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"Do you have five bucks, pet?"
Thrown off, my brows drew together and I reached under my desk for my purse. "I, ah, I think so. Hold on, let me check."
Frazzled, I rummaged through my bag to find my wallet, pulling out five singles, my last five singles, and handing it to Pagan. All the while, wondering why the hell he would need five dollars from me when he had a million dollar house and a car that cost a fortune. But that being said, he had covered all the food and whatnot we had had over the past couple weeks, so if he was a couple bucks short for something, I totally needed to step up.
"Congratulations, pet," he said oddly as he pocketed the cash, pulling out a curled up stack of paperwork and putting it down on the desk.
"Congratulations for what? I love a good party," Benny said, coming up to stand on the other side of the desk with Pagan.
"What is this?" I asked as he pushed the papers to me, drawing my attention down.
"Is this a... deed?" When he didn't answer, my eyes moved over to the bold print. "Why is my name here?"
"Because you are now the owner of the whole building," Pagan said, patting the pocket where my five dollars were situated.
"Okay, this makes no sense," I said, swallowing hard, but with my suddenly very dry mouth, it was difficult.
"Funny thing," Pagan said, shrugging, so freaking casual about something so crazy. "It happens that Ethan Criss only sort of owns this business. He and his partner, Conor, actually own it. And since Ethan hasn't been to work in a while," he paused there, giving me a look that I couldn't quite interpret and I thought I had gotten pretty good at reading him, "Conor was all-too-happy to look over the paperwork on this property. Was pissed too that Ethan never took you up on your offer earlier since that dump next door has been doing nothing but falling apart while empty. I made him an offer he couldn't, in good conscience, refuse. It was supposed to be a surprise," he added with a smirk as I just stood there catching flies in my mouth. "But you had to get all hyped up on your righteous anger and storm over there and ruin it."
He... bought a building for me?
No.
That was just... insane.
I never even planned to own the building. That wasn't even in the realm of possibilities for me.
And he didn't have that kind of money.
Right?
But then again, nothing else made sense seeing as the store next door was full of Henchmen.
"Pagan, I don't..." I shook my head, watching as Benny silently backed away, making his way to the door, obviously picking up on the fact that Pagan and I needed a minute to sort things out. And, very likely, going next door to ogle and be a cheerleader to all the sexy bikers doing manual labor. "This makes no sense," I went with, deciding it was the most honest, coherent thought inside my swirling brain right then.
"What doesn't make sense?" he asked, head ducked to the side. "I bought the building. And thanks to your nice little investment," he said, meaning the five dollars he had conned out of me, "now you own the building."
"That must have cost..." I trailed off, the sum of money that would take being completely foreign to me.
"Seven-hundred," he offered easily, no muss, no fuss, no hedging, no making me beg for the exact number.
Seven-hundred thousand dollars.
I was pretty sure that would be more than I would see in my entire lifetime. How did he even have that kind of money? True, he had the two less than legal jobs, but could they really be enough to allow him to have his expensive beach home and just... take my building as a wash.
My.
My building.
"You just need to sign the paper, pet," he said, stabbing a finger toward where there was a blank spot for my name.
"I just..." I trailed off, forcing myself to take a steadying breath, preparing myself for what I knew I had to do. "This is extremely generous, Pagan. In fact, they need a whole new word for what this gesture was. But... it's too much. I can't let you spend that on me."
His chest expanded with a deep breath before he moved from his side of the desk to mine, backing me up against the wall. "There's a difference between a man who spends on you and one who invests in you. I'm not buying you a thousand dollar dress, or five-hundred dollar shoes, or some jewelry that cost a downpayment on a house. I'm investing in your future. And I know you're going to take the opportunity to make this a success because that's the kind of woman you are. I've dropped tens of thousands of dollars on bikes and ATVs and four-wheelers and cars and shit that I buy for the sole purpose of crashing. This is probably the first sound investment I have ever made with my money."
