The Heir Who Quit Luxury novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: One Drink

"I don't drink with people who slash my tires," I said.

"That was a disgruntled employee."

"You told me that already. At the yacht club. In front of forty people."

Doug wiped snow off his Rolex with his thumb.

"One drink," he said. "Then I'll walk back across that road and you'll never see me on this side of it."

Frankie snapped the padlock shut on the gate.

"I'm coming," she said.

"This is between me and him."

"It's my lot, Mr. Hensley. Everything on it is between you and me."

Doug looked at her coveralls and her cap and her grease-black hands.

He decided not to argue.

The bar was two blocks east on Eight Mile.

A long room with wood paneling, a Red Wings game on a TV with a crack in it, and a jar of pickled eggs nobody had touched since the nineties.

Six regulars at the bar.

Every one of them turned to look at the man in the blazer.

Doug ordered a Macallan.

The bartender laughed at him.

He ordered a Bud Light.

I paid for it with a five and two ones.

Frankie got a Coke and sat on the stool next to mine with her arms crossed.

Doug drank half the beer in one pull.

"You know what that superstore cost?" he said. "Twenty-two million. Penrose money. Carter's terms."

"I read the sign."

"Five hundred cars. Fifty-one employees. You know what it sold in October?"

"Ninety-four," Frankie said.

Doug's head turned.

"We count," she said. "You can see your whole lot from our roof."

He stared at her.

Then he laughed, short and ugly.

"Ninety-four," he said. "You sold how many?"

"A hundred and twelve," I said. "Off forty spaces. With one mechanic."

"Every flaw told," Frankie said.

Doug finished the beer and set the bottle down hard.

The man two stools down looked over.

"Here's the thing," Doug said. "I've been doing this since 1995. I know a closer when I see one. I watched you at the tent. Eighty people laughing, and you didn't blink."

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