I flipped the coin into the air and slapped it onto the back of my wrist.

“Tails.” I nodded at Mark. “Let’s go.”

We stepped into the conference room, I shut the door, and we sat at a large table of knotted wood.

“What can I do for you?”

Mark leaned forward. He wore a crisp business suit and a conservative burgundy tie. His dark brown hair was cut in that executive/politician style: not too long, not too short, conservative, neat. His nails were clean and manicured, his chin showed no stubble, and he smelled of masculine cologne. Not overpowering, but definitely detectable.

“I’d like to talk to you about the Guild arbitration,” he said.

And here I thought he’d made the trip to chat about the weather. “I’m listening.”

Mark looked at the dog. Grendel gave him an evil eye.

“I’ll cut to the chase: I’d like to take over the Guild.”

Ambitious, aren’t we? “I kind of gathered that.”

“I’m not popular. I don’t wear leather and I don’t carry guns.” He braided the fingers of his hands into a single fist and rested it on the table. “But I make the Guild run. I make sure the customers are happy, the profits are made, and everyone gets paid on time. Without me the whole thing would collapse.”

I had no doubt it would. “I’m waiting for my part in this.”

“Your vote will be the tiebreaker,” he said. “I’d like us to come to some sort of arrangement.”

He’d just dug a lovely hole for himself. I waited to see if he would jump into it.

“Of course, I understand that sufficient compensation is in order and our arrangement would have to be equitable and mutually beneficial.”

And he had. I sighed. “Mark, the problem isn’t that you can’t run the Guild. The problem is that you think ‘white collar’ is a noble title.”

He blinked, obviously taken aback.

“In your world, everyone has a price,” I said. “You don’t know what mine is, but you think you can afford it. It doesn’t work like that. You could’ve gone many ways with this. You could’ve argued that with the leadership of the Guild in limbo, nobody is getting paid. You could’ve pointed out that the longer this goes on, the more talent the Guild will lose, as experienced mercs move on to new jobs to feed their families. Offering to bribe me was the worst argument you could’ve made. My opinion isn’t for sale.”

“I meant no offense,” he said.