Roses Revenge novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Off My Porch

Colton begs, then threatens to pin the company's car lease on her, and Aunt Bea runs him off the porch; inside, Elliot Rask is waiting at the kitchen table.

I did not call Colton back.

I read the message from payroll twice, put the phone face down, and went to brush my teeth.

At eight o'clock a car pulled up outside Aunt Bea's house, and the engine cut off hard.

I knew the sound of his door slam.

Aunt Bea was already at the window, holding her tea.

"Stay in the kitchen," she said. "No. Actually, come and watch."

Colton came up the front walk in yesterday's suit. His tie was crooked, his hair was flat on one side, and he had not shaved.

He did not ring the bell. He pounded on the door.

Aunt Bea opened it three inches, with the chain on.

"Good morning," she said. "You're loud."

"I need to talk to Rose."

"Rose is eating toast."

"Rose," he shouted past her, "come out here right now!"

The neighbor across the street stopped watering his lawn.

I walked to the door and stood next to my aunt.

Colton's face changed. It went soft, the way it did when he wanted something.

"Rosie. Thank God. Babe, I've been calling you all night."

"I saw."

"Payroll didn't go out." His voice cracked on the last word. "Forty people have no money in their accounts. They're calling me. Their landlords are calling me."

"That sounds hard," I said.

"The Aster wire didn't land." He dragged a hand down his face. "It's the first of the month. It always lands on the first. We have no cash. We have nothing."

"Then you should call Aster."

"I did! Their line goes to a voicemail that is full." He took a step toward the door. "You handle the bank. You can see the accounts. Just look. Tell me where it is."

"I don't work for you, Colton. I don't have access anymore."

"You can fix it. You're the only one who ever could."

He looked at me with wet, pleading eyes.

"Come back. I'll undo the cut. I'll give you the bonus. I'll make Paisley apologize in front of everyone."

"You'll make Paisley apologize," I said.

"Whatever you want."

"Is that the same Paisley who is driving a car you hid in my budget?"

His face went still.

"What?"

"The Taycan lease. Brewer Labs, Inc., payment in bold. Categorized as a client vehicle, in your handwriting." I kept my voice level. "I photographed all of it yesterday."

He took a long, careful breath.

The soft look went out of his face, and what replaced it was the real Colton.

"Then you know it was approved," he said. "Your signature is on the ops budget, Rose. Every line."

"I never approved a car."

"Prove it." He smiled a little. "You signed off on everything. If anyone asks, you wrote that lease off yourself. You, the head of operations, quietly charging a car to the company, and then you quit the night before the money went missing. How does that look?"

I felt my aunt go rigid beside me.

"Are you threatening my niece?" she said.

"I'm explaining how things look, ma'am."

"On my porch."

"I'm only saying she should think carefully."

Aunt Bea took off the chain, opened the door wide, and stepped out onto the porch in her slippers.

She was five foot three.

"Mr. Brewer," she said, loud enough for the whole street. "You locked my niece out of her own home. You gave your girlfriend her grandmother's jewelry. You cut her pay and called her a failure in front of her coworkers. And now you are standing on my porch at eight in the morning telling her that she is a thief."

"I never said girlfriend," Colton said.

"I did."

The neighbor across the street had stopped pretending to water anything.

Colton lowered his voice. "Ma'am, this is a private matter."

"Then you should have kept it private. Get off my steps."

"Rose." He tried once more, past her shoulder. "Think about what you're doing. You'll lose everything you built."

"I know exactly what I built," I said.

I shut the door in his face.

We listened to him stand there for a full minute. Then his car started, and the tires scraped the curb as he pulled away.

Aunt Bea leaned against the door with a grin.

"I haven't enjoyed myself that much since the school board meeting in 2009."

I laughed, and then I found that my hands were shaking.

She squeezed my arm. "Go and sit down. I'll make fresh tea."

I walked into the kitchen.

A man was sitting at the table.

He was in a charcoal suit, with a cup of tea in front of him that he had clearly been drinking for a while. He was tall, dark-haired, with gray at his temples.

He rose when he saw me.

"Good morning, Rose," said Elliot Rask.

I had not seen him in four months. He had managed my grandmother's estate for six years, and he managed mine now.

"Elliot," I said. "How did you get in here?"

"Your aunt gave me a key on Wednesday night," he said. "I've been waiting for the first of the month to come and go."

He looked at the phone in my hand.

"You paused it," he said. "I hoped you would."

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