Something to Prove Read online

  Except for this time. He’d had twelve years to do something, and as far as she could tell, he’d only made it worse. Elizabeth drove to IP and debated who she should call first. She shouldn’t keep working toward turning this bar around without the green light from Keith or Dad, but it was obvious that neither of them cared much. It was a tax write-off and nothing more.

  Armed with that knowledge, she decided to further assess the business before alerting anyone about what she was doing. She wanted to know how bad this situation was so that she could propose a plan to her dad, and by extension, Keith.

  She unlocked the front door of the bar and was assaulted by a vile smell. Smoke, whiskey, and possibly vomit. She gagged and flipped on the light. The place didn’t look any better with the lights on. Although she really wanted to leave the door open to air out the room, she locked up behind her. It would be just her luck to have a group of bikers come in while she was alone.

  Moving toward the office, she tried not to touch anything. If Mitch left books out, she couldn’t tell where. The office was a pile of papers and dirty coffee cups. She needed to find out how much they were paying Mitch. It was probably too much.

  She sat at the desk and the chair wobbled and creaked. An old radio sat on the file cabinet behind her, so she turned it on and found a news station. The news anchor rattled on about the new mayor and what little he’d been doing for the city. She tuned it out as background noise to keep her company. The mayor was of little concern to her; she didn’t plan on being in the city long enough to care.

  She hung her jacket on the back of the chair and then set to work organizing the piles of paper. With the first stack clear, she uncovered an ancient laptop. It looked to weigh about ten pounds. She opened it and booted it up, hoping to find the books on there.

  As the machine whirred and gurgled, she continued with the papers. Pages stuck together with an undetermined substance she was afraid to inspect too closely. How could Mitch find anything in this mess? She took the outstanding invoices and placed them in a folder to be paid. Random notes Mitch had made to himself she stuck in a brown bag she found in the corner of the room. Once the desk was reasonably clear, she sat again and attacked the computer.

  The accounting was on the desktop and easy to find. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to understand. It was a basic Excel spreadsheet, but nothing was marked or described adequately. She scrolled up and down the sheet trying to understand. She stared until the numbers began to blur.

  Then she gave up. Mitch would have to find the time to explain his accounting system. This place was a disaster. No wonder it never saw a profit.

  Pushing away from the desk, she craved another cup of coffee. Looking at the nasty, gunked-up cups around the room almost quashed her desire for caffeine, but not quite. She gathered those cups—eight in all—and took them back into the bar and dumped them in the sink. Something else for Mitch to take care of.

  While in the bar area, she saw that the liquor license was up-to-date. Mitch at least had managed to get that much right. He wouldn’t want to totally screw himself out of a job. She sighed and grabbed her purse from the office. She’d make a quick run to Starbucks and then return to finish clearing out the mess.

  She stepped out into the clear morning and sucked in a deep breath of fresh air. Even in this mostly residential neighborhood, she had the sense of Chicago’s beauty. She stood at the corner and looked up and down the street. A convenience store stood opposite her position, but everything else was apartment buildings. Behind her, down the side street, were single-family homes, mostly brick bungalows.

  For the life of her she couldn’t figure out what would possess someone to put a bar on this corner. It made no sense. There might be a good amount of foot traffic in the neighborhood overall, but how many of those people would stop in for a drink?

  She got in her car and drove with the windows down to enjoy the air while she could. As she roamed through the neighborhood in search of decent coffee, her mind began to catalog the information gleaned from her barhopping last night. She made a mental checklist of things that needed to change at IP.

  The creation of the list was slow going, though, because she was distracted by a sexy smile. Every time she pushed the bartender from O’Leary’s out of her head, he muscled his way back in relentlessly. Finally, she caved and allowed a brief fantasy to take over her tired brain.

  A little fantasy never hurt anyone, right?

  Colin O’Leary bounded down the back steps that led from his apartment to the bar. As he moved through the bar flipping on lights and prepping for the lunch crowd, he whistled a tune. As much as he enjoyed the crowds and the noise of the lively bar, this was his favorite part of the day. This was his time to be Colin O’Leary, bar owner. It didn’t matter that the bar wasn’t really his. Morning prep allowed him the time to pretend it was, that his father had left the bar to him. As if he hadn’t screwed up everything.

  Then the back door swung open and his bubble burst. He could tell by the sound of Ryan’s steps that his brother was in a bad mood. Again.

  “What’s up?” Colin asked as he took chairs down and reset them where they belonged at each table.

  “Don’t ask. Did you get the inventory done?”

  “Just about. I—”

  Ryan spun from where he was making coffee. “What do you mean, just about? I told you I needed to get orders in today.”

  Colin let out a heavy breath. “As I tried to say, I got most of it done, but then we got slammed last night. By the time we got the crowd down to a manageable size, I was tired and didn’t want to miscount.”

  Ryan shook his head. “Sorry I jumped on you. Things are a little crazy.”

  “Everything okay with Quinn? Any more problems?”

  “Nothing more than usual. She’s ready to pop and won’t take it easy. You’d think that after spending most of the winter in bed, she’d know better. At this point, she just wants to have the baby. It doesn’t help that Indy went into labor early. Indy’s due date was a couple of weeks after Quinn’s, so now she’s really impatient.”

  Colin continued to work his way around the room. “Send her over to the house. Mom’s so excited about the baby, she’ll do nothing but fuss over her.”

  Ryan smiled. “I already tried. Quinn wouldn’t fall for it.”

  “You look like shit. Aren’t you sleeping?”

  “Not much.”

  “Then take off. I can handle this.”

  Ryan raised a single eyebrow and Colin’s shoulders tensed. After all these months, hadn’t he proven enough yet? “It’s inventory, not rocket science.”

  “How many times have you ordered?”

  He shrugged. “Mary walked me through it while you were out of town. The distributors’ numbers are in the Rolodex.”

  Ryan scrubbed a hand over his head. “No, I should check the numbers. I want to make sure we don’t over-order.”

  Colin slammed a chair down harder than he’d intended. “When are you going to stop treating me like a fuckup? I’ve been here for a year, every day, doing exactly what you’ve asked. When are you going to stop punishing me for leaving?”

  Ryan crossed his arms and stared at his feet. “You’re right.”

  Silence.

  At first Colin thought he’d imagined it. “What was that?”

  A tired grin crossed Ryan’s face. “You heard me. I said you’re right. Something had to give. I thought I could keep doing it all with both bars even after getting married and having a baby.”

  “I told you I’m not going anywhere. You can depend on me. Let me take on more. Between Quinn and the baby and running Twilight, your hands are full. I’ll ask if I have questions about anything before I make a move.”

  Ryan still didn’t look sold on the idea.

  “I’m ready for this.”

  “Fine.” The acquiescence came quietly, but Ryan followed with a finger pointed at him. “But if you fuck up this time, Mom won’t be able to save your
ass.”

  “Like I’m afraid of you?” Maybe Ryan had forgotten who was the older brother.

  As if he’d read Colin’s mind, Ryan continued, “We’re adults now, age is meaningless, except for the fact that your body has already taken an extra year of beating that mine hasn’t, so I’m faster and stronger.”

  “Only in your dreams.”

  Ryan left on that note, and Colin felt the most at ease with his position in the family since his return. When their father died, Colin had taken off for three years. Everyone thought he’d done it out of anger because Dad gave O’Leary’s to Ryan. He let them believe it because the truth was so much worse.

  Now he finally had the chance to redeem himself. He no longer had to be the irresponsible, lazy O’Leary. He could finally become the man his father had expected him to be.

  Elizabeth stood and stretched her back. She’d been hunched over the crippled desk for hours attempting to make the office usable. Mitch had come in and explained what he called accounting. She was on her fourth cup of coffee and she knew better than to keep drinking it, but without it she might fall asleep. Sleeping here would never be an option.

  Although Mitch grunted at her when he left the office, she hadn’t heard much noise coming from the bar. She wanted to see what his opening routine was, so she ventured out. She found Mitch sitting on a barstool with a beer in front of him watching a small TV.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Waiting for customers.”

  “Isn’t there work that needs to be done while you’re waiting?” This was a new business to her, so she pushed down the urge to fire him on the spot. He was the only one who knew what had been going on with the place for years.

  He shrugged in response.

  “The bar is filthy. It needs to be cleaned.”

  “Honey, the guys who come in here aren’t staying for the décor.”

  She inhaled through her nose and bit down hard. This would take more than patience. “I understand that you’re used to doing things, or not doing them, your way for a long time. Things need to change. That’s my purpose for being here. I’m telling you, as your boss, that you cannot drink while on the job, and I expect you to clean the bar.”

  He picked up his glass, gulped the beer, and slammed the empty glass down on the bar. Turning the volume up on the TV, he grabbed a rag from the bar and pretended to wipe the surface.

  “Hey, Mitch,” a man called as he entered the bar.

  Elizabeth turned to look at him. He stood in a smudged T-shirt and ragged jeans. He had a red bandana wrapped around his head.

  “Hey, Rick.” Mitch dropped the rag on the bar and shot a quick look at her.

  Rick looked her up and down. “You lost?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Can I buy you a drink then?”

  “No, thank you. I don’t drink while I’m working.”

  “Rick, this is the new boss, Elizabeth.”

  Rick laughed loudly and slipped onto a stool. Mitch had moved around to the other side of the bar and began pouring a beer. It was three in the afternoon. If these guys started drinking this early, how drunk would they be by nightfall?

  She knew Mitch had to go. He wasn’t on board with the changes she would need to make. Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to fire him just yet, but it was coming soon.

  The idea of returning to that office was something she couldn’t stomach. “I’m going out. I’ll probably be back later.”

  “We’ll be waiting.” Mitch tossed her a smile.

  She stormed out, trying not to let him get to her. She’d been in worse situations with pigheaded men. This one, however, wasn’t something she was used to. Keith tended to hire the best he could find. She always had some trusted people to rely on, even when she had to fire the ones who didn’t work out.

  If she got rid of Mitch, there was no one else. Her first order of business would be to find someone who could take over the daily operations of the bar. Back in her hotel room, she opened her computer and began placing ads. Mitch would be gone by the end of the week.

  CHAPTER 2

  Four days later, she’d conducted eleven interviews and hired two new managers. They were set to start the following day. Between the two people she’d hired, Gary and Mike, she’d be spending only slightly more than Mitch was being paid. Now all she had to do was fire Mitch. It was probably the worst part of her job.

  She waited until closing, yet another endless night for her. When the last drunk left, she called him into the office. “We need to talk.”

  “About what?”

  “I’m letting you go.”

  “What?”

  “You’re fired. The books don’t add up, and while I believe you’ve been skimming, I have no proof. I’ll give you two weeks’ severance so you have time to find a new job.”

  He stood in the middle of the cramped office with his mouth hanging open. The creases on his face appeared to deepen. His eyes weren’t quite focused, and she wondered how much he’d drunk.

  “You can’t fire me.”

  “I can and I did.”

  He wasn’t the first person she’d had to fire, so this conversation was nothing new.

  “Keith hired me. I’ll call him and straighten this out.” He pulled a phone from his dirty jeans.

  She hadn’t counted on that. She stood and held up a hand. The last thing she needed was Keith getting involved. She wasn’t ready for him to know she was prying into his business. “First, he won’t answer his phone at this hour. Florida is an hour later than here, and he’s an early-to-bed kind of guy. Second, if you make that call in an attempt to go over my head, the severance is off the table. I will bring in a forensic accountant to find out exactly how much money you’ve stolen and I’ll prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.” She was totally talking out her ass, and she prayed he wouldn’t call her on it. Given that he didn’t seem too bright, it appeared her threat might work.

  “Three weeks’ pay.”

  Maybe he wasn’t as dumb or drunk as he looked; he wanted to negotiate. “Two and a half and you don’t try to collect unemployment.”

  “Fine. I’ll have a job by tomorrow. You have no idea what you’re getting into. My guess, you’re gone inside a week.”

  He had no idea how tenacious she could be. There was no way she was leaving until she’d accomplished her goals. She pulled out the checkbook and wrote his check.

  He snatched it from her hand, turned on his heel, and left.

  “Nice doing business with you,” she called after him. She dragged herself to the front door and locked up. Tomorrow would be a fresh start. Both of the men she had coming in were experienced bar managers. It had to be an improvement over Mitch.

  She looked back over the darkened room and wondered what she was doing. She’d made employment decisions for other jobs, but this felt different. Doing it on her own made the difference. She really had no backup here, and preventing Mitch from calling her brother was the deciding moment. She was going to do this.

  Early the next morning, her phone rang. Groggy, her blurry eyes attempted to focus on the screen. Dad. She’d known this call would come; she’d hoped it would’ve taken longer, though. She had to make a quick decision about what to tell him. She knew she wouldn’t be able to disappear without being noticed.

  “Hi, Dad.”

  “Hey, sweetheart. Where are you? I haven’t seen you for days, and I don’t remember sending you to a job.”

  “I’m in Chicago. I’m visiting with Janie. You remember her, don’t you? I was feeling burned out from all the work travel, so I decided to take a break.” It was only a partial lie. She was burned out; she really did want a break. Unfortunately, Dad never truly heard her desire to take over the company and stay at home. He was always more focused on her social life.

  “Oh. Why didn’t you say something?”

  “It was spur-of-the-moment.” She sat up and scrubbed her hand over her face and waited to be busted for
that. Spontaneous wasn’t her style. Dad didn’t seem to notice her lapse.

  “When do you plan to come home?”

  “I’m not sure.” She knew what was coming next, and her stomach turned.

  “I have a new property I’m considering. If I get it, it’ll be ready for takeover within two months.”

  Two months? Too bad this wasn’t really a vacation. She didn’t want to head to another job, in another city. “Can’t Keith do this one?”

  She heard fumbling on the other end. She’d caught him off guard since she’d never turned down a job before, but she had a feeling about this bar. This project would surprise her father. She would prove that she had the ambition and initiative to take over his spot. She could be him.

  “Well, if that’s what you want. But you know I try not to send him out of town for too long. The kids miss him. It’s hard on a family.”

  She flopped back on her pillow. And there it was, the accusation beneath it all. Didn’t she know how hard it was on a family to have a dad who traveled? She’d lived it. It was hard on her nieces when Keith was gone, which was why Dad leaned toward giving the company to Keith. But she shouldn’t be knocked out of the running because she didn’t have a family.

  “We’ll see how it goes. If you get the property, send me a timeline.” She hesitated and then pushed forward. What was a little more truth stretching? “I’m actually looking into some options here myself.”

  “You are?” More shock.

  “Yeah. I’m pretty tired, Dad. I was out late and I’m an hour earlier than you.”

  “Sure, honey, go back to sleep.”

  “Give Mom my love. I’ll call you soon.” She turned over with the intention of getting more sleep, but her mind wouldn’t cooperate. She hated lying to her dad. That wasn’t the kind of relationship they had. She picked up the phone again and brushed her fingers over the buttons, but didn’t engage a call.

  No, she’d started this and she’d see it through. If she hadn’t made significant progress within a couple of weeks, she’d tell Dad the truth. All she had to do now was dodge Keith. He’d see right through her and ruin her plans.