“You have no idea,” Cora agreed.
“Do you promise to make him cry?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll sign your papers.” Haskins reached for his phone. “My lawyers have to look over them first, but I’ll sign them.”
“Great.” Cora returned to her chair. “I love what you’ve done with the place. The giant flamingo in the G-string is charming.”
Haskins chuckled. “The place is a hole. It always has been. I only kept it because everybody else wanted it.”
“And now?”
“And now I’m ready to give it to you because it will tick off all the men in this town. That gives me a certain level of power too.”
“I agree.” Cora rested her hands on her crossed legs. “Let’s get that attorney here, shall we? I have someone whose life I want to ruin before the sun sets.”
“I like that you’re proactive.” Haskins winked at her before adopting a flirtatious smile. “Are you looking to trade up from Ryder?”
“Not at present. When I’m ready, though, you’ll be the first to know.”
IT TOOK THREE HOURS FOR THE ATTORNEYSto go through all the documents. To make sure there wouldn’t be an issue, they arranged for a notary to be present. When it was done, all the contracts signed, the relief I felt was profound.
“When are you going to tell Ryder?” Haskins asked. He almost seemed giddy with relief. The property had been an albatross around his neck for a long time. Now he was about to be free.
“Just as soon as I see the dirt you have on him,” Cora replied. “I want to make sure I really torture him when I drop the hammer.”
Haskins reached in his pocket and came back with a thumb drive. “I have about eight of these to make sure that I never lose the footage. This isn’t the only copy.”
“That’s fine.” Cora took it. “How bad is it?”
“Bad enough that Ryder knows he’ll never be in charge of anything but a car wash again if it goes public.”
“Please tell me none of the women on this are underage.”
Haskins shrugged. “I can’t promise that. I didn’t go into it trying to trap him with an underage girl. That’s not my thing. If any of them are underage, they lied to me … and in this town, we all know that’s possible.”
“Is it kinky?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Yes. Ryder has … peculiar tastes.’
I both didn’t want to know what those tastes included and couldn’t help myself from being curious. “Well, thanks. We’ll close on the sale in three weeks. I would live it up here until then.”
“Oh, I plan to have a few parties.” Haskins looked smug. “They’re going to be ones for the record books.”
“Whatever you want to save, just tell my people,” Cora offered. “We’ll get it into storage for you until you decide what you want to do with it.”
“Thanks for that.” Haskins winked at her. He was clearly enamored. To my surprise, instead of waving us off, he sobered. “You should know that Ryder promised he would have his deal in hand by the weekend. He said he had one of his kids that he could manipulate into doing what he wanted. He seemed sure of it.”
“Did he say which kid?” I asked.
“Not the boy. He had nothing good to say about the boy. Whoever is currently in charge, he hates her too.”
“That leaves Pearl and Ruby,” I murmured. My stomach constricted. There was no way it was Pearl. She wasn’t going to be motivated to agree with her father no matter what. “Did he say how he was going to get them on his side?”
“Just that he had a surefire way of forcing them to do what he wanted. Something about a baby.”
My stomach dropped to my shoes. “My baby?”
