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I scoff, annoyed by her bringing the cat into it. “Don’t bring root vegetable into this.”
Her blue eyes dance in a familiar way that I haven’t seen since we got here. “Don’t lie,” she quips back, as she covers Potato’s ears. “And don’t call him that. Where the fuck did you even get that one from?”
I smirk, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
She clicks her tongue. “You googled it, didn’t you?”
Of course I would never waste my time looking up alternative ways to say potato when I started running out of common options. What kind of idiot would do that? She laughs, the sound easing something in my chest that has only gotten tighter since that phone call. “You did! You’re such a dick.” Okay, fine. Guilty. But it made her laugh and smile when she was refusing to give any sign of emotion. It was well worth it to see her eyes shine in amusement.
Officer Derek comes back out into the hallway. “You ladies can come in now and check to see if there’s anything missing.” We all jump in surprise at the deep timbre of his voice. For just a second I had forgotten why we were here. Why we are talking about the word whore. Why Torryn needed the push to smile. Reality is a cruel bitch and she just came crashing back into our little bubble.
The previous tension descends on us once more and we follow the girls into their trashed apartment. It’s even worse than what I expected.
“While it may seem like chaos,” Officer Derek explains, “this job was actually quite methodical. Whoever did this, wanted to cause the most damage in the most efficient way they could. They went room by room and destroyed whatever they could without drawing too much attention.”
Everywhere my eyes rove over the scene in front of me, I spot more and more damage. With each step, Torryn withdraws further and further into herself.
“The only rooms that were untouched were the bedroom and bathroom on the left side of the house, like you mentioned, Torryn. Though it did appear someone rummaged through it. Most likely to determine the occupant of the room.”
Torryn mutters something under her breath, but waves me and Isla off when we turn to look at her.
The kitchen probably took the least of the damage other than Isla’s portion of the house. None of their glassware is broken. Maybe this was what Officer Derek meant about destruction without causing attention to be pulled this way. Even in the Wild West, people would be concerned if a bunch of glass shattered. Food, however, doesn’t make any noise when you dump it on the floor and counters. All that food we had just bought for their place. Such a waste.
“Are they free to take stuff with us?” I ask as Torryn and Isla walk around the kitchen and living room areas to see if they can spot anything missing.
The officer nods. “We’re done grabbing anything we’ll need. The apartment won’t be locked down, but with that door, they shouldn’t stay here tonight.”
Or ever again. “We’re gonna move them into our house,” Wells answers. “We have extra room.”
The officer nods once again. “That’s good. Whoever is doing this really has a bone to pick with Torryn.” He sighs, rubbing his hand over his chin. “Her room is even worse. Not sure how much she’ll really be able to salvage from there. Poor thing. She’s rough around the edges, but she’s a good girl. You boys keep an eye out for her for me, will ya?”
“Of course, sir,” Wells answers when I don’t. I’m still stuck on his comment about Torryn’s rough edges. She doesn’t have rough edges, people just see what she wants them to see. They don’t pay close enough attention to realize how soft she really is. I mean shit, the girl was ready to face a potential intruder withnothing more than her grit because she was worried about her cat.
He walks away to talk to the girls one last time and I turn to Wells. “Let’s clean up the kitchen? He said they’re done in here.”
His eyes follow Isla as she walks around the room, whispering with Torryn and answering the officer’s questions as they go. “Good idea,” he responds, tearing his eyes away from her to glance back at the kitchen, wincing when he sees the mess it is.
“It’ll be one less thing for them to worry about,” I say in an attempt to make the job not seem as bad. But it’s foul no matter how you look at it.
“Better us than them,” he agrees begrudgingly.
twenty
I’M NOT ASKING
My entire body aches and each thought has to dredge through the thick sludge of my mind before it can even begin to truly form by the time we are done at the apartment. I take one last look around my room and feel a presence behind me.
“It’s going to be okay, Tor. We’ll figure it out.” I close my eyes and let Baylor’s warmth soak into me without even touching him. I’m surprised he’s still here even hours later. I’m surprised he even showed up, let alone Beau and James as well.
“It’ll be fine,” I agree. My room was next to hopeless. Almost nothing worth even attempting to pack as almost everything was torn to shreds. My eyes catch on the scraps of photos scattered over the mess like confetti and I force myself to push them out of my mind. “At least I took a page out of your book,” I tease, trying to find something lighthearted to hang on to.
His hands land on my shoulders. The first time he’s touched me since they got here. His fingers begin to work into the taut muscles, rubbing the knots of them in a way that almost makes me moan. “Hmm,” he hums. “In what way?”
“Been living out of your truck,” I joke, but it is partially true. Almost all of my textbooks and schoolwork were in histruck tonight. I’ve made a habit of leaving it in there with how often I’ve been tutoring. It’s actually a huge relief for my most expensive items to have been safe and out of the apartment.
“You got any clothes in there?” he asks, still rubbing my shoulders. I shake my head. Maybe I should have taken a little more after him.
Every article of clothing was taken out of my closet and drawers and shredded beyond anything that could ever be considered wearable. Even my dirty clothes were cut up into pieces and left in a pile on the floor. “I did have a load of my laundry in the dryer that survived though.”
