Page 63 of Brick

“I don’t want any trouble,” she murmured as she edged further into her home.

Brick spoke softly. “We’re not here for any trouble.”

The girl kept staring at Tre, like a scared rabbit. This was exactly what he’d been trying to explain on the way here. Tre’s reputation affected potential clients. If Pam told even one person what Tre had done to her, every woman in the neighborhood would soon be running the other way.

“Hey. Eyes on me. Your business is with me.”

She swallowed and did as he commanded. “I need to borrow two thousand dollars. Only for a few days. My boss doesn’t pay me until Tuesday, but if I don’t give my landlord the rent by tomorrow, he says he’s going to throw me out. I can’t have Esperanza on the street and I don’t feel safe at the shelter.”

“We can loan you the money, but you need to understand the terms. Are you listening?”

She nodded.

“You have two weeks to pay it back, but it’s not cheap. Interest is fifty percent. So, if you borrow two thousand, you pay back three.”

She gasped, and the baby squirmed in her arms.

“If you don’t have the money when it’s due, I’m going to come searching for you. I will find you. I find everyone.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have to remind you about the commitment you made. It will be…uncomfortable. If you don’t have it two days after that, I’ll have to break something. And if I have to come back a third time…I hope you’ve made arrangements for your little girl.”

Tears poured down her face as she put her child in the playpen next to the worn loveseat. “Are there any other, um, ways to pay?” Her voice shook, and Tre laughed softly from behind him.

“Sometimes Sucre allows some alternate arrangements.” He thought back to the girl at the bar. Someone had probably paid his debt using his daughter. “I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want me to take the offer to him, I will.”

“I’m not sure I have any other choice.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “I won’t have three thousand dollars in two weeks.”

The poor girl had no idea what she was in for, but it was her choice to make. He texted Sucre, and the response came instantly. “He said yes. He gets you for twenty-four hours and it will cancel out the interest. You’ll need to find a place for Esperanza, and there’s no changing your mind. Do you understand?”

She lifted her chin. “I understand.”

He counted out a hundred twenty-dollar bills and placed them in her hand. “Your service begins the day the money is due. Five p.m. at El Cabron. Please don’t be late.”

Tre waited until she closed the door behind him before he spoke. “Why did you try to talk her out of it?”

He climbed into the driver’s seat. “I didn’t. I wanted to make sure she understood what she was agreeing to. For the record, though, it’s better business for them to take the high interest. Sucre can fuck anybody he wants.”

Tre flinched.

“The high interest option gives him money in the bank. Cash is more valuable than pussy any day of the week.”

True, but not the real reason he warned women against paying with their bodies. Some things you simply couldn’t come back from the same way you went in. A night as Sucre’s plaything neared the top of the list.

Tre ran his tongue over the back of his teeth and made a sucking sound. “I don’t know. I ran into a prime piece of ass tonight, man. Might be worth losing some cash to rip into her pretty pussy.”

His fingers dug hard into the steering wheel. Tre was talking about Olivia. He should just kill the worthless fuck right now and get it over with.

Unaware he was taking his life in his hands, Tre kept talking. “She was one of those pristine little blonde numbers. Thinks she’s gonna save the world. I’m gonna tear into her until she can’t walk. Afterward, I might tie her up and keep her under my bed for a while—pull her out whenever I want to stick it in another hole.”

A red haze coated his vision. Tre had no idea how lucky he was they were already at Lorenzo’s place.

Ignoring his preening protégé, he stomped toward the apartment door and kicked it open. Lorenzo would get something broken tonight.

The strung-out twenty-something white dude jumped to his feet and backed toward the wall. “Brick! I only need a little more time.”

“You’re out of time,” he growled. “Give me the money, Lorenzo.”

“I don’t have it.”

He advanced toward him. “Wrong answer.”

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