The asshole that hung her out to dry.
“None of this changes anything. I don’t have the money. It’s all tied up in the store.”
“Maybe I don’t want the cash then.” I took a step toward her and bent forward. I was a big guy, and she was a small girl. But I liked the way she looked down on her knees in front of me.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to come work for me.”
She let out a strange, half-strangled reply. I couldn’t tell if she was about to cry or throw up.
“Work for you?” she finally managed. “What… do you want me to do?”
“What the fuck do you think?” Rolan asked. “You’re a pretty girl. You seem smart. Use your fucking head.”
I gave him a look. “How about you let me do the talking?”
He grinned, shrugged, and paced off down to the other side of the warehouse. Viktor chuckled and smoked his cigarette.
I turned my attention back to Leigh.
“I want you to work for me. Can you do that, little Leigh? Can you pay off your debts?”
“I don’t owe you anything. My brother borrowed. I didn’t know. I didn’t… I didn’t know.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not how this works. You’re on the hook. So let me ask you again.” I got down on one knee and looked into her eyes. I saw the fear then—the uncertainty. “Can you work off your debt?”
“I won’t be your whore.”
I leaned toward her and looked into her pretty eyes. She stared right back, defiant and gorgeous.
God damn, I was half hard just staring at her.
“You’ll be whatever the fuck I want you to be.”
She took a sharp breath. “I won’t fuck for money.”
I stood up. “I’ll make this easy then.” I turned my back on her, pace away a few steps then turned back. “You come to work for me and do exactly what I tell you to do, and after a few months you’ll have paid off your brother’s debts.”
“Or?” she asked.
“Or, I put a bullet in your head and parade your corpse around the city so every mother fucker around knows that they can’t default on a debt to me without losing someone they love.”
She sucked in a breath and I could see the fear and panic return.
I could almost see the calculus going on in her head. She thought if she came to work for me, she’d end up being a whore. So she’s wondering, can she fuck for money and get out of debt? Can she even survive that, and if she does, what will she be when it’s over?
Or can she die here and now?
I’m not going to lie. I’m kind of a sick fuck. There was some part of me that enjoyed her little dilemma.
It was a pretty messed up situation she found herself in, and the way people reacted to difficult situations said a lot about them. I wanted to see what kind of person Leigh was. I needed to see if she’d fold under pressure, or if it would make her harder and stronger, like a diamond in a coal pit.
I had big plans for her.
But none of them would matter if she was going to break down into a dirty lump of nothing useful.
“Don’t think too long,” I said. “And don’t keep me waiting. This is your life we’re talking about and I’m not a patient man.”
“Owain, right?” She blinked rapidly. “Your name’s Owain?”
“That’s right, little Leigh.”
“Okay, Owain. Okay. I think we can come up with another solution, right?” She was talking fast, beyond panicked now. “Maybe I can tell all my stock off. You know, at a discount, just to get some cash. And then… I can break my lease… I have some savings. And a car. I can sell my car. Fuck, uh, I can sell clothes… I have some jewelry and a laptop…”
“Do you know how much your brother owes me?”
She blinked at the floor for a few seconds. “I don’t know. I don’t think I want to know.”
“He owes me two hundred thousand dollars.”
She groaned like I just kicked her in the guts.
“Fuck. All of it.” She let out a sick, pathetic sob. “You were all our investors.”
“Damn right I was. You think your loser brother could find a legit guy to finance your business?”
“We were doing so good. We were going to turn a profit soon, once we paid off the overhead. Another few months at most and then—”
“And then he died, leaving you on the hook.” I walked back over to her and stared down. “Come on, little Leigh. Can you work off two hundred grand? Or do you want to die here and now and be a cautionary tale? You’ll be an expensive cautionary tale, I’ll admit it. But I think the message will be loud and clear.”
“I don’t… I can’t…” She shifted on her knees, adjusting herself. “I don’t know what to do.”