Nico
I am happy to be home. I have been gone for four days chasing a skip, and I thought it would have taken me a little longer to catch up with the guy, but luckily for me, he was half moron. I’m shutting off my car in front of my townhouse when my phone rings. I look at the caller ID hopefully; I know it’s not going to be sweet Sophie, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want it to be. Kenton’s number flashes on the screen. I’m sure he has another case for me, but right now, that’s not happening. I’m going to have a beer and go to bed, and then tomorrow, I’m going over to the local middle school.
“Yeah,” I answer, pulling my bag out of the backseat.
“Didn’t take you long to catch Johnson.”
“That’s because he’s an idiot,” I tell him. “He hid out at his mom’s house. You would think he would’ve learned his lesson after the last two times I’ve gone after him. Most of the time I was gone was spent on the road getting there and then getting home. When are you going to get a private jet so I don’t have to put miles on my car?”
“Stop bitching. You made fifteen hundred dollars in two days.”
He isn’t wrong. Between selling my part of the construction business back to my brothers and chasing after skips, I am sitting on a nice stack of cash.
“So why are you calling?”
“What? I can’t just call to see how my cousin’s doing?”
“Do I sound stupid to you?”
“All right, all right… The thing is, I need you to help me out with something.”
“What?” I shake my head, making my way up to my door.
“A friend of mine from Vegas called. He has a girl that needs a place to crash for a little while.”
“And what does that have to do with me?”
“Can she stay with you until Cassie gets the rest of her shit out of my house?”
“Hell no!” I bellow as I shove my keys into the lock.
The second the door opens, Daisy starts going wild. I scoop her up in one hand as she begins licking my chin and any other piece of me she can get to.
“You still have that dog?” He laughs, hearing Daisy through the phone.
“Yes,” I growl. All the f**kers in my life think it’s funny I own a little fur-ball for a dog. I rescued Daisy from a flophouse. She was so small at the time that she could fit in the palm of my hand. I was going to give her to one of my family members, but I couldn’t do it. After a week of having her with me, I grew attached to her.
“Look, man, I just need your help this one time.”
“No, you should have put that bitch’s shit out months ago,” I remind him. I hated his ex; she was one of those women who tried to lead you around by your dick.
“Don’t make it seem like I haven’t wanted to. She swore she was coming this weekend to get all her stuff, but until then, I don’t have room for this chick who’s coming.”
“Who is she?” I ask curiously.
“You know my friend Link who works as a bouncer in Vegas?”
“Yeah. He works at a strip club, right?”
“Yeah. Well, I guess this stripper saw some shit go down. He called and asked me to keep an eye out for her until it’s safe for her to go home.”
“Wow, your own personal stripper living with you.”
“She could live with you first.”
“I’m seeing someone, so you’re gonna have to find something else to do with this chick or toss your ex’s shit outside. Or burn it behind your house for all I care.”
“You’re seeing someone?” I can hear the disbelief in his voice. I’m not surprised—I don’t date; I hook up and go home.
“I just got home. I don’t have time for this right now. Call your ex and tell her she needs to come get her stuff tomorrow or you’re burning it. And honestly, if she doesn’t show up, I say we have a bonfire with that shit.”
“Look, you and I both know she isn’t gonna come get her crap. She thinks, if it’s here, she has a reason to come back.”
“So put it in your car, take it to her house, and put it on her lawn.”
“I would have done that, but I need a truck and haven’t had time.”
“She’s been out for almost a year. How the hell haven’t you had time?”
“Okay, I’ve had time. I just haven’t wanted to deal with all the crying that comes along with seeing her.”
“Aw, you cry when you see her?”
“Tears of joy that she’s out of my life, f**ker.”
I laugh along with him as I set Daisy on the ground and grab a beer out of the fridge, popping the top and taking a swig. “If she doesn’t come by this weekend to get her stuff, let me know and I’ll go with you to take it to her. I’m sure we can borrow Cash’s truck.”
“Sounds good. So who’s this chick you’re seeing? Is it the redhead you were talking to at the bar the other night?”
“No, and you don’t know her.” Shit, I don’t even know her.
All I know about her is that she smells like apples and cinnamon and she has the softest brown hair I’ve ever seen or felt, brown eyes that darken to almost black when she’s kissed, and skin the color of milk that turns pink when she’s nervous or embarrassed.
“Did you hear me?”
“What?” I growl, annoyed that he interrupted my daydream of beautiful Sophie.