across from you lives a quiet life. She needs quiet.”
“She…” I frown. “She called you to complain about my noise? Damn, Kane. I told her I was sorry.”
“You told her?” He steps back so fast, you’d think I sucker-punched him. “She came out and spoke to you last night?”
“No. She came out this morning. She called you last night?”
He nods. “She heard the new neighbor and panicked. She’s my friend, Chuck. She’s my responsibility. And your loud ass scared her last night.”
Gritting my teeth, I think to the chick in a baseball cap from this morning. I think of the shadows beneath her eyes. The way she broadened her shoulders in defense. “What time did she call you?”
“Around eight, why?”
“Because I saw her this morning, and she was spitting mad I was still noisy at two.”
“You kept her up all night? Dammit, Chuck!”
Kane Bishop is best friends with my boss. His wife is the twin sister of my boss’ wife. He’s always been cool, always ready with a smile. But now I wonder if he’s readying to unclip the Glock he keeps on his thigh, and empty it into my gut.
“Fuck, man. You can’t be keeping her awake at two in the morning.” He spins away and laps the garage while Mac and I watch on with lifted brows. “She’s gonna be a damn mess.”
“Bish…” I set my tools on the small trolley to my right, and wipe my grease-stained hands on the rag I keep tucked in my back pocket. “This chick I live across from…”
“Nora,” he inserts.
“Nora…” I run her name over my tongue. Play it through my mind, and try to place the name over the face I barely – sort of – met. “She came out this morning, spitting mad, and let her dog give me a talking to.”
Finally, Mac chuckles and relaxes against the truck he’s working on. “Galileo. He’s a sweetheart.”
“He is not a sweetheart!” I explode. “He was gonna kill me.”
“He’s a good dog.” Mac leans down and pats Deck’s ears. “They’re a sweet litter. I guess he was pissed you were noisy all night.”
Narrowing my eyes, I look to the spotted Dane by Mac’s leg. Then I think of the white one from this morning. “Same litter? Brothers?”
He nods.
“You know my neighbor too?”
He nods again. “I went to school with her.”
“She’s had a rough time.” Kane comes back and stops only two feet away. “You need to watch yourself when it comes to her. Stay away, stay quiet, and don’t knock on her fucking door.”
“Why the hell not?” I throw my hands up. “How am I the villain here? I don’t even know the chick, but suddenly I’m some kind of monster with a file at Checkmate?”
“You’re not a monster. But you are on notice.” Kane points in my face. “Don’t let her call me again with fear in her voice. Don’t fuck with her like that.”
“Fear?” My gaze snaps from him to Mac. Back and forth. “Scared of what? She’s the one with the killer dog.”
“Just leave her alone.” And with that, when Ang steps into the garage and studies us with tight brows, Kane waves him into the office, and leaves me and Mac standing in the awkward silence.
“Er…” What. The. Fuck? “I think I’m missing a lot of information.”
“It’s none of your business.” Mac turns back to the truck and picks up a wrench. “Just leave her be.”
“I didn’t not leave her be!” I turn back to the Bentley and get to work. “I actually feel like the victim in this entire situation. I moved into my new apartment last night, and today, everyone’s on my ass about my neighbor that I don’t even know. What the hell happened to her that she gets personal phone calls and security detail from a Bishop?”
“Like I said,” he murmurs after a long pause, “none of your business. You’ve just gotta leave her be.”
Nora
Fortune
I sit at the dining table in Ben and Evie’s plantation-style home and study the half a dozen cards I hold in my hand. I’m not losing this game of bluff, but I’m sure as hell not winning either. Galileo snoozes on the floor beneath my chair with his mom – Cass, a promiscuous cocker spaniel that may or may not have whored herself to a Great Dane at some point in her life.
Galileo was the smallest in a litter of seven puppies, most of which have new homes now, but the two that don’t, live here. Mine was