Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Ari smiled at me slyly, dipping her finger into the cum on her thighs. “No, I think we’re good.” She popped the finger into her mouth, sucking it completely dry, and smiled. “Thank you so much for all your help.”
Chapter 5
Ari
Orange wasn’t exactly my color, but if this pompous asshole clicked his pen one more time, I’d learn to rock a nice prison jumpsuit.
Thanks to Bones’ phone calls, the tree was no longer in the middle of our crushed ring, but in huge pieces all around the parking lot. There was debris everywhere, and the guys were clearing it the best they could, and all this dick of an assessment specialist did was take pictures, write notes, and shake his head.
Clearly, the insurance policy wasn’t going to give us jack shit.
That was bad fucking news, because the city’s surveyor had visited early this morning and offered less than nothing. Debris cleanup for free. What the hell was that going to help with? Bones’ guys had already done half their job, and even if the debris was gone, we’d be left with three punching bags, a rack of weights, and two functional and open showers.
I hovered over the specialist all morning, trying to get a feel for how much this was going to cost us. I got my answer before he opened his fat mouth.
“We can cover about twenty percent of the damages.”
“Twenty percent.” The number sank into my stomach and made me want to vomit up twenty percent of my lunch. “Are you serious right now?”
“The building has structural damage near the back office, which, as you can see, wasn’t touched by the tree. You’ll need to fix that from your own pocket.”
“Excuse me?”
His lips curled up into a smirk like I didn’t understand a word he was saying. “The foundation around the showers is sinking in. Bad construction. Did you do it yourself?”
Okay, I might not have been a fighter like Bones or Frankie, but I was about to clock this guy so hard, he’d go crying back to mommy. I clenched my fists by my sides and forced myself to draw a breath.
“My father owned this place before me, so I’m not sure.”
“Well, you’ll need to knock down the showers completely, check the pipes, and rebuild.” He clicked the pen again. It was a nice black ink pen, engraved with the name Adam Bryant on the silver. I thought it might look even better through the middle of his throat. “Since you’re only on liability, we can cover the cost of tree removal and twenty percent of the repairs. The rest is on you.”
I took in the broken building I’d once called Smiley’s and gritted my teeth. “What am I supposed to do about the rest?”
“It would be cheaper to knock it down and start fresh.” Pen Douche gave me a pity-filled look. “Or sell the lot. It would be worth a lot more.”
No way. I couldn’t do that. Smiley’s was my everything. I couldn’t get rid of the only piece of my dad I had left. This was his legacy. His future. Our future. I hadn’t worked so hard over the past year to be brought down by a rotting tree, of all things.
“Go back to your stuffy office and get working on my claim,” I ordered the douchebag with a glare. “Because we obviously have a shit ton to do here. If you’ll excuse me.”
I left Pen Douche behind to step into the chaos of Smiley’s. Now that the tree was gone, I could see just how fucked we were.
This was going to take a lot of money to fix.
More than we had even saved up from Bones’ fights.
I blinked a few times to ward off the sting of tears threatening my eyes. Of all the bullshit I’d dealt with over the years, this one took the cake. There were only a few options I could think of, and all of them absolutely sucked. Best-case scenario? I sold a kidney on the black market. Someone would probably pay good money for a good kidney, right? And we already did some shady stuff. What was another black market deal?
“Ari.”
I snapped out of my black market bargaining and blinked at Bones. His ripped body gleamed in the afternoon sunlight, sweat tracing its way down his tats. He and Frankie had been working since the morning to clean this place up for me.
He set his glove-covered hands on his hips. “I’ve been thinking.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” I teased. “Are you going to have me guess?”
His lips quirked slightly before he grew serious again. “I’ll take on more fights. Win us some more money. I’m sure Lotto can find me something.”
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair in frustration. Bones was our only solid fighter. The rest of the trainees needed much more polishing. Taking on more fights meant more strain on his body. I didn’t want to put them through that.