If I could have gasped, I would. I couldn’t though because I was breathless.
A Cubbies fan? Next door? My eyes shot to the hat I had perched up on a shelf in the living room. It sat between two trophies, above a few ribbons and next to a single framed ticket.
It wasn’t that I was even a hard-core Cubbies fan, it had grown more and more casual over the years. It was that I had so much attached to those memories.
Glancing back to the paper, there was an adorable but strange looking dog drawn on the bottom, with a case of Brooklyn Brown in his mouth, and a question on his face.
How could I say no? Maybe, just maybe, meeting the barking menace would solve the problem. And the idea of having an afternoon of baseball, beer, and maybe food would be amazing.
The hall outside the apartment was suddenly a racket. I heard a dog barking, but not toward the direction of me or the stairs. There were more bangs and swearing and someone yelled ‘ouch’in the midst of the chaos.
The front door slammed and I could swear that I heard the glass crack.
I ran for my apartment door, slamming my keys in my pocket and jerking the door shut behind me. I nearly flew down the flight from the third floor to the second. As soon as I was at the top of the next flight, I could see what was going on.
A very large, broad shouldered brown haired man had a greasy looking dude in a headlock. Missy Billing was standing back against the wall, holding a hand to her face, clearly bleeding. A dog was barking and growling at the large man and his quarry.
I jumped down the last stairs.
“Lemme go!”
“Give me the wallet, you asswipe. Give it to me!”
Missy looked confused watching this, so I opted to run over to her—not to mention Burly Man had the grease ball in hand. “Missy?”
“Oh, shit, Chase, thank God!”
“What’s going on?”
She glanced at the two men fighting. “They came out of nowhere and slammed into the wall next to me.”
The burly guy slammed his fist into the greasy one’s neck and finally, Grease Ball let go and slumped to the floor.
Burly Man stood, and revealed a very delicious looking human. Tall, but leanly muscled, and his sleeves were rolled up which did funny things to me.
Glancing around, he finally spied the dog and lunged for the leash. “Pollux, quit it. You can pee on him if you want, but you’re not allowed to kill him.” He found me standing next to Missy and seemed to hiccup, then held the leash out for me. “Can you hold him for a minute?”
Mute, I nodded and held the dog who was now more interested in me. The man leaned down and flipped the unconscious grease ball over and yanked something out of his front pants pocket.
Coming back over to me and Missy, he held the objects out. “Here you go. Wallet and keys.”
“Holy shit, he pickpocketed me?” Missy stared at the wallet.
“I’ve seen him around, I think it was more nefarious than that. I think he planned to rob your apartment.”
I had already dialed 911 on the phone, but was rendered speechless by that assessment.
“Hello? This is 911, what is your emergency?”
“Oh! Yeah, my neighbor was just attacked and pickpocketed. We have the guy, he’s knocked out. Could you send police and an ambulance?”
“What’s your address, sir?”
I rattled it off and the operator asked if I wanted to stay on the line, but I didn’t think it was really necessary. I thought that I heard a cop car screaming closer already.
The greasy dude groaned from the ground and the Burly Hunk Man stood over him, beckoning for the leash for his dog. I handed it over, and he nodded.
“Pollux, sit.” He looked at the guy who was starting to rouse. “He’s not a bad dog, but he knows s-i-c, and I suggest you don’t move.”
