Page 25 of Bad Girls Don't Marry Marines (Rock Canyon, Idaho 3)

“I was just thinking about that matchmaking thing—”

“No,” Val whispered, her hands curling into claws.

“And how we haven’t gone somewhere together in so long—”

“No.”

“And Daddy thought it was a great idea when I suggested we both go—”

“No!” Val leaped toward her sister, but Ellie must have anticipated her move. She ran, with Val chasing after her as Gus barked and snorted behind them.

“I DON’T CARE what you have to do, but you need to take this charge off. My little sister stole my credit card to make this reservation!” Val felt like she was screaming, she was so beyond pissed off. It had taken a half nelson and some very creative threats against Ellie’s designer leather jacket, but she’d managed to get her sister to confess that she had not only conspired with their father but had stolen Val’s credit card to make a nonrefundable hotel reservation.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but there’s nothing I can do. The reservation was made in good faith and this festival is very popular—”

“If it’s so popular, then why the hell isn’t it easier to cancel? People should be lining up around the block to get this reservation.” Val debated reining in her temper and attempting to catch a few flies with honey, but she was just so steamed. Whatever Ellie had been thinking, she was in for a world of hurt.

“Yes, but we’re just one day away from check in and we require seventy-two hours’ notice. It would be unlikely that we could fill your slot.”

“But she just made the reservation today!”

“Actually, ma’am, this reservation has been in place for several weeks. It’s the second reservation she paid for today.”

“Wait, second reservation? Who’s the first reservation for?” Val had a feeling she already knew.

“The first reservation is for Valerie Willis, made with the MasterCard ending in 3214.”

“Was the name on the card Edward Willis?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Val was having some serious thoughts about patricide. He’d made her a reservation weeks before he’d even asked her about it. Was he really that confident she was going to do whatever he asked?

Well, he’d better be prepared to eat his money, because she wasn’t going.

“So, there was only one reservation made today with my Visa,” Val said, shooting her sister a withering look.

“Yes, for an Eleanor Willis.”

Val counted to twelve and still wanted to kill her sister. “Okay, well, how about just canceling that reservation, since it was made today with a stolen credit card?”

“Please hold.”

Val looked toward the doorway where Ellie stood, looking a little rumpled from their wrestling match, and pointed at her. “If I can’t get this thing taken off my card, you’re paying it off, every fucking cent.”

“I was just trying to help you get a little somethin’-somethin’.”

Val took a pillow and hurled it at her sister as the desk clerk came back on the line. “Ma’am, my supervisor said we can reverse the one reservation with a twenty-five percent penalty.”

“But she just . . . You know what? Fine. Cancel that reservation, please.”

Val finished up the phone call and the clerk

offered to mail her a receipt. Writing down the remaining charge, she hung up the phone and handed the piece of paper to Ellie. “This is what you owe me. Since you don’t have access to your trust yet, you can either try your luck with Dad or find a job.”

Ellie looked at the paper and spluttered, “But—”

Val ignored her sister’s protests and grabbed her coat off the hook. There was one more meddling person who needed to understand that there were boundaries one did not cross.