Rethink

"Oh my God, what happened here?" Celine gasped as she walked into the living room.

I was still on the floor where I was when Baron left. Following their boss's orders, the goons completely brought the house down. There was not a single item in the room that was not destroyed. The table had been broken, the contents of the almost empty fridge poured out, all the dishes in the kitchen were broken and turned upside down.

In the sitting room, the couch was turned upside down and broken, the table at the center was broken to pieces and some of the shreds of glass had even splattered on me. I had not gone to my bedroom to see the extent of the destruction, but I knew there would not be much left to use.

After they had left, I took my phone and called the only person I knew I could rely on at any time of day or night. After I dropped the call, I wrapped my hand around myself and patiently waited for her to come. I used my last strength to hold back my tears until her arrival.

Despite all the pain I had gone through in my life, only one person had ever seen me cry. My best friend and she was my only support.

The moment she walked in I let the tears fall. They were already on the brink of falling, so when she walked in, they just spilled over unstoppably.

She rushed in, walking on the broken glass on the floor, and leaned down to hold me.

I held on to her and cried my eyes out, and at some point, I could hear her sniffing too. I looked up to see her eyes red, and I could see that she was fighting hard to hold back her tears from falling.

"Who did this to you Chris?" she whispered, almost sobbing,

I could not answer her, the only thing I knew was that I wanted to leave this place, to somewhere I could think clearly. "Please Celine, please just get me out of here," I cried.

Everything from there on went in a hazy blur. I could only remember walking downstairs, entering a cab, and Celine putting me to sleep.

*** *** ***

"Hey hey, good morning," I said to Celine as I sleepily walked into the kitchen from her bedroom. She turned around to look at me, and I could see the rim of her eyes all puffy and red, mirroring mine.

She watched me with wary eyes as I walked from the doorway to the stool at the side of the counter. On the counter, she had already laid out two plates of sandwich and one cup of coffee.

"Here, eat," she said as she passed one plate to me. Her eyes held a million questions, and I knew I would have to eat to be able to answer them all. The Celine I knew only needed a name, and she would be storming out of here with a chainsaw ready to murder the monster. But I would not allow her to do that. The last thing I needed was to drag her into this mess and make her one of Baron's targets too.

I took the plate with a small faltering smile. She turned around and joined me on the other kitchen stool, with her plate and a cup of coffee.

As I took the first bite, I could still see her from the corner of my eyes. Her eyes were focused on me, unrelenting, waiting for me to start the conversation we both knew we had to have.

"About last night...." I started, but she quickly cut me off by just saying the word, "name"

"Hmm?" I asked like I did not hear her the first time.

"I want the name of the bastard that did this to you," she spat out angrily, and I knew her anger was not directed at me, but the whole situation.

I looked away from her to the plate on the counter. I thought of a million different lies to come up with, but none of them made any sense. I knew what she would do if I told her Baron did this.

"Chris, tell me," she insisted

I chewed on my lip and finally looked at her. "Um," I stuttered, "If I tell you, promise me, you won't go storming out of here to kill him."

"Of course I won't," she said with a smile that did not reach her eyes. I knew she was lying, "I just want to know,"

"Okay," I cleared my throat softly. "Baron did,"

She did not even let the words Baron leave my mouth completely before drawing her seat back and marching to the living room to get her leys.

I jumped from the stool and marched in front of her to stop her. "Celine, you promised," I said with my hands spread out to block her from the door.

"Well, this is me breaking that promise. I am going to teach that asshole a lesson he would never forget for doing this to you." she pushed against my hand, trying to get through to the door.

We had a struggle for a few minutes with her trying to get me out of the way and me trying to get her away from the door.

"Okay, okay," I said breathlessly, "you win. But please just listen to me first then decide if you still want to go and murder him." that was the only way to calm her down. If she heard what I had to say about Baron, maybe she would have a rethink.

"And you won't stop me?" she asked, almost breathless too.

"I won't."

"Okay, let's go back to the counter."

"Yeah, lead the way." I knew Celine too well, and I knew I could not trust her to not turn around back to the door the second I turned my back. She was very unpredictable when she was upset.

She led the way, and we resumed our positions on the counter. I took a small bite of the sandwich, and she did the same. I waited to swallow the bite before speaking.

"Why are you even defending him?" She asked between bites.

"Because that man is really dangerous. I can't have you confronting him without really knowing what you're up against." I had to learn that the hard way, and it would not be fair to Celine to drag her into all these after knowing what Baron could do.

"Like hell he is. He has not seen danger until he has met Celine Martin," she said with a hint of pride and anger.

I released a tired breath. "I know that, but please just listen to me."

"I'm listening, tell me why he was at your house last night."

"He came for this month's payment. When I returned from the hotel last night, he was already there."

"So what does that have to do with the way I met your apartment last night?"

I was hoping I would not have to tell her this part. Knowing Celine, I knew she could not stand to hear that a woman was being forced into a sexual relationship, much less her best friend. But I had to tell her everything.

"He wanted me to be his whore, in exchange for the loan," I said without missing a beat. There was no need to prolong this conversation, it was hard enough reliving it by telling Celine about it.

She immediately jumped from her stool, but this time she was not headed toward the door. She was at my side in an instant examing my body like a worried mom of a teenage daughter. "The pervert did not do anything to you did he?" I could see the contempt on her face.

"No, I'm fine. I just need to bath with all the disinfectant you have, he was all over me last night." my mind flashed to the way his hands and lips were all over me last night. I would do anything to wipe that memory off my mind.

She breathed a relieved sigh and sat back on her stool. "Why did you not have your taser or pepper spray on you?"

"I did, but I doubt a taser would do much against a room of 10 to 15 goons who were all armed."

Her mouth dropped as I said the words, I hadn't told her before how dangerous Baron was. "They had guns?"

"Yes, they did, and one of those guns happened to be on my neck in Baron's hand. So there really was not much I could do." I looked down at my half-eaten sandwich in defeat

She got up from her seat again and wrapped her hand around me. "My poor baby, I can't believe what you had to go through. I'm so sorry."

I relaxed into her arms, enjoying the warmth of them. She patted my head softly, and that did a lot to ease the pounding ache a bit "Thank you,"

"We should call the cops. We have to report this. If we can't do anything to fight back, we still have the cops." She said, releasing me.

I took another bite of the sandwich as she turned around to take her cup of coffee. "Of course, that's a great idea. I mean, how hard is it to find a cop that does not work for Baron."

"What does that even mean?" she asked.

"It means, the cops are not going to do anything to help us, because they work under Baron." I walked to the refrigerator to get a bottle of water.

"And how would you know that if you have not tried?" she raised her brows at me.

I took a large gulp of water, knowing I had to take this chance to come clean to her. "I know because," I paused and chewed my bottom lip. She was going to be really mad at this one.

"Because?" she looked at me in a questioning way.

"Because they did not do anything when I went to them the first time." I walked back to the counter, refusing to look her in the eye.

"Chris," she called in her mother hen tone, "what are you not telling me."

"Um..." I stuttered and finally looked up. She had one brow raised, waiting for me to speak. "remember when I said that I slipped and fell and got this scar?" I pushed my hair aside to show her the scar on the side of my head.

"You did not slip did you?" she asked and came around to my side of the counter.

I slowly nodded. "He sent his goon to remind me of the payment for the first month, and one thing led to another leading to this," I waved my hand over the scar casually.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she sounded a little hurt, which only made my guilt worse.

"If I had told you, you would have wanted to hurt him back for doing that to me."

"Because he deserves it," she said matter of factly.

"I know that, and I don't doubt that you would make him pay for it, but I don't want you to do that because I know what Baron can do. He's very unforgiving and ruthless, and he would not hesitate to make your life a living hell if you did that to him."

"So what are you going to do now. You won't let me hurt him back, and you won't report to the cops,"

"I don't know what to do, but I know two things. First I'm not going to drag you into this mess knowing what Baron can do, and second I need to have 40,000 by six pm tonight.

"What?" her eyes widened as she heard the amount.

"I refused his offer, so I have to give him back the full amount today."

"Oh my God, how are we going to get such a large amount in that short time?"

"I don't kn..." the sound of my phone ringing in the living room cut me short.

"I'll get it for you," Celine offered.

"Speaking of assholes," she held the phone up, and the caller id showed the name "Lucas."

As I saw the name, a light bulb went off in my head, and my eyes widened in excitement. "Oh my God, that's it, Celine," I jumped from the stool and snatched the phone from her. It was on the last ring when I picked it up.

"Hi Chis," his deep gruff voice filtered through the phone. "Can we ta..."

"The cafe today at 6 pm, if you're late I'll change my mind." I interrupted him and ended the call.

"Okay, will you tell me what is going on now?" Celine asked, looking confused at my sudden change in demeanor.

"You know how I need 40k by the end of today?" she nodded, but I could tell she still did not get it, "they need a nanny, and on the job application, it said the pay is 50k and above," I added excitedly.

Her eyes widened, and she gasped, a smile finally forming on her lips, "they're paying that much?"

"Yes, they are," I said happily.

"So that means you can pay Baron tonight and still have some cash left."

"Hm-mm" I answered and shook my head at the same time. She hugged me, and we both giggled happily, jumping up and down in each other's arms, like teenage girls.

"I'm so happy right now. At least that pervert is not going to murder you now right?" she asked when we regained our composure.

"No, he's not, I need to freshen up and get to work before our meeting."

We spent the next hour preparing for work. Thankfully Celine was only a few inches taller than me, so her clothes still fit. I put on a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt, perfect for a regular workday. Celine put on her clothes too and got ready for work. We both headed out at the same time and decided I would come back to her place after work and my meeting with Lucas.