“You realize,” I said angrily, getting to my feet. “That this whole thing was caused by your ex-girlfriend. Not mine. So basically, you’re telling me that you’re going to ruin me financially because of something that your stalker did to me! How is that fair? This is all your fault anyway!”
“Hang on. Why is it that you think I’m going to ruin you financially?” Damion looked affronted.
Was he stupid? Did he really believe somehow that I was going to be able to afford to buy out his minimal portion of my building. Fifty grand. It wasn’t that much if you compared it to the value of the entire business but going and getting a loan for that amount in order to buy out my brother would be painful in more ways than one. But the more I sat there and mulled it over, the more I wondered if that wasn’t the best option anyway.
“What?” Damion frowned at me. It was hard not to get pissed off at him when he had that expression on his face. “What are you pissed off about now?”
“Nothing. I was just sitting here thinking that I might be better off cutting you out of my business altogether. Whether it’s with a loan or with a buyout or what. I don’t know.” I was intentionally using inflammatory language. I was mad as hell at Damion for being such an arrogant ass about this whole situation. “After all, it’s being linked to you that has put me in the hot seat. I don’t want my business to fail just because you have shitty taste in women.”
“Had,” Damion retorted. “Lena is great.”
“Yeah. One out of what? Like a hundred? Good for you. Glad you’re marrying that one. But you’re sitting here all sanctimonious and smug while you accuse me of somehow ruining you financially or making you liable because I’ve been having vandalism issues perpetrated on my business by your stalker! How is that my fault? Trust me. If Trinity couldn’t get to you by sabotaging the garage, she would be doing her level best to poke you in the ass some other way.”
“You’re being an ass.”
“Oh am I?” Why was it that I was always the one accused being the ass? “You complain endlessly that I’m an ass because I’m the big brother. I’m the one who took over Dad’s business and Dad loves me best and wah, wah, wah, you feel like he doesn’t appreciate anything you’ve done or the fact that you’re a self-made man.”
“Believe me,” Damion retorted. “I’ll correct you if you’re ever wrong here. You are Dad’s favorite.”
“Are you sure? Because lately I think it feels more than a little bit the opposite. I came to you for help because I didn’t want to lose the garage and I didn’t want to pull a bank into the situation and have an outside party owning a piece of our business. I came to you for help.” I ground my teeth together because this still burned me. “Then you go and tell Dad that you had to bail me out. You did it to make yourself look good too. And believe me, Dad certainly enjoyed rubbing my face in that.”
“That wasn’t why I told him,” Damion muttered. “It’s complicated.”
“Uh huh. And now I’ve had issues with your stalker ex-girlfriend and you’re blaming me as though this is somehow my fault.” I curled my lip at him. “Just so you know, Trinity and Karl are house hunting down the street. Tansy is helping them.”
“What?” Damion shot out of his chair. “They can’t buy that house! It’s illegal!”
No matter how angry I was at Tansy, I wasn’t about to throw her under the bus the way that Damion had thrown me. So I shook my head. “No. Tansy is steering them toward something else. I think she even told them they couldn’t look in here or within two hundred yards of the surrounding subdivisions. But yes. Tansy took on Trinity and Karl as clients just like I did. So why don’t you go read her the riot act too? That way you can make sure and punish each and every person who might or might not be involved here.”
He glared at me. Then he shook his head. “You’re an idiot.”
“What?”
“I said that you’re an idiot.” Damion pointed at me. “Tansy Economides is a wonderful woman. You’re standing here tattling on her like you want me to be angry with her. But the truth is that she’s doing both of us a favor by taking one for the team. Yeah. Trinity is screwing with your business and with mine, but with Tansy helping her house hunt, it’s not likely she’s going to wind up anywhere near where she wanted to be. You should be appreciative of that.”
Maybe he was right. I don’t know. I don’t know what I knew right them. I was so pissed off at my brother for throwing his whole ex-girlfriend-stalker thing on me and calling me the liability to his business that I couldn’t think straight. The whole thing was shitty. It wasn’t like I wanted Damion to be part of my business. He had his own business. He had his fingers in everything as far as I was concerned. Too many everythings actually. It needed to stop. Now.
I stood up and turned to leave. I was done here. In so many ways. And after all of this I wasn’t actually mad at Tansy anymore either. I was just hurt, which was stupid. What guy says oh, I’m hurt. Wah. You hurt my feelings. But that was totally how I felt. It was embarrassing to see Tansy standing there beside Karl Kitson about ready to go house hunting with the jerk even though I knew the real reason that Karl had been standing there alone, and that was thanks to Trinity being in jail for breaking and entering.
“You’re out,” I told Damion.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You can tell your legal team not to worry about it. You’re not liable. You’re not even a part of this business. I’m kicking you out of my business. You can be my brother and nothing more. I don’t want a penny of your money or your time or whatever else you think you have to offer.” I sounded like a petulant kid whining about a bully. It was embarrassing.
“And how are you going to manage this?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered as I walked toward his front door. “But I’m going to.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tansy
Monday. Wow. This was going to be one hell of a day. I needed a husband. Fast. I was trying to help a couple of stalkers house hunt while not allowing them to purchase a home in their desired neighborhood because that would have violated some pretty serious restraining orders. And now I was sitting in my car waiting for Rory Stein to leave for work. There was a locksmith’s van parked right behind my car and I was beginning to wonder just how many beers a guy like Rory Stein needed to consume before he felt ready for work.
This was nuts. There was a light freezing rain falling out of the sky. My windshield was almost completely covered in the frozen precipitation falling from the sky. I could barely make out the sight of Rory standing in front of his grandmother’s recycle bin tossing beer cans into the thing as he stood there. His beat up truck was running, presumably warming up in the early morning chill. True to her word, Stella had left for her cousin’s house at the crack of dawn.
Rory finally staggered to his truck’s driver’s door and that was when I had my most brilliant idea yet. I snatched up my cell phone and called the local police station. “Yes. Hello?”
I heard the dispatcher’s nasally voice on the other end of the line and wondered if they all sounded like that or if it was just something about their phone system that made them sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher. “What’s your emergency?”
“I just watched a guy consume an entire six pack of beer, throw the empty cans into a recycle bin in front of his grandmother’s house, and now he is getting into his vehicle. Yep.” I watched Rory back slowly out of the driveway. “He’s actually backing out onto the street right now.”
“Can I get a make, model, and license plate number?” The dispatcher went from bored to interested in a split second.
I rattled off the information, gave her Stella’s address, and then advised her that this young man was about to be thrown out of his grandmother’s place for domestic violence and because the house was up for sale.
“I’ll be sending a car to your location, ma’am, to get a formal statement.” The dispatcher clicked off the line just about th
e time Rory Stein took out a pair of metal garbage cans on his way down the street. Not that he stopped. He just kept on driving, turned at the corner, and was gone in moments.
I got out of my car. So did the locksmith. The old guy’s name was Al. I’d been working with him for years, long before I got my real estate license. He’d done work for my parents at the restaurant. He was also Greek.
“That putz is going to kill someone,” Al grunted as he got his tools and supplies out of the truck. “Did you call the cops? I saw you on the phone.”
“Yes. I did. Hurry up and get those locks changed. Please? And make sure you do the garage, both the opener codes, the opener remotes, and also the main door.” I ushered Al toward the house. “This poor old woman needs her life back.”
Al hurried off to do exactly that while I waited for Thayla to show up. She was going to help me get the house fixed up for Stella so that it would sell. I was hoping it would sell fast now that Rory was gone. He had been a glowering presence in the house telling all potential buyers that they weren’t welcome. It was one of the reasons that Stella had only gotten one measly lowball offer since she put her house up for sale.
Thayla’s car turned the corner at the end of the street, but she wasn’t alone. I frowned. I knew the truck behind her. It was the older vehicle that Val usually drove. There was a logo on both front doors and at the moment the bed of the truck was full of furniture.
I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to say either. I felt glad to see Val and at the same time I was a bit miffed by the way he had behaved just yesterday in front of my real estate office. He had embarrassed me and made some pretty horrible insinuations. But was that really any worse than trying to rope him into a permanent relationship just to thwart my mother’s matchmaking efforts?
My heart was in my throat by the time Thayla pulled onto the curb in front of Stella’s house. Val didn’t waste a second. He backed into the driveway and got out of the vehicle as though he were ready to work.
“Thayla said you guys needed help,” he told me with a sort of tight smile on his lips. “I figured this might be a good way to make peace after yesterday.”
Wait. What? He wanted to make peace after yesterday? I was actually confused. Val had seemed really angry yesterday. How did those feelings just go away? Or was I witnessing one of those rare moments when someone I knew was doing the right thing, the mature thing, and being a grown up about their bad feelings and disagreements? It was almost too much to take in.
I shook myself out of the ridiculous stupor I seemed to have fallen into. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to just zone out on you. And yes. The locksmith is up at the house now changing the locks. We need to get the young man’s stuff out of his room, pack it up, and leave it on the porch out of the weather.”
Thayla trotted up with an arm full of goodies. “Did you see him leave? Are we clear?”
A police car was coming up the street. I waved at the officers before explaining the rest of it to Thayla and Val. “Rory drank a six pack before work this morning. I actually watched him. So I called the cops. I’ll make a statement. I’m hoping they’ll tell the guy that his stuff is on the front porch. I want them to be here when he comes to retrieve it so that he can’t just throw a fit and start breaking windows or something.”
“Yeah, that would suck,” Val muttered. “All right. Do you have boxes?”
“My car is full of them,” I explained.
Before I could say anything else, Val was already unloading the back of his truck and the boxes out of my car. He and Thayla worked quickly in the freezing rain as though they absolutely realized just how critical the timeline was.
“Ma’am?” The police officer waved his hand at me. “Are you the one who called in the DWI?”
“Yes, sir. Did you get him?”
“Didn’t have to look far,” the cop snorted. “He had buried the front end of his truck in a ditch less than a mile from home.”
“I don’t understand why he would do that!” I muttered. “It doesn’t make any sense. Is he trying to guilt his grandmother into coming home and letting him stay?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” the officer murmured. “But he did mention something about getting fired.”
“Ah.” That made some sense. I outlined for the officer what was happening. “The little ass has been abusing his grandmother. I came out here the other night and half her face was black and blue. She said she ran into a door.”
“Uh huh,” the policeman nodded his head. “We’ve heard of that one.”
“So I sent her to Jeff City to be with her cousin. That’s where she’s moving to get away from this Rory character.”
“Good idea.” The policeman put his hands on his hips. “And you’ve changed the locks. So can we bring him over here to get his stuff?”
“It will be on the porch. Mrs. Stein told us exactly what to pack. We’ll have it all ready to go if you wouldn’t mind keeping him from destroying the property just because he’s angry with the poor woman.”
“We can do that.” The policeman sighed. “I’m glad to hear that she’s finally getting out. Let’s just say that us locals have all had run-ins with Rory Stein at one time or another. He’s a real character.”
“I suppose that’s one way to look at it.” I could not begin to think of Rory Stein and the word character in the same sentence. Rory was an ass and that’s all there way to it. “Well, I’d better go and help with the packing. Thank you for your help, officer.”
I watched the policeman go and felt oddly let down. This didn’t feel like the end of it. There was just no way that could be true. You didn’t have something like this happen and then just come to the end without some sort of show down. But as I listened to Thayla and Val bantering back and forth I could not help but want to join in.
I had only just opened the front door when I spotted yet another car pulling up to the curb. But this was wasn’t Stella. It wasn’t Rory. And it certainly wasn’t the police. It wasn’t even the usual stalker suspects.
It was my mother.
“Oh God,” I whispered.
My father was in the passenger seat of the car. And of course, in the back was a tiny little man with a huge moustache. This was not going to be good. Not good at all. I felt my stomach drop into my boots. What on earth was my family doing here of all places?
“There she is,” Mother gushed as she got out of the driver’s seat of the car. She waved at me. “Yoo hoo! Tansy! We’ve been looking all over for you!”
“And how did you find me?” I tried to keep my tone even and maybe even cordial. I wasn’t sure if it worked or not.
“That nice man at your office,” Mother told me thoughtfully. “What’s his name? Ray! That’s it. Ray told us where to find you!”
“I see.” I actually had my back pressed against the front door so firmly that when it opened behind me I nearly fell into the house.
I gave a little indignant squeak, but fortunately for me, Val was right there to catch me. “Are you okay? What are you doing trying to push your way into the house? I don’t think the locksmith has gotten to this one just yet.”
“Tansy!” My mother, my father, and my fake fiancé were all hurrying up to the front porch. I wasn’t sure if this was thanks to the freezing rain picking up speed and enthusiasm, or because they wanted to know what the whole situation was about. “Tansy, get away from that man! What are you doing?” my mother shouted.
Val finally seemed to see what was happening. “Let me guess. Your parents.”
“Remember when I jokingly told you that my parents wanted me to marry a cook from Greece so he could get a green card?”
“Yeah.”
“I wasn’t joking.” I realized that I was about to stick my foot so far inside my mouth that there would never be any way to extract it. “Please just go with it. All right. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
Val took a breath to speak, but I didn’t give him the cha
nce. Instead I grabbed his hand and held it up, our fingers twined together. “Mama, Papa, this is my fiancé. His name is Valentino Alvarez. He owns an engine and transmission repair shop down in Fenton.”
My parents ducked beneath the wide porch overhang and stared at me as though they were more than a little upset by this whole thing. My father’s hot glare sought out Val and I suddenly felt awful for dragging him into this.
Val didn’t seem to bat an eyelash. He held his hand out to my father. “Mr. Economides, it’s so nice to finally meet you. Your daughter has told me so much about you and I will admit that I am a huge fan of your cooking.”
“My cooking?” My father’s bushy white eyebrows went straight up in surprise. “You eat at my restaurant?”
“All the time,” Val said warmly. “It’s my mother’s favorite. So my father and I take her there whenever we can.”
“Your parents, you say?” My father scratched his forehead. Then he gestured to Anatoli. “This is our new cook. He was also supposed to be engaged to marry my daughter.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Val did not actually look sorry. He looked amused. “But I’ve been dating your daughter off and on for a while. We like to take things slowly. I feel like too many people go far too fast these days. You know?”
My mother slammed her hands down on her hips and glared at Val. “But you have become engaged to our daughter without asking permission from her family?”
“Believe me, ma’am, I absolutely intended to speak with you about my desire to marry your daughter,” Val said firmly. “But not to ask permission. I believe that Tansy and I are far too old to worry about that. We can take care of ourselves and do it just well. I love her. I intend to marry her. And I don’t intend to ask anyone’s permission to do it.”
Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy Page 68