Helen snapped sternly right then, “Luna, I remember your grandfather leaving this matter in my hands before we came here, or have you forgotten?”
“I… I…”
Luna was stumped, and started crying even as whipped out her phone, “I’ll call Mommy! You’re all bullying me—”
“Unbelievable.”
Helen sighed and locked her briefcase, before leveling a cool stare at Cato. “I’m afraid that our business talks have to be cut short here, since you refuse to be honest with me.”
“No, no, no… Please, Ms. Lane!”
Cato cried out in short and quickly pleaded, “Please just give me a chance, Ms. Lane… I’ll tell you everything, okay? This isn’t my company—it’s my friend’s. So, how about this? I’ll introduce you to him, and he just needs 150 million dollars to settle the whole thing. We can even split the cost for the minor stuff equally! What do you think?”
Helen turned and left at his words, having even less intention to stay after his brazen request. However, before she and Helen could leave, Cato suddenly bellowed at them, “Fine! I’ll be honest—I owe loan sharks money, and I have to pay up or I’ll get killed!”
Giving up on all pretense right then, Cato was baring his teeth savagely as he growled, “So you’d better partner up with me right now, or you’re not leaving this place!”
At his outburst, over a dozen goons charged in from the door, each of them carrying baseball bats and other blunt weapons while glaring viciously at Frank and Helen.
“Hmph.” Frank snorted coldly, not concerned at all with the small fries. “Partner up with you? Or do you mean daylight robbery?”
“Robbery?”
Luna flinched before she could call her mother, dropping her phone on the floor as she turned in disbelief toward Cato, finally realizing what was happening.
“Exactly!” Cato spat as he whipped out a wrench out of nowhere. “I’d be dead if I don’t get the money anyway, so I don’t mind swindling you bumpkins. It was going so well too, but you had to show up and expose me. Well, I’m done playing nice—pay up, or you’re all dying here!”
Helen frowned as she watched the thugs closed in, her fingers clenching over her briefcase as she said calmly, “There’s no point in killing me. I don’t have the money—it’s with my mother.”
“What?! You manipulative bitch…” Cato was stunned for a moment but soon laughed savagely as his eyes flashed furiously.
Wheezing, he growled with a sinister smile, “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re all staying here! And I’ve been watching you for a while, Ms. Lane… No, I’ve been watching you since the moment we met! So—let’s have some fun first, and then I’ll call your mother to pay up. If she refuses to…”
He looked around pointedly at the thugs around. “Well, my friends here have been holding back for too long. They are all dying to quench their thirst!”
“You’re despicable!” Helen snapped icily.
“W-What about me?” Luna asked just then, at a loss.
