Page 33 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)

“Not much to tell yet, these just happened,” he noted.

“Any thoughts on what you’ll do?”

“Not yet.”

Completing the call, he turned his attention back to his lunch.

Before he was even done eating, Ariel called again.

She shared, “The buyers are not saying no, but they’re asking if you can come up.”

“And how much do they want me to come up?” he asked.

She hesitated and finally said, “Honestly, not very much.”

“Give me the figure, so we’ll negotiate and then counter.”

“They don’t want to counter unless they can talk to you about it. They want to know why you want the building.”

“I’m not sure why I want the building,” he stated, “but I feel something about it.”

“I tried to explain to them a little bit about what you do, and the client was of the opinion that this building needed to be dropped.”

“And maybe she’s right. I don’t know yet,” he replied. “After my partner found the one man beaten but alive one day, followed by our finding the skeleton of a man the next, I’m feeling fairly protective about it.”

“Good. Let me talk to them about it again. Stay tuned.” She called him back a few minutes later. “They didn’t realize that you were there when the body was found.”

“Yes, and I was there at the time with my partner when they found the second one.”

There was silence at first. Then she muttered, “Jesus, that’s just creepy. You know that building should be dropped.”

“And I might just do it,” he stated, calm and collected. “However, I won’t make that decision right now.”

“No, of course not,” she muttered.

After they ended the call, he got up and checked out the choices of ice cream here. It was way too cold for it, but it was looking mighty tempting.

While he hemmed and hawed, Ariel called back and said, “She’ll split the difference, if you want it.”

He thought about the split-the-difference part because that would be a good chunk of change. “Fine,” he said. “Have them send a counter, and I’ll go from there.”

“Will you accept the counter?”

“I don’t know,” he snapped irritably. “I’ll figure that out when I see it.”

She moaned. “You are so frustrating.”

“I may be frustrating, but I’m also the one who’s making the offer,” he pointed out in a droll tone.

“Yes, you are, but it’s also a hell of a deal.”

“So, either get it done or don’t,” he snapped once more. He ended the call, only to realize another customer was staring at him. “Sorry,” he muttered, shaking his head with a shrug. “ Realtor .”

The guy just laughed. “They’re all sharks,” he declared. “Make sure you don’t let them walk all over you.”

That seemed to start a general conversation in the entire coffee shop. By the time he was outside and on his way, everybody had given him all kinds of advice. He just smiled, knowing that was the last thing he really needed. Yet he appreciated the sentiments.

Realtors did get a bad reputation, and maybe they deserved it. Maybe they didn’t. He certainly painted all of them with the same brush, but he was struggling to handle the one he was dealing with right now.

As soon as he made it over to the second rehab project, his foreman looked over at him and smiled.

“So, how’s it going?” the foreman asked Simon.

“It’s going,” he muttered, watching him closely. “More to the point, how are you doing here?”

“We’re doing better,” he stated. “We won’t make up for lost time, but things are definitely holding.”

“Good,” Simon replied.

“And did you get that new property, so we’ve got another job to do?”

“We do have another job to do, but we both know how long it takes to get that shit done.”

“Right. As soon as you have another project on the go, then I don’t need to be looking for work.”

Simon rolled his eyes. “As if I haven’t kept you in work for these last what, ten years by accident?”

“Nope,” he agreed, followed by a loud guffaw. “And generally, at this point in time, I would know that you have another project in the wings. Just checking in.”

“I bought one building, and I’m looking at a second. I wasn’t planning on the second one, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

“Wow, that will tie up a lot of cash,” he noted, his eyes narrowed. “Normally you only do two at a time.”

“I might sit on one for a bit,” he shared. “I’m not sure yet, but I’ll also drop it.”

“Wow, that would be two you would drop,” he noted.

“This one just might need it.”

“The only time it might need it is if it’s got bad mojo.” Then he stopped and looked over at him, and a look flashed in his gaze. “Oh, man, you didn’t.”

Simon looked at him and shrugged. “Not yet I didn’t.”

“The only way I’m working on that one,” he declared, “is if you literally take the stuffing out of it and take it right down to the ground.”

“And I might have to. In this case, it might even be part of the agreement,” he added, with an eye roll.

“Really, the owners don’t want you to fix it all up?”

“No, something to do with these last murders and the fact that the owner is having some health issues again,” he shared.

“It seems as if we’ve got people who have been hanging on to these properties for a long time,” he suggested, “looking to maximize the eventual sale.”

“Sure, but, if they’d sold them earlier, people could have done something with them, but now they’re so derelict that they’re not worth saving.”

“And they’re all emotionally attached,” he noted, with a sigh.

“Right, emotionally attached and yet financially on a pull string.” While he stood there, his phone buzzed. He looked down and muttered, “Here’s a counteroffer right now.”

“What’ll this one cost you?”

He looked over at him and shrugged. “Enough, but believe me that it’s a deal. Otherwise I wouldn’t be taking it.”

“It has to be,” he stated. “In all seriousness, that one could be bad news.”

“It could be, but I think dropping her and starting something fresh and new would be good for her.”

His foreman smiled. “I do like the fact that, to you, they’re not just dead properties.”

“No, they aren’t. Yet I still have to cover costs. If it even gets to the break-even point, I can live with that.”

“I’m not sure how you do it, but somehow you seem to manage.” He shook his head and quipped, “Go on. Buy yourself the next universe.”

He laughed and added, “Now you sound like Kate.”

“How is she doing?” he asked, eyeing him quizzically.

“Busy, dealing with the two bodies found in that one property.”

“Oh, and that’s why they’re selling right now,” he noted, his eyes squinting. “Talk about bad publicity. That’s a bargain-basement deal now.”

“It is, which is also why the iron is hot,” he said, with a laugh. He looked down at his phone and opened the text message with the counteroffer and smiled. “She did counter, but she didn’t counter as much as she said.”

Ariel called him back and said, “I’m really surprised at this too. I think she really just wants to get rid of it.”

“I would believe that except they didn’t accept the original offer.”

“No, but this is not much of an argument.”

“Agreed,” he said, as he looked at it and realized it was just about perfect. He quickly signed it and sent it back to her. “Done deal. I signed the paperwork.”

“Nice doing business with you,” Ariel declared, with almost a cackle in her tone.

He smiled. “Yeah, that’s two in a couple days.”

“Yep,” she confirmed, “but I’ve been working on the other one for a very long time.”

“You have, and now you can get off my back. I won’t need anything else for quite a while.”

“Unless another deal comes along.”

He frowned. “Okay, unless another deal comes along.”

She laughed and rang off.

With a smile, he looked over at his foreman and nodded. “Okay, two buildings, and you’ve got enough work to keep you going for the next ten years.”

His foreman laughed, raised a hand, and nodded. “Damn good thing you’ve got money. Everybody else in this business is going broke. I don’t know if you heard, but old man Horseman, his son has just declared bankruptcy.”

Simon frowned at him and asked, “Seriously?”

He nodded. “Yeah, high cost of labor and all the rest,” he said.

“Yeah, but they’re not keeping a close enough eye on the bottom line,” Simon declared. “As long as I don’t get called in to deal with that one, we’re good.”

“Do you think you would?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know too many people in that family.”

“Good, because, once a rich big-business family goes down, the in-fighting starts to get really good.”

“Yeah, that depends on whether you like fighting or not,” Simon noted, with a headshake. “Me? I would just as soon stay away from it all.”

“That’s because you’ve got nobody to fight it out with,” his foreman pointed out, with a snort. “If it was me, my brother would be all over it. He would sue me for mismanaging the company, and it wouldn’t end there.”

“Some families are like that,” Simon agreed. “We’ve seen good families go under for no good reason.”

“Yeah, we sure have. It’s sad.”

“Sad, yet just be grateful it’s not you.

” He gave him a smile and turned to leave.

“Now I have to deal with the reality of these new acquisitions. I’ll talk to you later.

” And, with a bit of a spring in his step, Simon turned and headed down the street.

And his feet took him right back to the warehouse he’d just bought.

He smiled up at her. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m not sure what we’ll do with you, but you’ll be fine from here on out.” And, with a warm heart, he turned to walk away. He had gone all of five steps when something inside him called out.

Not so fast.

He stopped and slowly looked around, but nobody was nearby. Frowning, he called out loud, “Who was that?”

Me , said the voice in his head. You don’t think this will be the end of it, do you?

“I hope so, unless you’ve got something to say otherwise.”

Oh, I’ve got something to say otherwise , the voice snapped. You still haven’t found me .

Those words put ice down his back. He was frozen for a few moments, until the voice snapped at him again.

Find me .

“Are you in that same building?”

I’m in that same building, and nobody even gives a crap.

“Maybe you need to tell me where and what’s going on.”

I can’t. I just know I’m here, and I can’t leave until you find me.

“Well, crap,” Simon muttered, as he stared at the building.

Yeah, you’re not kidding. Nowwww or neverrrr.