“No.” Spencer chimed in.
“Well, no. The deed thing is in her name.”
Good.
“In that case, you need to find another place to stay.”
“Nah, I’m good. I have all my stuff here, man.”
I swallowed to moisten my throat. “You will address me as ‘sir,’ and if you don’t leave, I will have you thrown back into whatever pit you came from.”
“This is shit, bro.”
“Shut up, Will!” Spencer hissed.
He rubbed his nose and glared at her. “What did you say?”
The guy had a temper, and he clearly had zero control of it.
I pulled my radio free from my belt and held it to my mouth. “Five-oh-four.”
“Five-oh-four, go ahead,” dispatch answered.
“Five-oh-four, start a unit to 699 Lakewood Road to assist me with a subject causing a disturbance.”
“Ten-four, five-oh-four.”
“You can’t do that!” His posture became aggressive. “What’d I do, bro?”
I stretched my neck to one side to try to relieve the anger that burned through me. The dispatch’s faint tone to another officer to pick up the request filled the silence around us while I chose my next words.
“You were asked to leave by the owner of the house. You failed to do that, so here I am, telling you to leave, or I will arrest you and return you to jail. You address me by ‘bro’ one more time, and I will personally see that you are bunked with a molester.” I’d stepped way over a line, but I didn’t give two shits. It would be my word over some strung-out junkie.
The kid grabbed his torn, dirty bag and stuck a finger in Spencer’s face. I jumped forward and pulled him away from her, and she moved to stand behind me. Will’s eyes went to slits.
“Well, well, so that’s the way it is, huh?” He seemed to think about it then dropped his hand. “We need to talk. Tomorrow. I’m…I’m sorry.” He was all over the map with his emotions toward Spencer before he flew out the door and into the darkness. Again, classic sign of a junkie.
Spencer quickly locked the door and pressed her forehead to the wood.
I hit my radio again. “Five-oh-four, cancel that request for backup.”
“Ten-four, five-oh-four.”
“Friend of yours?” I asked softly.
Her shoulders fell, and she covered her face. I peeled my jacket off and tossed it over the back of a chair.
“Hey.” I turned her to me and wrapped my arms around her body. I rubbed her back as she struggled to regain herself.
She let out a long, unsteady breath and leaned back to dry her eyes. “Not a friend. He’s my brother.”
Oh, shit.
“I guess the last name threw me off.” I tried to keep her talking as I followed her over to the couch, where she wrapped herself in a blanket on the far end. The fire felt nice, since the evening rain was coming in quickly, and everything felt cold and damp. This sure beat being at the lake, looking for clues.
“Will was eighteen when he and my father went toe to toe over him draining the family dry of money. Dad’d had enough and was setting some family ground rules. As you can guess, that didn’t go over so well. Later that day, Will went out and changed his name to disconnect himself from us.”
“Wow.” I tried to understand how that might have felt, but I was lost.
“What kind of restraining order can I get if I’ve already had three in the past?”
“You’ve had three against him already?”
She nodded.
“We can get another and have it extended.”
She nodded again while she sniffed gently. “I can’t believe he came here, and to think he was looking for Justin.”
“Who’s Justin?”
“My ex. We dated for three years.”
“What made you break up?”
“He wanted me to marry him, and I wanted to break up. He relied on me to make all the decisions but treated me like I was going to break. He wasn’t a man at all, just a mamma’s boy trapped in a man’s body.” She closed her eyes and covered her face. “Why am I sharing this with you?”
“Why not?” I questioned. “I need to understand.”
“Why?” She dropped her hands and stared at me.
“So I can understand the best way to protect you.” I held up a hand. “Don’t give me any crap about me treating you like you’ll break. I know you’re strong, but I’m not Justin. In fact, I’m the polar opposite, so you’re going to have to get used to it while I’m around.”
“I thought we were being careful.” Her tone wasn’t laced with any animosity. She was just asking.
“We are, but that doesn’t mean I can’t protect you.”
She gave a nod and didn’t push it.
“Do you know where your brother will end up staying tonight?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him, but my guess would be his dealer Jim Zacy on the other side of the freeway.”
“I know him,” I grunted. He was a frigging snake who worked for even bigger junkies in NYC.
I suddenly took in her outfit, and my gaze greedily roamed about. She was quickly becoming my undoing.
“Are you going out tonight?”
She placed her hand over her forehead as she cursed.
“Ugh, I had a blind date.”
Everything inside me twisted. “Oh?”
“My aunt thinks I need to move on.”
“How did it go?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know. I barely made it to the restaurant before I got an alert someone opened the window.” She pointed to the window that had sensors on it. In fact, all of them did. “I rushed home and found Will inside, rooting through my stuff.” She reached for her phone and sent off a quick text.
“How will your aunt be about it?”
“She’ll understand.”
“You two seem close.”
“Very.”
A doorbell rang, and I shot to my feet with my hand on my gun, ready to pull it if need be. Spencer stood just as the lights flickered from the storm.
“Shoot.” She raced over to her computer on a small table by the window that overlooked the lake. “Um, let me deal with this email.”
“That was for your email?” I chuckled. “That can be confusing.” I still felt uneasy about Will, so I headed for the door. “I’ll be right back, okay? I want to make sure he isn’t still out there.”
She turned with her laptop in her arms and looked worried. “Okay.”
The rain poured down in sheets as I jogged the perimeter of her house. The floodlights went on and exposed the shadows for what they were, empty spaces with no intruders.
Once I felt the place was clear, I unlocked my truck and grabbed my bag and hurried back inside.
Spencer had changed into another nightshirt that stopped mid-thigh. It wasn’t silk, but still just as sexy. I could come home to this a few times a week. When she looked up, she eyed my bag.
“I don’t feel right leaving you tonight. I’ll take the couch and will stay out of your way.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear with a light laugh. “You act like I don’t want you here.”