Possessive Best Friend

She grins up at me. “We can still do that.”

“Probably not the smartest move.”

“No, probably not. But think about it. Your dad’s not going to just… let this go. Do you think he’ll just ignore us now?”

“No,” I say softly, staring up at the ceiling. It’s so far away, so high up. Every noise we make redoubles, echoes back down toward us.

She’s right. I keep thinking it. This whole permit thing, it’s just the first of many ways my father’s going to make life difficult for us. I know him, I know what type of man he is. He’s going to take my relationship with Lora as a personal affront and never let it go.

“We’ll take care of that,” I say softly. “But first, we need to take care of this permit thing.”

I shift a little and sit up. She sits up beside me and grins, staring down at the paper. “Come on. Let’s go talk to my mom.”

“Your mom?”

“We stay out of politics, Dean.” She slowly gets to my feet. “But my mother is still Sylvia Lofthouse. If anyone can make this go through faster, it’s her.”

“You in a rush?” I tilt my head toward her with a little smile.

“Fuck, yes, I’m in a rush,” she says, laughing. “I want to get started. I’m so sick of waiting. Aren’t you?”

“I’m ready when you are,” I say.

She smiles, reaches out a hand.

I take it and stand with her.We find Sylvia in her painting room. I get the feeling that she spends most of her time up in this tower, which almost doesn’t make any sense. She apparently runs this family and wields serious political power, and yet she’s hanging out alone in some tower painting all day. I’m not really sure how that works, but I’m not about to question it.

Her mother looks at us. She’s sitting back on a stool and looks tired. The canvas in front of her shows a realistic mountain vista, glorious and gorgeous. She’s very talented, as far as I can tell.

I expect Lora to start in by asking her mother about the permit, but instead she takes a different tact.

“Did you know Uncle Ron is involved with gangsters?”

Sylvia frowns and sighs. “Yes, dear. I knew that.”

“You did?” Lora seems surprised.

“Of course. Nothing happens in this house without me knowing.”

“Or without your approval.” Lora frowns.

But Sylvia just laughs. “Not quite. Ron has his own views on things, and although he stays within the lines, more or less… he doesn’t play by the rules as we’ve set them out. I told him again and again that he needed to get out from under those nasty men.”

“You knew he needed money when you told us about the warehouse,” Lora said, frowning.

“I did,” Sylvia admits. “I suspected he’d give you a good price. I’m surprised you didn’t negotiate harder.”

I wince. “That’s on me. I thought we were getting him down.”

“You did well enough, but I bet he would’ve settled for a million.” Sylvia shrugs a little. “Doesn’t matter. Ron’s mostly out of debt, and you have your warehouse. I’m not sure what the problem is now.”

“The problem is he mismanaged it when he owned it,” Lora says.

“That was his business partner. What was that man’s name?”

“Leo,” I say. “We met Mr. Archer down in Florida.”

She raises an eyebrow. “You went to Florida?”

“We did,” I confirm.

“And we talked to Ron’s partner,” Lora says, dropping the uncle bit. “Leo says he did all he could to keep it running, but Ron’s associations ruined the place.”

“Hm. Makes more sense than the story Ron told me.” Sylvia shrugs. “But again, I’m not sure what it matters.”

“It doesn’t have the proper permits anymore,” I say. “We have proof that Leo once had it permitted, but it’s not current anymore. We need to update our permits if we’re going to get construction moving.”

“Ah,” Sylvia says. “I see.”

“We can provide the paperwork,” Lora says. “But I was hoping you could make it go through faster than it would otherwise.”

Sylvia nods a little, looking even more exhausted. “I’ll see what I can do, but no promises. We hold sway in this town, but we don’t control it.”

“Thank you, Mom.”

“But before I do that, let me say this.” She looks at Lora, her eyes sharp. “You took money from your siblings.”

“I did,” Lora says.

“You cannot let them down. Regardless of whether you enjoy the process of putting this place together, you will follow through. Do you hear me?”

Lora flushes with anger. “I always planned on it.”

“Good.” Sylvia looks at me. “And you will not get bored and abandon her.”

“I’m not in this for the business, Sylvia,” I say. “She’s the reason I’m here.”

She smiles. “Good. Then we’re all agreed.”

“Mother—” Lora starts and then stops. She takes a breath and lets it out. “Was it a mistake to take money from the family?”