Page 205 of Tenderfoot

Mastermind, or the guy I didn’t know but semi-kinda recognized, sighed loudly and snapped, “Stop it.”

The Two Goons glowered at each other, and this lasted a good long while.

“Stop it!” Mastermind clipped.

The Two Goons kept glowering, just not at each other.

Mastermind looked to me. “I’m sorry they involved you.”

Did he expect me to shrug and say, “Hey, that’s okay”?

I did not.

I glared at him.

“I think you might understand why I’ve gone to these extreme measures,” he said.

“Uh, we don’t even know who you are,” I replied.

He seemed surprised by that. He then seemed annoyed by that. He then seemed to ponder his options regarding that.

And then he came to a decision.

“This is how this is going to go,” he began.

I glanced at Willow.

I didn’t know what I expected to see. Her cowering or crying, maybe. Her looking as terrified as I felt, possibly.

Her looking pissed enough to tear someone’s head off?

No.

“I apologize it’s gotten to this point, but rest assured, I’ll make it worth your while,” Mastermind went on.

“Make what worth our while?” Willow asked, or more like, whipped out at him like a lash.

Dang.

She was so totally an Angel, and more the Raye-Angel variety, and not the Harlow-Angel variety, like I thought.

“This”—he swung a hand out in front of him to indicate us sitting zip-tied on chairs in his garage—“unfortunate turn of events.”

“We’re listening,” I said.

Mastermind nodded. “Trevor Clampitt met my daughter on the Stung dating app about four months ago.”

Well…

There you go.

“When she shared with me what was happening, at first, I tried to handle it in a civilized manner. That, I assure you,” he said.

And we were looking at whoever put together Sun Dial LLC.

Onward from that, considering he was a millionaire daddy, this explained why he could bury that shell company so deep Arthur couldn’t find out who was behind it.

“I’m afraid Mr. Clampitt felt he’d discovered his whale and made acting civilized extremely difficult,” Mastermind continued.

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