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The truffles threatened to come back up For a moment Claire couldn’t think As if on autopilot, she reached for a nearby bottle of Grand Marnier she’d used in the truffles, twisted off the top and sed several mouthfuls The liqueur burned a fiery path down her throat, snapping her out of her lethargy
Setting the bottle down, she stretched her hands out and strode toward her brother, ready to choke him
“Hey,” he cried, shuffling backward “What are you doing?”
“Strangling you Your life insurance is paid up, right?”
“That’s not funny”
“You think I’h to kill you, Freddy!”
“I’m sorry,” he squealed
Her fury seeped out of her “How could you do this?” sheonto a stool in front of the counter
Of all people, Freddy should know better But the fact that their gambler father had lost all his ht hi
“I didn’t ood, the Rat King is gonna send the Nutcracker after me”
She gaped at her brother “The who is going to send the what?”
“The Rat King’s a bookie The Nutcracker is his enforcer”
Torn betanting to burst into hysterical laughter or screa “The Nutcracker?”
“Yeah He got his name because if you don’t pay, he, uh”
Claire waved a hand “I think I can figure it out” Considering she’d often thought her brother needed to grow a pair, she wasn’t sure the collector would be cracking much
“I can’t help you,” she stated calmly
Freddy’s eyes rounded into saucers “What?”
“I have barely enough to coverholiday season to make this place pay My lines of credit are totally tapped out”
“You could rent the upstairs apartments”
“No” The argu to be condemned”
“Corand apaint on the walls!”
It wasn’t just peeling paint Her great-uncle Harry had left her the run-down property, but no cash Her et the first-floor shop renovated, along with the apart else The upstairs units—two on each level, going up three floors—were uninhabitable Squatters living up there had had the good sense to h the cracked s Then there were the holes in the walls, thewallpaper Not a pretty picture Soha lucrative investment But not now
The only way she could get any reed to sell it to the investor who’d been co up her chance to build a future for herself made her heart clench Especially if she had to do it to bail out her idiot brother
Claire got so tired of taking care of hiotten sick, Claire had been the one to nurse her When her father had lost histo help support the faone and it was just her and Freddy, she’d becoer, when she wasn’t e years
She was tired So da time since anyone had taken care of her, she honestly didn’t remember what it felt like
“Freddy, even if I would consider renting the above this floor is a ruin” Seeing hiain, she threw a hand up “And no, I’ I need”
“So what a petulant
She bit her tongue to prevent herself frorow the hell up, be a man and deal with his own problems
“What about a payive him a certain amount of your paycheck every week”
Her brother rolled his eyes “Bookies don’t finance”
“You’ve got no other options You have to at least ask”
If the “Rat King” said no, then she’d go into full panic ans on the black market She could think of a few of Freddy’s that could be spared, like his useless brain