I would admit that sometimes it got really tempting. I was no angel, but deep down, I knew whatever I sold would be something I’d never get back.
Also, ten percent was crazy work, especially in this economy. He could have at least made the offer more attractive. That’s just bad business.
“How much were the pills you gave me? I’ll just pay you for them, and we can call it even.” I had a small stash of emergency funds. Technically, the last few hundred-dollar bills from Hiro. I’d hoarded them like some sickly Victorian child seeing an orange for the first time. Even when I really could have used the cash, I kept it locked away because having something that he once touched and had given to me meant more than anything I could buy.
“One thousand.”
He dropped the number like a grenade and blew up my brain becauseone thousand dollars? Was he serious? No way had those little feel-good pills I’d popped cost that much.
I tried not to show the shock on my face, but listen, my face just did things without asking me first. “It was two pills.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Inflation.”
A lightbulb went off over my head, nearly blinding me with its obviousness. This wasn’t about the money. Even if Iscrounged up a thousand, he would say I owed him more. This was about control and dominance and having me under his thumb. He’d built up a strong reputation in the last few years. Everyone knew not to cross him. He needed a dealer—a lapdog—and thought I was an easy target. Me asking for those pills only made me easier.
Stupid.
Just because I was stupid didn’t mean I had to keep the trend going.I will not be stupider! Or a lapdog!
He reached into his pocket and pulled out something black. “Here’s your burner. Don’t use it. Answer it when it rings. You don’t, I will smash that laptop and everything else in this shithole.”
He tossed the phone on my desk, and I stared at it like it was a snake with three heads.
It was a good time to nod and watch him walk out of here. I could figure out what to do later. Maybe flush the phone, tell him it never rang because it was faulty.
The tiny apartment turned claustrophobic, the temperature hot, the walls narrowing with every passing second. Stuff spilled out of the open cabinet doors, my laptop was open, and my manuals were scattered around.
Where was my headset?
It wasn’t where it always was and caused a burst of panic to ricochet off my ribs. That thing had been expensive, and I needed it to do my job. He had no right to come into my house, into my life, and mess everything up!
I was already tangled up in knots with the appearance of Hiro, and I so did not need this.
Turning my back on Tommy, I hurried to my desk to glance through the papers and manuals. I even looked under my laptop.
“Lose something?”
God, he was so smug. Clearly, he enjoyed watching me scurry around in a panic. The annoyance already bubbling in me turned molten, and anger flared.
“What did you do?” I hollered. “Where is my headset?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I picked up the gray stapler on the corner of the card table and launched it at his head.
He ducked, and it kept going to smash into the wall. He straightened, an incredulous look overtaking his features.
I threw a pen next. It hit him in the chest and bounced off.
“You’d better watch yourself,” he intoned.
I stalked to the kitchenette—basically a small set of cabinets with a counter against the wall—and looked at the empty cereal box, the spilled rice, and an open packet of ramen.
I reached for the single knife I had—which was pathetically dull but could still do some damage—but the grip on the handle slackened when I saw the sink filled with water.
“No!” I yelled, the knife clattering onto the counter as I reached in to grab my headset, water raining off its saturated body. The headband and ear cushions were soggy, the mic was completely waterlogged, and the speakers were ruined. Even the jack to plug it in dangled in the water.
“Why the hell would you do this?”
