the trauma center that he’d helped create to help people that needed help rebuilding their lives.
Speaking of which…
“How did you convince the judge to extend your community service?” Grey asked, plucking the white bakery bag off the coffee table on his way to his desk.
“Called in a favor,” Nikki said, shrugging it off as she followed him back into his office and…
Hopped up onto his desk and plucked the coffee back out of his hand, took a sip and placed it on top of his laptop.
God, she was a pain in his ass, Grey thought as he pulled a glazed donut out of the bag and took a bite only to glare at the woman that was testing his patience when she plucked it out of his hand. “It would be so much easier for everyone involved if you just signed my sheet,” she said with a tragic sigh and a sad shake of her head as she pulled out her phone and frowned down at whatever she saw as she nibbled on the donut.
“You need therapy,” he pointed out, stealing the donut back and finished it off as he shifted his attention to his schedule for the day.
“I really don’t, though,” Nikki said, sounding bored as she climbed off his desk and made her way back to the couch.
“You kneed a guy in the balls in front of a judge,” Grey said as he found himself watching her, wondering just how long she was willing to drag this out before she accepted the fact that she wasn’t getting out of this.
“He had it coming,” Nikki said, not really sounding all that concerned as she grabbed her bag off the couch.
“You don’t see that as a problem?” Grey asked, leaning back in his chair as he watched her, taking in her long dark hair pulled up into a messy bun, the black T-shirt and tight-fitting jeans that she wore and the–
“I thought I asked you to stop wearing your gun in the center,” Grey said when he spotted the ankle holster outlined beneath her pant leg.
“Did you?” Nikki asked, pursing her lips up thoughtfully.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure that I would have remembered that conversation,” Nikki said absently as she focused back on her phone.
“You don’t remember the part where I told you that I would kick you out of Shadow House and send a report to the judge that you violated the terms of your court-ordered community service?” Grey drawled, watching her quickly text something as he waited for a reaction that he already knew that he wasn’t going to get.
“You’re not going to do that,” Nikki said as she slid her phone in her back pocket and headed for the door.
“And why’s that?”
“Because you’re not going to risk losing the best part of your day,” Nikki said, shooting him a wink as she left, leaving him sitting there wondering what the hell he was going to do with her.
A Sneak Peek from
Misunderstood
A Neighbor from Hell YA Novel
Chapter 1
Twenty Years Earlier…
“Yeah, I’m not doing it,” Sebastian said as he stared down at his mother’s latest attempt to…
Well, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was supposed to be, but he knew that he didn’t want to put the gray-greenish, crumbling, oozing substance in his mouth. But the problem was that he’d been dared by his brothers, who were both standing next to him, pointing flashlights on the gooey mess as they took turns poking it with a spoon because none of them wanted to touch it with their bare hands.
“Then you forfeit,” Jonathan, his brother and the reason that they were all down here, said with a satisfied sigh as he reached over and plucked the iPad that their mother let Sebastian borrow, out of his hands.
“Wait. I want a turn!” Mathew said loudly, earning a glare, which was the only warning that he was going to get if he got them in trouble.
“You weren’t in on this,” Jonathan pointed out.
“It was implied!” Mathew hissed as he pushed the sleeves of his Scooby-Doo pajamas up, slowly exhaled, picked up the spoon and dug in and right before they had a chance to see if their little brother would survive, they heard it.
The sound of a door opening.
“Go!” Sebastian mouthed to his brother as they both slapped their hands over their little brother’s mouth, grabbed an arm and pulled him toward the back stairs.
“The brownies!” Jonathan whispered, making him frown until he remembered the gray mess they’d left on