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“It was you,” I mutter to myself. “Motherfucker, what have I done?”

She grabs the phone out of my hand and I don’t even try to stop her. Then she starts to back away.

“You?You’re the one that… Please tell me this isn’t what it looks like, Scotch. This account has been terrorizing me, threatening the business, driving away our customers.”

“Who’s this?”

Lula’s father comes out into the doorway behind her, looking curiously at me as she stares in hurt confusion.

“This whole thing was a part of your plan all along, wasn’t it?” Lula spits the words, backing away. “How could I be so stupid? Every warning sign was there and I just walked right on past them like a lemming heading for a cliff.”

I shake my head. “Lula—”

“I never want to fucking see you again!” She turnsaround, almost pushing her dad inside the house. The rental they will probably have to give up now without the scrapyard. I stand, dumbfounded as she slams the door in my face.

“Fucking Larry,” I mutter to myself. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

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 slapwouldbe in order, in his case at least.

“It’s for the best, darling,” my mom says. “Surely youcan 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 explainsomething?”

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?”