Pawnshops and Carousels

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Are you guys ready for the drama? Cause I am... and it's here! Trust me, after this little bit of drama things are gonna get really cute up in here, just wait a few chapters and see. As always, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next Sunday!

Chapter 15

"I just wanted to tell you that Les has the back running the way it used to… you know before the meeting we had this morning."

Rich then shuts the door and disappears as if he didn't just start WW-A Million in this store. Seth leans back in his chair, his fingers tapping away and I stop writing down the message on his note pad. This note is not a phone message but a saucy little note I'm leaving about what I'm going to do to him once we get home… our home… at his apartment… together… god I love saying that… to put a hand to his shoulder.

"What was that about?" Ashley asks.

I already know what it's about. Seth, who was tired of the back fucking up, gave each guy in the warehouse a section to look after. One for laptops, one for TVs, one for furs, and so on and so forth. We had talked about it, last night and I thought it was great, especially since I had finished reorganizing the whole warehouse by item and number, and had put placards up with the information in each row so they knew what number started what row and what it finished on.

Once Seth finishes explaining that to Ashley she calmly asks: "Well what do you want?"

Oh god, why would she ask it like that? "I want him out of my way!" he cries, which isn't true, he just wants to be taken seriously by his father, he's just upset right now so that's what he's saying.

"Seth! Stop crying about this to me and go handle it with dad!" she snaps and I immediately put pressure on Seth's shoulder so he looks up to me.

"Or… you know… maybe… we go for a walk, and think of a calm and collected way to approach this… so we don't start a huge argument!" I offer but Seth's narrowed eyes at me tell me that that is not how this is going to go down.

"No! She's right. I can run AJL better than him he just needs to step out of my way," he snarls, slamming his fists against the desk and standing up. I let him leave because… well… you know… there's no stopping him now. I sit in his vacated seat and glare at Ashley.

"You did that on purpose. You know Les isn't going to like it, they're just going to argue…"

"Exactly and if I'm lucky I'll get the store back," she says with a smirk on her face and then I'm alone in the office hoping to god that we both don't get fired.

Ashley: The tension is high between my dad and brother. They haven't talked for over a week. They got in a fight and it was like a full out war in my dad's office. But I tricked my dad into coming with me, and Sabrina cried until Seth followed her and together, we got them to talk. But it backfired on all of us, because my dad threw the keys at him… literally and stepped aside and let Seth run things.

Les: It's only been one day and he's crashing and burning. The only saving grace is the fact that Sabrina has more than stepped up to cover while he's in the office hiding. She's smoothed out arguments, figured out where things should go, and has directed the staff. All while Seth's hidden. The computers went down and without Sabrina to talk for him, things wouldn't have gotten done. In fact, the only thing Ashley and Seth did was argue with one another. I shouldn't be leaving my store to my children, I should be leaving things to Sabrina.

Seth: Yesterday was the worst day of my life. I was run ragged. The only thing that made me happy was I went home with Sabrina, she popped open a beer, we cuddled on the couch, we had phenomenal sex, and Escobar only peed on one shirt instead of all of them. All in all, it was a good night, but now, I'm fucking screwed. I don't know how I could have forgotten the bank holiday. How did I let this slip? If my dad finds out, he's going to loose his mind. He gave me the keys to the castle and I just fucked up!

The question is now, how much do you think we need?

That's what my baby had asked me and now, two hours after that, right after we had essentially almost run out of money my baby had showed up with a wad of cash.

"Okay, so… uh… I've got about… uh… five grand here… it's all I can afford to give you…" she says offering me the money. I'm so touched that she went and did this that I swear, I'm about to cry. "Will that help? I mean… I know it's not enough but will it help?"

I can't take her money, I'm desperate, but I know I can't take her money. "Babe… this is great… it's just…"

"Don't say you can't take it. You can. And you can pay me back tomorrow, when the banks open. I know you're good for it," she says again thrusting the money at me. "I know what this means to you, I know what it'll mean if Les finds out… so please, just take it."

I take it with shaking hands. It isn't enough but it's just enough for right now. I come around my desk and pull her to me. I hug her tightly because in this chaos, she's the only one who's trying to help me.

Ashley had been of no help what so ever, I couldn't ask my dad, all I had was Sabrina.

"Thank you, baby, thank you so much," he whispers to her.

"It's okay babe… but uh… just so you know… your dad already knows," she says to him and his heart sunk in his chest.

"What?"

"Yeah, I mean, he knows, I'm sorry. I don't know who told him…"

"Fucking Ashley."

"Ashley? How did she know?" she asks. "Did you tell her?"

He nods and she groans for him. "Oh baby, come on, why would you tell her? She's never on your side!"

I pull myself out of her grasp and take her money out to the floor to distribute. Problem is, there's already money in the tills.

"Who… where?"

"Your dad," is all my cashier's can say and now I'm in his office.

"Where the hell did you get money?" I thunder.

My dad just makes me sit down. With a smug smirk he says: "You couldn't do it on your own, could you? You need my help now."

Well, no, I couldn't do it, but I had Sabrina behind me, and she got me part of the money. I did not need my dad's money. Okay I do, but I don't want to say that. But I have to.

"I can admit it. I need your help. I fucked up bad. I had a solution…" "You had Sabrina empty her bank account for you." "Okay, I didn't have her… she offered… I didn't ask her to…." "You thought you knew it all but you have a long way to go before you can sit in this chair, remember that."

I nod, because it's true, this experience has proven that to me. "Now can you give Sabrina back her money. I have enough for us to run through the day."

As if to prove it to me he pulls out a small lock box and shows me all the stacks he has in there. Great we're set. But I still feel like shit. At least I can tell Sabrina she can have her cash back… though how she got five grand out of her bank on a bank holiday is beyond me. She must have driven around town getting the max out of different ATMs until she had all her money out.

I also want to yell at Ashley. For selling me out. Again. And I think I'm about to get my chance as she lets herself into our dad's office.

"You need to come out here now. Sabrina and her Ex are in the middle of a showdown on the showroom floor," she tells us and I'm already out of my seat. Her ex hit her once, I'm not about to let it happen again.

Eric came in saying he needed to pawn something, supposedly, and caught me coming back from a break. I went to go get Seth a coffee and a doughnut to calm him down, with the last few dollars in my account.

The second he sees me, he stops talking to Bobby-J and immediately gets in my way.

"You fucking bitch!" flies out of him so fast my head is spinning. He looks livid but I can tell by his eyes that he's on something and that's not good. His anger and strength are always magnified when he's on something.

"You were told to stay away from me Eric," I remind him, seriously what was the point of this restraining order if he wasn't going to follow it. "Leave now, or I'll call the cops."

"You took ALL my money!" he shouts and for a second I'm confused until I realize that he must somehow be accessing my bank account. I did loose a ATM card a while ago but I haven't seen any strange withdrawals recently.

"Have you been using my account to get high?" I ask him. "Cause that is not your money!"

He reached out for me. "You left me. You took everything. You won't even return my calls. everyone says you got some new guy, but we both know that this new guy ain't got nothing on me and you know it. You love me, you love me and you're going to come home, and you're going to give me what you owe me for putting me through all this."

Oh my god he's insane. "No, Eric. I'm not coming home. I love him and I'm done with you," I tell him and that's when the gun comes out. There's a mad dash of scrambling, people running, people screaming, and in the din I swear I hear Seth calling my name, which makes it worse, cause I know him, and I know what he'll do if he thinks I'm in danger.

But before I can do anything Eric has grabbed me, he's got the gun to my head and he's telling everyone to get the fuck away and let us leave.

All I can see is Seth's face. The fear in his eyes, the way his jaw is pulsing in that way he does when he's grinding his teeth in anger or worry, and his whole body is taunt and ready to go. I want to tell him not to do anything stupid, but I know I won't be able to, because Eric has a vice grip on me, which means he has a direct line to hurting the one person I care more about than myself and I'm not going to let Seth get hurt for me.