“Rochelle, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t urgent.”
“It’s always urgent with you.”
“This time it really is. I’m in trouble. I’ve borrowed money from this guy.” He looked down at his shoes, clearly concerned. “And now I have to pay it back.”
“Let me guess: you don’t have the money.”
He nodded.
She shook her head. “Then you’ll have to tell him that he’ll have to wait.”
“Rochelle, you don’t understand. He’s not the kind of guy who’ll just wait. If he doesn’t get his money, he’ll send somebody after me. He’ll hurt me.”
Shocked, Rochelle took a step back, feeling all the air rush from her lungs. “Who are you dealing with?”
Steve ran a shaky hand through his hair, and for the first time in a long time she saw the little brother in him, the one she wanted to protect. Even if he always got himself into trouble through his own mistakes.
“I had no idea who this guy was. But Tom said that he doesn’t ask questions when somebody needs a loan.”
“Tom?” she asked.
“Yeah, an old buddy from university. He had this great idea, where we could totally make a shitload of money, but we needed capital—”
“And he recommended that guy?” Rochelle wanted to curse, but she suppressed the urge, because she didn’t want her neighbors to overhear her conversation with her brother. “And that didn’t make you suspicious?”
“But the business idea was fabulous!” Steve protested.
“If it was so fabulous, then how’s the business going?” She stared at him, already knowing the answer to her question.
Steve avoided her scrutinizing gaze. “Something went wrong. It wasn’t my fault. Another guy had the same idea and beat us to it. It was just bad luck.”
She sighed. Did her brother really not see that somebody had pulled a fast one on him? “Oh, Steve.” She stroked her hand over his hair. “When will you learn that nobody is as honest as you? You’re too trusting and are always being taken advantage of.”
His dejected expression broke her heart.
He sighed. “And what am I gonna do now? If I don’t pay back the money by the end of next week, he’s going to come after me and hurt me.”
“How much do you owe him?”
Steve’s chin tightened and all the life seemed to seep from his eyes.
“How much?” Rochelle asked again.
“Fifty thousand.”
“Oh my God,” she choked out. Her heart began to race. “Even if I emptied my savings account, I wouldn’t have that much.” Tears of helplessness welled up in her eyes. “Oh, Steve, what have you done?” She pulled him into her arms and squeezed him to her.
“I’m so sorry, sis, I really am.” A sob tore from him. “But I have to get out of this mess somehow.”
And she knew she couldn’t refuse to help him. He was her brother, her flesh and blood, and as much as she was annoyed by his actions, she couldn’t let him down. If the loan shark he owed money to really employed brutal methods when he didn’t get his money, then she had to prevent that. Even if that meant she had to raid not only her savings account but also empty her retirement account.
“Come upstairs with me. We’ll see what I can do.”
With a glimmer of hope in his eyes, he smiled at her. “Thank you so much. You’re my absolute favorite sister.”
“I’m your only sister,” she corrected him and walked up the staircase ahead of him.
12
Zach stepped back from the doors of the elevator, which closed behind his friends and turned back to the door of his condo, when his cell phone rang.
He pulled it from his pants pocket and saw Henderson’s number on the display.
“Yes, Henderson. Everything ok?”
“I’m not sure, Mr. Ivers.”
He was instantly alert. “Did you have an accident? Did something happen to Miss Wright?”
“No, no!” his chauffeur immediately assured him. “No accident.”
Zach let out a sigh of relief.
“But I drove Miss Wright home to her apartment in the East Village like you asked me to and… well, maybe it’s nothing, it’s just…”
“Spit it out, Henderson.” Knowing that something wasn’t quite right, and not knowing what it was, drove him insane.
“When Miss Wright went to the door of her building, somebody was waiting there for her. A man. I couldn’t see his face in the dark.”