“Glad you didn’t do that, Ms. Jenkins. A man like that’s not worth the jail time.”
“Call me Dorthey,” she insisted. “Any man who gets that sweet girl outta this place is a friend of mine, so no need for the formality.”
I decided right then and there. “Well, you have my word, Dorthey, things are about to get a lot better around here. But just in case,” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a business card, “that’s got my cell on it. If I don’t keep my promise, feel free to call as often as you want to rake my ass over the coals.”
She took the card and studied it closely, just as she had with the three of us. My gut was telling me this woman didn’t miss much, if anything.
“Oh, you bet your fine, round behind I’ll be doing that.”
“Good. And can you tell me if you’ve noticed anything off with that guy in regards to Stella? Other than coming in when he shouldn’t?”
She stopped and thought for a second, tapping my card against her chin. “I heard some drilling through the walls a month or two back when Stella was out. I brushed it off, but now that I’m thinking about it, that’s odd.”
“Could he have been doing maintenance maybe?” Hunter hedged, but I knew from the tone of his voice, he was thinking the same thing I was. And that was confirmed when Dorthey spoke next.
“Seeing as that fat bastard’s too damn lazy to do any of the maintenance that needs to be done around here, I’m inclined to say no. I’ve had a leak in my bathroom for five months now. Put in more requests to have it fixed than I can count. Damn thing’s jacking up my water bill. But has he taken care of it? Hell no. So the sound of power tools coming from your girl’s apartment doesn’t make sense.”
A feeling of uneasiness started clawing its way up my throat. “Well, thanks for your help. And like I said, don’t hesitate to call.”
She tucked herself back in the safety of her apartment, turning what sounded like three different locks, and Bryce, Hunter, and I made our way into Stella’s place.
“What are you thinking?” Bryce asked as I inserted the key Stella had given me and shoved the thin door open.
“I’m thinking we need to check the place for cameras. Then I think we need to pay Dougie a little visit.”
I leaned against the hood of my truck with my arms folded over my chest, as I watched the local PD haul a bruised and bleeding Douglas Henderson out of the management office in cuffs. The bloody nose had been from Hunter, the swollen eye from Bryce. The ribs that I was certain were broken were curtesy of me. As was the fact he was still hunched over and limping, probably wishing he was able to cup his aching balls.
It still wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to rip the asshole’s head off. We found two fucking cameras on our initial sweep, two. One in a corner close to her bed so he could see every time she changed or when she slept, and the other in the goddamn bathroom. He hadn’t only been harassing my woman, he’d been fucking spying on her when she was at her most vulnerable. Without her consent or knowledge.
When we’d busted into his office earlier, we found he had cameras in at least five other units, all rented to young, single women. The sick fuck would spend his days sitting in his office and jerking off to these women instead of doing his fucking job. And when that wasn’t good enough, he broke into their homes and riffled through their stuff.
We had enough on him to guarantee his ass would be sitting in a jail cell for a year at the very least. After we’d finished working him over, we’d called the cops. They found boxes of recordings he kept of past tenants, along with panties and other personal, intimate items he’d stolen from those women.
“You ready to go, brother?” Bryce asked, clapping me on the shoulder as one of the uniforms shoved Henderson in the back of his cruiser. “I need to get my ass home so I can scrub my eyes.”
“Yeah,” I answered, dropping my arms and pushing off my truck. “Let’s get the hell out of here. But I need to make a stop before we head home.”
“Where to?”
I’d packed up the rest of Stella’s stuff, emptying out her closet and drawers. Anything that looked like it would hold the slightest bit of meaning, I’d packed up. She was never coming back here. “Need to buy Stella new underwear, ’cause I’m fucking burning all her old shit just in case that bastard touched any of it.”
As I climbed behind the wheel, the door to Dorthey’s apartment opened, and she stepped out, a shit-eating grin on her face. I threw her a salute before backing my truck out of the spot and getting the hell out of that god-forsaken place.
Twenty-Five
Stella
I nervously fluttered around the living room like a hummingbird whose sugar water had been laced with caffeine. Moving to the couch, I fluffed and re-fluffed the cushions, much to Rollie’s chagrin since he’d been trying to snooze on them.
The whole place was spotless, but that didn’t stop me from obsessively running my finger over pieces of furniture I’d already scoured with Pledge and a rag, looking for any stray molecules of dust. Dust bunnies were vicious bitches. Just when you thought you’d gotten them all, the second wave came rolling out from beneath the furniture.
“Stella, baby. Will you just relax? Everything’s going to be fine.”
That was easy for him to say. I was sure West’s family was totally normal. I’d only brought one other man home to meet my family. That had been Jason, and we all knew how well that had turned out.
Technically, West and I were having my family over to his place for dinner, and they’d already met, although briefly, but I was still a bundle of frayed nerves.
It had been a week since West moved me out of my old apartment without my knowledge—not that I was all that bothered after he told me what my smarmy landlord had done. I could still feel his beady, slimy little eyeballs on my skin. Blech—and when I’d casually mentioned missing my family a few days ago, West had taken it upon himself to invite my brood over to his place. It was the first time in years our regular weekly family dinner would happen somewhere other than my mom and dad’s house.
I’d missed the past couple thanks to being hurt and holed up in Compound Scott for safety purposes, and while I was nervous about West spending more than a handful of minutes in their company, I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t excited as hell to see them. A week and a half was too long. The Ryans were that tight.
“Did you remember to put away all the expensive stuff like I told you?” Okay, yes, I loved my family. That didn’t mean I’d turn a blind eye to their sticky fingers when it came to West. The man had done so much for me. I couldn’t let my family steal from him.
“No. I don’t have anything all that expensive.”
I put my hands on my hips and tried to look as stern as possible. “Anything over a hundred bucks needs to be locked in your room.”
He lifted his head from his task of chopping up an onion with surprising speed, his smile sending a bolt of lightning to my core. “As far as I’m concerned, if they manage to lift anything without me noticing, they deserve to keep it.”