“He didn’t know!” she cried defensively. “It was an accident. If he’d known who the guy was, he never would have pulled that job.”
“Well it doesn’t really matter now, does it?” I bit out, some of my anger shifting from the asshole who’d beaten on Stella to the asshole who had gotten Stella into this situation in the first fucking place. “Why’d O’Brien target you instead of your old man?”
The expression that flitted across her face just then left me feeling unsettled. “They got to him first a couple months ago, and believe me, they worked him over a million times worse than this.” She lifted her good arm as high as she could get it. “This is more of a reminder to him that time’s running out.”
Fucking hell. “How much time do you have left?”
She scrunched her face and looked off to the side like she was calculating in her head. “A month, give or take a couple days?”
“And how much did you take this guy for?”
Her lips pulled into a wince. “One point two.”
It was a wonder I didn’t scrape the bottom of my jaw on the tile floor with how fast it dropped. “Million?” I barked.
“We paid back what we could when he first found us,” she spit out frantically. “We hadn’t spent it all, so we gave what we still had back, but with the interest and everything . . . we’re basically screwed.”
“How much do you still owe?”
“Um, well, you see—the thing is—”
“How much, Stella?”
“One point two.”
I squeezed my eyes closed and pinched the bridge of my nose as I searched for patience. “I know how much you conned the guy for. What I want to know is what you still owe him.”
“One point two,” she repeated. “We managed to get the remainder of what we’d stolen, but . . . he charged double for interest.”
“Jesus Christ,” I bit out, feeling a tick form behind my eye.
“Hey, this isn’t your problem,” Stella clipped combatively, a sour look twisting her features. But even that face, and the bruising and swelling that marred it, didn’t detract from her beauty. “I didn’t ask for your help, and I certainly don’t need it. I was doing just fine on my own, thank you very much.”
I gave her a bewildered look. “Really? You call casing a bar to see how many pockets you can pick doing just fine?”
She opened her mouth to argue, but quickly clamped it shut again when she realized she didn’t have a leg to stand on.
“How much have you collected so far?”
She lowered her head and began picking at her cuticles, sullenly mumbling, “About four hundred grand.”
Shit. There was no way in hell they were going to be able to come up with the rest of that money.
Before I could grill her further, the doctor came in, and I was left to mull over how the hell I was going to fix this.
Eleven
Stella
The sound of ringing filled the otherwise silent cab of West’s truck as I waited for the call to connect, silently willing Serenity to answer the unfamiliar number.
Seeing as I’d lost my purse—and the money I’d taken from the dude who negged me—somewhere between my beating and being rushed to the hospital, he’d been nice enough to lend me his phone to call my sister when we left the hospital.
I’d have preferred to have this conversation in silence, but since I couldn’t lift either arm up past my ribs to hold it to my ear, I had to put the call on speaker phone.
Serenity’s voice came through the line just before voicemail kicked on. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Stell? What number are you calling me from?”
How to answer that question without getting a million more in return. “That’s not important right now,” I told her. “Listen, there was a little . . . snafu tonight.” That was putting it mildly. “I wasn’t able to get as much as we were hoping.”
There was a beat of silence, then my big sister asked, “What kind of snafu?”
I once again forgot about my busted bottom lip and pulled it between my teeth before the stinging burn reminded me. From the corner of my eye, I could see West casting a glance in my direction, thanks to the lights coming from his dashboard. “Well, remember that guy from a few weeks ago? The one who works for O’Brien?”
Her voice held a hint of panic as she asked, “The one who threatened to pluck all your feathers?”
West cast me a curious look, and I mouthed, I’ll explain later, before replying to Serenity. “That’s the one. Well, he found me tonight. And . . . did a little plucking.”
“Oh my God!” she cried through the line. “Are you okay?”
“I’m totally fine. It was nothing, really.”
“Bullshit,” West grunted from beside me.
“Who was that?” Serenity asked, then pulled in a sharp gasp. “Holy shit! Have you been kidnapped? Blink twice if you’ve been kidnapped. Wait, that won’t work because I can’t see you. Cough if you’ve been kidnapped!”
“You’re on speaker phone,” I said dryly. “And no, I haven’t been kidnapped.”
“I see that wild imagination runs in the family,” West muttered, and I could have sworn I heard a smile in his voice.
I would have reached over and punched him if my arms worked the way they were supposed to. “I’m with . . . a friend,” I fibbed. “It’s his phone I’m calling you from because I lost mine before the hospital.”
“Hospital?” she shrieked loud enough to make my eardrums bleed. “Stella, what the hell happened? And don’t tell me you’re totally fine. You’re in the hospital!”
“I’m not in the hospital. I was at the hospital, and now West’s giving me a ride home.”
“Wait, West? As in the hotty that busted you at the hotel bar that you’ve been stalking online for—”
“Shut it!” I barked, ignoring the shit-eating grin I could see plastered across West’s face. “Just shut it. Yes, it’s the guy from the bar. Now let’s move on.”
“Okay, fine. But what did the doctors at the hospital say? What happened?”
This wasn’t going to be fun. “I have a few cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, and a tiny concussion.”
“Oh my God!” my sister cried in a panic. “That’s not being totally fine, Stella.”
“Thank you,” West grunted.
I whipped around on him and shot him a glower. “Now you shut it.”
“That’s some very serious shit! Dad is going to lose his mind,” Serenity continued.
“You can’t tell him,” I rushed out.
“Stella, this isn’t something you can hide from him. He’s going to find out as soon as he sees you. We can’t keep this a secret anymore. It was serious to begin with, and now it’s just gotten a million times worse. You were attacked!”
“I know, okay?” I let out a frustrated huff and squeezed my eyes closed, leaning back against the head rest. “I know. I don’t want to argue anymore, all right? I feel like shit, and my head is killing me.”