Page 24 of Housesitter

Sandra chewed on the inside of her lips in frustrated reaction for a moment, before she gathered herself enough to shrug it off.

“Yeah, well, that’s only one offer,” she said. “I’d rather sell the place as a going concern. It’d be a shame to break it up, but it’s not like I’m planning on coming back to run it, so… There’s plenty of developers looking for land to build on.”

“Yeah, that’s what Belzer thought too,” Kel said cheerfully. “At least until that environmentalist group sued and made real estate between here and Starling radioactive. Look on the bright side, though, at least your dad never signed for any subsidies that would commit the land to agricultural use, right?”

He has no idea if Milligan had or not. That didn’t matter, because from Sandra’s expression, neither did she.

“...I don’t—”

Kel held up his hands and stepped back.

“You’re right,” he said. “None of my business! I’m sure you’ll get it sorted…eventually.”

It was a good choice of words. Sandra flinched as it hit home and color crawled up into her cheeks, hot and angry.

“And what?” she demanded as she stomped down the steps toward him. She flung her arms out in a gesture that took in the house and the surrounding fields, the last deep furrows that Milligan had ploughed dry and crumbling. “You have a better idea?”

Well…no. But when had Kel ever let that stop him? He twisted his mouth into a rueful grimace and reached up to rub the back of his neck.

“I mean,” he said, drawing the words out like he was reluctant to make the offer. “I couldn’t promise anything, but if I call in some favors, I might be able to speed things up. A bit.”

Sandra wasn’t fool enough to just believe him. Even half-stoned and fed up, she had enough about her to be suspicious of offers that were too good to be true. She wanted to believe him, though.

Kel could read it from the way she crossed her arms and pinched her elbows in her hands, as if she needed to keep herself under control. And ‘hear’ it in the smoky whisper that nudged at her: people get lucky breaks; why NOT me, why NOT today?

She still asked, “And why would you do that?”

“I feel bad about how I left things with your dad,” Kel said. To be fair, he probably had reason. Maybe he didn’t have Milligan’s truck, but he’d probably crossed the man at some point or other. He had most of the town. And then, because no one trusted an altruist, he added, “And, like you said, if I wait my turn, I’ll not see much of the money he owed me.”

It wasn’t a good enough reason to trust Kel, but all Sandra needed was enough of an excuse she could claim plausible deniability if it bit her in the ass in the end.

“And you’d do that for me?” she said.

Kel pursed his lips like he was considering his answer and then nodded.

That did it. Sandra’s shoulders relaxed as she leaned into the con. She might not believe him, but she wanted to, and now she had an excuse to sop her conscience if it bit her in the ass.

“OK,” she said. “What do you need from me?”

Kel would have bet he had no idea, but his mouth felt otherwise. It slid up at the corner into a sly smile as he rocked back on his heels.

It was a familiar question. The answer was just as familiar. Money.

For a second, though, Kel couldn’t get the words out, his throat sticky with the hot ache for something.

Not that.

He was pretty sure not that. The sex with Shepherd had been good but not ‘never going to top that, back to women’ good. It felt close, though.

Like if he could just put his finger on that need, he’d be…satisfied, at last.

It was a nice idea, but money was even nicer.

“Why don’t we start with a thousand bucks,” he said. “It’s a small town; cash greases the wheel.”

Chapter Seven

Hell House Client Brief: Put any mail for 'The Occupier' straight in the pit.