I went from holy, no way, what the hell to fireworks exploding in my head but I didn't get to let them out through my mouth in a running string of swear words or incoherent shrieks of hideously pathetic protests, because Jared hurried on.

"We don't want her submission to get accepted," he said. "And one way to block it is to develop this place as an annex."

"We already have approval," Alicia told me, holding tight to my elbow while I trembled my way past the ...