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“Fine, be a bitch. But I need a favour.”
I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I tried to force myself to calm down, but my heart was racing.
“What have you done now?” I asked.
In the four months we’d dated, Toby had often professed his love, usually right after he’d done something foolish. Like lose a quarter’s trust fund income on a bet after someone gave him a supposedly hot tip about a boxing match.
His jaw tightened. But he’d calmed down a bit now I wasn’t trying to get away. His eyes narrowed.
“Remember I told you I have a huge deal in the works? A really important one?”
“What about it?”
“It’s really big. It would have been enough to get us married, but I guess you don’t want that any more. But it’s still enough to pay for your mom to go to that private hospital you wanted.”
“Mountview.” My heart leapt a little.
I would sell my soul to get Mom into Mountview, and he knew it. Her mind was fading. I was losing her day by day, but Mountview had specialist teams and experimental treatments that had worked for others. They could give her individualised, intensive care. She would have something to live for.
“Why would you help me?” I asked suspiciously.
His jaw tightened. “Because I can’t do it without you,” he said grudgingly. “And it needs to be tonight.”
I frowned. “What help? I don’t know anything about your city work.”
Toby worked at a hedge fund, doing complicated financial things.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I need the sort of help onlyyoucan give me. There’s this guy. A customer at the club.” He nodded towards Bordello.
My brows furrowed, not liking this.
He put his hands on my shoulders to keep me in place.
“This guy is loaded, a whale in my circles. If he backs a deal, everyone else will jump in, no questions asked. The thing is”—he flushed—“I’ve told them that he’s already in with us. Now I need to prove it or else the whole deal is off. I really can’t afford to mess this up. Plus, if you pull it off, you can go home tonight and give your mom the good news about Mountainview.”
“Mountview.”
My heart ached. Oh, how sweet it would be to give Mom news that would make her eyes light up.
Toby’s baby blues were narrowed, edgy. “A friend of mine just called to say the guy is in the club right now.”
I frowned. “It’s members only. I can’t let you in to harass such an important client. I can’t afford to lose this job.”
He snorted. “You’re not listening. I can’t talk to him myself, or he might get wind that something is up. You need to do it. The tech system we’re using needs all the investors to authenticate a message on their phones to confirm it really is them. You’ll have to click okay on his phone. That’s it.”
My eyes widened. “And you want me to do what? Steal his phone and—” I cut myself off, and glowered at him. He was nodding. “You have got to be kidding me. You know full well what it was like for me and Mom when Dad went to jail. And now you’re asking me to do this kind of crap? No. I won’t.”
His eyes hardened. “You owe me.”
I glared at him. “I told you I’ll pay you back when I start my new job in a few weeks. They’re giving me a signup bonus.”
“Screw that. I’m not waiting. You can do this instead.”
“The hell I will.” I ducked under his arm, but he was too quick, and pinned me in place.
“I really didn’t want to do this,” he said. “But you’re forcing me.”
He took out his phone and showed me a video clip that made me gasp in outrage. A girl, dark-haired like me, was blowing a guy while a second man took her from behind. It was graphic. The filthy things the men were saying to her were obscene. The girl had my face. She was enjoying it.
