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“Debt just went up to eight grand. Be here with it in two days otherwise I sell your sister to some very lucrative traders I work with. She’s a bit skinny, but I’m sure I can get more than eight grand for her tight ass,” he sneered as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his streaming nose.Who the fuck carried handkerchiefs?
“You’ll get your fucking money,” I hissed, knowing I had no choice.
“Out front, midday on Wednesday. Don’t be fucking late,” he warned, then he turned and left with his entourage.
“Grey…” Leah started, but I cut her off.
“Just don’t,” I barked, my mouth filled with blood and my head fucking throbbing almost as hard as my battered ribs. “Are you going to come home with me?”
“I can’t. You know I…”
“Just spare me Leah,” I interrupted again. “I’ve heard it all before and I know it’s all total bull. What happened to Mom and Dad that night wasn’t on you. It was a fucking accident! It was the sonofabitch driver’s fault who was driving a forty ton truck, wasted!”
“Don’t Grey, please,” Leah pleaded.
“I have to! I have to at least try and make you realize what the fuck you’re doing to yourself! Mom and Dad would never have wanted this for you. They loved us. They wanted good lives for both of us. Nan too. It’s killing her worrying about you. It’s killing both of us. This isn’t you, Leah.”
“Fuck you! You don’t know who I am any more, Grey! You have no fucking clue!” she screamed as tears filled her eyes.
“I don’t think you do either,” I sighed sadly.
“I know I don’t need you or that interfering old bitch coming to butt into my life. Just fuck off! I’ll sort this out my fucking self!”
“So you have the eight grand then?” I asked, masking the fear and rage flowing through me with a calm I had no idea I possessed.
“None of your damned business. Just go! Fuck off back to your perfect Stepford life and leave me the fuck alone!”
“Leah…” I sighed, hating that we were getting nowhere.
“JUST LEAVE!”
“Fine, but I’ll be here on Wednesday with the money. I’ll pay it this time, but this is the last time, Leah. The only help you get from me after today is if you decide to clean yourself up. You call me and tell me you want that, I am there. I love you, but I can’t keep doing this for you. I’m sorry, but I just can’t,” I told her. “Pack up your shit and get as far away from here as you can. Just because I pay these fuckers doesn’t mean they won’t still come after you. You need to disappear for a while,” I added as I kept my eyes on the wall behind her. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her, knowing that if she was crying, as I suspected, I’d break and give her fucking anything she asked of me.
“Whatever,” Leah spat, but I heard the tremor in the word and knew I was right – she was crying.
“Nan and I love you so much, Leah. Remember that and always know that we are waiting for you when you decide to come home.” It was all I could say. She had made it obvious I wasn’t going to be able to talk her around, so I knew anything else was just a waste of my time.
As I left the room and started through the shithole of a house I prayed she’d come running after me and tell me she wanted to come home with me, but she didn’t.
As soon as I stepped out of the door and onto the street, gulping in the biggest lungful’s of, blessedly clean, air as my battered ribs would allow, Declan’s truck roared down the street and came to a screeching halt before me.
“Motherfucker!” he hissed as he jumped out and looked around me for any potential threat. “What the fuck happened this time?” he growled as he headed towards me.
“You got some water in there?” I gasped. My head and ribs were still throbbing like a sonofabitch.
“Yeah, hold up.” Dec turned back to his open driver’s door and leaned into the car, coming out with a bottle of water in his hand. He tossed it to me and I reached for it without thinking, roaring with pain as I jostled my torso.
“Fuck!” I panted as I tried to breathe through the pain and unscrew the cap on the water.
“Grey! What the fuck happened?” Dec demanded as he reached my side and placed a tentative hand on my shoulder. I took a drink of the water and swilled it around my mouth before leaning over as far as I dare to spit it out and get rid of the blood in my mouth. I knew the sting I felt meant I had a split lip and I also knew my right cheek was swelling pretty rapidly by the tightness of the skin there.
I did the same process again, then took a few chugs of what remained in the bottle.
“Grey!” Dec growled impatiently and when I turned to him he looked almost wild with a mix of rage and worry.
“I’m good,” I assured him as I screwed the cap on the bottle. “Just bruises. Nothing broken,” I added. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here.” People in the street were coming out to see what was going on, getting closer and closer to us. We needed to move before anything else went down.
“Yeah, okay, but you’re telling me everything in the car,” he grumbled as he slid his arm around my back and helped me over to the passenger door. As I settled into the seat of his car I laid my head back against the rest and fought to hold back my tears. Having to walk away and leave the sister I loved in that situation was one of the hardest things I had ever had to face and it was fucking tearing me apart. But I also knew there was nothing I could do. I had tried again and again to get her to see reason, and it never worked. Nothing would work until Leah wanted it to; until she was ready to accept some help. I knew that, but it didn’t make it hurt any less or make me feel any less of a failure.
