Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,81

her.

“What did you call her?” he heard Jason drawl as he stepped inside, letting him know that the problem was being handled.

“I never liked him,” the little old woman that had kicked the shit out of Adam’s arm said with a huff as she shuffled past him slowly with her walker.

“Me neither,” he absently agreed as he searched for the short, pissed off woman and when he didn’t find her, he swore and took off across the dinning area.

He checked his office, hoping to find her in there, ranting about Adam, but she wasn’t there. Cursing, he quickly checked the back parking lot and made sure that her car was still in its parking spot before he ran upstairs. When he didn’t find her in her apartment, he sighed with relief because that meant that she was in his apartment, which he was taking as a good sign.

Already knowing where he was going to find her, he shut the door behind him and headed towards the bathroom, taking his clothes off as he went. When he opened the bathroom door, he nearly smiled when he spotted her standing in his shower with her arms folded over her chest and glaring at the wall.

Stepping in the shower, he tried to figure out what to say to make this right, but since he had no fucking clue how he’d screwed this one up, he settled for stepping up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. He didn’t say anything and neither did she, but he knew that wouldn’t last long.

Sooner or later they were going to have to talk, but until that time came, he was going to hold her. They stood there for a long time before Rebecca reached over and shut the water off. Grabbing a towel, she wrapped it around herself and walked out of the bathroom, leaving him standing there trying to decide how he was supposed to handle this. He didn’t know if he should approach her as her boss or her boyfriend, making him finally realize why Rebecca had been so dead set against working together.

Fucking hell.

He should have listened to her. Not that he thought that she was right, because she wasn’t, but because he shouldn’t have been so fucking naïve to think that things weren’t going to change for her. He also should have fired that prick a long time ago, but he’d never really pissed him off until today.

“Rebecca,” he said, not one to put this off and deciding that he would play it by ear.

If she wanted to have this handled as her boss then he would do that, figure out how to fix this and make sure that it never happened again. But, if she wanted him to handle this like her boyfriend, then he would go find that little prick and beat the shit out of him. Then again, knowing his family he would probably have to wait until Adam was released from the hospital before he got another chance.

“Do you mind if I pick the movie?” she asked when he stepped into the living room to find her laying on the couch beneath the blanket he kept there for her and her towel discarded ten feet away.

“I think we should talk,” he said, walking over to the couch.

Sighing softly, she rolled over onto her stomach and folded her arms beneath her head so that she could lay on her stomach comfortably as she scrolled through the movie guide. “I don’t think there’s really much to talk about, do you? I told you that continuing to work for you was a bad idea and I was right. Your supervisor thought that I was screwing you for special treatment, got pissed and tried to make an example out of me. I quit. You beat the shit out of him and now we have one less complication,” she said with a shrug. “There’s really nothing to talk about.”

“You’re not quitting,” he said, pulling his towel free and tossing it aside.

“I just did,” she pointed out as she flicked through a list of zombie movies that were guaranteed to make him fall asleep.

“No,” he said, lifting the blanket to reveal her beautiful body to his greedy eyes, “you really didn’t.”

Chapter 40

“I quit,” she said, wondering why he was having such a hard time accepting her decision to move on and find a new job. It wasn’t like she was breaking up with him or anything. She was just going to start spending