. He’d worn a plain and simple suit, and he’d carried himself with the ageless grace of a shapeshifter.
While Moonriver had the reputation of boasting the highest shapeshifter numbers, Stonecreek had more than a few, although they tended to be shy about revealing their animals.
After this year’s floods, I wondered if there was more to their shyness than wanting to avoid extra attention.
“I’ll meet you at the shop up the street and get started on the paperwork while you handle your call.” Without waiting for an acknowledgement, Robbie left, heading up the street in the direction of a rather busy intersection.
Rather than call his boss, my boss shot over a text. “I’d already pitched two hundred thousand before repairs, which was approved, but I want to make sure that he knows what we found, that I’m moving forward with the acquisition, and otherwise prepare the accounting department for the paperwork.”
I nodded. “I’m surprised the company is willing to do this.”
“After we hired you, your efficiency led us to gain at least three times that sum per month. Making sure a refugee has asafe home essentially costs the company less than a month of profit and may result in us being even more efficient and being able to have higher earnings. It’s a good deal for us. I’ll also be recommending that you get a performance raise this year—a substantial one. Having numerous full years recording your performance will really help with that, and it’s been a day and night difference having you, so I don’t see a problem with getting you a good raise. We were going to offer a company car, but you don’t have a place to park it.”
“I opted to have the basement instead of a garage,” I admitted. “But what’s this about the bank not being willing to do more than double the owed mortgage value?”
“Banks gouged the market last year fairly heavily, and people got pretty cranky over it and threatened to have laws written in barring them from taking more than ten percent over the owed mortgage value,” my boss replied, and he shook his head. “It’s pretty ridiculous, honestly. The banks will be suffering soon enough. A coalition is pushing to cap retail prices in most neighborhoods in the city, and that might ripple out to the entirety of the city-state. If that happens, the real estate moguls are going to have a pretty miserable time.”
How strange. “And the company will do the repairs?”
“Absolutely—and we’ll help Madeline furnish her new home. It’s even close enough to walk to the offices if she would like, and there’s a bus that goes up this street fairly frequently. Try not to worry, Valerie. It’s a good arrangement for everybody. We get a loyal employee, you get the help you desperately need, and we’ll be even more efficient. We might even be able to add a few new account managers once you’ve trained Madeline. If we can add the account managers, wecould double or triple our earnings—and expand our work to other city-states.”
Our firm had been eyeballing working with businesses that dipped their toes into numerous city-states, but the scope of the operation had been beyond what we could manage. I understood my boss’s perspective. If I could train Madeline to be even half as efficient as me, we’d be able to streamline the intake process sufficiently enough to take the dive. I had no idea where my boss would find accountants with the appropriate skills, but that was a problem he would have to address on his own. “When you phrase it that way, it seems buying and furnishing a home is a small price to pay.”
“We’re looking at the big picture.”
No kidding. “It seems strange they’d let her go for what appears to be a pittance,” I confessed.
“We’ll have a lot of paperwork to handle registering her as a full-time employee. That won’t be a problem. She’s not the first refugee we’ve brought in, and we’ve already learned the ins and outs of handling the documentation. Providing housing that will be in her name will smooth things along. Homeowners have better rights and protections in Stonecreek.”
I wondered if my decision to purchase immediately upon moving into Stonecreek had spared me from Gabriella’s fate. Once I got home and my boss left, I would contact the Hunters and find out.
In the meantime, I would do my best to hide my insecurities and worries from the rest of the world.
SEVEN
Now that you mention it, that would be nice.
My boss lovedeverything about my house, and he was so keen on learning about how I made my steps that I spent a full hour outside with him explaining the entire building process, showing him the empty bags of mortar, my tools, and giving him a demonstration with smaller pieces of stone I had kept after finishing my work. Halfway through, Joel strolled down the street and joined us, and he raised a brow. “If you teach the entire city how to do that level of stonework, you’ll run half the construction companies out of business.”
