The next morning, I'd barely reached the front gate of the complex when I ran straight into Lucius Armstrong.
The second he saw me, his mouth twisted into a sneer.
"Well, if it isn't the Swanson Good Samaritan."
"I hear you're rounding up that bunch of broke losers to pool your money for a new parking lot."
My stomach dropped, and my heart skipped a beat.
We'd only ever talked about the funding inside our private group chat. How did he know?
Was there a mole in the chat?
Lucius watched my expression shift, and his smile widened.
"What's wrong? Caught you off guard, did I? Scared now?"
"Caroline, take my advice and quit dreaming."
"The owner of that vacant lot is a real ghost. Even my uncle can't get hold of him. And you think you can?"
"You can run around all you want. In the end, the whole lot of you will crawl right back and rent my spaces like good little tenants."
Hearing that, I actually felt myself relax.
So he knew about our plan, but he didn't see it as a threat at all.
He was just waiting for us to fail, enjoying the show.
I gave him one cold look, said nothing, and turned and walked away.
Back home, I went straight through the chat history.
It didn't take long to find the mole feeding information to Clark Perry, and I kicked them out of the group.
To be safe, I built a brand-new, completely private chat.
Only people who'd already paid their share could get in.
"The lot will take about two months to finish."
I posted the message in the new group.
"For these two months, we're going to have to spend a little money."
"Everyone rent Lucius's spaces in batches. Let him think our plan fell apart, so he drops his guard completely."
The next day, I took a few resident representatives to go rent spaces from Lucius.
He looked at us and smiled, ugly to the core.
"Want to rent a space now? Too late."
"Caroline, aren't you the capable one? Weren't you going to build your new parking lot?"
"You want to rent my spaces? Fine."
"You, as the resident representative, get down on your knees and kowtow three times and apologize."
"If it puts me in a good enough mood, maybe I'll rent to you."
The whole thing turned my stomach, and I spun around to leave.
"I don't want a space like this!"
I'd barely turned when two of Lucius's thugs rushed me.
They clamped down on my shoulders from both sides and forced me down onto my knees.
My knees cracked against the hard floor, and pain shot through them.
Lucius walked over and slapped me hard across the face.
"You little bitch, you want to rent my spaces and you still dare to look at me like that?"
"Let me tell you, five thousand won't get you anything now!"
"You want to rent today, it's seven thousand a month. One cent short and you don't park at all!"
Alison Ball's eyes went red with fury and she started to charge forward on my behalf, but I stopped her cold with a look.
I bit through my lip and tasted blood.
Swallowing my anger, I lifted my head and looked at him.
"Fine. Seven thousand it is."
We paid two months' rent and left the property office with Lucius's wild laughter following us out.
Two months later, our new parking lot was finished without a hitch.
Lucius came to find me, renewal contract in hand.
"Caroline, the two months are up. Time to renew your space."
"Don't renew on time this round, and next month it's eight thousand."
I looked at him, and suddenly I smiled.
"No need. We won't be parking at your place anymore."
Lucius froze for a second, then burst into a grating laugh.
"Not with me? And where exactly would you go? Don't tell me you're still dreaming about that new parking lot?"
I pulled out the photos of the finished lot and smiled as I said to him:
"You guessed right. Our new parking lot is already built!"
