“I want you to give me back the paper you tricked me into signing two days ago.”
“You signed it!” He’s so red I wonder if he’ll have a stroke and die right here, at my feet. I can’t muster any emotion at the conjured image. “It’s too late.”
My stomach twists. Don’t know why it hurts to hear him admit it. After all, I knew it was the truth, and yet…
My own uncle betrayed me.
“You’d rather go to court? Have everyone know what you did? Friends, family?” Anger is building inside my chest, and it warms me up. “We’ll put your name all over the papers. The uncle who fucked his own nephew over, his own flesh and blood, for money to pay off his gambling debts. You sure you want that?”
“It’s done.” His gaze flicks to the desk at the other end of the room, then back to me. “The shop should have come to me anyway. Stupid Marnie, leaving a shop to a kid.” His eyes flick back to the desk, and this time I turn to look as well.
“I think the paper is in the desk drawer,” I say, and Zane and Dylan are already moving that way.
“What are you doing?” Armin yells, but Tyler steps in his way when he tries to follow them. “I’ll sue your punk asses!”
“But we’re just having coffee,” Tyler says, thick arms folded over his chest. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Here it is,” Zane calls out, waving a paper. “Got your signature on it.”
Fuck.
“Goddamn you all,” Armin mutters and drops in a nearby chair.
Zane hands the paper over to me. It is a title transfer for Damage Control, all right. I stare at it for a long moment.
Then I methodically tear it to shreds until it’s confetti. I stuff the pieces in my pocket, just in case—no way I’d trust Armin even with the scraps—and go to stand over him.
“This is goodbye,” I tell him. “Uncle. Soon I’ll have a copy of the will in my hands, so don’t think about trying anything else. I hope I never have to see your ugly-ass face ever again.”
It’s time to go home.
Chapter Fifteen
Megan
“Cute kitty.” Erin scratches Raf’s tummy. “Yours, right?”
“Used to belong to my roommate.” I sink down on the sofa. Rafe’s mug of coffee is sitting right where he left it, practically untouched. “She left and abandoned him.”
The kitty waves his short legs in the air and closes his eyes, purring so loudly he sounds like the professional coffee machines we have at the café.
“Don’t worry,” Dakota says and comes to sit next to me. “They’ll be fine. These boys are tough. They’ll come through fine.”
“Nobody can be tough all the time,” I say and bite my lip. Christ, why am I telling them this?
But they don’t seem shocked.
“That’s true,” Erin says, stroking Raf’s head, and Dakota nods as well.
“And boys think differently, too. Their first reaction when things go bad isn’t to reach out, but rather to resolve the problem on their own.” Dakota scrunches up her nose. “Sometimes you have to get right into their face and threaten them into accepting help.”
I blink at her. Hard to imagine this slip of a girl getting into Zane’s face and threatening him with anything, but she apparently did. I know she’s the reason he’s so happy now.
“All of them have been through hell,” Erin says and puts Raf down. He glances up at her with an annoyed look. “But now they’re fine.”
“Except Rafe.” Dakota picks up the kitty and nuzzles him to her face. Raf tries to claw her eyes out and she hurriedly holds him away. “He doesn’t look too good these days.”
“The anniversary,” Erin mutters.