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“Did you ask before you got with her?”
Paul shrugged. “Not exactly. I’d had a couple of beers by then, and is it really my problem?”
“It will be when her husband gets back from his rig and kicks your ass.” Deena’s husband was a roughneck, and he wasn’t known for his calm demeanor.
“Well, I’m not his wife so I don’t see why what I did is all that wrong. I’m not the married one.” Paul huffed. “Look, none of this matters. Like I said, it’s not drug dealers. But I might have borrowed some money for a movie project that never actually happened.”
“Well, then you should have the money to pay the bank back. How long was the term of the loan?” Quaid was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“I didn’t exactly borrow it from a bank, and I had bills,” Paul admitted. “It’s why I had to turn off the security system on my car.”
“Who did you borrow the money from?” Quaid could feel his eye start to twitch.
“A guy I know,” Paul said, sounding exasperated. “Look, all I need is a couple of weeks to get the money and then everything will be fine. I’m going to lay low here. That’s all.”
None of that answered Quaid’s principal question. “Why the hell do you need money when you have a trust fund? Please tell me you still have a trust fund.”
Paul was silent for a moment. “Things are expensive in LA.”
Quaid cursed and felt his hands fist. It was every bit as bad as he thought it would be. “Millions of dollars, Paul. You went through millions of dollars. Did it all go up your nose?”
“No,” Paul said through gritted teeth. “It went into my career. It went into acting lessons and the clothes I need andthe networking that goes on, and it went into a couple of projects that might still pay off. I produced two movies with friends of mine. One of them is good, Quaid. It’s a great movie but it’s tied up in a bunch of legal shit that could take years to deal with, and now I’ve got to sell my house to pay off this guy who might break my legs if I don’t.”
Naturally his brother had gotten involved with a loan shark. Maybe even the mob. That tracked perfectly. “How much do you owe?”
Paul took a long breath, his hands going into his pockets. “I told you I’m handling it. I’m working on selling the house, but it takes time.”
“How much?” He wasn’t about to back down until he knew exactly how bad the situation was.
“A quarter million.”
Quaid cursed under his breath. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I needed to do something.” Paul proved he could act out an overly dramatic scene. “I was betting on myself. You can’t understand because you’re not an artist.”
Because even if his brother knew he wrote novels, that wouldn’t be art. No, that would be commercial fiction that anyone could produce. “No, I’m just the one who cleans up your every mess.”
“I’m not asking you to clean up this one, damn it,” Paul shot back. “I needed a place to stay while I’m selling my house. I’ve got a real estate agent working on it but it’s better if the place is empty.”
“That’s not why you came back.”
“I drove all the way from California to here because I needed to be home,” his brother argued.
He wanted this situation over with as soon as possible, and allowing Paul to drag it out would only cost them all more pain. “Give me the guy’s name and I’ll handle it.”
“I told you I would take care of it.”
His brother wasn’t thinking at all. “Have you considered for one second that they might follow you? That this person you owe money to might decide to look you up and figure out who you are? Or did you think he would shrug and say, ‘Well, I guess he’s gone—too bad’?”
“He wouldn’t come out here,” Paul insisted. “He doesn’t know where I grew up.”
“And that’s hard to find out?” It was time to hope his brother could grasp logic. “It’s not. A simple skip trace will connect you to both me and our mother. It’d be pretty easy for him to figure out you’re here. I think taking that car of yours might be an excellent start to getting his money back.”
“No.” Paul had paled. “No. He wouldn’t do that. I told him I would have his money back and soon. I bought that house for cash. It’s worth at least three million. The market is hot right now. I just need a couple of weeks. He knows that.”
“He agreed to wait?”
Paul went silent.
