Bad Choices

(3) Wild cat

When I got back to Mrs. Lee's place, the door was already open. Mrs. Lee's eyes widened when she saw me. At first I thought it was because of my new hair color. But something wasn't right. She looked... terrified.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, alarmed.

"You need to leave," she whispered, "They're back."

There was the sound of something smashing upstairs. Mrs. Lee cringed and closed her eyes. Who was back? What was going on? I ran up the stairs, dropping my shopping bag in the process. Just then two guys came out of Mrs. Lee's bedroom. Judging by their shady appearance and the smug look on their faces, they weren't friendly.

"Who are you?" I snapped, "Get out of here!"

"Who's this?" the guy with the dragon tattoo on his face asked.

The other guy walked up to me. When he reached out to touch me, I floored him. The one thing I had learned while being locked up was how to defend myself in a fight. The guy with the dragon tattoo gave me an amused look. The other guy scrambled to get back up, but I picked him up by his collar and threw him down the stairs.

"Get out," I warned the tattooed guy, my eyes shooting daggers at him, "Now."

He stood there for a moment, pondering his next move, before walking past me and down the stairs. He picked his friend up, and the two of them ran out of the house without saying another word.

I went inside Mrs. Lee's room. Her room was a complete mess. There was shattered glass and wood all over the place. They had rummaged through her stuff as if they were looking for something.

I walked back over to Mrs. Lee. She was sitting on the sofa crying.

"Who were those guys?" I asked her, trying to calm myself down, unsuccessfully.

She looked at me, and my heart broke for her. She looked so small and weak.

"Loan sharks," she told me, her voice cracking more than usual.

"You don't look like the type who would need extra money," I noted, waving at her house.

"My husband," she explained, "He left a huge debt behind. He... had a gambling problem."

"Oh."

She took a deep breath and wiped her tears away. Forcing a smile, she said: "You look beautiful by the way."

I couldn't smile back at her. I was too annoyed that they would do something like that to her.

[Unknown]

I glanced up at the two idiots who came barging in my room. One of them was visibly in pain. I lifted a brow at them.

"Tamara has someone staying with her," Slade said.

"Since when has that ever been a problem?" I inquired calmly.

"She can put up a fight," Scott added, wincing at whatever pain he was feeling.

"You're telling me that you got beaten up by a girl?" I laughed humorlessly. "How incompetent can you two be? All you had to do was scare Tamara like you always do. Now that she has a bodyguard you're getting scared? You fucking losers."

I got up from my seat and made my way to them. My fist collided with Scott's face. I grabbed Slade by his collar and hissed: "If you don't take care of her, then I will."

"So we should kill her?" Slade asked, seeming oddly surprised.

I thought about it for a while. If she was able to shake these guys up like this, she could prove useful to me. Was she a relative of Tamara's? Whoever she was, I wanted her.