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Of course. The words stuck in my throat. “Send over the details on canceling. Tell me how much it’s going to cost. I’m not selling to him.” The more times I said it, the better it felt. It was like a heavy load lifting from my mind. I could take the time to step back, and do this right.
No, I didn’t like that thought.
I thanked Helen, and waited for her instructions.
I wasn’t selling, but still needed to. Arizona would take a lot of time to establish. I’d already invested there. I couldn’t walk away from that deal, and I couldn’t afford both places with my current revenue.
But every time I thought I’m not selling it felt good.
The instructions from Helen weren’t as complicated or as expensive as I feared, though the decision would cost me. It was worth it.
I was filling out a form and watching the front of the store when Don walked in.
Seeing him send anger and irritation coursing through me.
The warm, friendly smile he wore made it worse.
Once upon a time, we’d been so close. In high school, I thought we’d be friends forever. What he did to Alys, though… To Evie… He’d shown his true colors, and I was glad I figured that out early in life.
“Onyx. Buddy. It’s been too long.” His greeting was as bright and fake as his expression.
“Uh-huh.” I wasn’t going to waste energy on picking a fight, no matter how much I wanted to haul off and beat his smug face to a pulp.
He stepped up to the counter. “What’s this I hear about you pulling out of the sale?”
“What’s this I hear about you working to hide that it was you buying?” I countered.
“That’s the way business works. Nothing underhanded. Nothing wrong with it.”
The fact that he felt he needed to clarify made me think it was very much meant to be underhanded.
“You need to leave,” I said.
He leaned in, resting his full forearm on the glass case, and leaving a large smudge. “You need to know that if you don’t do this willingly, I will fuck you. No warning. No lube.”
“Why? You don’t want to own a record store.”
“No. But I want to own this block. You assholes are sitting on prime real estate, running your idiotic mom and pop stores like your little corner of suburbia will be untouched forever.”
This was almost supervillain level monologuing. Gross. “Okay. But leave now.”
“Last chance, Cat.”
“To...?”
“Change your mind.”
That wasn’t happening. I was about to repeat that he needed to leave, when Alys walked through the front door. She looked at Don, the color drained from her face, and her feet stopped moving.
Whatever happened next, he wasn’t hurting her again. Not even a small, verbal wound.
27
Alys
In past years, the days between when we turned in our competition entry and when the winner was announced was tense.
This year’s was far worse, because we weren’t just waiting longer, I was waiting for Onyx to go. Not that I wanted him to, but there was an invisible clock ticking down in my mind that I couldn’t ignore.
