He winced and gave me an, ‘Are you crazy woman?’ look, before reluctantly answering. “What do you have in mind? We’ve got no money.”
“Thanks to you!” I spat out. “I thought you were taking the money straight to them yesterday, you know, to get them off your back for a while. Why, Justin? Why would you spend it on shit that’s gonna kill you?”
He wouldn’t answer me though. I don’t know why I’d ever expected he would. He clearly had zero remorse. I was beginning to realise that I barely recognised this version of him, and I certainly didn’t like it all that much.
“They want more than that. They want ten times that much, and that’s just this month’s instalment.”
I wanted to tell him to grow a pair and face his problems, but I held my tongue. A first for me.
“Well, something might’ve helped keep them happy for a while. Now we have nothing.” I folded my arms over my chest in defiance. “Listen, I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna pay these men a little visit-” He tried to protest, but I cut him off. “We’ll tell them we have nothing, and we’ll buy ourselves some time. They can’t squeeze cash out of us if we don’t have any. I’ll tell them I’m back now. I’ll get a job and set up a payment plan with them.”
“It’s not a high street bank, Ryley,” he scoffed. “They’re not gonna go for a two bit payment plan.”
“It’s all they’re gonna get from us,” I stated, determined to stick to my guns.
I would get these men to negotiate with me. I wasn’t going to let them bulldoze over our lives. I needed to show them who was in charge, and take control of this situation. Ryley to the rescue, as usual.
I wore a cute tweed blazer over my low-cut black vest and tailored black short shorts, finishing off the look perfectly with thigh-high black suede boots. I knew I had to dress for my audience, and stripper body with a killer brain was what I was going for. I couldn’t help but feel sexily powerful. I tied my long, blonde curls up into a high ponytail, and kept my make-up natural but sexy, making sure my lips were glossy and stained a deep pink. I knew how to manipulate men if I needed to, and I wasn’t ashamed to pull out all the stops. I was going to be the one manipulating the situation to our advantage, not them. They needed to know that Momma bear was home now, and she was gonna take control of this shit.
At around Midday, I found myself standing at the back of an old building that housed one of the city’s newest and hottest clubs. An imposing, thick, reinforced metal door was all that stood between us and the demons inside that ran this place. I held myself tal
l as Justin pushed the buzzer, but no voice sounded over the intercom. The CCTV cameras whirred around quietly to focus their lenses on us. I turned to give them my most vicious stare, letting the person on the other end know in no uncertain terms that I was not a pushover.
I felt Justin grab for my hand, and I gave him a reassuring squeeze back. Whatever happened today, we were in this together. I was going to marry this man in six months. I wanted to do it without any shit hanging over our heads. We deserved it.
We heard shuffling, and a few deep voices muttering from the other side of the door, before it clunked open to reveal two huge men dressed in black suits and fitted with ear pieces. They didn’t even look us in the eye, just held the door open and stepped back to let us through.
“Nice receptionists they’ve got here. Where do you want us to sign in?” I spat out sarcastically, hoping to get a rise out of one of them. I was shocked to realise I was actually spoiling for a fight.
“Well, aren’t you just a breath of fresh air, blondie.”
I spun around to face the owner of that caramel smooth voice, and saw a tall guy walking down a flight of stairs towards us. He was good-looking, with jet black hair slicked back, and he carried himself with way too much confidence. He stared right at me, a smirk on his handsome square-jawed face that was just begging to be slapped off.
“Are you the welcoming committee?” I met his smirk with my own and kept my head held high.
“Ryley…” Justin went to reprimand me, or call me out for being rude, but cocky guy shot him down.
“I am the welcoming committee, or rather, I’m more welcoming than the man you’ve actually come here to see. But then your boyfriend here already knows that. Am I right?”
He glanced over at Justin, as my man shrank into himself under his disdainful glare. I was livid. I wanted to turn and face Justin. Tell him to stand up to this guy and grow a fucking backbone. This wasn’t the Justin I knew. He didn’t let people push him around, ever. I wasn’t sure I liked this new, weaker version all that much. Things were going to have to change now that I was home.
“Where is he?” Justin asked, and the dark-haired guy nodded towards the top of the stairs.
“I hope you’ve brought his money, gutter rat, because he’s in a really shitty mood today. Even more shitty than usual, and that’s saying something.”
I went to argue about his use of such a disrespectful nickname for my man, but he just pushed through the middle of us and exited through the door behind, forcing us to unlink our joined hands as he did.
“I wouldn’t do anything to piss him off if I were you,” he threw back over his shoulder. “Not unless you’ve got a death wish.”
Then he was gone, leaving us with the two meat-head mutes and a staircase looming in front of us, leading to God knows who and God knows what.
“Who was that?” I whispered into Justin’s ear.
“That was Cillian James. He’s not a nice guy, Ryley.”
I leaned back and raised my eyebrows at my gullible and seemingly innocent fiancé.
“Are any of these guys nice? I’m not stupid, Justin. I know where we are.”