It was nearly seven at night by the time Alice dragged herself up the shallow concrete steps leading to her apartment building. But before she could insert the key into the lock, the security door suddenly flew open. She barely had time to step out of the way before Martin Garland, her landlord, jettisoned out onto the front step.
For Martin Garland to jettison anywhere was a miracle. The man clearly did not believe in counting calories or living anything close to a healthy lifestyle. Though he was probably around her age, he was almost as wide as he was tall, and it wasn’t unusual to see him in the same T-shirt for days on end. Luckily, her landlord had changed clothes since she’d paid her rent the day before, though his green Legend of Zelda T-shirt already had a faint sweat stain around the neck.
“Uh, Martin? Are you okay?”
“Alice.” His breathing was more labored than she’d ever heard it, and she genuinely worried he might be having some sort of attack when she saw beads of sweat on his brow beneath his mop of curly brown hair. “I’m sorry. All right? I’m really, really sorry. Please tell him that I said I’m sorry.”
She stared at him. “Who?”
“Also, I want you to know that I hold you in the highest esteem. Swear to God, I do.”
Um, what? “Okay. Thanks.”
“I know you’re not a deadbeat like so many other tenants around here who fall behind on their rent. Honestly, those slackers give me their sob stories in the hope of taking advantage of my youth and generous nature. They think I’m a pushover.”
It would take a bulldozer to push Martin over. “I’m sure you’re an expert on what a slacker is, Martin.”
“Yeah, I have to deal with them almost every day. I even missed an online gaming tournament because I had to evict a whole family of them in Building C. Which makes my point, Alice. As the landlord of this property, I’ve got a job to do. If I don’t do it, my parents—the people who own this property—will put me out on the street. That’s why I came off as such a hard-ass with you. But you have to know that I respect you. I swear.”
“Ohhh-kay.” Not sure what to make of that, she edged around his considerable girth to sneak in through the door and into the building’s communal vestibule. “Thanks for sharing that with me, Martin. I’m just going to go—”
“Wait! Wait, please.” Her landlord rummaged around in the pockets of his gray sweatpants before thrusting something white at her. “Take it. Just take it, and tell him we’re square, all right? I was out of line, insisting you needed to pay next month’s rent as well.”
“Uh…”
“And that late fee? I totally made that up. You were right about that. Demanding that from you was against your Renter’s Agreement and not a policy of this property. I was just power-tripping. Totally admit it. There’s no excuse for treating you that way since you’ve always been the perfect tenant. It won’t happen again, you have my word. Just tell him you and I are square now, okay?”
Alice’s gaze bounced from her landlord to what he held out to her. It was a plain white envelope that looked like it had been crumpled and manhandled more than a few times by orange-tinted fingers. Delicately she took it from him and nodded. “Sure. Have a good night.”
“You, too. And, uh, just make sure he knows I apologized to you in person. That was part of the deal.”
“Right. Thanks, Martin.” Closing a fist around the envelope, Alice steamed up to her apartment, not stopping until she had the door locked behind her. Then she slapped the entryway light switch on and ripped the envelope open. Several bills fell out, and after she counted it all, she released the breath she’d been unconsciously holding.
Yep. It was all there.
Next month’s rent, plus the late fee Martin had insisted she had to pay.
Her landlord had given it all back to her. Down to the last dime.
Why?
But she knew. Of course she knew.
Loki.
Leaning against the wall by the door, she slid down until she was on the floor, money clutched in one hand while the other fished the phone out of her pocket. When she heard Loki’s growly voice, something warm moved through her and made her eyes sting.
“You enjoy living up to your name, don’t you?” Alice said without preamble, staring at the wad of money in her hand. “Loki, the god of mischief. What kind of mischief have you been pulling to make miracles happen in my life?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he said, and somewhere in the background she thought she heard something like the crack of a cue ball hitting other billiard balls. “All I know is that I have a bone to pick with you.”
She blinked. “With me? What’d I do?”
“You left before I could get a chance to catch up with you. That’s not going to happen again, by the way.”
“Oh, yeah? Why is that?”
“Because from now on, you’re going to stay put in the House’s breakroom until I’m done slinging ink for the day. I got my work hours changed so I can give you a ride home.”
That sounded nice, considering she’d had to walk half a mile from the nearest train platform to her apartment. But damn it all, a woman had to stand by her principles. “I know we just met, so you probably don’t know that I don’t do well with orders. You might want to keep that in mind.”
“I’m not worried. How’d your first day at the House go?”
“Just peachy. I’m being evaluated by a military-trained shrink whose favorite hobby is breaking prisoners of war for funsies. Also, the girl behind the gift shop’s counter chews gum so loudly I’m thinking of bringing in noise-canceling headphones just to stay sane. On top of that, I came home to find my landlord had miraculously turned into a benevolent saint who couldn’t wait to give me back the money he’d extorted from me.”
“Really? How ‘bout that. Were you paid back in full?”
“Yes.”
“And did he apologize for being a motherfucking prick?”
“Profusely.”
“Good.”
“He wanted me to tell you about his apology, by the way. Apparently that was part of the deal you got out of him. The question is, how did you do that, Loki?”
“I asked nicely.”
At least he didn’t insult her intelligence by denying it. “By asking nicely, did you do anything that could get you, or me, arrested? I just need to know if I should dress for an overnight raid. What does one wear for an overnight raid, anyway? I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself by overdressing.”
“You’re free and clear, Stems, so quit your fussing.” Again the sound of billiard balls clacking against each other sounded. She thought she heard a slosh of liquid, and she could just imagine him taking a swig from a bottle of beer. “A couple brothers and I went over to introduce ourselves to your landlord during my lunch break, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” Good grief, he’d taken a freaking posse with him.
“I did check first to see if you were available for lunch, but you were busy going over how to fill out incident reports or whatever with Scout and Luke. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I thought I’d drop in and see what your landlord was like. Nice enough guy, but his crib’s a fucking pigsty. Don’t know what to think of a grown man who spends all day sitting on his ass playing video games and not cleaning up after himself.”