Chapter Five-I'll Pay you back

She applied the brakes a little too late, the force of the impact making her jolt forward, her body collapsing against the steering and for a full minute the horn was just blaring.

“Shit! Shit!” She cursed when she noticed that she had actually smashed someone’s car, and the car seemed expensive.

This is probably the reason why people were always told to not receive calls when driving.

The car door opened and a tall slender man hopped out in a slightly unfashionable manner, hopping on one foot and cracking his neck. “Shit!” she cursed again when she realizes the driver is actually, Liam, the scarred hooligan from yesterday. The man who had boldly threatened to chop off her finger over a measly slap and now she crashed into his car.

What would he chop off? She glances down at her hands; which were gripping the steering so tightly and swallowed.

“You must have a death wish, don’t you?” He asked as he stalked towards her, she wound down the glass and smiled briefly.

“Young lady, if you don’t know how to drive, don’t you think it’s safer to just keep your car at home?” He suggested as soon as he noticed her. “You know? To prevent unnecessary bloodshed?”

“Hi?” she said with a small smile when he stopped just in front of the door and his eyes narrowed into slits immediately, he recognized her.

“What do we have here? Miss Sutton, is it?” He asked with a crooked grin.

“Correct…” she muttered back unbuckling the seatbelt. “This wasn’t intentional.”

“How am I so sure, it isn’t? What are you going to do now, Miss Sutton?” He asked tauntingly, her head began pounding as a result of the aftermath of the crash.

“This is Boss's favorite car; his late grandfather gifted it to him and it’s quite expensive.”

Silence....

she didn’t know what to tell him and her headache just picked the wrong time to come boggle her, she hissed in frustration. “Your family is not doing well; how will you pay?” he queries mockingly. “Let’s say you do pay for the repairs, what are you going to do about his grandfather’s memories?” Chloe remained silent, the anger that she had bottled in, was seeping out slowly. “Also, the boss will never drive a dented car.”

In anger, she opens her door so suddenly and without warning, making Liam stumble backwards even though he almost fell, he was quite quick to catch his balance; he glared at her. “Oh my, I’m sorry.” She also faked concern. “Are you okay?”

Liam adjusted his jacket and cleared his throat slightly. “Well, it doesn’t matter if I am.”

“As expected from you, is Mr. Sanderson in the car?” She asked as she was already on her way to the car, she glanced at the point of contact of the car and unfortunately for her, it was quite bad.

“Hey! You can’t just go there!” Liam said, catching her by the arm, but he was already too late, she had knocked on the tinted glass that was all wound up.

“Let me go!” she yelled trying to free her arm from his grip but he was just way stronger than she is. “I want to talk to Mr. Sanderson.” She screeches, knocking repeatedly on the glass.

“What makes you so entitled to think you’re worthy enough to converse with boss?” he asked, pulling her against his chest now, Chloe slammed her heels into his foot and he groaned in pain, his grip slackened and immediately Chloe ran into the driver’s seat and locked the doors.

And as expected Henry was in the car, he was dressed in a rather stylish and sophisticated attire, a bit too old fashioned but his taste in clothes is really everything about him, and a gray fedora hat sitting elegantly on his head, he seemed to have been reading something and he didn’t once break the eye contact from the magazine he seems to be reading.

Chloe couldn’t help but admire this scary yet beautiful man. His face was calm and gentle like he wasn’t capable of anger, his eyebrows thick and softly arranged, his eyes lash thick and long as they fall over his dark green eyes. He sighs softly, turning to the next page.

“All that fuss to meet me, in order to sit there and ogle at me?” he asked curiously and then he tore his eyes away from the book and then aimed them at her, like machine guns, probing her face. Chloe’s heart skipped a beat, she never thought such ethereal beauty should even exist, she could swear he got some plastic surgeries done. “There must be something on my face, for you to look like that.”

“Mr. Sanderson,” she started clearing her throat first and she jolted in surprise when Liam came back, knocking over the window and trying to open the door. “I would apologize to you, but you’re a very bad person so I will not.” She declares her voice full of pride.

“Am I?” he queries softly. “Doesn’t seem like I’m doing anything wrong here, does it?” she thought for a while but then realized he was right. “You were not driving carefully, you crashed into one of my most prized cars and then you assaulted my driver, got into my car without my permission and fearlessly at that, who is the actual bad person?”

“Um…I…” She stutters softly and then he slams the book shut.

“Better still, define a bad person according to your own ethics and morals.” He paused then added almost immediately. “Also put in mind that you have spent nearly five minutes here alone with me and I haven’t touched you as much.”

“I came here to tell you that I am willing to fix your car, I dented it really badly, and I have insurance. Your driver didn’t seem so reasonable.” She answered back with an unfazed look. “But now maybe you’ll understand what it feels like for a stranger to invade your property and then demean you.” The left side of her mouth curls up into a smug and he returns the energy, just that the smirk wasn’t just cold and sadistic, it sent shivers down her spine.

“You saved me the stress of calling you; I’ll meet you with my family lawyer at 2P.M in Cobeen coffee shop.” She stretched slightly to pick the pen out of his breast pocket and gently removed the magazine from his finger. “Sorry, I’ll just borrow this.”

She scribbled down the address on it and wrote down her contact information also, meanwhile, Henry just sat there perplexed by the audacity of this woman, she’s so naïve she doesn’t even know who he was and that was her only advantage.

Henry felt like it would be such a shame to put a bullet through her head, before he gets his money back. All the women he had met until date, they would always cower and tremble in his presence but this one was different.

She was like a broken toy, and factory reset didn’t seem to work, even when Liam had threatened to chop off her fingers, she wasn’t moved.

It would be fun to see how long her impudence would last, and if the toy had exhausted all its batteries, it’s only right to give it a present… Even though it might be something the toy wouldn’t like.

“Thank you,” she placed the pen over the book and opened the door. She was stopped by Liam again when Henry called him.

“Hey, let’s just go.” He ordered fiercely and Liam immediately got into the car, locking them in.

“Boss, please forgive me. That woman is a little bit unhinged, I tried to make her pay for…” Henry interrupted him by sighing loudly. He had always done that to indicate to them, he didn’t want to listen to whatever they were saying.

“I know, I wasn’t blaming you. Can we please proceed; I need to be at the meeting by eleven.” He reminded him.

“Yes sir.” Liam said as he kicked started the engine and proceeded on the driveway. “What about your car?”

“Forget it.” He answered, scrolling through his phone, he fumbled through his pocket for a cigarette and when he got one, he lit it up. Cigar had always been the stress reliever, he always smoked whenever he was angry and he needed to calm down, calm down was impossible to do because all he wanted to do is snap that Barbie doll in half.

“Boss, your magazine and this seems to be your pen.” Liam called his attention towards the piece of book that sat on the armrest of the car and Henry sucked in on his cigarette.

“Throw them away, something dirty touched it.” He ordered with a small sigh; Liam had understood that he did not wish to have a conversation anymore. After working for him for ten years, Liam had come to understand his body language and how easy it is to be around him if you understand him well.

If not, of course, you become a present…

Chloe walks into the coffee shop, she left for the mechanic shop earlier as the headlights of her car were equally damaged, she also remembered that she hadn’t gone to the police office to clarify the accident with her car, and the longer she ignores the car, the more she would be fined.

Her life is so full of shit right now, shits that she’s so unprepared for.

She brushed her hair slightly with her fingers as she walked along the aisle of wooden chairs and she was attracting a lot of attention from other customers.

They can’t help but be attracted to her as she was very popular for her beauty. She spotted Mr. Johnson at the far end of the room and a smile of relief washed over her face. She had made sure she had gotten here before Mr. Sanderson, there were still a lot of things she would like to ask Mr. Johnson.

The fairly old man seemed to be engrossed in his phone, he seemed to be watching some sort of entertainment and due to that he didn’t notice her until she was only an inch close to him.

“Oh my god! Chloe, you scared the shit out of me.” He flinched, covering the screen of his phone but it was too late, she already caught a glimpse of what he was watching.

“I'm so sure Mr. Sutton didn’t teach you your habit of sneaking up on people.” He said as he adjusted his glasses. Chloe nodded and pulled out a seat for herself.

“Absolutely not, it’s a bad habit I developed on my own.” She grins slightly.

He cleared his throat and put his phone away, Chloe picked the menu.

“Have you ordered anything?” she asked and he nodded pointing towards the white mug that sat elegantly on the table.

“I’ve been here for a while.” He brought out some documents and passed them to Chloe.

“So my father did mention the loan to you?” she asked curiously and then he nodded.

“Yes but just briefly, he wanted to know the risk of taking a loan from a loan shark and I had strongly advised against it.” He explains and then hesitantly adds the last part. “He said Mr. Hawkins had made some verification and it was a trusted source.”

“Mr. Hawkins?” she repeated. And he confirmed her doubt with a nod.

“I had spoken to him last night and he was so sure, father never took out a loan.” She argued.

“Your father would never lie though, he has no reason to.” Something about what Mr. Johnson had said it seemed to affect her. He was right, her father had no reason to lie and he would most likely take a loan from a shark if Mr. Hawkins had said so.

That was just how much her father had trusted him…. What the hell is going on?

“You are quite punctual.” She heard a thick voice from behind her, turned slightly to see Henry towering over her. His green eyes gleaming, his face was a cold and hard mask but no matter what he was doing he looked so handsome.

“Excuse me,” he said, pulling out a chair for himself and unlike the first time they met, he wasn’t with the group. He came with just two of them, Liam, the scarred bastard and the silver haired angry looking Pokémon.

Chloe glances at Mr. Johnson to receive a questioning gaze from him. “This is Mr. Sanderson,” she said and then Mr. Johnson’s scrutinizing gaze fell on him.

He was dressed heavily and he chose dark colors and there was a black Fedora hat seated on his head in exclusive fashion.

“I’m Mikhail Johnson, the family lawyer to the Sutton’s.” Mr. Johnson introduced formally outstretching his hand for a handshake but Henry didn’t take his hand, he just stared back at it in disgust.

“Ah, I’m sorry.” Mr. Johnson withdrew his hand and readjusted his clothes.

“I’m a very busy man and I don’t have the luxury of what you may have, which is time.” He started and with a snap of his finger, Liam placed the briefcase on the table and brought out some documents.

Liam passed the documents over to Mr. Johnson, who readjusted his glasses and scanned through the files. Chloe sat there wordlessly, hoping to God that this man’s claims are indeed false.

Then she will make sure to empty the coffee in Mr. Johnson’s cup on this six footed demon.

“Ms. Sutton?” it was Mr. Johnson’s voice which snapped her from her victorious fantasy.

“I’m afraid that his claims are authentic, your father did take out a loan from him.” He declared passing the document to her and she picked it up immediately and scanned through it.

Her father’s signature was boldly written on the left side, and also his official stamp among the pages. In one of the pages she saw Mr. Hawkins name and signature as a witness.

He took out a loan of twenty million in 2018, and when her eyes reached the annual interest and her heart almost exploded.

A flipping twenty five percent interest!

She glared in Henry’s direction before she gazed back at her lawyer.

“Mr. Johnson, how do we know these documents are not forged? She started. “We can’t trust these guys.”

Mr. Johnson pulled her slightly and whispered into her ears. “Chloe I swear I already checked for a pothole but the document is indeed genuine but I must ask you to behave that man is a very dangerous man.” Even as he spoke, there was a slight tremor in his voice.

“What will you do now Ms. Sutton?” he asked curiously, crossing one of his legs over the other.

“what?” she asked cluelessly, the shock of these happenings was too much for her to comprehend. There was a sharp pain that settled in the pit of her stomach, but she masked the discomfort with a neutral face.

“How do you intend to pay?” he asked again, Chloe could feel her palms begin to sweat and for the first time she felt helpless.

“Miss Sutton?” He called again.

“Seven days!” she yells banging her open palm on the table. “Give me just seven days, I’ll pay you back.”

Even though she knows she doesn’t have any means to gather such a huge amount of money, she promised.