03
The cold storage door had barely swung open before they poured in like bandits sacking a village.
Deborah hauled out a whole case of the imported freeze-dried powder and tossed it straight at the woman in the leopard-print dress.
"Take it."
"A single box of this goes for over twenty grand out there. Today's on me. Anyone who doesn't use it is disrespecting me."
Every one of the women lit up and swarmed in at once.
Some stuffed product into their designer bags as fast as their hands could move.
Others tore the packaging open on the spot and smeared big dollops across the backs of their hands.
Then a woman in a camisole came out carrying a box of injectables.
"Deborah, can I get this one shot into me?"
Deborah glanced at the box and nodded like she owned the place.
"Of course you can!"
"How could the most expensive stuff be wrong?"
The blood drained from Yvonne's face. She rushed over to block them.
"Miss Dickerson, that one you really can't touch!"
"That's the Siren's Tears that just came in. The formula has to be mixed by a licensed attending physician."
"If someone opens it and injects it on their own, it can kill!"
Deborah's face darkened. She jabbed a finger at Yvonne's nose.
"Here you come again, ruining the fun."
"My brother's standing right here and he hasn't said a word. Who are you to tell me what to do?"
Yvonne was so upset she was near tears, and she reached out to grab it back.
Deborah's hand came up and struck her across the face.
Crack.
The sound rang out, sharp, and the whole lobby went silent in an instant.
Yvonne clutched her cheek and went down to the floor, half her face swelling before my eyes.
I hurried over and pulled her up.
Deborah folded her arms and looked at me, brazen.
"What?"
"You're going to stick up for the hired help?"
My phone buzzed twice in a row.
The future me had sent a very long voice message.
"The crazier she gets, the worse she'll go down."
"Three years of give-an-inch, take-a-mile. Do not clean up her mess today, whatever you do."
"Just remember one thing. Every camera in the store is running fine right now."
I swallowed the anger and helped Yvonne into a chair at the front desk.
"Go find some ice for it."
Her eyes were red-rimmed, her voice shaking.
"Astrid, we really can't let them mess around with that stuff. Something's going to happen."
I patted her shoulder.
"I know. Leave it to me."
Deborah snorted from across the room.
"What's the act for?"
"I'm taking things from my own family's place, and now I need your permission?"
I pointed at the big screen behind the front desk.
"The system's tallying it up."
"Use whatever you want."
"But we're all adults here. Whatever you take, whatever you use, in the end everyone pays for what they do."
Deborah looked like she'd just heard the funniest thing in the world.
"You hear that?"
"She really thinks she's the boss!"
The woman in the leopard-print dress leaned in and stirred the pot in that snide tone.
"Deborah, your sister-in-law's not actually going to make you pay, is she?"
Deborah tossed an injectable worth tens of thousands onto the couch.
"She wouldn't dare."
"My brother's right here. She takes one cent from me, and I'll have him throw her out of the Dickerson family."
Patrick came hurrying over with a plate of sliced fruit to smooth things over.
"No, no, of course we're not charging anyone. Everyone just enjoy yourselves."
Under cover of setting down the fruit plate, he shot me a vicious glare.
"Astrid, put today's tab on the back end for now. I'll settle it later."
"Don't stand here making everyone look bad."
I didn't even glance at him. I walked straight to the register.
A few quick taps in the system, and I put the running total up on the lobby screen.
The number jumped from a hundred and eighty thousand to four hundred and thirty thousand in an instant.
Deborah shot a look at the screen. Instead of reining herself in, she only got more worked up.
"Fire up the premium ultrasound-lift device for me!"
"And that gold radiofrequency treatment. Power it all on!"
"Anyone who hasn't spent five hundred thousand here today isn't allowed to leave!"
