Page 64 of Overkill

I didn’t have a change of clothes here, so I slid out of bed and tried to walk as quietly as I could over the noisy floorboards. Noticing the baseboards could use a new coat of paint, I added the task to my mental list, as well.

On a receipt from last night’s takeout, I wrote down the situation with the keys and put it on her nightstand before calling Chief Riley to let him know I was leaving Melody’s place. I asked him to bring breakfast for her and the kids, and he agreed to do so once he got his daughter Annie up and fed.

The eerie house was still, and for about the fourth time, I noticed the one face-down frame on the mantle. I walked over and picked it up. It was Luke holding a big fish. He stared straight into the camera with a shit-eating grin.

I turned the picture back down. I’d watched her clean yesterday, but this was the one thing she didn’t fix. It was intentional; she didn’t want to see it. And my suspicions as to why…weren’t great.

I drove back to the farm down the road, walked into the barn, shed my clothes, and showered.

On my never-ending list of shit to do was putting in a real shower and bath. If Top ever wanted to get renters in here, they’d want the shower to at least have a curtain. Or something tiled with a sliding door. Anything was better than the hole in the ground that led to a drain—strangely reminiscent of the many black sites I’d been through.

The towel was around my waist as I opened the door and walked out, shower shoes clacking as I readied to climb up the ladder to my apartment when I let out a yelp. “What in the hell are you three doing here?”

Trinity, clad in jeans and her black riding leathers, Daria in her skinny jeans and stilettos, and Goose in his Hawaiian shirt and slicked-back long hair, all sat on my long red toolbox. With their legs crossed and hands on their knees, they posed like three of the worst Rockettes who ever existed.

They stared and batted their eyelashes.

Particularly disturbing, with Goose doing it, too.

“So…you spent the night, huh?” Daria asked, lifting one penciled brow.

“Who the hell told you that?” I held onto my towel for dear life, because I did not want to be bare-assed in front of this particular group.

“I did,” Goose said. “Or did you forget I was there while you insisted on playing nurse overnight?”

“And, of course, you ran straight to these two to tell them all about it.” Of-fucking-course. Fucking gossip.

“Don’t blame him,” Trinity said. “Goose is just playing daddy. Aren’t you, Goose?”

He gave her two pistol fingers.

“I heard he was so eager to take the little-girl-next-door home that he didn’t even make a security plan!” Daria clicked her tongue in reprimand. “I mean, how careless can you be?”

She put her hand over her heart in mock disdain.

“Imagine!” Trinity leaned forward so she could talk around Goose to her Ukrainian best friend. “His sweet little damsel gets attacked twice in a week, and he didn’t put security on her and her little children?”

Now she was mocking my accent.

“So you decide to ambush me while I’m in the shower?” I turned, tied off my towel, and started climbing up to my apartment. “I asked you to set the cameras, Taz! What else did you want me to do?”

“Please. We waited for you to finish showering. We’re not animals!” Trinity laughed.

“Fact!” Goose agreed.

And, of course, they followed me up one by one, like annoying lemmings.

I opened the hatch to my loft and went in, heading straight for the closet because I’d obviously have to change in there if I didn’t want them seeing my tackle out.

From inside the closet, I yelled out, “I didn’t leave her without security. I was with her all night, and I’d have been there if anything happened. Right now, Chief Riley is gonna stick with them. Make sure Melody’s okay.”

“That’s not security!” Daria replied through the door.

“Have you forgotten that you live with some of the most organized, lethal people in the country?” Trinity said. “And you chose a fireman as her protection?”

I scoffed. “Please, you think I didn’t see you guys watching her house from the wood line?”

I’d seen them when I’d grabbed the food from the deliverymen. Taz was good at concealing herself, but she had a distinctive shape. Tall and skinny, but with wide shoulders; she was built like an inverted triangle. I’d recognized her from her silhouette alone.