Worst Fear by Matt Hilton

Author:Matt Hilton [Hilton, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2017-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

‘I wish you had come to me with this sooner.’

Po stood under the awning of an emergency exit door adjacent to the front of Bar-Lesque. He was smoking a Marlboro. Alongside him, Chris Mitchell smoked too. His was a different brand of cigarette: one he wasn’t enjoying. Po felt a mild sense of déjà vu, as this was the very spot where he’d first made Chris’s acquaintance, and they’d done so over cigarettes on that occasion too. Their reason for choosing the same spot wasn’t to avoid being overheard by the police this time, but out of necessity. Carpenters and glaziers were working to repair the damage caused the evening before, and there was nowhere on the sidewalk outside the diner where they wouldn’t be in the way.

‘I was trying to spare you the inconvenience,’ Chris said.

‘As honourable as your intentions were, they kinda backfired.’ Po inclined his head at the feverish activity of the workers. ‘They also kinda put me on the back foot.’

‘I know and I’m sorry, Po. I should’ve been up front from the beginning.’ Chris inspected his cigarette, scowling at the glowing tip, before feeding the cigarette between his lips and trying for a more satisfying hit of nicotine. He flicked ash. ‘See, I didn’t know what to say, though.’

‘Coulda just said what was wrong and I’d’ve done what I could to help you out.’

‘You might not believe me, but I was trying to keep your name out of things.’ Chris made a placating gesture with one palm, not that it was required because Po was as calm as ever. ‘See, there ain’t too many people know you have anything to do with this place, and I was trying to keep things that way.’

‘I appreciate your concern. But it doesn’t really matter now.’

Chris shrugged. ‘I guess not. But at the start I hoped to resolve things myself, without troubling you with my problem. I genuinely didn’t expect trouble to follow me back here. I certainly didn’t expect this.’ His nod took in the activity outside the diner. ‘Or that it would escalate beyond here.’

‘When you first mentioned the trouble with those guys, you should’ve just told me the truth about what was behind it. I would’ve handled things different.’

‘Here’s the truth, Po. I swear to God, when first those punks came in the diner throwing their weight around, having a go at my sexuality, I genuinely thought they were just a bunch of drunken homophobic assholes. I’d no reason to associate them with Jimmy Hawkes. They never mentioned him, or the money I owed him, so why would I?’

Po didn’t fully believe him, but the point of when Chris grew aware that Jimmy Hawkes was behind the attacks was now moot. By tracking down Hawkes’s associates, and beating them in front of their boss he’d most likely exacerbated the problem. ‘How much do you owe him?’

Chris’s face elongated with shame. ‘Five thousand. Plus interest.’

‘You took money from a loan shark: why didn’t you come to me?’

‘You’d already been good to me,’ Chris admitted.

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