Chapter 6

It took her less than an hour to pack her stuff in the car and it was still only late afternoon when we arrived at the cottage, she was enchanted with it and Mickey took her all around the huge, rolling gardens,

"You've got a river Dave" she said excitedly when, after about half an hour they reappeared hand in hand,

"Yes I'd noticed" I laughed dryly, "It's called the Thames"

"She caught the note of sarcasm and laughed, "It's a really beautiful house and the setting's perfect, it must be worth a fortune"

"It probably is" chipped in Mickey, "But the one thing Dave and I agree on is that we'll never sell it"

"That's not all you agree on though is it?"

"Eh?"

She giggled and looked me straight in the eye as she said, "I though you agreed that the road to Ashbourne can be very interesting sometimes?"

Mickey was grinning mischievously at me,

"All I said was that it's a nice ride out there, a bit sore on the bum though!"

And they went off laughing into the cottage leaving me with a very red face!

"We're going in the river Dave" Mickey shouted over her shoulder, "You coming?"

"Nearly" I thought as I watched two very sexy bottoms wiggling provocatively on their way up the steps.

I practically threw Angie's stuff into the house and passed the girls coming downstairs, hand in hand again and dressed, (well nearly dressed) in identical tiny, white bikinis,

"Come on, hurry up" laughed Angie, "Or we'll start without you!"

I laughed and then glanced back and nearly had a heart attack when I saw Angie's hand inside the back of my sister's tiny bikini bottoms.

The telephone rang just as I was about to go upstairs and a voice said, "Put Angela on now"

"Sorry?" I knew who it was, but I didn't know how he knew our number and his attitude was pissing me off more than just a bit!

"Look" he said, "I'm in a hurry so get the slag on the phone now!"

"I think you're in dire need of an attitude adjustment my friend" I said it quietly and put the receiver back down, it rang again almost immediately but I ignored it and went out to fetch Angie.

They were swimming lazily by the bank and both knew something was wrong by the expression on my face,

"That slime ball is on the phone for you Angie, when you've done with him, I'd like a word please"

"Ok" she looked very, very worried.

"Dave, I gave him this number a long time ago, I'm sorry darling but we were ok then, I had no reason to think that things would turn out like this"

"Oh shit, well never mind, if he keeps ringing, we'll change it or just block his number"

Angie came back then and told us she was leaving,

"I'm sorry to mess you about"

She was crying so, without thinking I grabbed her by the arm and practically threw her onto the garden seat,

"What's wrong Angela?"

Mickey was beside us both, her good eye filled with tears,

"I'll tell him Angie,"

"Tell me what?"

Mickey looked at me, her face was a picture of abject misery and a tear trickled down her cheek, Angie was crying too on the seat and suddenly I felt like a bully, a specimen of sub-humanity that I've detested all my life and still do!

Reaching out to Angie, I took her in my arms and held her close,

"Don't cry Angie" I soothed her, "It's not allowed in this house, there are very severe punishments for those who break that rule"

"We owe him a lot of money Dave"

Angie broke in and grabbed Mickey's hand, "I owe him money Mickey, you don't owe him anything"

"Whoa" I shouted, "Come into the cottage, I think a drink's in order, you can tell me there who owes what to who"

Angie started it after her second brandy,

"A friend of his has a half share in an illegal gaming club in Leeds, he hired me and Mickey to entertain the punters one night, paid us well too, didn't he Mickey?"

My sister nodded, "Very well" and she took up the story,

"After we'd done our little act, we went back down and played the wheel, we lost of course in fact we lost all we'd earned that night, we thought nothing of it when he offered to loan us two hundred pounds each"

"An act of kindness" said Angie bitterly, "Try to realise Dave, we were both on a high from each other and we were snorting coke too"

"Go on"

"We signed a scrap of paper just as a kind of IOU, you know?"

"An act of kindness and you signed an IOU?"

"Dave I know it was silly, stupid even, but at the time he was my boyfriend, he said it was so he wouldn't wake up in the morning and wonder where his money had gone!

"And you believed him?"

"Yes, I believed him"

"Ok sweetheart carry on"

"I didn't see him again until three days later, Angie and I had both been to the bank and drawn out our two hundred pounds, when I gave it to him, he laughed and said that it was a little bit more than that!"

"How much more?"

"It was a hundred per cent interest per week"

"WHAT?"

That set them both off crying again and I cursed my temper,

"Look I'm sorry, but just cut to the quick, how much do you owe this piece of shit?"

"Four thousand ponds" said Angie and Mickey weighed in with, "Six thousand eight hundred, I was in hospital"

The last bit was by way of an explanation, I looked evilly at her and she shrank back.