Page 25 of Keep Your Guard Up
Mari
Silence filled the office. Unbearable, uncomfortable silence. The kind of quiet that came after you say something you shouldn’t have. After you spill a secret that shouldn’t have been told.
“What?” JJ’s eyes were just about to fall out of his head.
“What do you meanwe lose the gym?” Chance asked, much, much softer this time.
I looked back to JJ, knowing he would understand the context of what I was about to say next.
“Camden McLarry is the founder of DiplomatGen.”
“Yeah? What does that have to do with anything?” JJ asked.
“DiplomatGen is also the founder of lots of smaller, minor companies. Presumably to … makebusinesseasier, you could say.”
“You sure could. That’s why Jayden, Camden, and the rest of their soul-sucking, pocket-filling family are a bunch of obnoxious fucktards who stick their nose up at everyone. What’s your point here?” JJ hurried me along.
“One of those smaller companies goes by the name of Pepper Tides.”
“Fuckkk,” he groaned, running his hand over his dark curls. “Pepper Tides as in—”
“Yep. That’s the one.”
“What’s Pepper Tides?” Chance asked.
After glancing at JJ, who shot me a look telling me I had some explaining to do, I dipped my head towards the door. “Shut it?” I requested.
He dramatically huffed before getting up, closing it, and flicking the flimsy lock into place.
“Pepper Tides is the company that saved us from going under three years back.” I ran my thumb and pointer fingers over my eyebrows, smoothing the tension from between them. “We did fundraisers, so many goddamn fundraisers. We went into the city to meet with investors at sleazy clubs and restaurants. JJ and I took on some local fights in some of the towns nearby to make up some extra cash. But … it just wasn’tenough.
“One day I received an email from a company called Pepper Tides, offering a buy-in for stakes in the gym. The offer was ludicrous, looking back on it—far more than what the business was worth. But it would keep us afloat for a long while and allow us to put measures in place to move in an upwards direction. It gave us a budget for a social media team, some advertisements, and marketing to bring people into this butt-fuck nowhere town.”
“How long have you known Pepper Tides was a Camden Company?” JJ asked, that blankness on his dark face anything but calm.
He waspissed.
“I found out the day before we moved Dad into his … home.” I took a shaky breath in. The truth had to come out. There was no hiding it now. I needed them to understand how catastrophically fucked we were if they kicked Jayden out. “I signed the papers the next day. Camden has been feeding merequestsfor changes ever since.”
I decidednotto reveal that Jayden was the one who had convinced me to sign the papers. That was a ghost that could stay in the closet, come out another day.
“Lynnie.” JJ’s icy voice chilled the room.
Even Chance had tensed in his desk chair opposite me. He hadn’t said anything, just sat with curious, watching eyes.
“Why thefuckdidn’t you say anything sooner?”
“Because, JJ, there was no other way—”
“Of course there was! There’s always another way—you were just too chickenshit to find it!”
“I’d just moved my dad into a respite home and was trying to keep the only thing he, and I, have ever loved afloat. What the fuck did you expect me to do?!” I snapped.
“Camden’s into some dodgy shit, Mari. It’s not just about knowing some people you don’t want to know. All of those little companies of his aremoney-laundering schemes. They all clean his money for him since it’s all tainted.Tainted!” JJ stood and began pacing in front of us.
I looked to Chance, who still said nothing, just followed JJ with his eyes.
“You don’t know them like I do, Lynnie. Why do you think Jayden always refused to hang around if I was there?”
