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“I want to help you rebuild.”
She stared at me like she was deciding whether to throw something.
“Rebuild what?”
“Five new restaurants. I’ll put up the money and cover all the expenses for the first two years.”
Her arms dropped to her sides.
“You serious?”
“Yeah. The locations, the renovations, the equipment. Payroll, inventory, whatever it takes to keep the doors open while you get back on your feet.”
“And what do you get?”
“I get to pay for what I did.”
“You expect me to believe you don’t want anything?”
“I ain’t come here trying to get you back, if that’s what you asking.”
Her mouth tightened.
“Good, because you couldn’t.”
“I get it.” I also doubted it. But I had no desire for her.
“No, you don’t. You’re standing here offering to buy five buildings like that makes up for humiliating my whole family.”
“I know it doesn’t make up for everything. But it gives you something to work with.”
She picked up one of the menus and held it toward me.
“Who’s going to eat there, Justice? You can put Marceline’s in a brand-new building, and people will still be posting those fucking videos underneath every picture we put up.”
“We’ll hire the best PR company we can find. Good PR can spin damn near anything.”
“Then tell them to spin you putting the roaches in there.”
I looked at her without answering immediately.
“Exactly,” she said. “You want my name cleaned up as long as yours doesn’t get dirty.”
She had me there. I hadn’t come prepared to put out a statement about hiring somebody to infest her kitchens. I wasn’t going to lie and pretend otherwise.
“I don’t have every answer right now,” I admitted. “But I’m willing to put real money behind fixing this. We can sit down and figure out what that needs to look like.”
Kira dropped the menu back onto the box.
“I can’t even look at you without thinking about what you did.”
“I get it.”
“Stop saying you get it. You still got your business. You still got people kissing your ass every time you walk through that casino. Banks Reserve is flying off the shelves.”
I pressed my lips together. There wasn’t much I could say to that without making it worse.
“You don’t have to decide today,” I told her. “Talk to Kyle. Think about what you need. If you want to discuss it, call me.”
