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“I’ll go with you.” She raises her eyebrows at me and I say, “I called off this morning. I thought maybe we could run some errands together. Maybe stop by the store and get some things for the apartment.”
She smiles and says, “Sounds good to me.” She eats more of the food, then as I go to get up, she says, “You know, I never did get my things from my apartment.”
I frown at her, but then I say, “Okay. I’ll stop through and get them for you.”
“Jack…”
“You’re not going alone.”
She sighs. “Okay…but you don’t know what I need exactly, so let me go with you at least. You can protect me all you want.”
I chuckle a little and say, “Yeah, okay. You know, I have every right to be overprotective here.”
“I know,” she says smartly.
“All right, well, let me go get Martin ready for school and we’ll go.”
Martin’s dropped off and we’re on our way to run errands. We decide to go to the apartment first and get it over with. As soon as we pull up, I go into sentry mode. I’m looking up and down the street for anybody that looks out of place.
“Jack?” she says, drawing my attention. I turn and smile at her, patting her reassuringly on the leg.
“Yes?”
“Let’s just go in and out. I really don’t want to be here longer than I have to.”
“Roger that,” I say. With that said, she opens the car door and I follow her to her front door.
In the light of day, the apartment building looks more run down than I remember the last time I was here. The dirty linoleum in the halls and the faded wallpaper. I don’t think anyone’s done any real maintenance here in years.
As requested, we go into her apartment and gather everything she needs quickly. I mostly stand guard as she moves around the apartment, looking at the door. Waiting for this homeless dude to try it again.
We finish in minutes and on the way out, we lock the door behind us. I’m seriously considering coming back with a moving van. I never want her to step inside this place again. We’re on the way to the Uber when she freezes.
“Sarah,” I call her. She doesn’t reply.
I look to see where she’s staring, and I see a dark-haired man in a scruffy jacket and jeans.
“It’s... It’s him,” she stammers. “I…I can’t believe it.”
“He’s the guy?” I ask her. “The one that mugged you.”
Timidly, as if she’s afraid that he’ll see her, she nods slowly. That’s all I need. I stalk over to the man. He’s in the middle of a conversation with one of his friends so he doesn’t see me coming until I’ve got him by the collar.
“Hey, man! What—Ow!” I punch him in the face, hard enough to take him off his feet. He tumbles to the dirt and slides a few feet, his nose bleeding.
“The fuck are you doing, man?”
I’m on him. I grab him again and start punching. Once, twice, three times until I feel somebody grabbing me.
“Stop! Jack! That’s enough!”
“Hey, man,” the man yelled through his blood-filled mouth. “I don’t even know you! What the hell?”
“You know her, right?” I shout, pointing to Sarah. “You followed her to her apartment and took her purse.”
“Hey, it-it was just a purse—”“You hit her over the head, you psycho!” I’m lunging at him again, but someone’s got my arm.
“Apologize to her,” I snarl. “Do it, or I’ll come back here and kick your ass again.”
