Page 12 of The Protégé

She took out her phone, showed me her bank account number, and smiled. “Here you go.”

CHAPTER FOUR

ELENA

I didn’t havetime to contemplate the strange encounter with Orion or how his presence overwhelmed me with need. I’d save that for later tonight. My bank account had grown an extra twenty-five thousand dollars, which I desperately needed to feed my deflating balance.

I drove toward Uncle Carlos’s business as a series of nerves tumbled inside me. They were different nerves. How did I know that? I wasn’t sure. My mind could tell the difference as though a clementine sat next to a tangerine. From a distance they looked the same, but close up they were two different things.

I knew I was going insane when I started comparing my nerves to fruits. But the analogy kept my brain functioning properly. For now.

I should have collapsed in a heap on the floor with the multiple jobs I had to juggle and the increasing stress taking a toll on my mental and physical health, but somehow, I was still standing. Maybe my dad and grandmother were watching over me from up there. I’d never met my father’s parents. They’d passed before I was born.

My mind swung back to when Orion looked at me, making my knees wobble. He had created a new anxiety that had nothing to do with my debt. I’d felt this when I encountered him at Kaylee and Aimee’s stuffed animal debut. My Musepaper subscriber list had tripled after that segment, featuring young entrepreneurs. He’d been there to support them. I’d dismissed the sensation because I wasn’t the only woman ogling at him.

Vivian, Audri, Michelle, Kiera, and Natalie all made comments about him and the women. He probably had several girlfriends.

Why was I thinking about this right now?

Stay focused or you’re gonna hit another car.

Ugh. Pushing everything aside, I pulled into a parking lot, got out, and looked at my sad car with the damages that wouldn’t get repaired. His car could be fixed, but my Honda Civic had to wear those scars. It wasn’t worth the money to fix it, and I didn’t want to report it to my insurance company because they’d hike up my premium.

“Sorry about today,” I said to my car and ran my fingers over the damage. “Stay strong for me, okay? I need you.”

I couldn’t afford a new car, but I had to get new winter tires this year for the snow. My all-season tires were all worn down.

Huffing out a breath, I headed into the brick building my uncle owned. The ten-story building had other businesses, but Sanchez Financial took up the entire first floor. Though the building didn’t look gloomy, ashiver ran down my spine as I yanked the door open, heading to his office.

My grandmother used to tell me that some places werehomes to dark energy. She was a mystic and believed in that stuff, especially when she was living in Peru. I believed it to a certain extent.

I was certain my father wasn’t the only person in debt to Sanchez Financial. From the outside, their business seemed likea normal financial firm loaning money to homebuyers and such. Maybe he had a different department that dealt with gamblers. I’d done some research on him and the legality of loan sharks, but nothing could help erase the debt my father owed him.

My father had owed him eight hundred thousand dollars in loans over the course of three years, which neither my mother nor I heard about until after his death. I didn’t know my father had a gambling issue. My mother had been sick for a couple of years and hadn’t been able to work as much. I could see why he went this route. But he should’ve talked to me. We could’ve found another way to pay medical bills and the mortgage without a dangerous loan shark breathing down our necks.

I walked up to the receptionist, a pretty girl wearing a black dress with a nametag that read Sofia. Monique had greeted me the last time I was here. Before Monique was Tamara. He probably had a lot of part-time secretaries.

“I’m here to see Carlos.”

Sofia smiled, picked up the phone, and informed him of my arrival.

“You can go right in. He’s waiting for you.”

I walked down the hallway to the double doors. A man dressed in a suit opened the door and gestured for me to go in.

A man in a brown suit with a bushy beard sat on the couch beside Uncle Carlos’s desk. They were drinking wine while discussing how much they earned from people like me. Both men glanced over at me. Burly Man raked a gaze over me, and my body felt dirty. I wanted to get out of the office immediately.

I’d give my uncle ten thousand dollars today. That would reduce the loan to three hundred thousand dollars. The burden had weighed heavily on me for the past two years. His interest rates were insane. These loan sharks made up their own rules and robbed people of their hard-earned money.

I was trying my best to not let my mother know anything about this debt. If she did, she’d want to return to work to help me pay it off.

Only three hundred thousand dollars left. I could do this.

If I didn’t, he’d take over my mother’s house and my house, which I’d inherited from my grandmother. He couldn’t take it legally because we owned it. But he could create enough trouble for me and my mom, forcing us to let the homes go.

Why was I related to such an evil man?

I was ashamed to be his niece. I wanted to pay off the debt and be done with him forever.

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