Page 19 of Slumming It
He glanced around. "The place is a shithole."
This was no kind of answer, and I swear, I felt my nostrils flare. "Yeah, well…we can'tallbe the Sentry Tower."
I waited for his reaction – a flinch, a twitch,something.
He gave me nothing.
I felt my eyebrows draw together. Man, I would hate to play poker withthisguy. At the very least, he should've blinked when I'd mentioned that particular piece of real estate.
The Sentry Tower was the flagship property of the company owned by Reese Murdock and his partners. The hotel had seventy-seven floors and was located in the priciest part of downtown Chicago.
My sister Vivian adored the place, but only from afar, considering that the room prices had always been well beyond her budget – and mine, too, come to think of it.
In this much shabbier hotel, I tried again. "I mean, different hotels serve different markets, right? Like…take the Sentry Tower. It caters to people with lots of money, whilewecater to…" I tried to think of the best way to put it. "People who are…um…"
He smirked. "Shitholers."
My jaw clenched. "That's not even a word."
"It is now."
"Why?" I scoffed. "Becauseyoupronounced it?"
He shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
His attitude was beyond grating. "Fine. Then what does that make you? I mean,you'restaying here. Does that make you a shitholer, too?"
He looked more amused than insulted. "No."
I crossed my arms. "And why not?"
"Because visiting the zoo doesn't make me a monkey."
Asshole."You know, just becauseyouwere born with a silver spoon in your mouth – "
"I wasn't."
"Yeah, right." I'd read the stories. Rumor had it, the guy was the illegitimate son of some Danish lord.Or was it Norwegian?Regardless, the guy in front of me had never been hurting for money. Everyone knewthat.
And now, he was sniffing around our little town, where his money would go a lot further than it would in larger cities. If his rumored interest was true, I knew exactly how this would go. At first, everyone would be thrilled to see new investments flowing into the community.
But soon, assuming the guy moved like most bigshot developers, the local people along with their children and grandchildren would be priced out of the market entirely. Sure, they might get some fancy new restaurants, but that would be a crappy consolation prize if they could no longer afford to live in the community built by their own families.
It would totally suck.
But what couldIdo about it?
What could anyone do?
Probably nothing.
But just as I was about to give in to helpless despair, it suddenly hit me – a perfect bolt out of the blue. It didn'thaveto be this way, not if a local person – someone who truly cared about the community – steered things in the proper direction.
Almost before I knew it, I heard myself say, "You know what? You should hire me."
Chapter 8
Reese
