Page 11 of Ruthless King
“Stella, damn it,” Dad snarls, “you should’ve gone to Mrs. D. like I told you.”
“I couldn’t,” I whisper-hiss. “She doesn’t deserve to be dragged into this mess.”
Tony cracks his knuckles, the sound sending ripples of goosebumps up and down my arms. “Well, Mr. Liam McKenzie, you owe my boss money, and my job is to collect.”
“Please ….” I chomp down on my lower lip to keep it from trembling. I’d rather beg to this guy than Bo any day. “There has to be some other payment schedule we can work out. I’ve been sick and out of work and Dad lost his job. Can you give us another month?” I grab my purse and pull out my checkbook. Not even Dad knows about my secret savings account. I’ve been squirreling away every penny for my grand escape. I still had just shy of a grand. “I can give you five hundred now and the rest at the end of the month.”
Dad’s eyes light up as they scan the crisp checks.
Tony’s phone dings again, a sharp cry in the thickening silence, and he scans the screen before turning his gaze back to me. “My boss has a better idea.”
“What’s that?” Dad leans forward but the cuffs pinning his hands behind his back restrict the movement.
“You give me the five hundred today, and you, Liam, get to walk out of here with all your limbs intact, and we keep your daughter as collateral until the debt is paid.”
A sharp gasp escapes through my clenched teeth. “What?” I finally blurt once my brain is able to process the words.
“Done.” My father’s voice sends ice surging through my veins. I barely recognize the frosty tenor through the roar of my heartbeats.
“What?” I squeal again. Before I can get another word out, a dark shadow appears over me and big hands clamp down on my shoulders. I try to wriggle free, to reach for the pepper spray, but the man is like a freakin’ ox. Another guy grabs my wrists and forces them behind my back. Metal bites into my skin, and I let out another screech followed by a string of colorful Italian curses.
Tony smirks again, and the urge to punch thefiglio di puttanain the throat is overwhelming.
“Vaffanculo!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “You can’t do this!”
He rounds the desk and pulls a stack of paper from the drawer, then places it in front of my father. I can’t even look at him. The sight of the man who raised me, who is supposed to protect me, sends my stomach roiling and nausea clawing up my throat.
The meathead that led me into this godforsaken place unlocks Dad’s handcuffs and remains at his side, looming dangerously.
“Just sign here.” Tony points at the dotted line. His lips twist, in what I could swear is disgust, as my father signs my life away without a second thought.
Thepezzo di merdadoesn’t even look at me as he slides the papers back to Tony and leaps up.
“Dad?”
Nothing.
“Make the payment as required, and you’ll see your daughter at the end of the month.”
Liam McKenzie nods and races out of the room so fast he’s nothing more than a cowardly blur.
I lean back against the chair, numb. He left me. My father, my last living relative just sold me off to the Kings.
Tony sinks into the chair across the desk and runs his large hands over his face. With a grunt, he watches me as a thick silence pervades the small space. “Piece of shit,” he mutters.
My eyes dart up to meet his. Was he talking about my dad? I almost open my mouth to ask, but I’m too fucking spent. All the anger seeps out of me like a leaky tire. How could he do this to me?
I was ready to sell my body for him. I would have done anything to save his sorry ass despite the shitty way he’s treated me for the past ten years.
Tony’s phone pings again, but I’m too numb to care. My heart is broken, a bottomless chasm opening up in my chest, and I have nothing left.
“… coming to get you, sweetheart.” The man’s words blur in the distance. It sounds like he’s underwater or maybe I am. I’m drowning.
I stare at him blankly.
“I said, the boss is coming to get you.”
CHAPTER7
