All the Lies We Tell (Quarry Road #1)(77)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
He’d left sunshine, warm waters, and the pervasive scent of coconut tanning lotion for this bullshit? Ilya watched the bus pull out of the Go Deep lot. At least Alicia had managed to cajole someone into coming to plow out the lane and the parking lot before the bus arrived, and even then, there’d been a few minutes when he was sure they were going to get stuck. When everyone had gone, he let himself into the office.
It was cold.
It was dark.
It was nothing like Jamaica, and Ilya muttered a few choice words as he let himself into Allie’s office to grab the phone, since his cell had gone dead on the ride home from the airport. When she didn’t answer, he tried the landline. At least he thought he did.
“Niko?” he asked at the sound of his brother’s voice. “Sorry, bro, I was trying to call Allie. I must’ve dialed home by accident. She’s not answering her cell, and I’m at the shop. I need a ride.”
“I can come and get you. Be there in about half an hour.”
Thirty minutes was going to feel like thirty hours, at this point. Ilya tried not to party too hard when on a trip, because hangovers and deep dives definitely do not mix. But on that last night in the hotel, with a late-afternoon flight home? He might’ve indulged a little heavily in island rum and a couple of bachelorettes. He’d managed to sleep a little on the plane and then on the bus back from the airport, but that was why his phone was now dead, since he hadn’t thought to plug it in.
He grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and settled into Allie’s desk chair. The motion of him nudging the desk shook the computer enough to wake it from sleep, and he took the mouse to see if he could pass the time watching funny fail videos, or something. The screen lit—her e-mail program prominent—and a new message caught his eye.
From Theresa.
He read the message, of course, not caring at all that it wasn’t addressed to him. Go Deep was 40 percent his business, and this was the business computer. He sat back, reading the points Theresa had outlined trying to convince Allie that this offer from Diamond Development was going to change their lives.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered.
Ilya drained the bottle of water and tossed the empty into the trash. It didn’t do anything to fend off the headache, or his anger. He got up to pace the tiny office. By the time he heard the faint jingle of the bell on the front door alerting him to Niko’s arrival, he hadn’t managed to calm down.
“Hey,” Niko said and stopped at the sight of him. “You okay?”
Ilya gestured at the computer screen—not that Niko could see what he meant. “Allie is totally going behind my back.”
“About . . . ?” Niko’s voice went cool and steady, and so did his gaze.
Oh, yeah, he knew exactly what Ilya meant. Not only had Theresa talked with Allie about it, but it looked to Ilya like Niko had also been let in on the deal.
“This offer. From Theresa.”
Niko’s eyes narrowed, and his mouth pursed for a second before he said, “What are you talking about?”
“This offer. To buy the shop and the quarry. Some hotel wants to make it into a water park.” Ilya gestured again, confused now by his brother’s sudden look of ignorance. “You looked like you knew what I was talking about.”
“I have no idea.” Niko shook his head.
Some of his ire eased. Ilya stood, moving from behind the desk. “Shit. Are you sure she didn’t say anything to you about it?”
“She definitely did not say anything to me about any offer to buy the business,” Niko said with a bite in his voice. “But it sounds like something you need to discuss with her, not me. Are you ready to go? It’s cold in here, and I have stuff to do at home.”
Niko turned without waiting for an answer. Ilya followed him out of the office and into the shop. “They want to come in and build condos or some shit. Do you even have any idea what that means? How about everything I’ve done over the years? You want to know how hard it is to even find a helicopter, much less get it here and sink it so we have something different and unique to bring people in? They think they can just come on in here and tear down some walls and make it pretty, and that’s going to make it better?”
His brother turned at the grasp of Ilya’s hand on his coat sleeve. “Back off, man.”
“You don’t give a damn at all. Why am I even talking to you about it?” Ilya shook his head.
Niko frowned. “Okay, Galina.”
Those were fighting words, but all at once Ilya didn’t want to fight. “That’s low.”
“You’re coming at me the way she does. It’s not that I don’t care, Ilya. Okay? It’s just that it’s not anything to do with me. I can’t fix this.”
Ilya took a breath and unclenched his fists. “I’m not asking you to fix it.”
“I know,” his brother said.
“Anyway, you’ll be out of here soon, and you won’t have to deal with it.”
Niko looked guilty.
Ilya paused. “Right?”
“I haven’t told anyone else this, yet. But I’m cashing in my contract.”
Ilya had only the vaguest idea of how the kibbutz had worked. He knew his brother was part of a collective, that he worked in exchange for food, board, a stipend. Beyond that, he had no clue.