Chapter 18: On His Knees

Marin's POV

The investor did not hurry.

She walked to the middle of the room with her clipboard and her glass of water and stopped under the speakers.

"My name isn't important," she said. "I own thirty-five percent of this bar and all of the building under it."

Nobody coughed.

"Mr. Hollander has missed three months of rent. He has missed payroll three times. His lease says I may take the keys after two."

"You can't do this," Troy said. "Not tonight."

"It's on page nine," she said. "I am taking the keys tonight," the investor said. "The bar stays open, under me, with Dean on the books."

Dean stood up in the sound booth and took the headphone off.

"Me?" he said.

"You counted my kegs for two years and never lied once. Yes, you."

She turned to the room.

"The door money for tonight is thirty thousand dollars. It goes to the people who worked here. Line up by the bar."

The staff did not move at first.

Then the head server walked forward, and the dishwasher, and the cooks, and then all eleven were standing in front of Dean with their hands out.

Dean opened the cash box and began counting.

He wasn't shaking.

I watched the dishwasher take his envelope with both hands and put it inside his coat.

The dishwasher looked back at me across the whole room and nodded, once.

"And Miss Lowell's note?" a voice said from the crowd.

It was my old boss.

"The note is against Mr. Hollander, not the bar," the investor said. "I can't pay it. But I can tell you he has nothing to pay it with."

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