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“What do you mean if I’d followed your direction? I didn’t cause any of those issues!” she exclaimed
“Of course you did. You just had to get up and talk after Kelly-Anne was finished. You couldn’t let it lie. You inflamed the situation.”
She had not. God, she hadn’t realized that Ed was such a jerk until today.
“You’ve put extras on this,” Ammo said. “There are charges here for destruction of property and causing unusual amounts of pain and suffering. You kidding me?”
“I am not kidding anybody,” Ed said. “That is the bill. It needs to be paid by the end of the week.”
Ammo gave her the piece of paper and took a step toward Ed who stumbled back, nearly tripping over his own feet.
“You can’t intimidate me!” Ed yelled.
She took in the final amount with a gasp. “You can’t charge me all this extra. I can’t pay for this.”
“Well, you need to pay for it, or I’ll be calling the sheriff.”
“You can’t call the sheriff on an unpaid bill, Ed,” she told him. “It’s not a police matter.”
“Then I’ll call the debt collectors, but I’m getting my money. That funeral was an absolute joke.”
“Yeah, it was a joke,” Ammo said. “And whose fault is that? You’re the one in charge of it, right? Aimee didn’t cause any of those damages.”
“You need to pay the bill, Aimee.”
Ammo leaned down and got into Ed’s space. “Well, you best get a lawyer, because we’re not paying that.”
“Fine. I’ll see you in court.”
18
Aimee paced up and down the kitchen, unable to settle down and eat the food that was now sitting in the middle of the table.
Everyone was gathered around the table with plates full of food.
“What am I going to do?” she said. “He can’t just charge me for things like that, right? I had nothing to do with the fight that broke out.”
“Of course he can’t,” Keira said. “That’s ridiculous. We were all there as your witnesses, too.”
“Right. That’s right. I’m just going to pay for the original part of the bill and ignore these extra expenses.” She bit her lip.
Aimee was already deep in debt, thanks to Charlie. The debt collectors had now started leaving her threatening messages and envelopes on her front doorstep. She didn’t need more trouble in her life.
“Don’t pay any of it,” Ammo said to her.
“I have to pay what I agreed to. I wish you hadn’t threatened him with a lawyer. What if he gets one?”
“He should get one since we’re going to hit him with ours,” Ammo told her.
Zander grunted and nodded. “You going to call Gwen?”
“Oh, good idea,” Keira said. “The shark is gonna eat the little fishies.”
“Shark? Fishies?” Aimee asked. What was she trying to say?
“Gwen’s really good at her job,” Keira told her, before scooping up some food as Zander gave her a stern look. “I’m eating, I’m eating. You’ve got an obsession with my food intake. I’ve told you before, that whole ‘eating for two’ thing isn’t true.”
“Come eat, Aimee. Don’t worry about it,” Ammo commanded.
