If someone else is prepared to do it, then don’t be a dickhead and opt out!
These words were now replaying on an endless loop in Henry’s mind. But, for the first time in his life, they weren’t helping.
Tommy Rose’s instruction had knocked him sideways.
‘Maybe someone else could do it? Someone who understands it better than me?’ Henry pleaded.
Deaf ears.
Tommy was a beast of a man with a flattened nose and dead eyes. He didn’t do conversations, and he certainly didn’t answer questions.
Tommy simply repeated his instruction. ‘I want you to do this.’
Beside him, Jay, who faced the same instruction, looked nonchalant. These instructions hadn’t surprised him. Either all the piss he’d been drinking had numbed him, or he was simply used to performing such favours.
No… I can’t… Henry stood. ‘There’s a line.’
Tommy moved aside and nodded at the door to show that it was just fine to use it and leave.
Shit! Did that mean he would be leaving empty-handed? ‘I’ve been here three days.’
Tommy nodded.
‘I’ve sold a lot.’ Henry felt overwhelmed. Disappointed. There’d been so much hope in his current employment.
‘A shame. You showed promise.’ Tommy reached into his pocket and pulled out a large bundle of notes.
Henry’s heart fluttered. That was probably more money than his sanctimonious brother would earn in a year! That could set him up good and proper…
Tommy slid off the elastic and peeled off some notes. He leaned over the coffee table and dropped a couple of fifty-pound notes in front of him. They nestled between two loaded syringes.
Is that it?
‘Three days!’ Dangerous to speak your mind when Tommy Rose was involved, but Henry couldn’t keep it in. ‘That’s not even minimum wage.’
‘That’s your earnings minus my costs for finding you, for housing you, for training you.’
You found me in a nightclub dealing pills… you housed me in a rotten shithole… and what bloody training? He didn’t speak his thoughts this time – they’d be too inflammatory.
Inwardly sighing, he glanced down and let his hand hover over the money and the needles…
Sterile needles.
Both Tommy and Jay had assured him of this.
If someone else is prepared to do it, then don’t be a dickhead and opt out!
His hand initially descended towards the money, before changing trajectory towards one syringe… You can’t get addicted just doing it the once, can you?
He flicked his eyes over to Jay. His drawn, emaciated face and hollow eyes acted as a warning.
But it won’t be just the once, will it? Tommy will ask you to test it again and again.
Do you want to be a human guinea pig, Henry? The last line of defence between the production line and the disappointed punters?
No, this wasn’t for him.
He opted for the money, brushed past Jay’s legs and circled the left side of the coffee table, and did a full loop of the lounge in order to give Tommy a wide berth.
As he neared the door, he glanced at the paltry sum of cash in his hand, and the disappointment he felt was crushing.
Only earlier, he’d thought, he’d believed, that he’d one foot back up on the ladder of life. That he’d soon be looking down at his brother on a lower rung.
He glanced back at Jay, who’d already tied his upper arm, and was prepping a vein with two fingers.
If someone else is prepared to do it…
No… no…
He forced himself onwards, but inches from the door, he saw that smiling ex-girlfriend. The librarian for life. ‘Now who’s cutting their nose off?’
He lowered his head, shook it and sighed. Then he turned back in time to see Jay close his eyes and slump back on the sofa. The used needle hanging from his arm.
Henry recalled the bundle of notes that had just come out of Tommy’s pocket. The bundle which had almost stopped his heart.
There was promise and hope in this room.
And money.
He turned and headed back to the sofa, determined to keep climbing this ladder. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Just this once.’
As he returned to the sofa, he expected to catch a grin on Tommy’s face. A smug reaction to his employee’s lack of willpower.
But there was nothing. Just a stony expression, and then a swift nod when Henry picked up the needle and sat back down.