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After Phoebe came home, with Vin in tow, they’d all been focused on figuring out their new little family, and building the business of Ragamuffin Ranch. They’d flung open their doors to other broken, lost strays just like them.
They’d made the place she’d been raised in, the land she loved, into a home, and they’d built a family in it.
Now one entitled woman with an aggrievement fetish was trying to tear it all down.
Vin came up alongside her and rested his meaty forearms on the fence. “It’s just an inspection, Bee. Everything’s in great shape. We got this.”
She shook her head. “It’s an inspection based on a complaint. That’s not routine. They’ll be looking for trouble this time. The stable roof is getting old. The last inspector said we probably only have a year or so before it won’t pass. Maybe this inspector will say we don’t have that year. The fences need sealant. Maybe this inspector will care about that. Puff’s worn that sore on his ass again. And Smoky still looks like a polka-dotted skeleton. Maybe this inspector will say those are our neglect. If this inspector’s in the pocket of my UberBitch, then of course he’ll make a big deal of anything he finds—maybe he’ll even plant shit on us.”
Her head pounded, her chest ached. The problem was becoming so big in her head she couldn’t see its edges anymore. Maybe it had no edges. It was a huge, endless blob of blackness that would take over everything and crush her under its weight. No solution, no recovery, nothing but ruin.
“Hey,” Vin said as he pulled her around to face him. “Slow down. You’re breathing too fast.”
She looked up and shook her head again. She couldn’t begin to think how to slow down. Or do anything at all.
Vin drew her to his chest and crushed her in his arms. “We got this, Bumblebee. We will figure it out. We’re a squad, right?”
All Phoebe could do was shake her head. Everything was no.
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~oOo~
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“Well, did you call and ask?” Margot asked.
Phoebe, Vin, and Margot sat at the kitchen table. They hadn’t bothered yet with supper; they’d barely bothered to turn on any lights. Everyone sat in the gloom, figuratively and literally.
On the old oak table was a bottle of Cuervo—now about half empty—three juice glasses, and the letter. The page was badly wrinkled now; Vin had clenched it in his fist without realizing it and then left it in a wad until Margot smoothed it out to read it.
Staring at the half-full glass in her hands, Phoebe shook her head.
“I fucking will, then. They need to give us more information. Fuck, maybe I’ll call the UberBitch herself and tell her what a cunt she is.”
“No, Marg,” Vin interjected. “That won’t help nothin’.”
Phoebe didn’t have the energy to participate in the conversation. Her head felt like a cauldron of boiling lava. She stared at her glass and only shook her head.
Then she felt Margot’s slim, manicured finger under her chin. “Look at me, honey. You gotta click back in now.”
“I’m clicked,” Phoebe said softly as she lifted her chin off Margot’s finger. “There’s just nothing to say.”
“What, you’re gonna just give up? Just let that bitch destroy everything you—we—have because you didn’t greet her with open arms when she barged in here like she owned the place?”
The bitter irony that maybe UberBitch would actually own this place when she was done forced a choked snicker from Phoebe’s throat. If either Vin or Margot reacted to that sound, Phoebe didn’t see it; she was staring at her glass.
“Can we fight this someway?” Vin asked. “Margie, can you talk to your boss?”
Margot sighed. “I can, and I will. There may be a couple things we can try. Ty’s at his kid’s basketball game, but I will call him later tonight. I’m sure he’ll help us out.”
“In the meantime, we need to do everything we can in the little bit of time we got to make this place sparkle,” Vin said, with a little more energy. And we need to make sure there are plenty of witnesses to this inspection.”
“And video documentation, too,” Margot added.
Hearing a tiny flutter of hope in her friends’ words, Phoebe finally looked up. Vin reached over and grabbed her hand. Seeing that, Margot grabbed her other.
“We got this, Bee,” Vin said, and Margot squeezed Phoebe’s hand as she reached for Vin’s.
