I opened my mouth.
"Don't even waste your breath on whatever inane comment you were going to make, Archer. This was a purely rhetorical statement. McKenna is not allowed to run roughshod over our family. Greg and Hunter don't seem like they're taking this seriously, which is unsurprising," Garrett said in a clipped tone. "And Mace is too lovesick to be of much use, not that he is generally a useful person."
"Can't we just pay her off?"
"No, Archer, we cannot just pay her off. She is like our father—obsessive, fixated, in a word, crazy. I have a character profile on her."
Mike snuck a glance at me. He had the deer-in-the-headlights look most people had when dealing with Garrett.
"Now, I've looked into the paperwork. McKenna does have legal ownership of the property. She has enough money from selling paintings on commission that she can more than afford to pay the fines and fees the site has racked up if she so chooses."
He tapped his pen on the desk. "Then she would proceed to string us along for years, potentially."
Mike gulped.
"What's the plan, oh great one?"
"I have several options. The easy one is to trick her."
"Trick her?" Mike asked.
Garrett nodded sagely. "All Archer needs to do is convince her that he's planning on rekindling their romance."
"That seems like it could backfire," Mike said slowly.
"I can't imagine Archer would mess up a fake relationship."
Yeah, that isn't going to work for me. There's no way I can do that to Hazel.
"McKenna's going to want some consummation before she agrees to anything," I said.
"And?" Garrett retorted. "Is there some medical issue that will prevent you from doing that?"
Geez, I forgot just how much talking to Garrett felt like making a deal with a demon. "That's not going to work for me," I said. "What's my other option?"
"Blackmail," Garrett replied.
"Blackmail?"
"Yes."
"Now you've really lost it."
"Do you even have any dirt on her?" Mike asked.
"She plagiarized a paper in high school and slept with one of her college professors for an A."
"That hardly seems enough to force her hand," Mike said. "Also this seems highly underhanded and illegal."
"There's a little gray area between making a deal and extortion. That's where I operate. I've told you my terms. Neither of you has the wherewithal to do what needs to be done."
I started to protest.
"Get out of my office," Garrett said and turned back to his computer.
"Garrett is nuts," Mike said as we walked across the hall to Mace's office. "We need to look at alternative sites."
"We're so close!"
