“Where’s his money, Miles?” someone growled. “You know he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
A groan, followed but what sounded like spit. “She’s coming. She always comes, I promise.”
“You better not be lying, you won’t like what I do to liars.”
Rae took a second to compose herself before she stepped into the room, her brother refusing to look at her as he kneeled on the floor. A man stood over him with the smoothest caramel eyes, an unusual contrast against his, dark, messy hair. His smile was crooked, a dimple in his right cheek as he slowly appraised her body.
“Well, hot damn. Looks like you really do have a sister, and she came with her own bodyguard. Cute.” He looked at Titus before returning to her. “You bring Angel his money, darling?”
A low whistle from the blonde behind him, a snooker cue held over his shoulders, arms hooked over. “If I’d known she was this hot, we would have broken your face earlier, Miles. You know how I have a thing for redheads.”
Titus stiffened behind her, but he continued to let her take control of the situation. “I would like to speak to my brother. Alone,” she added.
“No can do, darling,” the caramel eyed one said. “You see, Miles here owes Angel a ton of fucking money, and I can’t risk him making a run for it.”
Rae kept her tone sharp. “You won’t see a penny if I don’t speak to him alone.”
The blonde chuckled, swinging the cue over his shoulder. He threw it onto the snooker table, knocking the balls together. “What a shame, looks like I’ll just take it from his flesh instead.”
“Please, just give them what you have,” Miles begged, finally turning to look at her. His left eye was swollen shut, the right side of his face a pattern of bruises. His nose was broken, recently if she went by the fresh blood still pouring from it.
She’d seen him a mess before, and each time it made her heart ache, her stomach clench. “What happened?”
“He thought he could borrow from Angel without paying him back,” the blonde said. “With interest, of course.”
“Fucking loan sharks, Miles?” Rae barely controlled her anger. “How many times are we going to do this?”
“Just fucking pay them!” he growled, climbing to his feet. He favoured his left leg, leaning to the side. “You fucking owe me, so pay them.”
“I owe you nothing!” Her voice rose to a scream. “When will it be enough, Miles? When you’ve killed me? Will you forgive me then?”
“Fuck you, Rae,” he said, spitting blood to the floor. “Just pay them.”
Her slightly enraged smile tightened. “How much?”
Miles swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing at the motion. He looked to the side, voice a mumble. “Fifty thousand.”
Rae fought the manic laughter bubbling up her throat. “Pounds?”
“Ravyns,” Caramel eyes added. “We can’t have it traced now, can we?”
Something dark and volatile twisted deep within the pit of her stomach. “And you think I have that?” she whispered. She was sure it was more than everything she’d saved, the jobs she took on the side few and far between.
The blonde sniggered. “There’s other ways to pay, beautiful. You’ll look real pretty on your knees.”
* * *
TITUS
He knew his face projected a lethal calm, nothing but muscle at Rae’s back. Not that Rae needed protecting, but in their world of violence having someone bigger, and scarier caused people to hesitate before attacking, and that hesitation could be the difference between life and death. Rae, with her startling hair and curves didn’t look like she could shoot someone between the eyes, even though he knew she could while smiling the entire time.
Her brother, on the other hand, clearly wasn’t built for their world, whimpering and crying as he begged his sister for money.Pathetic.
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d first stepped into the snooker club, but the small flame painted onto the wall definitely wasn’t it. Church of the Light, extremists who hated anything Breed. Nor did he expect Sythe to be one of the guys beating the shit out of Rae’s brother.
He was a shadow, able to infiltrate anything with enough time and patience. He was the Guardians spy. The executioner.
So what the fuck was he doing there?
