He Chose My Sister, So I Left Him With Nothing novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: Locks

Nadine changes every lock at the shop at midnight and fires Dustin in front of the crew, and he tells her to check the bank account.

I read the contract twice in the truck.

Then I called Patty again.

"Is the barge moving?"

"Halfway back. Kid, are you okay?"

"Meet me at the shop. Bring your drill."

"I always bring my drill."

It was eleven forty when I pulled through the gate on County Road 9.

The yard light buzzed over the gravel. Behind the shop, the two storage magazines sat in their dirt berms.

I'd bought this lot at twenty-three with every dollar I had.

I still had the gate key on the same ring as my first truck key.

Patty's pickup rolled in ten minutes later with the trailer and the empty racks behind it.

She climbed down in her Carhartt jacket with a cigarette behind her ear and looked at my dress.

"You look like a bridesmaid at a funeral."

"Good. That's about right."

She didn't hug me.

She handed me a coffee from the gas station instead, which was better.

"Locks first," I said. "Then the safe."

"Which locks?"

"All of them."

We started with the front door.

Patty had a box of new cylinders in her truck, because Patty has a box of everything in her truck.

She pulled the old core out with a pick and a grunt.

"How many keys did he have?"

"Front door. Office. Gate. Magazine B."

"Magazine B." She spat on the gravel. "You gave a salesman a magazine key?"

"He did the inventory counts on Mondays."

"He did his nails on Mondays."

I laughed, and it came out wrong, and I turned away until it stopped.

Patty kept drilling.

I pulled my work boots on under the dress and opened the floor safe in the office.

The state display license was in its plastic sleeve, my name typed under the seal.

The incorporation papers were under it. Blue Hour Fireworks, LLC. One member. Nadine Buckley.

There was no second name anywhere.

I put them in my bag with the deed to the lot and the title for the truck.

Then I sat down at the computer and changed the code on both magazines.

The old code was our anniversary.

The new one was the day I got my license.

At twelve thirty, three of my crew showed up in a car with their party clothes still on.

They'd seen it. Everybody had seen it.

The youngest one stood in the doorway holding a paper plate of cake like he didn't know where to put it down.

"We figured you'd be here," he said.

"You figured right."

"Do you want us to go?"

"I want you to carry the racks off the trailer."

They carried the racks.

At ten past one, headlights swung across the gate.

Dustin's leased pickup stopped so close to the chain-link it ticked against the bumper.

He got out still in his linen shirt.

Chelsea got out of the other side with her sandals in her hand.

He rattled the gate. "Nadine. My key doesn't work."

"I know."

"Open it."

I walked down the gravel with Patty a step behind me.

The crew stopped working and watched.

"We need the van keys and the show tablets," Dustin said. "We've got a booking Thursday."

"I've got a booking Thursday."

"Babe, don't do this in front of people."

"You did it in front of a hundred and twenty."

Chelsea came up beside him and put her hand through the chain-link toward me.

"Nadine, it's our business too. Dustin built half these clients."

"Dustin answered the phone."

"He's the owner. It's on the town contract. You saw it."

"I saw a lie on a piece of paper."

Dustin smiled the smile he used on brides' mothers.

"Let's not get legal. We're family now. Literally."

My crew went very quiet.

I took a breath and made my voice carry, the way I do across a firing range.

"Dustin Shepard, you're fired. Effective now."

He laughed. "You can't fire me."

"I sign your paychecks. I just stopped."

"I'm a co-owner."

"You're a sales manager on a salary. You were never anything else."

I held out my hand through the gate.

"Company phone. Company card. The van fob on your ring."

He stared at me.

Patty took one step forward. She's five foot two and once set charges in a copper mine.

He took the phone out of his pocket and slapped it into my palm.

Then the fob.

"The card's in the truck."

"Go get it."

He went and got it.

Chelsea was crying now, the pretty way, mascara still perfect.

"You're being so cruel. I'm pregnant."

"Congratulations. You said that already."

"Mom said you'd act like this."

"Then Mom should have bought you a ring."

Dustin came back with the card and threw it over the gate. It landed in the gravel by my boot.

"Patty," I said. "Walk him to the road."

"With pleasure, kid."

Patty unlocked the pedestrian gate, stepped out, and stood between him and the fence with her arms folded.

He looked down at her.

She looked up at him and slowly put the cigarette in her mouth.

He backed up to his truck.

At the door he turned around, and his face was calm. Too calm.

"You think this is about a ring?" he said. "Check the bank account, Nadine."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend