by Ellie Danes
I blushed, remembering the lie. “Um, he's doing much better actually. The treatment, it was... well, it seems to have had a really favorable effect.”
“I'm happy to hear that. You must be very relieved.”
“I am... I am.”
Gwen nodded. “Well, I must get going now. Remember to lock everything up properly before you leave. And... if you do somehow manage to get hold of 7500 dollars sometime soon... please, please sign up for classes. You owe it to yourself.”
“I'll do it as soon as I have enough money, Gwen. It's my dream, you know... to be a real dancer one day.”
“A dream that's well within your reach. Believe me, you're one of the best dancers I've ever seen. Good night then, see you in the morning.”
I smiled at her. “Good night, see you tomorrow.”
She walked out, and I prepared to dance again, because I definitely wasn't done tonight, even though it was late. No, I was only just getting started...
CHAPTER 24
Colin
Life was great right now. I had Skye back, business was booming, and summer was well on its way; the days were getting longer and warmer, the sky was blue, the parks were green and full of color...
My phone rang, so I walked over to my desk, sat down in my chair and answered it.
“Hey, Colin, MacFey is on the line. I'm guessing he wants to discuss the Parkside Mansions. Shall I put him through or tell him you're busy?”
“Put him through, please,” I said.
“All right.”
There was a beep and then MacFey was on the line. I smiled as I heard his gruff voice; if I negotiated this successfully, I would be able to net four hundred thousand dollars in profit.
“Speak to me, Colin,” he said curtly. “I'm in no mood to beat about the bush right now, so just tell me straight: has the Chinese developer put in an offer on the Parkside Mansions?”
“They have, yes.”
“Well, are you going to tell me what it is, dammit?!”
I chuckled. It was funny to drag this out a bit. I could just picture MacFey's chubby red face turning crimson on the other end of the line, and I knew that when he was frustrated and angry, he didn't think too hard about the decisions that he made. I was pretty sure I could get him to make a very generous offer on the Mansions.
“Just hold your horses there, MacFey,” I said calmly, “I'm getting to it.”
“Well, can you get to it a little more quickly, for God's sake? I'm a busy man! You know that!”
“All right, all right. The offer from the Chinese is twenty-eight million.”
“Those sneaky damn foreigners,” he grumbled. “Soon half of this city is going to be in foreign hands! Well, not if I can help it. How much of a margin do you need me to up their offer on to guarantee me the sale?”
“Twenty-nine million would be great,” I answered.
“Twenty-eight is already too much for the property, and now you're asking me for twenty-nine! Get the hell out of here.”
“No problem. I'll call the Chinese representative when I'm done talking to you, and I'll tell him the Parkside Mansions are theirs.”
“No! Don't sell to them, Colin, don't do it. Damn it, all right, all right... How about twenty-eight million three hundred. How about that?”
“Hmm... I'd be a lot happier with twenty-eight and a half.”
“You're a real son of a bitch, Colin, you know that? Twenty-eight million four hundred. That's my final offer. If you don't want it, call the damn Chinese and give them the damn building.”
I smiled – I had gotten my price.
“No, actually, MacFey, I think twenty-eight million four hundred sounds just fine to me. You can take the Parkside Mansions.”
“Excellent.”
“I'll get my assistant to start on the paperwork right now. Pleasure doing business with you, MacFey.”
I put the phone down and leaned back in my chair, grinning. I loved it when a deal turned out so well. I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost five o' clock; Skye would soon be finished her shift at the dance studio. I left my office, said goodbye to Carly and drove my Aston Martin over to the dance studio. Thankfully, there was an open parking space right outside, so I pulled up, parked and got out to wait for her.
As I did, her manager walked out of the studio. She saw me and smiled and walked over to me. “Hi, you're Skye's boyfriend, aren't you?”
I shook her hand and smiled warmly. “That's right. I'm Colin.”
“Gwen. Lovely to meet you.”
“Skye is almost finished, right?” I asked.
“She is, yes. She's just having a quick practice session in the studio while it's free between classes. Have you ever seen her dance, Colin?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, I haven't. I know that she's incredibly passionate about it though.”
“Talented doesn't even begin to describe how good she is. Honestly, she's got more raw talent than a lot of the top dancers in this country, and I'm telling you this as someone who has been involved in the world of dance for almost thirty years now.”
“Wow, that's amazing to hear!”
“It's just such a shame that she had to cancel those lessons she won. As I said, she has a vast amount of raw talent. She just needs a skilled instructor – such as the instructors we have here at the studio – to help her polish this talent and become the best dancer she could possibly be. If she could just get some training, she could really unleash the full measure of her potential, and I strongly believe that she could go really far as a dancer.”
I nodded, thinking deeply about this. “Well, I'll see what I can do about getting her into one of your classes, Gwen.”
“Please do, if you can. She would benefit immensely from it. Anyway, I must be off now. It was lovely to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too. I promise I'll do everything I can to get her into a class, okay?”
“Please do... please do.”
CHAPTER 25
Skye
Today was my third to last shift at the diner, and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I served the last customer, who, annoyingly, just didn't seem to want to leave, and then finally went to the bathroom to change. Tessa was already in there, and she had gotten changed already.
“Hey, there,” she said. “I was just on my way out. That old woman just kept on ordering stuff, huh? Looked like you were never going to get out of there.”
I sighed and shook my head. “It did seem like that, yeah. But, hey, she did finally leave, so now I can, too.”
“I bet you're excited. Only two more shifts left of this crappy job, like ever!” said Tessa with a broad smile.
“I know... it still hasn't really sunk in yet. I've been here so long now that it was starting to feel like I'd be here forever.”
“How long have you been here? I mean, you were working here when I started, and that was almost two years ago.”
“I started here about three years ago.”
“Wow. Well, you certainly deserve a break. Three years is way too long to spend in a dump like this.”
I chuckled. “Tell me about it. Well, you better not stay for too much longer either, Tess.”
“I've been looking for something new, and I've got something in the pipeline, actually,” she said with a grin.
“You have? That's great! What is it?”
“There's an opening for a sales girl at a new boutique that's just opened about five blocks from here. I went for the interview yesterday, and it went really well – well, at least I thought it did. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that they call me back.”
“I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, too! I really hope you get it!”
“Yeah, it's decent pay, health insurance, good benefits... and they seem like real nice people, too.”
“That sounds great, Tess.”
“Anyway, I gotta take off. I'll see you tomorrow.”
“See you then,” I said.<
br />
I got changed, neatened up my hair and makeup and went outside to see if Colin was there to pick me up. He wasn't, so I went over to a nearby bench and sat down to wait for him. I heard footsteps approaching behind me, and then someone took a seat on the bench next to me. I glanced over to see who it was, and when I did, fear shot through my veins like liquid ice: the bald tattooed man.
“Hello, Skye,” he said with an evil smile. “Did you miss me?”
“What do you want?” I asked coldly. “Our business is done, and you can tell my father that I'm done with him as well.”
“Ah, yeah, your dad, old Felix Slade. He and I shared a cell at the Lincoln Correctional Facility.”
“Just call it prison, because that's what it was. And you know what? I don't care about your stories, and what you did with my father in prison, okay? So just go away and leave me alone.”
He chuckled. “Your daddy told me a lot of stories when we were holed up together. Oh, yes, sugar-tits, a lot of stories. One of 'em, of course, was about how his good-for-nothing daughter stole ten grand in cash and five grand worth of weed from him one fateful day. He was real pissed about that, I can tell you. Oh, yes, sirree, he was real pissed about that.”
“Well, that's all behind us now, isn't it? I've paid back the money to him. So, it's done, it's over. Now please, just leave me alone!”
“You didn't pay him back.”
My jaw dropped. What was this creep trying to do here? “Yes, I did! I gave you the money! I gave you all ten thousand dollars! You counted it out yourself, and you took it from me! If he didn't get that money, then it's your fault, not mine!”
“It ain't my fault, and it ain't yours neither. You see, the reason your daddy never got that money was because he can't get no money, not where he is.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
The man smiled malevolently. “He's six feet under, sexy. Your ol' daddy is dead. He died in prison last year. I was there when it happened. He started getting these really bad headaches, and they started happening more and more often, until one day he just passed out in the cell – and he never woke up again. Prison doctor said it was a brain tumor.”
I didn't know what to say; I was totally shocked. Part of me was sad, I mean, how could I not feel that way? I had just been told that my only living relative had died. However, part of me felt relieved as well. I would never again have to see that evil, abusive man.
“So... so why did you take that money?” I asked the man.
“Well, I got out of prison a few months ago, you see. And I tried to walk the straight and narrow path for a while. But I didn't really like having a job. Having to listen to some asshole manager boss you around, having to do what this prick says, and be polite to people and grovel in front of them for minimum wage. That ain't my style. So, I quit, and started selling coke and heroin on the streets. Making okay money, and I'm still doing it. Beats a regular job. But then one day I was thinking about the story that old Felix told me about his daughter Skye stealing ten grand from him – and I was sitting in this very diner a couple weeks ago when I heard someone call you Skye. So, I thought to myself, Skye ain't a very common name, is it? How many Skyes can there be in Manhattan? And I had a good look at you, and I saw Felix's eyes – your eyes. And I knew it was you. So, a little plan started to come together in my head, about how I could make an easy ten grand...”
He chuckled. I wanted to throw up. I couldn't believe it... this vile, disgusting thug had conned me out of ten thousand dollars.
“Just leave... just go away, leave me alone,” I muttered. “You got your money, now leave.”
Something hard and cold pressed into my ribs, and I looked down and saw that he had his pistol jammed up against me.
“The thing is, Skye, I don't think that I'm happy with just ten grand,” he snarled. “I want more. And I know that you're dating that rich pretty-boy Colin, and he's got a whole lot of money. So, you know what? I want another ten grand. You figure out a way to get it to me in a week, sweet-tits... or I'll put a few bullets through your knees, and you'll never dance again. One week.”
He slipped the gun back into his jacket, got up and walked away, chuckling to himself. I wanted to cry... It was happening again.
CHAPTER 26
Colin
I pulled up to the restaurant feeling upset; there had been a serious traffic jam, which meant that I was fifteen minutes late. On top of that, my phone battery had died so I hadn't been able to message or call Skye to let her know I'd be late.
I saw her sitting on a bench across from the restaurant, and as soon as I got out of the car, I could tell something was wrong. She looked as if she had been crying, and she was shaking, too. I hurried over to her and wrapped my arms around her.
“I'm so sorry I'm late,” I said. “There was a really bad traffic jam, and my phone died so I couldn't let you know I'd be late. But what's wrong, what happened?”
“That guy... the creepy guy... he was just here. He threatened me again and demanded more money... and he also told me... he told me that my father is dead.”
I had known that her father was dead, of course; Fred had discovered this when he had looked through his police records. I hadn't known, however, how to tell Skye this. Now she had found out on her own. I figured it was just best to feign surprise and not let her know that I had already known this.
“I'm so sorry,” I said. “It's sad to hear.”
“He was an evil man,” she said between sobs, “but I do have one or two good memories of him, back from when I was very young, when my mom was still around, before he started to get into his drinking and drugs.”
I hugged her more tightly. “Then remember those things, and try to forget about all the terrible things he did, and the horrible person he became.”
“I'll try,” she said, sniffing. “I'll try. But what am I going to do now? This monster is trying to get more money from me. Now he wants another ten thousand dollars. There's no way I can get that for him.”
“And what did he threaten to do if you didn't get the money?”
“He said he would shoot me through the kneecaps so that I'd never dance again. He stuck his gun into my ribs while he was telling me this.”
A furious, boiling rage flashed through me, burning through me with the madness of a wildfire. Still, instead of allowing it to erupt, I forced myself to remain cool and rational. That was, after all, the only way we would be able to successfully get through a situation like this.
“That scumbag,” I muttered. “Well, listen, I have a connection in the police force who can help us. What do you know about this guy? Does he have a name, an address?”
She shook her head. “I don't know anything about him. I've got a phone number, but that's it. He said he was in prison with my father, and that he shared a cell with him. He said he was with my father when he died – he passed out in their prison cell. And he says that he's a coke and heroin dealer.”
I nodded. Fred would probably be able to find out who this guy was on the basis of him having shared a cell with Skye's father.
“Come on,” I said, gently helping her up off the bench. “Let's go home. I'll run you a nice warm bath and get you some wine and you can relax.”
“But... but how can I relax knowing this creep is coming for me?”
“I'm going to take care of this,” I said, feeling resolute and determined. “That guy is gonna be back in the slammer before the end of the week. I'm going to make it happen, trust me. And then he's never going to bother you again.”
LATER
It was almost midnight, and Skye had long since gone to sleep, but I was out with Fred, working on resolving the issue with the thug. I sipped on my whiskey and looked across at Fred, who was also sipping on his. Neither of us were smiling though. No, our faces were grim.
“So, this guy's name is Hunter Talbot, huh?” I asked.
“That's it. He was released on parole about three months ago,” he repli
ed. “He had been convicted of dealing in narcotics, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, and conspiracy to commit murder. He served ten years, and three of those were spent sharing a cell with Felix Slade, Skye's father.”
“And now he's back on the street, extorting money from my girlfriend and apparently selling coke and heroin again.”
Fred nodded. “Well, now that I know this, I'm going to do some digging. We'll set up a sting for him. Catch him in the act. I'll get one of my undercover guys to buy a large amount of heroin off him – enough to make sure that he gets put away for life.”
“You'll be able to do it this week?”
“We should be able to bust him before the end of the week, yeah.”
“Thanks, Fred.”
“No need to thank me – you're helping me out as much as I'm helping you. It's my job to keep scum like him off the streets, and now thanks to you, we know he's dealing. I'll take care of everything, man. I'll let you know as soon as we nail him.”
“Thank you, Fred. Let me know the minute you have him. No, the second you get him...”
CHAPTER 27
Skye
I spent the entire day at the dance studio looking over my shoulder and feeling on edge. I didn't know where or when this creep was going to appear next, but I was sure it would be soon. It didn't seem like he was going to let up with his intimidation and scare tactics. I didn't practice dancing that evening, because I was too scared to be alone in the studio. I messaged Colin half an hour before closing time and asked him to pick me up as soon as I closed the place up.
He showed up on time and took me home, and was very gentle and caring with me. Despite the fear and worry dogging my mind, I felt a lot more relaxed in his presence. I still couldn't believe how lucky I had been to have been able to find a guy like him. I knew that I had fallen head over heels for him, because when I was with him, nothing else mattered – not even this terrible matter hanging over my head.
“What would you like for dinner?” he asked as he ran me a bath. “I can cook, or I can just order us some takeout.”