Page 45 of Smoke and Glitter

Chapter eight

Chapter Eight

Autumn

Ibring the envelope to Vibes before open because I want Sam to have time with it.

The front door is unlocked, and the lights are only half up. Sam is behind the bar working between the register and a legal pad, a coffee beside him that looks like it's been sitting there since he came downstairs.

"Hey."

"Hey." He finishes whatever he's writing before looking up. Even then, it takes a moment for his attention to settle on me. "You're early."

"I'm not staying. I have a call."

I put the envelope on the bar.

His eyes drop to it. "What's that?"

"It's for Pilsen."

Everything in his face stills.

"Bex told me there was a financing problem," I say before he can decide whether to be angry with her. "Nothing else. I found the rest in public records."

"Autumn."

"There's a dissolution filing from the old company that never got finished. One signature is missing, and your name is still attached to it."

He looks at the envelope again but doesn't touch it.

"The other partner has a restaurant on the north side and another location opening soon. He has a reason to want the old company gone too. There's a version of this where you call him, he signs the paper and it's finished before it becomes a bigger problem."

Sam's jaw tightens.

I keep going because stopping now would feel worse.

"I put together a sequence. Who you call first, what you offer, where to take the conversation if he pushes back. I wrote out the most likely ways he answers too, so you don't have to figure it out while you're talking to somebody you clearly haven't wanted to talk to."

Nothing.

I hate how badly I want him to pick up the envelope.

"I know what I'm doing with this stuff, Sam." I rest my hand against the edge of the bar. "Let me be useful."

He picks up the envelope and turns it once in his hand.

"Who else knows?"

The question catches me off guard. "Bex knows there's a problem. She doesn't know what I found."

"And you went looking."

"I did."

"At me."

His voice isn't raised. If anything, it's quieter now.