Nor do I want to think about what he would have to do to actually make her go through with it.
“Fine.” He exhaled sharply. “I’ll let you take over his debt, and I’ll give you a few days to come up with the money. I’m going to write down a date and time. Either I have my money before then, or I’m coming to collect—and if you try to stop me from taking Billy’s sister when I do, then I’ll just have to kill an honorable man.”
“I will die before that happens.” My jaw tightened immediately, and the words came out before I could stop them.
“The downfall of many honorable men.” He nodded and scribbled something on a piece of paper before pushing it across the table. “So willing to give your life—for the honor.”
Fuck, this is the middle of the night. If he comes for Rachel when Liam’s home—shit, I may have just put us all in danger.
“I’d prefer not to.” I folded the piece of paper up and put it in my pocket. “But, I put my life on the line every day.”
“Cop?” He tensed up.
“Firefighter.” I put my hands on the arms of the chair and prepared to stand.
“You don’t happen to work for Chief Dade by any chance, do you?” I saw a pique of interest in his eyes.
“I do.” I paused and sank back down into the chair.
“If you can’t come up with the money, I might have an offer for you—one that could clear the debt, keep you alive, and make sure Billy’s pretty sister never has to squeeze her tits into a studded bra.” He folded his arms across his chest. “But it’ll cost you something—every bit of your honor.”
Of course, it would. I lost a chunk of it when I walked through the door of this cesspool.
“I’ll try to raise the money first.” I started to stand again.
“You don’t want to hear the deal?” He looked up at me as I came to my feet.
“Not unless I have to.” I walked towards the door.
And I pray that I never do because I’d rather make a deal with Satan himself than Robert Townsend.
14
Rachel
“Where’s Gerard?” I sat up and looked at Liam. “And why are you staring at me?”
“I can’t watch a beautiful woman sleep?” Liam’s lips spread into a smile.
“Only if you’re a creep.” I narrowed my eyes playfully but then crawled into his arms. “Seriously though, did Gerard leave?”
?
??Yeah, he said he had something to take care of.” Liam shrugged. “I guess it was important.”
“I hope he’s okay…” My words trailed off. “What are we going to do about this situation with Robert Townsend? I checked my father’s finances, and there’s no way he would be able to pay that kind of money.”
“I think we need to have a serious conversation about leaving town.” Liam sighed and ran his fingers through my hair. “I tried talking to Chief Dade down at the Fire Station—he just confirmed everything I already knew. We’re not going to get any help from the cops.”
“If we do leave town, we’re driving to Las Vegas.” My jaw tightened in anger. “Billy got us into this mess, and he should be the one that has to deal with the consequences.”
“You realize that Robert Townsend would kill your brother, right?” Liam looked down at me with concern on his face.
“Fuck…” I shook my head back and forth. “Yeah, I know—I obviously don’t want anything to happen to him, but we shouldn’t have to pay for his mistakes.”
My phone lit up, and when I sat up to check who was calling, my eyes nearly bulged out of my head when I saw that it was Billy. I slid my fingers across the screen and unleashed hell on him before I even said hello—for screwing over his roommates—for nearly ruining our father’s vacation—for borrowing money from Robert Townsend—and for not answering his phone any of the times I called. Billy let me rant without interrupting other than to give me a few meek apologies. When my wrath was spent, and I was breathing hard, he calmly told me that he was coming back to town—and he had the money he owed Robert Townsend. I thought I was hearing things—that my imagination had cooked up the words I wanted to hear and fed them to me as a hallucination. That wasn’t the case. Billy was really on the other end of the phone, and he had the money—not only that, he was less than an hour away.
“Shit.” I looked at Liam and swallowed hard as soon as I hung up the phone. “He’s going to be here in less than an hour!”