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Once he reached the main road, he flipped the lights on and headed back to the garage. The house that sat on the rise above it was dark and shadowed. There were no lights, nothing to indicate life. But Sabella wasn’t sleeping. She was watching. He could feel her. And Duncan’s car wasn’t there, that meant Sykes had obviously not been asked in for a drink.
He parked the bike, swung off it, and stared up at the bedroom window. Their bedroom. Their window. She would still sleep in their bed, he knew. Did she still hug his pillow to her? Or had she laid it aside?
Shaking his head, he moved up the steps of his apartment, knowing even before he turned off the cycle who waited for him at the top.
“You’re already causing trouble,” Rory accused him as he stepped to the deck.
His brother shifted in the plastic chair that sat next door, rising and staring back at Noah with a scowl as he unlocked the door and stepped inside cautiously.
It was silent, empty. Just as it should have been. The cobweb-thin string was still stretched between the door frame and at the other door he caught the faintest hint of the piece of toothpick that still stuck from the door lock there.
He eased inside carefully anyway, feeling Rory move in behind him silently. They checked the apartment out before meeting back in the kitchen.
“Damn, I need more than a beer.” Rory sighed as he pulled two from the fridge and tossed Noah one. “Duncan Sykes called. He’s blaming me because you’re somehow responsible for Belle breaking their date tonight.”
Noah let a satisfied grin curl at the edges of his lips.
“I’ll take care of her.” He twisted the cap from the bottle and tossed it to the garbage can before taking a long, cold drink.
“That’s what you said the other night,” Rory bit out, his blue eyes firing in ire. “Dammit, I had to watch her cry every time she saw me for almost two years. She couldn’t stand to look at me. And now just when she was starting to get her life back together, you have to show up, and instead of telling her who you are, mess her life up worse.”
“Don’t piss me off, Rory.” Noah didn’t want to hear it. “What the hell are you doing here tonight?”
Rory snorted. “Granddad threw me out for pacing the floor. When I went outside to pace he told me he was going to shoot me.”
Noah almost grinned. That sounded like Grandpop.
“Use the spare room.” Noah shrugged. “By the way, you’re firing Timmy in the morning. Take care of it first thing
.”
Rory stared back at him, the irritation growing in his eyes. “Come on, Noah. Timmy’s helping support his mother.”
“No he’s not, he’s smoking junk behind the garage when no one’s looking and he’s reporting everything Sabella does to Mike Conrad the minute she tips her head in a different direction. Get him out of there.”
“Hell. Belle hired him. She’s gonna go off on me again.”
“She doesn’t bite.” Noah shrugged again.
No, she didn’t bite, but she could make a man’s balls draw up in fear anyway when she got mad enough. When she was mad and hurt. When tears sparkled in her eyes and she started throwing things, then it was time to head for the hills until she cooled off. Way the hell off. She wasn’t violent, but damn if she couldn’t make a man miserable with just a look.
“She might not bite, but she throws a mean-assed punch when she wants to,” Rory said. “The first time I tried to drag her away from one of those cars and put her ass back in the office, she popped my jaw like it was a balloon.”
Noah didn’t show his surprise, or his shock. Sabella had never hit anything while they had been together. She hadn’t even punched her pillow when she was pissed.
“Get some sleep.” He nodded back to the bedroom. “I need to go out again.”
“I could go with you.” Rory shifted on his feet. “I know how to cover you. You taught me how.”
Yeah, he had. A lifetime ago.
“Not tonight.” Noah shook his head. Where he was going, he wanted no witnesses, no shadows, no tails. And he sure as hell didn’t want Rory dragged into this crap. “Get some sleep. You have to deal with Sabella in the morning.”
“You suck,” Rory said as he grimaced. “She’s gonna hit me again.”
“She has a short swing. Stay a few feet away from her.” Noah moved back to the door, opened it, and slid back into the night.
Mike Conrad didn’t live far away. Tehya had slipped him the program she needed installed in Mike’s computer before he left. Hopefully, getting into it wouldn’t be too difficult.
