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And nearly slammed into a brick wall. Not a literal brick wall, but a large meaty blockade barring my path.
“Ah.” I startled and looked up from the white tank top on the man’s chest, to a face not at all obscured by a shaggy bowl cut.
The details didn’t compute.
Only one person in the building wore this ridiculous getup all winter long. Only one person scowled at me like he’d bash me in the head with a boulder given the chance.
But it looked like this guy had bathed in a kiddy pool of Nair. He didn’t even have any eyebrows. If he wasn’t the worst person I’d ever met, I might actually feel sorry for him.
I snorted. “Nice haircut.”
He sneered and took a step closer, too close, so he was right up in my personal space.“You.”
In my head, I told myself to stand firm and tall, because Maxim freaking Loughty had no power over me.
In practice though, he was a snarling mole rat twice my weight who’d sooner rip my arm off than give me a handshake.
Instinctively, my feet moved away from the threat.
Two steps back and I hit the wall of mailboxes.
I reached for the messenger bag that wasn’t slung over my shoulder. I’d never wished I’d had my bear spray more. But of course my messenger bag was upstairs, inside my apartment.
I could still use my phone, beat him in the face with it. The metal and glass brick to his nose would crack the delicate cartilage and give me enough time to run away.
“I’ve paid my rent, jerkhole,” I said. “I don’t know what your problem is, but you and me, we don’t have beef.”
“I know you did it,” he hissed, his New England accent hitting even heavier than usual. “I don’t know how you pulled it off, but I know it was you.”
“What was me? Whatever you think I did, I didn’t. I haven’t even been around.”
His nostrils flared like he was about to spit troll acid.
I refused to let him intimidate me. There was a fire in my gut. Every word he said, every glare he cast, was a drop of gasoline.
The flames building inside of me burned to be set free. I said, “Get out of my face or I’ll make you.”
My words sounded strong and sure in my ears. They hit with enough strength that anyone standing before me should clear out of the way.
Maxim didn’t move.
A sliver of doubt wormed its way through my composure. I needed to step this up a notch. I couldn’t let him win.
I said, “Watch yourself or it’ll bemelurking inyourapartment in the middle of the night waiting to strike.”
Something in his expression changed. His eyes narrowed, not quite squinting but focusing intently, as if trying to decipher a hidden message in my words.
A fleeting shadow of doubt crossed his face, momentary but unmistakable, uncertainty overtaking his bravado. And was that…could I possibly smell what I thought I smelled?
Fear?
Satisfaction washed over me.
He finally saw me for who I was, finally recognized the ferocious tiger lurking beneath my deceptively soft exterior. And what he saw worried him. It should. I was a fracking force of nature.
“You’re effing nuts.” He leaned his hairless body away from me, uncertainty softening his harsh expression.
“That’s right, I am. Don’t forget it,” I said, chuffed. “And don’t speak to me ever again. Don’t even look me in the eye, or I’ll make you regret it.”
