Page 9 of Ruthless King (Mount Trilogy 1)
Magnolia aims another indulgent smile my way. “Sweetie, if he were still alive, you know I’d chop off his pathetic excuse for a dick with a meat cleaver.”
“What the hell am I going to do?” I ask her as I begin pacing the marble floor.
Magnolia’s head swivels back and forth as she watches me. “Ke-ke . . . this shit is serious.”
I spin around to face her. “I know. I need five hundred thousand dollars or I’m fucked. How the hell do I get a half million dollars in a week? No bank in this town will loan me another cent with the debt I already have.”
She clasps her hands together in front of the silk belt knotting her peach robe closed. “I’m gonna get real with you. Even if you were a virgin, there’s no way we could organize a payday like that so quick.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. Auction myself off? A shudder of disgust slithers down my spine. Even that’s not an option because I’m not worth that much. I look up and meet her tawny gaze.
“Brett got five hundred thousand in a week. I have to be able to do it too.”
“No one is gonna give you that money.” Her face is solemn.
“What about another extension? A payment plan?” I jam my hands into my hair as I attempt to think of all other possible options.
“Girl, you don’t need me to tell you that isn’t gonna solve your problem.”
I cross my arms over my chest, hugging them tight around me before walking backward until my knees hit Magnolia’s leather sofa and I land on it.
“What if . . . what if I just don’t pay? What if I tell him that it was Brett’s problem and he’s dead, so leave me out of it?”
This time, Magnolia’s gorgeous golden face pales. “Keira,” she says, and I stiffen when she says my full name because she never says my full name. “You don’t want to go down that road.”
“I don’t have a choice! I don’t have the money.”
Magnolia crosses the room slowly and sits on the couch next to me. “The last woman who crossed Mount ended up in the morgue.”
Goose bumps prickle every inch of my skin as I swallow. “He killed her?”
Magnolia’s slow shake of her head sends an icy rush of fear into my veins.
“Mount doesn’t have to do his own dirty work anymore. But that bitch was sliced and diced. Died from blood loss.”
I picture a woman bleeding out in a dark alley, slit from ear to ear, but Magnolia continues.
“They say his people pumped her full of uppers and forced her to dance barefoot on broken glass until eventually she fell and managed to grab a shard. She slit her wrists herself just to end it.”
My stomach rolls as I picture the brutality in vivid color. I bolt off the couch with my hand over my mouth, making a mad dash to the bathroom.
Magnolia is behind me in moments, pulling my thick red hair away from my face. “I shouldn’t have told you. But I don’t know how else to make you understand what you’re dealing with. You don’t want to know what I heard they did to her boyfriend. It was even worse.”
I heave again, bile burning my throat as I retch. Magnolia rubs my back until I wipe my hand across my mouth.
“Water?” The request comes out as a croak.
“Sure, hon.”
I follow her out of the bathroom, back to the kitchen, picturing the broken crystal shards she’d swept up moments ago, except this time I imagine them digging into the soles of my feet as my blood stains the floor.
Magnolia slides a bottle of water across the counter to me, its cap already removed, and I take a cautious sip.
“What am I going to do?”
She covers my free hand with hers. “We, sugar. Because if you don’t give the man what he’s owed, then he won’t stop with you. He’ll take out everyone you love.”
I gag on the sip of water. “Oh Jesus, I have to leave. I can’t get you involved—”
