Free A Good Kind of Trouble (A Trouble in Twin Rivers Novel Book 1) by Ellie Ashe

briefcase, withdrawing the proposed bond contracts for the Twin Rivers arena that she had been trying to decipher.  
    "Um, no?" she said. Her throat closed and she struggled to get her voice above a whisper. She sank into the couch. "Is it the mob?"  
    She'd seen movies. Wasn't Jimmy Hoffa rumored to be buried under a... stadium? Oh crap, what had she gotten herself into?  
    "No," Ben said, sitting next to her on the couch. "It's worse."
    "Who?" Her heart was pounding—partly due to his serious tone, but also because he was so close she was having trouble catching her breath. She needed to get over this attraction to someone who clearly didn't feel the same way.
    "EFB, Inc."  
    "Wait, who?" His tone implied this was very serious, but the name meant nothing to her.
    "Everett, Forrester, Binder, Incorporated. EFB, Inc.," Ben said. "Also known in the financial industry as Evil Fucking Bankers, Incorporated. It’s an investment house. They sell bonds to finance municipal projects."
    "Like stadiums."
    "Especially stadiums. They've handled a lot of those deals in the past decade and made a killing at it."
    Bankers were stalking her? That didn't make sense.  
    Ben leafed through the documents. "Here," he said, leaning in to show her a contract. It was one she had glanced at, but put away until she could find someone to decipher the terms. Maybe Ben could do that. He was a lawyer.
    "Do you know how much money they make on these sales?" Ben asked, turning his attention from the papers to her. Her throat closed up as she looked into his eyes and she willed herself to speak.  
    "A lot?" she squeaked.
    "More than that," he said.  
    "But why would I be messing with them? I'm just trying to figure out what the arena is going to cost the taxpayers. It's all public."
    "It's all public. And it's all hidden in plain sight," Ben said.  
    She watched him sort the papers into piles on the coffee table. "These are contracts for the bonds that the city will sell to finance the stadium. EFB will issue the bonds. Investors will buy the bonds, which promise a certain interest over a set period of time."  
    Lindsey nodded. She understood how municipal finance worked, but she enjoyed hearing him talk so she didn’t interrupt.  
    "The problem is that these bonds are linked to other city contracts with EFB, and those are not included here. So, here—" He pointed to a dense clause in the middle of a page and Lindsey leaned closer to look. "This says, basically, that when this other round of bonds is issued on the other project, these bonds, the stadium bonds, will be refinanced with EFB at a rate to be determined."
    "Is that like an incentive?" Lindsey asked. "Like refinancing at a lower interest rate?"
    "Not exactly," Ben said. "More like a consolidation loan, rolling all your credit cards into one loan payment. But at a rate that doesn't necessarily match what the city will be paying the initial bond investors."
    Lindsey sighed. She should have majored in economics.  
    "Look at it this way. The city promises to pay three percent on the bonds. Investors buy bonds expecting a three-percent return."  
    She nodded.  
    "But EFB is proposing a synthetic rate swap," Ben said.  
    Lindsey rubbed the growing ache at her temple. Sometimes her job was so boring. There were reporters out there right this minute, dodging bullets, navigating war zones. Then there was her.  
    "And I can see I just lost you again." The leather couch creaked softly as Ben settled his broad shoulders against the cushions. His leg brushed against hers. Two layers of clothing separated them from actual contact and still, the touch made her heart leap. She struggled to focus on the details of what Ben was telling her.
    "EFB is proposing that once the city does two major bond financing deals—the stadium and this other project—that the city then refinance both of them, through EFB. But it's not exactly a refinancing, because the city will still owe the bondholders the