Possessive Best Friend

“I am. And you’re Leo Archer.”

“Good to meet you.” We shake hands and he turns to Dean. “And nice to meet you, too.”

“I’m Dean Ashman, I’m Lora’s partner.”

I sit back down and the guys follow suit. Leo leans back in his chair and looks at the two of us with a little smile on his lips. “So, what brings you down to Florida from Loftville?”

“Mr. Archer, you worked with my uncle, correct?”

“Ronald?” He nods. “I sure did.”

“At the warehouse.”

“Oh, yeah.” He laughs. “Among other things.”

I let that comment slide. “Dean and I just bought the warehouse from him, but we’re having issues with the permit and the zoning. Uncle Ron said you were the person I should talk to.”

“I’m sure he did.” Leo shakes his head. “Ron always was good at passing responsibility off to someone else.”

“What do you mean?”

“Back when we worked together, I was his fall guy.”

“You’ll have to elaborate,” I say.

“Ron was in business with some shady people,” Leo said. “Mobsters, gamblers, gangsters, men like that. I don’t know why. I think your uncle was just attracted to that kind of danger. But he needed someone to be the face of his official business, just a little layer between him and his assets so that the mobsters and the like couldn’t go after his stuff.”

“Ah,” I say, frowning. “So that was you?”

“Exactly. A lot of that stuff was in my name for a long, long time. He wanted to make sure that if anything happened, some thugs couldn’t just come into the warehouse and steal everything. He wanted to make sure they didn’t know he was involved.”

“But we bought it from him,” I say, frowning.

“Right. Well, what happened was the warehouse started to lose money. I couldn’t figure out why… until I caught some guys stealing from it. Turns out, Ron was selling them access and letting them take some stuff to fuel his gambling habit off the books. When I saw that, I just walked the fuck away.”

“So you’re not the owner anymore?” I ask.

“I have no clue,” he admits. “But I knew that if I stayed and tried to keep working the place, eventually either I’d go bankrupt or I’d get killed. So I took what money I could and moved down here. Best decision I ever made.”

I glance at Dean and he’s just shaking his head with disbelief. “So Uncle Ron is a straight-up criminal,” he says.

“Pretty much.” Leo grins and shrugs. “Sorry to break it to you, Lora.”

“That’s okay. I knew he was an asshole already. I just didn’t know he was an asshole and a criminal.” I take a deep breath to calm myself as Leo laughs. “But listen, what about the permits? You had to have gotten them, right?”

“Oh, I definitely got them,” he says. “I don’t know what happened after I left. I suspect your uncle took ownership of the warehouse and just never renewed them.”

“Wait… we just have to renew them?”

“Oh, sure. It’s just a small licensing fee. Nobody told you that?”

“No,” I say, staring at him. “Nobody told me.”

“Well, listen, my office isn’t far from here. Why don’t we swing past it and I’ll give you everything I have on the place?”

“That would be amazing.” I glance at Dean and he’s grinning.

“What do you plan on using it for, by the way?” Leo asked.

“We’re building an indoor fun park,” I say. “Giving the community something to do.”

“Good for you.” He grins at me. “I’m glad to see you didn’t inherit the asshole gene from your uncle.”

“I suspect he got all those genes possible.”

Leo laughed, stood up, and led us back out front. We piled into his tasteful black sedan and he drove a few blocks over to a small, squat business park.

“What do you do now, Leo?” Dean asks as he gets out.

“Lawyer,” he says. “Family practice stuff. That was my life before Ron got his hooks in me.” He laughs and shakes his head. “Anyway, sit tight, let me go run in and grab it. I know just where I put it all.”

He heads inside, leaving the car running. I look back at Dean and grin at him. “Jackpot.”

“Fuck yes.” He laughs. “It’s insane.”

I want to kiss him, but Leo comes back a minute later with a big, fat folder. He gets back in and hands it to me. “Here you go. Everything you need’s in there. The renewal should be a breeze.”

“You’re a lifesaver.”

“Ah, well, anything I can do to stick it to Ron. Want a lift back to your hotel?”

“That would be great.”

Leo talks about his relationship with Ron the whole way over. Turns out, they’d been good friends and went to school together before Ron decided to ruin everything over his shady business. We pull into the parking lot of the hotel and he glides to a stop out front.