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“I’m going to guess the housekeeper hasn’t been by recently,” I joked. Nothing about it was funny to me, but I didn’t want her to see just how irate I was. I was pretty particular about my place and my things. Seeing them just…everywhere was increasing my blood pressure by the minute. I wondered what was missing besides the laptop.

The back of the closet in my bedroom, which should have contained my firearms and a couple duffel bags filled with around eighty grand in cash was empty.

“Fuckers,” I mumbled as I moved over to my dresser. All the drawers had been pulled out and dumped, but no one noticed the envelope secured to the underside of the dresser’s top. I pulled a few bills out of it, ran down to pay off the cab driver, and then returned to check out the rest of the mess.

Odin was standing by the sliding glass door to the balcony, staring at his upturned dog bed. I used my boot to shove the crap on the floor to the side, righted the bed, and put it back in its usual spot. He sniffed at it, climbed inside, and spun around a few times before curling up and placing his head on his paws to watch us.

I went around to all the places where I had cash and weapons hidden. Most had been found and presumably taken as evidence, but I did come up with a few thousand in cash—no weapons, though, which pissed me off. My phone was also missing.

“I need to make a side trip.”

My Mazda was gone from the garage, presumably impounded pending my trial. With my CTA pass in hand and Lia staying at my apartment to start cleaning up, I headed over to Moretti’s office. I watched all around me as I approached, but I didn’t see any familiar cars in the parking lot and no one visible walking around. I made my way to my Audi—still hidden behind the dumpster from the night I’d killed Terry and Bridgett. Under the driver’s seat was a Beretta PX4 Storm .40—my backup handgun. In the trunk, hidden under the spare tire, there was another, larger envelope of cash.

I shoved the piece down my pants and felt myself relax at the familiar feeling of the barrel against my back. There was also a shoulder holster for it, but I didn’t want to take the time to put it on in the parking lot. I looked around quickly, then got in the car and headed to the nearest place where I could get a phone set up without a contract or anything like that. I kept looking over my shoulder, but no one appeared to have noticed me, and no one seemed to be following me. Still, I took a random route back to my apartment building.

All was quiet in the parking garage, so I made my way upstairs and back to my unit.

Lia was inside, folding clothing that had been dumped all over the place and neatly stacking it in piles on the bed.

“I wasn’t sure which drawers you used for what.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt a little weird and maybe embarrassed to have her doing something like that for me. It seemed very…intimate. I didn’t think anyone other than I had handled my laundry since I was a kid.

I grabbed the dresser drawers off the floor and inserted them into their slots, then picked up a couple stacks of shirts and laid them down in their rightful drawer. It didn’t take too long before we had at least managed to straighten out the bedroom to where it didn’t look like a recent tornado had been hanging out there.

The rest of the apartment was a much bigger disaster, and it took us most of the day to get it cleaned up. About the time we were done, when Lia had gone to take some spoiled food to the dumpsters outside, Odin started to growl.

I looked up at the door.

“Having fun?” Trent asked as he leaned against the wall.

Nothing could have pissed me off more than seeing him at my door.

Chapter 8—Unveiled Threats

I resisted the urge to pull out the Beretta and shove it in his face.

“I assume I have you to thank for all of this,” I muttered back. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Just wanted to make sure you weren’t packing up to leave town or anything stupid like that,” Trent replied. “I also wanted to make sure you realize I know exactly where you are and what you’re doing—at all times.”

I watched him closely. He crossed his arms as he leaned casually against the door—too casually. He was making a point of looking nonchalant, which meant he didn’t completely feel that way. My eyes searched for other clues about him, but he was practiced in the art of being a complete and total asshole, which was throwing me off my game.

In an attempt to gain some ground, I snapped my fingers and pointed to Odin’s bed. He quickly moved from my side and went to his place but continued to growl low at the federal agent.

“I told you I would take care of it all,” I reminded him. “Fuck off and let me do it.”

“You’re quite the conversationalist,” he said with a snide laugh.

“I don’t converse with feds,” I snapped back. I was immediately pissed off at myself for letting him get to me.

“Just don’t forget to take your dick out of your slut long enough to get your job done.”

I clenched my teeth and glared, trying to keep myself from just walking over and beating the living shit out of him. I had no doubt that Johnson was nearby, and assaulting a fed in my apartment while I was out on bail wasn’t the very best idea.

“Are you going to spend a lot of time keeping me from getting shit done?” I asked through my teeth.

“I’m going to spend a lot of time making sure you are getting shit done,” Trent retorted. “If I feel like you’re stalling, I’m going to take it out on her. What do you think of that?”

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