“Sorry to disappoint.” I shrug.
“You don’t understand. I wanted to see you get some sense knocked into you, Emilio. Damn it,” she curses, spins around, and walks off.
Ezekiel laughs. “She really bet against you?”
“Apparently. I need to make sure she gets out of this place,” I tell him.
“Maybe get changed first. I’ll go find her,” he replies.
There’s a small makeshift changing room. I grab my shirt and throw it over my head before stepping into my shoes and picking up my bag. By the time I find Ezekiel and Frankie, they’re talking to three burly guys.
“What’s going on?” I ask them.
“Emilio, you know her?” One of the guys nods to Frankie.
“Yes.”
“You can vouch for her? She good for the money she owes?” he presses.
“How much does she owe?” I glance over at Frankie, who is doing her best not to look at me.
“Five hundred.”
“Dollars?” My brows scrunch down in the middle.
“Five hundred thousand dollars,” he says slowly.
My eyes widen. I turn back to Frankie and shake my head. “Really? You bet five hundred K against me?”
She lifts a shoulder. “I thought you’d lose.”
“Pfft, wishful thinking is more like it,” Ezekiel mutters.
“Look, I don’t care how I get it, but I want my money,” Joe says. He’s the organizer of these events and an ass. But he’s right. She bet it. She owes it.
I pull out my wallet and hand over a black card. “Here, I’ll fix up her debt,” I tell Joe.
“You sure?” he asks.
“I didn’t fucking stutter, did I? Take your money. I want to go home already,” I grunt at him.
Shaking his head, Joe hands the card to his burly friend and the guy taps the digits into his phone. “It worked,” the idiot says.
“Of course it fucking worked,” I grunt, snatching my card back.
Now I have to explain to my father why I just spent five-hundred grand. One, without lying to him. And two, without ratting out Frankie.
I take hold of her hand. “Let’s go,” I tell her.
“I don’t need you to bail me out, Emilio.”
“Yeah? You got that kind of money?” I ask her.
I know she has access to it and could likely pull it together, but I also know she doesn’t have a card with that kind of limit. Her mother likes to try to keep her kids grounded or some shit, restricts their funds. Clearly that lesson was lost on this one.
“I’ll pay you back,” Frankie grumbles.
“You’re right.Youare paying me back. Right now. I’m going to go and tell your dad how and why you owe me five-hundred grand.”