Page 4 of A Corruption Dark & Deadly

"Annie," Bruce said. "I understand your frustration-"

"I'm not frustrated, Bruce," Annie corrected. "I am literally angry with you. Angry. I don't think I've ever been angry with you but I am now."

"Okay," Bruce said defensively. "Okay, I get it, but-"

"No, you do not get it!" Annie exclaimed. "Do not tell me you get it. How could you possibly get it? I never borrowed that amount of money before."

Bruce gave her a sideways look. "Oh, and what about your student loans?" he asked. "Don't you owe like seventy grand back? Not including the interest that's accumulating?"

"That's different," Annie said. She could not believe he would think of comparing borrowing money for further education and borrowing money from a known criminal he happened to work for because he needed the money for God knew what.

"Why?" Bruce asked, a flicker of annoyance in his tone. "Because you say it is? Why do you get to decide that?"

"I don't," Annie said. "But my education is bettering my life."

"Is it?" Bruce asked doubtfully. "You make good money at your firm but you can't afford to live in the city. A good portion of your check goes straight to your loans. Yeah, maybe you're taking a path that will lead to marriage and children and security but that doesn't mean your life is better than mine. You don't get to decide that."

"I borrowed money for an investment in my future," Annie said. "I will continue to promote, I will make better money, and I will pay off my loan."

"Same here," Bruce said, his gaze unflinching.

"Then why are we here?" Annie asked. "And, by the way, you never told me one way or the other what you spent that money on. Oh, I'm sorry, invested." She did air quotes around the word invested, clearly not believing he did such a thing.

"Don't get nasty," Bruce said. "I invested it. Not that it's any of your business but I invested in property. There a cabin in the middle of nowhere that I'm working on to fix up and rent out by next winter. There is nobody around for miles. Just think about it. What a perfect romantic getaway, right?

"That's what the meeting is for," Bruce continued. “I'm hoping to have it fixed up, completely furnished. I'm nearly finished with it. I have a huge tub in the restroom and just installed a water heater. I'm working on doing central air and central heat soon, too. Maybe in the next week or two. I've been putting a lot of time into this place, starting to get a real estate license to look into doing a couple of open houses in the next few months. I really thought about it. I put a lot of time and research in this. Yeah, maybe I never went to school like you or graduated with honors but I still read a lot and I still network and make friends with those people who have that experience." His tone sounded defensive and as Annie listened, she couldn't help but feel a tad bit guilty for completely writing him off. "I haven't spent one cent of that fifty grand on myself."

"Fine," Annie said with a curt acknowledging nod. "How are you going to pay Jericho back?"

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Jericho push up his brow and turn his attention to Bruce. He seemed to be interested in Bruce's response, which would make sense, since he had given away fifty grand to a guy who wasn't the most responsible person on the planet. Perhaps fifty grand was nothing compared to what Jericho's wealth actually was but it was still a decent amount of money and if the agreement was that that was a loan, Jericho had a right to want it back. The fact that this was the first time Jericho asked for a meeting a year after he first lent it was mind-boggling to her.

"I was thinking he could get a stipend of the profit I make from the cabin," Bruce said, shifting his eyes over to his boss. "Once I get tenants in there, you and I can split the bills and any fees we require them to pay. The best part is, it's practically passive income once I finish up the cabin. We won't have to do much of anything once everything's finished except repairs."

Annie didn't know much about business but she knew this was a shit offer.

"So," Jericho said, furrowing his brow as he looked at Bruce with a questioning look on his face. "You want me to wait even longer for you to pay me back - not the full amount that I loaned you, but to take my money in payments on the off-chance that you get people to rent the cabin. Am I understanding correctly?"

Bruce nodded slowly, not recognizing that he was prey being led to his death by a predator.

"Okay, you're meeting with a realtor," Jericho continued, using his hands to gesture. "That's great. But as of right now, the cabin isn't finished and nothing is set in stone. So what you're asking me is if I'll continue to trust that your business plan will work out exactly the way you want it. On top of that, you will not be paying me back in full, you'll be paying me back in installments which are all contingent upon you having tenants who pay their rent. Does that sound about right?"

"Uh, yeah?" Bruce said, taking a moment to let Jericho's words sink in.

“If you were a businessman and you loaned your employee fifty thousand dollars, an employee who assured you he would pay you back in full within a year, would you accept being paid this way?” Jericho asked, quirking a brow. He didn’t sound angry, just conversational. Annie was surprised at how much patience he had, to be honest. She felt a twinge of respect for the man who was making her heart flutter.

“I would hear him out, at least,” Bruce replied.

“Fair enough,” Jericho said. “However, I’m afraid to tell you that I will not be accepting your offer to go in with you on renting a cabin out in the woods. I require monetary payment and I require it in the next five minutes.”

“I don’t have that kind of money,” Bruce told him. “I thought once you heard my idea, you’d be all in to help me rent out the place and earn income that way.”

“Why would you assume that?” Annie asked through gritted teeth, leaning forward so her hair blocked her face from Jericho. “Why the hell would you think that? Jericho, fucking Jericho, calls a meeting with you. Shouldn’t that send alarm bells, like, I don’t know, maybe he fucking wants his money back? Maybe? And you show up to this meeting completely un-fucking-prepared, thinking Oh, I’ll offer him a portion of rent if I get tenants. Do you realize how stupid you sound?”

“No need to be a bitch about it, Annie,” Bruce said.

She sat back in her chair, flinching at his words. Bruce had never called her names, even when they were younger and fighting. He wasn’t that sort of guy.

“Hey,” Jericho snapped in a low, dangerous voice. His eyes were a piercing grass-green color, and embedded in the irises, they held a warning to Bruce never to say that word in his presence again. And if Bruce decided not to heed the warning, he would suffer consequences. “Do not call your sister – or anyone, for that matter – that word again. I don’t care if I’m around or not. Have some respect.”