Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
They probably were.
“As much as I want to, I can’t shadow him everywhere he goes and hope the Harrises will see he has a bodyguard and find someone else to fuck with,” Jagger told her. “And Mal’s not dealing with this. He rolled out of school in a hurry, but he can’t escape this. They’re not gonna let him ignore it. We have no clue what’s happening in school. We’re not his peers, we’re adults and we have to have his best interests in mind, baby. If he was my son, and anyone knew this was happening to him and didn’t tell me, I’d be pissed as shit.”
She didn’t even need to process that, she nodded.
“You say there are cliques. But Dex, Martin and Colby are cool with him here. They play videogames together. They don’t seem to dislike him,” Jag remarked. “But they were there, and they didn’t step up for him. Four against two is decent odds, especially when it seems only Aaron is the asshole. I’m saying this because we also need to find a way to get those boys to look after their friend. It’s not on, them letting him swing in the breeze like that.”
Through a grin, she replied, “Says the MC brother.”
“It’s you teaching them what a tribe is all about, Arch,” he retorted. “They are not looking after their tribe. They need to look out for their tribe, and that includes Gina, Tracee and Mia.”
She didn’t take time to process that either.
Her eyes warmed and she again nodded.
“Now, Elijah,” he prompted.
“I’m hearin’ good things about this soda fountain,” Dutch cut in. “Can you do vanilla Cokes?” he asked Joany.
“There is so much I can do, baby, it’s not funny,” Joany drawled. “But we’ll start with a vanilla Coke.” She held out a hand to Dutch. “Come to momma. We’ll get you sorted out.”
No hesitation, Dutch took her hand, tucked it into the crook of his arm and started to escort her to the hall that led to the door to the store.
As they went, Dutch asked, “So these contacts you can touch to set up a hit…?”
Joany looked back as they walked and rolled her eyes dramatically, also licking her lips.
So Archie was laughing softly as they walked out of sight.
Jagger was not.
“Babe,” he called, his voice firm.
She looked to him.
“Okay, so I thought about it, and before I chickened out, decided on it and you were right. As I mentioned, it wasn’t exactly a slum, but it wasn’t great before I sorted things out. Now it’s safe, it’s nice. I looked up average rents in this area and we’re over three hundred below that. I’m not saying we should jump up rents, but it’s something to think about. And we can have a tenant meeting and talk about how a cost of living increase would affect them, and—”
“I’m interested in what you’re saying, but this is not an explanation about Elijah being pissed as hell and nose to nose with you when I walked in ten minutes ago, babe,” he cut her off to note.
She dipped her head side to side, probably to buy time, but when he put his hands on his hips, she went on.
“I called him. And I thought, maybe it’d work better if we entered into negotiations, instead of me just telling him how it would be. And since I want to meet in the middle, and I know Elijah, he’ll want to feel like he won, I went for the gusto and told him not only was I deducting half the monthly expenses from his take, I would email him a list of the cost of improvements, and a cumulative of what I’ve spent so far on upkeep, adding to that fifty bucks a month for cleaning bills since I began doing that chore, and I’d be deducting an additional five hundred from his portion until he paid me back for his half of all of that.”
That wasn’t going for the gusto, that was seriously not fucking around.
“Jesus, baby,” Jag murmured.
“I also told him he either came once a month to clean the common areas, or he was paying me twenty-five dollars a month from here on out to keep them clean. It only takes an hour, but it isn’t the most fun thing to do. I’ll do my rotation, but he’s responsible one way or another for his.”
“So you called him with this, how did it get to him being here, in your space?”
“He hung up on me and was so angry, he left work in order not to delay telling me face to face that shit wasn’t happening.”
Jagger drew in a very long breath and held it.
He didn’t let it out until Archie laid her hand on his chest.
“I also know where I’m gonna rest on this,” she told him. “I’ll eat the maintenance I’ve paid so far, and we can come to a figure he’s okay with on the improvements, but I also have to be okay with it. That said, I’m not caring for this building without his help. So he either pays me to clean, he cleans, or we agree on paying someone to come in and clean. He also either pays extra for me to deal with accounting and admin, or he takes his share of handling that. If he wants nothing to do with any of this, he can buy me out. But if he reaps the rewards, he shares the burdens.”