Chapter 12
TWELVE
Lula
“Lula here to see the two of you, boss,” Tiny announces, but I don’t wait.
I’m mad as a box of hornets that somebody has just been poking with a stick.
“Do you hate us that much?” I demand as I walk into Larry’s office behind him, pointing at my mom. “Do you want Dad dead? Huh?”
The smile falls from her face as she stares at me, shaking her head. “Lula, what’s happened?”
“Don’t play innocent,” I tell her. I squeeze one hand with the other to keep from slapping her. “You told me to get Dad to sell to him. I’m supposed to believe that was just a coincidence?”
I turn and glare at Larry, who’s trying to hold back a smirk.
Maybe a slap would be in order, in his case at least.
“It’s for the best, darling,” my mom says. “Surely you can see… I mean, you signed the contract, Lula Belle. Nobody forced you to.”
“Except they did, didn’t they?” I’m glad I don’t have a gun right now… “You and Larry and Scotch, all in on it together, driving our business into the ground so we had no choice. Well, I hope the money is worth it because I’m never speaking to you again after this!”
“What?” Her eyes go wide as she shakes her head. “Nobody would do that to you, sweetheart. I like your father, I always have, I just don’t—”
“Scotch told you, didn’t he?” Larry says, still smirking.
My mom turns toward him. “What are you talking about? What’s going on? Will someone please explain something?”
I open my mouth to hurl the next words that come into my head, but I don’t get them out before I hear his voice behind me. “I will.”
My fury rises as I turn. How dare he show his face after what he did?
But when I see Scotch standing there, all my anger is forgotten.
He still looks so good, but there’s something different. A determination I didn’t see the last time I spoke to him. Anger, not aimed at me but at his dad. What’s going on here?
“Hello, son. Good work, by the way, if they’d sold me that place any cheaper they would have been paying me.”
Scotch’s jaw tightens so hard I hear his teeth starting to crack as he draws in a deep breath through his nose. Then he licks his lips. “Tell me one thing, Larry. What was the plan with Diedre?”
Larry chuckles. “What? Business isn’t allowed to come with a healthy side portion of fun?”
“Did you know who she was when you took her on at the car wash? Did you know how she was connected to Z’s Scrap?”
Larry doesn’t answer that. He just sits back in his chair, resting his folded hands on his paunch. “Why are you here, son? I believe our business is concluded already.”
Scotch turns his eyes to me, then they drop. “I know you can’t forgive me. But for what it’s worth I am sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” my mom demands, and even I have to admit, if she’s faking her disbelief she’s doing a damned good job of it.
Larry yawns, like it’s all so boring. “Z’s Scrap. We ran it out of business. Well, Scotch did, that’s his department really. I just invested the money to buy up the competition.”
“You did what?” My mom turns from him to Scotch, then back again. “Did you know this when we got married? Did you know that’s my ex husband? How…” She looks on the verge of tears. “How could you do that to them? That’s my daughter, for fuck’s sake, Larry!”
She pulls her arm back, ready to slap him, but he catches hold of her wrist and twists.
And Scotch steps in.
In a flash, he’s there as a shriek leaves my throat and my mom cries out in pain. He grabs Larry’s arm at the shoulder and pushes him back, then throws a punch that crunches into his eye socket.
“Don’t fucking touch her, you piece of shit,” he says as my mom scrambles back. Before I know what I’m doing, I’m there beside her, pulling her up into my arms.
“Did you know?” my mom demands as Larry backs away into the corner. She turns from him to Scotch. “Did you?”
Scotch shakes his head.
“Of course we knew,” Larry says with a laugh. “Sticking it to him and sticking it to his ex wife at the same time? How could I possibly resist?”
“I didn’t know,” Scotch says, rubbing his knuckles as they come up in bruises. He turns to me. “I swear, I didn’t know. I knew what we were doing, but not who we were doing it to. And I’ve already told him, I’m not doing any of that shit again.”
“I still win,” Larry says with a smirk.
“I don’t think so.” The voice comes from the doorway, and I turn to see the man Scotch was standing with the other night coming through.
Scotch
James’ timing is off. If he’d got here a second later, Larry would be dead and I’m pretty sure I’d prefer that outcome. I’d be able to sit in a cell, knowing I’d lost Lula forever but at least I’d wiped his fucking ass of the planet.
My brother slams the bag on the table.
“What’s this?” Larry says, still grinning as his eye swells shut.
“Money,” I say. “Same amount you paid for Z’s Scrap. You’re going to sell it to me and I’m going to give it back to Lula and her dad.”
He laughs. “Why would I do that?”
“Not just that,” James says. “That’s my money, and I’m getting Metal Heads.”
“I don’t fucking think so. You’re out of your minds if you think—”
“Tell him,” I say to James.
He glances at Lula and her mom. “With them here?”
I nod. “Go ahead.”
“You’re not the only one that can hold a grudge,” James says. “The Gregory Family were pretty interested when we told them it was you that drove the Scarlet Express out of business.”
“That place? Fucking dump. That was years ago,” Larry says, but the grin has fallen from his face. “Anyway, Scotch was involved too.”
James shrugs. “Scotch was a minor. They know who was pulling the strings.”
“I had a chat with Hugh Gregory,” I say. “Told him how sorry I was and if there was anything I could do to make up for what happened, I would. Seems they’re semi-legitimate these days and don’t want any trouble. They’re even willing to let you off with a warning.”
“But they want you gone,” James says. “Out of town. Today. You have three hours.”
Larry licks his lips. “Can’t be done. I have business interests I need to sell.”
I nod to the bag. “I think you’ll find that’s a good offer at this late notice.”
“Fuck you,” Larry spits. “I’ll go see Hugh myself. I’ll tell him I need a few days.”
James chuckles. “I wouldn’t but it’s up to you. The deal’s on the table. Take it or leave it.”
Larry stands there. The office is about as silent as I’ve ever known it, and I realize with some amusement that the music in the main hall has stopped. So everyone—strippers, wait staff, Tiny, clientele—are all listening in? Good. Let them hear this.
“You always did like money,” I say, and reach out to push the bag across the table to Larry. Then I pull the contracts and a pen out of my pocket, all written up by my lawyer in the last couple of hours. All above board.
Larry’s lip curls in a snarl, but he grabs the pen out of my hand.
And in ten minutes he’s scurrying away like the rat that he is, with a bag full of cash and a target on his back if he ever sets foot in this city again.
“Scumbag,” Lula’s mom says, and I know she’s talking about him, but I flinch at the word.
Time to make things right.
I grab the contract for Metal Heads and hand it to James. We shake hands and he heads out of the room, and then I hand the rest of the stack to Lula.
“Thanks,” she mutters. She flicks through the pages, then frowns and holds most of them out to me. “What am I going to do with three strip clubs and a car wash, Scotch?”
“Whatever you want. Close them. Burn them to the ground. Sell them. You deserve something.”
“Did you really not know what he was doing?”
“I knew what he was doing,” I say with a sigh. “Just not who he was doing it to. If I could go back and change everything…”
“You can’t,” Lula’s mom says. Then she reaches out and squeezes my arm. “But you’ve tried to make it right.” She turns to Lula. “You two need to talk. I’ll be out there drinking a half gallon of gin if anyone needs me.”
I watch her go, then turn to Lula.
“She’s right,” she says.
“I know. I don’t expect you to forgive me. It’s going to kill me to walk away from you right now, but I—”
She lunges for me, throwing her arms around my neck and squishing her mouth into mine. As she jumps up, wrapping her legs around my waist, the tears start to flow. I can’t help myself. I kiss her back. Hard. And stumble across the room to slam her against the wall as my hands go to her ass. Feeling her, touching her, it’s like a rainfall in the desert. A miracle. Life giving. Everything I could possibly want.
“Don’t ever threaten to walk away from me again,” she says between kisses.
I shake my head. “Don’t fucking worry, baby girl.”
“I can’t be without you.”
I pepper her throat with kisses, her chest, down between those perfect fucking tits. “How did I get so lucky?” I murmur.
“I know, right?” she says sarcastically, then laughs as I grind myself into her.
When we’re done, and she’s righted her clothes, we step out into the main room. Crystal—I have no idea what her real name is—steps our way with a frown on her face.
“If Larry’s gone, what’s going to happen to this place? Do we still have jobs?”
I grin and meet Lula’s eyes, then turn back to Crystal with a shrug. “No idea. Ask your new boss.”