“What the fuck have you done?”
He raised a dark eyebrow at me, his mouth playing at a smug smirk. If anything, my choice of language seemed to please him as oppose to upset him. Not exactly what I’d been going for. “Why, Diana, honey, do you kiss your son with that mouth?”
I stomped forward, slamming my hands down on his desk like I wasn’t terrified about being here in his office with a huge bouncer standing at the door. “You leave my son out of this!”
He shrugged, bothering to sit up at least a little as he spoke again. “All right. Then to what do I owe this lovely little visit?”
Straightening, my jaw worked in anger until I managed to calm myself enough to speak again. “The Cut. What the hell are you playing at?”
Letting one large hand trail along his jawline—strong, chiseled, distinct in all the right ways—he considered me. After a moment, he said, “I made you a perfectly reasonable offer, if you recall. An offer that you declined for absolutely no reason at all.” He lifted both of his hands as though to say, What can you do? “I’ve decided to take it very personally.” He smiled at me, almost sweetly if I had been blind to the lingering smugness.
Bastard.
“You set fire to my store,” I leveled at him point blank. I wasn’t interested in playing anymore. He’d taken things way too far. That was my life he was ruining!
He sat forward abruptly, slamming his hands palm flat down on the table. They hit with a heavy, loud noise that made me jump before I could stop myself. “Be careful, Diana. Accusations like that are dangerous. Haven’t you learned anything about danger today?”
I swallowed back the venom that surged at his words.
“The fact is, I didn’t want to have to do business this way. I prefer the easy, negotiable way in which we are both adults about the whole thing.” He lifted his broad shoulders slightly. “But you were being horribly uncooperative. You left me no choice.”
“No choice?” I repeated incredulously.
Ignoring me, he continued. “Now, I’m forced to leave you with no choice.”
I began to shake my head, my heart sinking. “What do you want?”
“I told you already: I want your storage.” He sat back again, his momentary burst of anger gone in a flash, just as quickly as it had come. “You have something I need. A piece of property in town without my name on it. A rare commodity these days. And that little slice of storage space already receives steady, legitimate shipments of consumable goods.”
“You want storage space? Fine, take it,” I spat, furious as I realized I didn’t have any options left. Turning him down had just cost me an income I couldn’t afford to lose. Maybe I could make it back in whatever deal he was going to throw at me.
He held up a hand. “Oh, I’m going to. You see, I had been willing to pay an excellent price for it. Monthly rent that you so desperately needed. After all, I’m not heartless.”
I couldn’t stop myself from snorting, though I instantly regretted it. I didn’t tell him that I highly doubted the existence of his heart, mostly because I saw the hardening of his eyes. He hadn’t appreciated that little sound.
“I know that adorable little boy of yours isn’t cheap.”
It was the way he said it. With hard eyes and a dangerous tone, the threat laced beneath was clear and present. He was threatening my boy, reminding me he had me by the balls. And I didn’t like it.
Without a thought in my head, I lunged. I threw myself over his desk, reaching for him, but I didn’t make it more than a couple of inches. The big man, Louis, who had been standing at the door, moved like lightning. He caught me around the waist and jerked me back, throwing me harshly into a chair. He didn’t say anything, but he left a large hand planted heavily on my shoulder to keep me from trying anything else.
“I told you not to talk about my son!”
Chambers only smiled at me. “In lieu of the proposal so quickly rejected earlier, here’s the new one. I will use that storage space anyway. And not only am I not going to pay rent, I’m going to charge you protection. Clearly, after the fire, you need it.”
I opened my mouth, but couldn’t find any words. What he was talking about…Pay protection? Between the cost of repairs and the lost income of the convenience store, how was I supposed to find this extra money to pay Chambers, too?
Grasping at straws, I jumped on the only thing I could think of. “You wouldn’t burn down the salon. Not if you’re storing your own stuff there.” It may not have been the best argument I’d ever come up with, but it held water. If he was going to use the storage space anyway, he wouldn’t want to destroy his own goods.
I felt a little better, like I still had a dog in this fight. Until I saw his unperturbed expression.
“Sometimes you have to take a loss. And besides, who says you have to worry about me burning the place down?” When I didn’t answer, he continued, “I have my enemies. It would be easy to throw out a few hints into the ether, little tips to attract the wrong kind of people to your shop. My rivals would love to get their hands on my stash. In fact, that’s half the reason I needed the space in the first place.”
My heart sunk. I was screwed, and this bastard of a man knew it, too.
“So you will need my protection. Because after they torch The Cut, I’d have to punish you for losing not only that precious storage space, but also my very expensive stash. Honey, you’d be ruined in less than a week.”
I slumped in the chair. Louis’s beefy fingers released me, letting me wallow in my situation. It had been a long time since I’d felt this out of control, this utterly helpless. My heart ached in my chest, my breathing like drawing air through a cigarette filter. How had this happened to me?
I did the right thing and I got screwed for it.
My eyes burned as I tried not to cry, but it was all too much. I thought of my pride, of how hard I’d worked towards building it up. After everything that had happened with Cody, after all the mistakes I’d made with his father, and the stupid things I’d tried as a kid…I’d worked hard to come back from it and all of that effort was tied up in those two little businesses. The Cut and that convenience store were my life. Not just the way I made a living, but how I convinced myself I was doing well. That I was setting a good example for my kid.
And now…what was left?
I shook my head. I couldn’t afford to lose The Cut and then owe Ethan on top of that.
The tears came unbidden, no matter how hard I tried to stop them. I felt them tip over my lashes and slide hot and wet down my cheeks. I didn’t bother to wipe them away or even acknowledge them.
“Please,” I heard myself croak. I was disgusted with the sound of begging, but I couldn’t deny the fact that that was what I was doing. There were no other options now. “I can’t pay you protection. You have to know that.”
He smiled and nodded his head. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
I stared at him through my tears, wishing I had a card left to play. Wishing I were a stronger person who could stand up to a man like Ethan Chambers, but he held all the power. “You don’t understand. I can’t even afford to give you a cut of—”
He held up his hand to stop me. “No, no. I have something else in mind.”