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She nods. Tears trickle across her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
“If you needed money, you could have asked me. Why go to a shark like Fuller?”
“Tony…” There’s a warning note in Megan’s voice. “We agreed one question.”
“Okay.” I muster up a smile for Jenna. “We can talk later.”
I get up, but she clutches at my hand.
“Don’t go.”
I perch on the edge of the bed. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I didn’t mean to… I just thought…”
I remain silent, waiting.
“I needed to pay you back. I mean, Mr Savage. So I borrowed the money from Mr Fuller.”
I groan inwardly. All of this, because she owed us money. “There was no need…” I begin.
“There was. You told me I’d regret it if I didn’t settle the debt, that Mr Savage wouldn’t wait for his money.”
Fuck.I did say something of the sort. I put pressure on her. That’s my job, but I would never have hurt her. Not like this.
“I didn’t mean it.”
“I thought you did. I know what happens to people who cross the Savages.”
“You can’t have really believed I would…”
“I wasn’t sure,” she confesses. “I hadn’t seen you for years and I didn’t know you very well then. I didn’t want to risk it. I thought I could pay him back. The money wasn’t due for another month, but he phoned me and said I had to pay up straight away. And he was adding interest. I borrowed five grand, but it was up to seven thousand already. I went to give him what I had. Two grand. I hoped it would be enough for now.”
“But it wasn’t?” Stupid question. Of course it wasn’t. With money lenders like him it never is.
She shakes her head. “He took the money, then ordered his sidekick to teach me a lesson. The next thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital bed.”
“So, it was Fuller who did this to you?”
“He ordered it. The one who hit me was another man. He was huge. I don’t know his name.”
“Charlie Carlyle,” Megan informs us. “He’s dead.”
Jenna gapes at her. For myself, I’m not that surprised. Jack doesn’t mess about. It reminds me that I have a prisoner waiting for me in the cells. Having now heard Jenna’s tale, he’s not long for this world either.
“H-how did he die?” Jenna whispers.
Megan never flinches. “As far as I can gather, he was knee-capped then suffocated in the boot of a car on his way here. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
“Oh.” Jenna’s eyes are wide, brimming with tears. “I never thought…”
“Don’t waste any sympathy on him,” I growl. “He brought it on himself.”
She nods, grappling with this sudden shift to her moral compass. She’s hovered on the edges of our world all her life, but I guess this is the closest she’s ever come to Bratva justice. I sigh. She’ll have to get used to it.
She’s beyond exhausted. This is enough for now, and I have as much as I need to be able to confront that slimy bastard downstairs. I kiss her on her bruised forehead and smooth her matted hair back from her face. The hospital did a lot to clean her up, but there’s still dried blood crusted in her dark locks. Her plastered wrist rests on the duvet, and her mouth is swollen, both eyes blackened.
Fuller has a lot to answer for, and it starts now.
