"Ha ha Haha! Mr. Perry, that's generous! Put a price tag on the little street punk!"
Perry looked down at me, voice quiet.
"Kneel."
"Lick the spilled wine off the floor."
"Then have your little friend there finish taking care of our two executives."
He tilted his head toward Mila, trembling in the corner, then turned back to me.
"Do that, and I let this go. You take your people and get out. Tonight never happened."
He stepped forward, bent down, his mouth almost touching my ear.
"Refuse."
"And both of you disappear from this world tonight."
"Fifty million in debt. I'll hang it on your families."
"Your mom with her little flea-market booth. Your uncle pedaling his delivery bike. Think they can handle that kind of weight?"
He straightened up and adjusted his cuffs.
I didn't say a word.
I stood there, head down, staring at the hundred-dollar bills scattered around my feet.
Mila moved.
While every eye in the room was locked on me, she bent down and picked up a triangular shard of glass left on the carpet from the shattered coffee table.
She pressed the point against her own throat.
She wasn't crying anymore.
"Suse... just go."
Her voice was barely there. Completely calm.
"You can't take me with you. Go. The penalty is mine to carry... just leave me alone..."
The sharp tip had already broken the skin. A thin line of blood trickled down.
I kicked the glass out of her hand.
She froze.
I crouched down and wiped the blood seeping from her wrist with my sleeve.
Then I stood up and turned around.
Bills lay scattered across the floor beneath my feet.
In front of me stood Lucas Perry, smug as ever, and Zane Lambert with that sleazy grin plastered across his face.
Out in the corridor, every last one of my crew had been dropped to the ground.
I drew in a breath.
Then I threw my head back and laughed.
Lucas's eyelid twitched. He took half a step back.
Zane's grin froze mid-smirk.
Even the security guards tightened their grip on their stun batons.
I laughed until I was done, then raised my hand and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.
Then I pulled out my phone.
"Zane, Zane, Zane."
"You didn't actually think I was just some street punk scraping by on handouts, did you?"
