When he didn’t respond by the time I hung my purse on the coat hangers nearby and slid out of my shoes, I went on a search for him.

“Randy?” I called again, entering his living room. I reached for the lamp behind the couch and flipped it on.

“Hey, sis.”

I screeched, not having seen him lying on the couch. I cursed when I got a look at his face.

“Yeah, I know. It looks bad. I’d like to say it looks worse than it is, but to be honest, it’s just the opposite. Since you can only see my face.” That was true, the rest of him was in sweats. 

“What the hell happened?” I screamed as I walked toward his very small kitchen and opened the fridge. I grabbed a couple beers. I had a feeling I was going to need something stronger than the wine I had at home. 

 “What do you think?” He groaned as he pushed into a sitting position, accepting the bottle I set in front of him, the top already off. 

 I sighed and sank onto the coffee table in front of him. “I gave you the money though.”

He nodded and looked like he was about to cry. All this time, all these debts, and not once had he cried.

“It wasn’t really the amount I owed. But there was a high-stakes game, and I knew all the players there. The winnings would have been just enough to pay off my debt. Dillan wasn’t going to let me at first, but then he agreed to let me try.” Randy gulped. “The 5,000 was the entry fee.”

 “I take it you didn’t win, and they taught you a lesson.” And here I thought I couldn’t get any more tired than I already was. 

 “Yes and no. I’m sure that was part of it. I came really close to winning. The last two of us were nearly tied in chips. But Dillan had given me a 2-hour limit. I was running out of time. I had a royal full house. I thought I was in the clear. I swear.”

 He always did. 

 “You went all in?”

 “How in the hell was I supposed to know she would get a royal flush? Do you know how rare those are?” 

I rubbed my forehead with another sigh. I just wanted to sleep. Eat and sleep. And forget. “Then what happened?” Get to the point. Get to where you ask me for the leftovers.

Randy licked his lips and grimaced, probably from the giant swollen cut on his lip. “Dillan doesn’t just do poker in the back of his club. He also runs an underground fighting ring.”

 I cursed, softly this time. 

 “Yeah. I about peed my pants when he told me that I'd have to fight to pay back my debt. Those guys can be ruthless.”

I needed to move around. I couldn’t just sit there. Nor did I want him to see my face when he dropped the bomb he was holding. I was too tired and worn out to keep control tonight. So, I stood up and started fixing us a couple sandwiches. At least he kept a well-stocked fridge.  

“Did it work? Did it pay off your debt?” Did I sound as defeated as I felt? Utterly dead inside. 

 “Most of it.” He cleared his throat. “I have until Friday to pay back the rest before the next 50% hits.”

 Ah, interest, my nemesis. “Want me to hack into his system and leave a virus? He’ll never know who it was. Might buy you some time.”

 Randy snorted but didn’t say anything. We both knew I would never do that. I mean, I could. I caught hackers for a living. I hacked into many places to test our clients’ security systems. Hell, I hacked into a financial company this morning, right in front of them, just to make a point. Kurt, the Senior partner in the room, nearly had a heart attack when I pulled that out of my rear. To his credit, he supported me and let me run with it. We now had a new client, and I got a free lunch out of it. 

 All was quiet until I set the overly stuffed sandwiches, baby carrots, broccoli, and ranch, on the table. Randy was a crap eater, I had to force the veggies on him every chance I got. He only had these things because I frequently hacked into his grocery delivery order and added them. Which was also why there was a package of cookies sitting on the counter, right where he could see them. He knew the rules, which was why he picked up a carrot first. 

We ate in silence, and I replaced our beers with bottles of water. It wasn’t until I was nearly done that I brought up the subject. 

 “How much?”

 “10.”

I set the last of my sandwich down and leaned back. That was just about what I had left in my savings account. The one I had set aside to buy me my own car soon. I wanted to pay at least half down, making lower monthly payments. 

It only took one look at my bruised and broken brother to make up my mind.

“This is the last time.” It would have to be. I couldn’t keep doing this. Financially or mentally. 

He nodded quickly. “I swear.”

“Where is Dillan? Where can I find him?”

That got Randy’s attention real fast, his eyes had already started wandering over to the cookies. “What? Why?”

I snorted. “Because I’m going to make sure he gets the money this time. That’s why.”

“He will, honest. I don’t wanna fight again, or have BoBo hunt me down.”

I snorted, choking back a laugh. “Who’s BoBo?” 

“The guy they send to make you pay.”

Yuck. “Randy, I love you, and you know I want to help you. But the only way that is going to happen is if you let me do it this time. I don’t want you going anywhere near that place again.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but wisely chose not to. He gruffly gave me the instructions on how to find Dillan. I’d never heard of Club Indecent, but considering I wasn’t really a club person, that wasn’t surprising. 

 As he spoke, I traded our now empty plates for the pack of cookies. Randy waited until I grabbed one before he did. Somebody was playing nice tonight.

“Have you seen a doctor yet?”

“Yeah, a couple of bruised ribs but at least nothing is broken.”

I snorted. “Except your face. What about work?”

“I told them I caught covid again, which will give me about a week to get better.”

“You didn’t need to show them a test, prove it?”