Chapter 4 Threat

• "Hello, Trent." The man grinned at him.
• Lily turned to see her brother and then back at the man.
• "I see. Well, gentlemen, can't we sort this out in a civilised way without resorting to violence? I'm sure I can settle up with whatever we owe you. She opened her bag and produced her purse. Looking up, she saw that the two sidekicks were laughing, and the man wore an amused look.
• "What's so funny?" She demanded, annoyed at the cheek of these men to barge into her home and make fun of her.
• "Do you carry ten grand around in that little purse?" asks the man.
• His mates laughed some more. She froze. Ten thousand pounds? Her brother wouldn't have borrowed that much money; he knew that they would never be able to pay it back. She looked at him again, her eyes pleading for an explanation, but he just turned his head away.
• "It's the interest, you stupid bitch," snarled that evil man. "When you miss a payment, it really starts to build up. And your lovely brother here's missed quite a few."
• Lily's heart sank. What could she do then? They had barely a couple of hundre left in the bank.
• "That's not the worst of it either. The interest's still mounting," he grinned. "You've been a very silly boy, haven't you, Trent? And you know what we've got to do now." One of the other men reached into his pocket and pulled out a rectangular, silver object. He passed it to the man, who opened it out to reveal a large, serrated blade. He stepped towards Trent and grabbed his hand.
• "Remember the deal? One finger for every week. That makes three little piggies going to market today." He sniggered at his own joke; his mates joined in. Trent's face turned deathly white, and he withdrew as far as he could into the couch. He couldn't release his hand, though.
• He moved the blade to Trent's little finger. "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe... where shall I start? With this little piggy?" He pressed the blade into Trent's flesh, and a trickle of blood started to run down his hand and drip onto the wooden floor. Trent looked faint; Lily began to sob uncontrollably at the thought of what was about to happen.
• "Please," Trent whimpered, "I'll do anything. Please don't do this, Karl. Take whatever you want—the furniture, the TV, anything. I'll pay you back, I swear; just take them in the meantime. But don't do this. Please." The tears poured down his face, and his body shook with sobs.
• Karl looked around at his fellow goons and raised an eyebrow. He'd seen this all before. Usually they took whatever was offered: jewellery, electrical goods, a car, sometimes something better... This man didn't seem to have anything material worth taking, so...
• He glanced over at Trent's sister. She was weeping on the chair, her arms hugging herself for comfort. Despite her swollen eyes and red cheeks, he could see that she was a beautiful woman. She was dressed in a blouse and knee-length skirt and wearing either stockings or tights. She was slim, but her breasts looked full and pretty; her legs were shapely, and her long, blonde hair was starting to fall out of its clip and onto her shoulders. Yes, she was pretty hot. This could work.
• He leant down and moved his mouth close to Trent's ear. He flinched, but Karl only wanted to whisper his idea to him. Lily saw Trent's face fill with horror. "No!" he cried. "Not that! No!" His head turned towards his sister, and he stared at her, pure terror in his eyes.
• Karl stood up and pulled Trent's hand towards him again. This time he exerted more pressure with the knife, and Trent's finger bled heavily, a stream of red liquid pouring from his hand. Lily watched as he cracked, his face crumpling and his body bending in defeat and shame as he begged'scarface'', Karl, to stop. Nursing his bleeding finger in his other hand, he said one more word to Karl: "OK."
• Then he turned to Lily and whispered, "Sorry," his voice broken, his eyes dead. Fear gripped her heart.
• Karl sent his two goons out of the room then sat down on the end of the couch; Trent curled up his body to keep from touching him. A smirk flickered at the corners of Karl's mouth, and Lily wondered—feared—what words had been exchanged between the two men.
• "Do you want to know what your chicken-shit brother just agreed to, Lily?" She flinched. He knew her name.
• "Yes," she sullenly replied.
• "He was so afraid of a bit of pain that he agreed to let you repay the interest for him." Karl's mouth extended into a satisfied smile. Lily looked from him to Trent in bewilderment. "I can't repay all that," she cried. "I don't have that much money!"
• "Oh no," said Karl, leaning towards her until his face was only inches from hers, his hot breath on her face. "You're not going to pay me with cash. You are going to work for me."