You Drive Me Crazy novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Note

I told Eli it was a dream, and I told myself the same thing.

He went back to the cot, and I drove us both home at midnight with my mouth still stinging.

At seven the next morning I was at my own shop in Concord for the torque wrench I had left on my bench.

The two bays smelled like my father, as they always did, of cutting oil and cold coffee.

A black sedan idled at the curb.

Vivian Haskell sat on the hood of my own tow truck, reading something on her phone.

She had changed into navy and kept the pearls.

"Good morning," she said. "You keep early hours."

"You're on my property."

"Am I? Not for long, I think."

She slid off the hood and took a folded paper from her handbag.

"You owe fifty-eight thousand dollars on this building."

"I owe it to the First Piedmont Bank."

"You owe it to Carolina Ridge Holdings, as of three weeks ago." She smiled. "I'm Carolina Ridge Holdings."

The sentence took a moment to arrive.

I unfolded the page.

It was a transfer of note, signed, dated, notarized.

My name was on it, and under it her company, and under that a due date forty-five days out.

"You bought my loan."

"I buy a lot of things, Mara. It's a hobby."

"Three weeks ago." I looked up. "Before Cade posted the job."

"Before I knew you'd take it, yes." She tilted her head. "A coincidence, though. I thought of you the moment I saw the name."

"You didn't know my name."

"I did," Vivian said. "I've known your name for seven years. Don't flatter yourself that I forgot it."

Her voice stayed light.

"I want to be fair," she said. "Walk away from the Renfro job today. Tell Cade your son is sick, or the car is beyond saving. I'll mark the loan paid in full and you'll never hear from me again."

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