Chapter 9 - The Line in the Sand
Adrenaline surged through my veins like pure electricity. I didn't back down. I took three paces forward, positioning myself directly between the two men and the door where Grandma was resting.
"You're in the wrong hotel, gentlemen," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "There are sixteen security cameras on this floor alone, and the Scottsdale Police headquarters is three blocks down the street."
The shorter man smirked, cracking his knuckles. "Cops take eight minutes to respond to a disturbance call, kid. In eight minutes, you can lose a lot of teeth. We don't want trouble with you. Hand over the title deed to the Scottsdale acreage, and we'll settle the rest with your deadbeat dad."
"The title deed is null and void," I replied, pulling the folder out from under my coat and holding it high enough for them to see the county seal. "It was obtained through elder fraud. I filed an emergency lis pendens notice with the county recorder online forty minutes ago from my laptop. The property is legally contested. If you touch that land, the state attorney general seizes it as evidence of criminal extortion."
The scarred man paused, his smirk fading. He glanced at his partner. These weren't mindless street thugs; they were predatory loan sharks who operated in the grey zone of contract fraud. The mention of an attorney general freeze hit a nerve.
"You think you’re smart, college boy?" the scarred man muttered, stepping closer until I could smell the stale tobacco on his breath. "Your daddy owes four hundred grand. If we can't collect on the land, he pays in blood. You really ready to let your old man rot in a ditch over dirt?"
"My father made his bed when he stole his mother’s medicine money," I replied, staring directly into his dead eyes without blinking. "Whatever debt he has with you is between you and him. But if you take one more step toward that door, I will scream loud enough to wake every guest on this floor, and you'll be doing ten years for armed burglary of an occupied hotel room."
The two men exchanged a tense, calculating look. The elevator behind them chimed again. A family with two young children carrying gift bags stepped out, chattering happily about Christmas lights.
May you like
The scarred man cursed under his breath, jamming his hands into his pockets. "Tell your daddy he has until sunrise to figure out another way to pay. Because after that, we stop knocking on doors."
They turned and walked briskly toward the emergency stairwell, disappearing into the concrete corridor.
