I flick my lights and press forward until I’m flush to the Buick’s bumper, keeping one eye on the camera feed. Sebastian is getting worked up, his whole body becoming energized. His face gleams, and he starts moving about the room, bouncing between the three cameras, giving them full-on shots of his face.

He says my name, and my lungs go hard as concrete.

“He told me it was a no-brainer. He said his other shops were spitting out profits in the first year. He guaranteed we’d have our money back, that we’d double it in no time. He knew I was counting on my investment to pay for Gigi’s medical costs, and he swore he wouldn’t let this project fail. And then you know what happened? He let it fail. He walked away and left me holding the bill.”

I glance over at Nick. “I never said any of that. He knew about the risks. He’s lying.”

Nick grunts, a detached sound that says he couldn’t care less either way.

“Seriously, man. That’s not how it happened.”

I don’t know why I’m being so defensive, why I care that this man-bunned, leather-clad arsonist who’s been following my wife believes me, but there it is. I am ashamed of my behavior. I don’t want anybody to know what I did.

“What, a kidnapper lie?” Nick swings an ankle over a knee. “Shocking.”

When Sebastian floated the idea of us becoming partners, offering up the building he’d inherited from his grandmother in return for a stake in the restaurant, I warned him there were risks. But in the same breath, I also told him not to worry.

Oakhurst was to be my sixth shop in a city that couldn’t get enough of me. All we had to do was fix the place up, fire up the grill and open the doors, and people would come running. I didn’t use the words no-brainer, but I might as well have. I certainly gave him that impression.

And then Fred couldn’t fill the tables in the West Side shop—first on weekdays, then weekends. Staff was walking out, abandoning ship for restaurants that could keep them flush with tips. I had no other choice but to fire Fred and step in, but it took a few months to get back up to speed. No way I had the bandwidth for a sixth shop.

George’s parting word whispers in my ear: karma.