One of the men laughed. “Five a.m. meetings are a good excuse to catch the sunrise.”
“Are you sitting out on your deck, Will?” He turned his camera around so she could see that her guess was correct. “That’s quite a view,” she said as she took in the tall redwoods and the rolling hills and ocean beyond it.
“Harper and Jeremy are hoping you’ll come out to visit us soon,” Will replied. “Hopefully, this will entice you.”
“Charlie is angling for the same thing,” another man said. “Would it seal the deal if she threw in a sculpture?”
“And Noah is dying to show you how well he can swim now that his water wings are off,” another of the Mavericks put in.
“I’m not going to turn down your stunning views, Will, or one of Charlie’s incredible pieces of metal art, Sebastian. And let Noah know that I’m dying to swim with him, Matt. I don’t need any bribes to come spend some time in Northern California with you. Just a little more downtime.”
“I hear you,” a man with a beard agreed. “I keep thinking I’m going to be able to get to Lake Tahoe to work on my cabin, but somehow I never quite seem to make it into the woods.”
Roman recognized him as Daniel Spencer, the founder of Top-Notch DIY, a chain of home improvement stores. He recognized each of the Mavericks, as their rags-to-billionaire stories had made the five men famous over the years. Their trajectory was impressive enough to have helped fuel the determination of a guy like Roman, who also came from a rough place.
Few people from his world made it out—and even if they did, they still couldn’t dream of making the kind of money he had. As an adult, he’d worked hard to cage the part of him that had been trained to win at all costs, no matter the danger, regardless of the consequences. But the fact was that with his size and boxing background, being a bodyguard had been the best way to get out of a bad neighborhood and into a better one.
Billions of dollars would be nice, but it was more than enough right now for Roman to feel he was doing the best job he could for the people who needed his help. People like Suzanne and her brothers. Fortunately, he’d saved enough, and invested well enough over the years, that he didn’t need to work for dickheads anymore.
Interestingly, for all their money and power, the Mavericks didn’t seem like dickheads. And they clearly weren’t just investors to Suzanne either. With the attached guys, she’d talked about kids and significant others. But the single Maverick didn’t give a whiff of anything other than friendly affection, and neither did she. It would have been the perfect “arranged” relationship—a Sullivan marrying a Maverick—but clearly those kinds of sparks weren’t there.
Roman was relieved despite himself. Despite the fact that Suzanne would never, and could never, be his.
“Should we wait for Evan before I bring this meeting to order?” she asked.
The four Mavericks seemed to share a look with each other on the screen before Will replied. “He’s going to have to sit this one out. But we’ll fill him in. So tell us, what news do you have for us on MavG1?”
“All good.” Her grin lit up her face. “We’ve got a few finishing touches to make the code a little prettier, and then we’re ready to jump into our first round of beta testing. I’m thinking we’ll be in beta by Friday at the latest.”
Sebastian whistled. “You’re a good six months ahead of schedule.”
“Not to mention you’ve already done the impossible by even taking this on when everyone said it couldn’t be done,” Daniel noted.
“Everything just clicked.” She looked extremely pleased about it. “In fact, I’m already jotting down some notes on how to make this product even more affordable.”
For the next ten minutes, Roman watched as she proceeded to blow each of the Mavericks’ hair back with her ideas. Obviously technologically savvy themselves, they asked good questions and were impressed with the answers she gave.
“Only you could have pulled this off, Suzanne,” Matt enthused. “Your mind is a marvel.”
“You know I love it when you blow smoke,” she replied with a grin, “but how about I make back your investment on the new product before you deem me to be a digital security superhero.”
They chatted a few minutes longer about how her brothers and father were doing, and then when she clicked off, Jeannie buzzed in. “I have the head of IT from the Kaizen Group in Japan on the line if you’re free.”
“Put her on.”
Suzanne settled deeper into her seat as she put on her headset to take the call while lighting up several of the computer monitors on her desk. She was so deeply in her element that he got the feeling she’d forgotten he was even there at all as the first two meetings of the day turned into half a dozen more.