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Junior was going to help.
Willa was going to help.
I had more help than I knew what to do with.
“It feels important to me,” I told him. “To put some of my windfall into it.”
“I get that,” he agreed, nodding. “I’m sure you guys will put it to good use.”
“Yeah,” I said, mind already swimming with the possibilities. New living room furniture? An extra freezer for when we found things on a good sale? Fix the front railings before someone got hurt? And, of course, like Willa suggested, putting some into an emergency fund. “Thanks, Junior. You know, for everything.”
“That’s the job,” he said, but then leaned down a little like he was telling me a secret. “I’d have done it for you for free,” he said. “But don’t tell your man that,” he added with a smirk before turning and making his way out.
It was another hour before the front door was opening.
Then there he was.
With… Barry?
And… boxes?
“I don’t know what to ask first,” I admitted out loud. “Where have you been? Why are you with Barry? Or what’s in the boxes?”
“We were cleaning out your place,” Barry declared. “He… asked me to help.”
Something about the way Barry said asked made me think it was more of a demand.
“You were… what?” I asked, gaze sliding to Voss as he put his boxes down, then placed Barry’s boxes on top.
“Go get the rest,” he demanded. And Barry, seemingly a little awestruck, was quick to rush off and do just that.
“What is going on?”
“Knew you weren’t planning on going back there,” he said, coming closer, dropping down next to me.
“Well… no,” I agreed. “But I hadn’t really figured out the next step yet.” With all the money from Junior, though, I had more options than I normally would have.
“The next step we figure out together. But your lease is up in two days, and I figured it was stupid to waste money on a place that’s going to be sitting empty anyway.”
“Wait… how do you even know all this?”
“Went to your place to get you some more of your shit. Clothes, blankets, you know… comfort shit. Ran into Barry who said the landlord was talking to him and mentioned your lease was almost up. All spiraled from there.”
“You could have told me,” I said, shaking my head. “I was worried about you all day, thinking you were off… having, you know, like a breakdown all alone.”
“A breakdown?” he asked, rolling his eyes.
“Well, you know, a manly breakdown,” I clarified, getting a little snorting laugh out of him.
“Right,” he said. “No, babe. No breakdowns.”
“But you killed people,” I whispered, as if anyone was listening.
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “But it wasn’t the first time. Likely won’t be the last. And some people deserve killing. I sleep just fine at night doing what needs to be done,” he told me.
He was right.
Of course he was.
There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that Ben and Jim would do it again. They’d done it before.
The world was a better place without them.
And, if I were being honest, if I’d had a gun back there in that abandoned pool house, I would have used it. Without hesitation or a second thought.
I would have taken their lives.
And I probably would have slept fine about it too.
“Okay. I get that,” I agreed. “What I don’t get is you making decisions for me and then being gone all day without a word,” I told him. “I mean, not to be a nag, but…”
To that, he paused, thinking that through.
“I can see that,” he admitted, nodding. “Wasn’t looking at it from your side,” he went on. “I’m not used to having someone wonder where I’ve been. Think it’s gonna take some getting used to.”
“I get that,” I agreed. “And the whole… moving me out of my apartment thing?”
“Well, I figured we could look into something better. You know, with a yard for Nitro. A place for Irwin that isn’t our bedroom.”
“That’s a lot of we and our,” I said.
His face went a little guarded then.
“Was I wrong in assuming that we were both on the same page about shit?”
“No,” I said, reaching out to grab his hand, gnarly knuckles and all. “But I would like to be consulted about decisions that impact me too. That said, Nitro will love a yard. Irwin will be indifferent. But I would really like to have a place where I can walk about pantless again.”
“Fuck,” he hissed, eyes going warm. “I’ll call a real estate agent tomorrow,” he declared. “Get that ball rolling. If my woman wants to walk around without pants, I gotta give her that opportunity.”
“You just want to have easy access anytime you want.”
“Damn right,” he agreed, reaching for me, and pulling me up on his lap. “So what do you think? We doing this?” he asked.
