chick with a fucking gun and an attack dog!”
“She’s a competently trained marksman…” I can almost hear the frown in his voice. “Markswoman? Whatever. She’s been at Spence’s firing range, and training under either Kane or Jay for years. Literally, only those two have trained her. Trust me, she ain’t gonna shoot off a round by accident, and if she aims for you, you’re already dead.”
“That’s comforting,” I drawl.
“She’s not gonna shoot you unless you intend to hurt her, and you’re not gonna hurt her, because you’re not stupid. Leave her alone, don’t keep her awake at ass-backwards hours by hosting parties, become predictable in your movements, and don’t put the trash out in the dark. It ain’t so hard.”
“You’re asking me to change my fucking life for someone I don’t even know. Everyone wants me to take her into consideration, but no one will explain why. This is bullshit.”
“You only have to stay there until renovations on the apartment above the garage are complete,” he points out. “Then you can come back, and your life can go back to normal. Until then, just don’t be a shitty neighbor. It shouldn’t be this fucking dramatic.”
I settle into the back of my couch and groan. “Are you gonna explain what happened to her?”
“No. You know my ass ain’t gonna gossip.”
“On a scale of a stubbed toe, to really fuckin’ messed up, what are we talking about here?”
“Really fuckin’ messed up,” he rumbles. “She just wants to live a quiet life, okay? She works, she lives, she walks her dog, and hangs out with her friends. That’s a hell of a lot more than she used to do, so don’t undo it. There are a lot of people invested in her happiness, so don’t ruin that.”
“I think I ruined some of it tonight,” I admit on a murmur. “Her dog was ready to tear my balls off – a-fucking-gain, you should know. I scared her in the hall, her dog was readying to end my life, and when she wouldn’t tell him to stand down, I…”
“You what?” he growls.
“I told him to.”
“Dude!”
“And he did,” I confess. “He sat, and stopped with the snapping teeth.”
“Chuck!”
“It was instinct, okay? He was snapping at me! And I want it on record that I was scared too. I’m allowed to be scared. She doesn’t get the market share on that shit. He was gonna kill me, boss. I told her to tell him to back off, but she refused. So I told him to stop.”
“And he did?”
I nod. “I think I broke her heart. Because he sat the fuck down and stopped growling. She started crying.”
“You made her cry? What the fuck is wrong with you, Chuck? Jesus!” he grunts. “Of all the dudes in town that could have moved in across from her, you were the safe bet! You were the one I never would have pegged as giving her trouble, but now you’re making her cry?”
“I didn’t mean to do it, boss! It was instinct for me to tell him to sit. I didn’t think he actually would.”
“And now she’s crying?”
I clear my throat and close my eyes. And yet, I see her in my mind. “She didn’t do the girly drama cry. But I saw her eyes. I saw that I hurt her.”
“Fucking hell,” he growls. “You’re undoing a lot of people’s hard work, Chuck. You know that scale you asked about? Stubbed toe to real messed up?”
“Mm?”
“You know what happened to Laine?”
“Ang…” My breath comes out on a hitching exhale. “No… she… no.”
Laine – his wife – was sold in a filthy club to filthy men. She was hurt, bought, used, sold, and marked.
“Not the same,” he adds in a rush. “But Nora has her own brand of trauma from that same time, the same club, those same people. You need to leave her the fuck alone, let her heal. Just…” He sighs. “Just leave her alone. That’s all she wants.”
“To be alone?”
“Right. She’s been in that apartment block for a couple years now, and you’re the first person to give her trouble.”
“I don’t mean to,” I argue softly. “I literally never set out to bother her. We just end up in the hall at the same time, she’s skittish, and shit explodes.”
“Maybe you need to start wearing a bell,” he jokes. “Like a cat. That way you won’t scare her anymore.”
“Not funny.” Bringing a hand up, I press the heel into my eye and groan. “Fine. I have context. Sorta. A