“What about her?” I asked carefully.
He ripped off his sunglasses, eyes blazing. “That damn degenerate woman threw a party in her suite last night and cost half a million dollars in damages!”
I blinked. Then exhaled long.
Thank you, Jesus!
I hadn’t realized how tightly I’d been wound until that moment.
So that was her version of punishment? Sleep deprivation?
I huffed out a humorless laugh under my breath and Marcus caught it. We both exchanged looks.
“What?” Dillon asked.
“Nothing.” I straightened in my chair, schooling my expression. My chest loosened, and then a sharp, private sigh slipped past my lips as I leaned back in my chair.
Wait. I know he ain’t paying for shit with my money!
“And where the fuck you gone get this half a mill?”
“Relax, relax. I’ll handle it separately from our account. But our company card is on file, so…”
I rubbed at my temple again, fighting the start of another headache. “Our funds will be frozen until we pay it back.”
“Then there’s the hold…”
My eyes widened. “So not only was it her party that had me up all damn night, she basically fucked us for the next week or so?”
“Afraid so,” he muttered.
I exhaled deeply. “Nah, it’s cool. I’ll transfer the bread to the account in the morning. I refuse to stop payroll.”
“How are you?—”
“It’s from my personal account. Which I expect to be reimbursed before the months out. I ain’t got no kids, and I don’t pay for other people’s.”
“Right.” He exhaled. “I’ll take care of it. Thank you.”
“Hm.”
“That child of mine will be the death of me, I swear.”
I nodded slowly, keeping my face neutral even though my thoughts were anything but.
“Honestly, Dillon,” I said, leaning back, trying to sound casual, “I don’t know how you deal with that shit. That girl’s a problem.”
He grunted in agreement.
I relaxed a little, the tension easing from my shoulders now that I knew the heat was off me.
Maybe a little too much.
“If that were my daughter,” I went on, “I’d probably take all that privilege away from her. Cut the cord and send her ass out into the real world. Let her see what it’s like to earn a dollar instead of burning through a stack of ’em. Maybe then she’d understand how lucky she is. That’s how we did it right? That’s how we learned.”
He didn’t say anything right away, but I could feel his eyes on me.
Me and Dillon had both clawed our way up from nothing. Two broke kids who hustled our way into something worth respect. Marcus didn’t get it, because our father actually respected his mother enough to pay his tuition. A luxury I wasn’t awarded. So yeah, I had no sympathy for rich-kid tantrums.
