Surviving the Mercers

The Rules of Engagement Excerpt 3

A potential scene with Ioney and Ray.  Undecided on whether this will be in the book though :)

“Raymond!”

“Fuck!” he exclaimed, spinning to face me with wide eyes, clutching the bill to his chest.  It took him a moment to recover from his fright, but when he did he grinned at me like a Cheshire cat.  “Muñequita preciosa, I didn’t hear you come in.  I was just -”

“Calling the power company to pay the power bill.  Again.”

His grin grew and he shrugged.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I raised my eyebrows and gestured at him.  “Ray, you’re holding the bill.  And your phone.  I caught you red handed.”

Some sort of commotion came from his phone - he actually had a call in progress.

“You didn’t catch me doing anything,” he scoffed, then put it to his ear.  “Yeah, hi.  The account number is -”

“God damn it, Ray, hang up the phone,” I said, trying to wrench it out of his hold.

“No,” he snapped, pushing me back.  “No, not you,” he said into the phone.  “Yes, that’s right.  No, it was nine-six-five, not nine-five-six.  Yes, I want to pay the whole amount.  Can you hang on just one second?  Thanks.”

He yanked the phone out of my reach and deftly swept my feet out from under me with one swift kick.  I hit the floor with a curse, but if he thought that was the end of it, he was sorely mistaken.

“Yeah, sorry - Jesus!” he hissed when I hit him cross the backs of his knees and he crashed to the floor right beside me.  Not giving him a chance to recover I pounced on him, accidentally kneeing him in the thigh while I was at it.

“Ouch!  Do you mind - ouch!  Stop it, you little -”

“Give me the phone,” I ground out through clenched teeth, pushing my hand into his face in as I crawled up his body - despite both of his being horizontal, he still had the damn thing held way over his head and I had to work to wriggle my way up far enough to reach it.