Beard Up(12)

Nodding to him, I carefully closed the door to Sienna's room and walked towards the door.

He saw me coming and waited patiently for me to get there. The moment I opened the door, he handed me a stack of newspapers and a dozen eggs.

"Hi, Lynn," I said to my other neighbor as I opened the door.

Lynn was a good guy.

He looked like a harmless man, but I saw the way he watched things. He moved and acted exactly like Tunnel had when we'd go out to eat, or run to the supermarket.

Always watchful. He could see a weapon on someone from yards away. Hell, I wasn't even sure how Tunnel had known some of the things he'd known. He hadn't worked in law enforcement for long before he'd passed. A half a year at most once he'd graduated, but that was enough to get a whole lot of experience. It was like cop years aged like dog years. It was as if he was in their heads somehow, and this man, Lynn, was the exact same way.

"Hey, darlin'," he said. "You going somewhere?"

I looked at my car that was packed to the brim with our stuff.

"Yes," I didn't see a point in lying to him. He was a nice guy, after all, and he had taken good care of me and Sienna after Tunnel had passed away.


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Tunnel would have liked my neighbor, although he hadn't lived here long enough to have met Tunnel. Lynn had moved in days after Tunnel's passing.

I hadn't had to mow my own lawn since Tunnel had done it last over six years ago, thanks to this man standing in front of me and the rest of Tunnel's club.

"Are you selling your house?" He looked at my car, and then back at the house beyond where I was standing.

I stepped back and gestured for him to come in.

He did, and took a look around, almost as if he were assessing if there were any threats inside.

"I'm not selling my house, no," I shook my head. "I have a new nursing contract in Uncertain, Texas and I'm going there for a few weeks. It's really good money, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity since Sienna's starting a different school next year."

He frowned.

"Why so fast?" he asked. "Are you taking your cat?"

I nodded, and felt my phone buzz on the kitchen counter.

"I am, and it does seem fast, yes. But I've been thinking about it for a while. Now that Sienna's off for summer, it's the best possible time to go," I added, picking my phone up and glancing at the display.

Unknown (9:28 PM): Who is that in your house?

I threw the phone down on the counter. He must have seen Lynn come into the kitchen. He may have moved, but he was still watching me.

"Problem?" Lynn asked.

I shook my head. "No, just work," I lied. "They weren't happy that I was leaving."

That, at least, was the truth. My boss was stunned that I was leaving. Since I'd started working there when I turned twenty-one, I'd worked on that same floor. Then, when all the shit with Josh had started to go down, I gave my two weeks' notice. Unfortunately, I'd done the two weeks' notice by taking vacation for two weeks, which, legally, they couldn't stop me from doing.

I had over four hundred hours built up of sick leave and vacation time, as well as extended illness time that they had to pay me according to company policy, and they were not happy to be losing me.

I'd thought about just telling them I needed a month or two off, but when I'd broached that subject with my boss' boss, I was not only told no, but I was told hell no. So, with no other choice, I'd quit.

"I'm sure. It's a surprise to me, too, and we talk nearly every day … at least when that other guy isn't over anyways."

I immediately felt like shit about that. That was truer than true.

Lynn was older than me. I'd guess late thirties, mid-forties, and he'd been married when I'd met him. But soon after he'd moved in, the wife had moved out, and I'd watched it all go down from my front porch in disbelief. 

She'd been caught cheating, and he'd kicked her out of their house. She'd begged and pleaded, and then she became angry, going as far as to hit his car with a metal sprinkler to show her displeasure at being caught.

Then the cops had arrived-Loki and Trance, two members of the Dixie Wardens MC, Benton, Louisiana chapter-and had taken her away in cuffs.

After that, Lynn had cleaned out her shit, set it on the curb, and I'd watched as the movers came to pick it up the next day. She was never to be seen again, and Lynn had established his place in our fucked up neighborhood.

We had an ex-preacher, who no longer liked to preach, directly across from me. Lynn, who I assumed was a cop at some point but never had it confirmed, lived next to him. An ex-con who had been convicted of killing his wife-though I'd looked the story up when he'd first moved in, and apparently his wife had been about to run him over with her car at the time. Though, he'd had no clue that it was his wife, at first. He had just reacted to a car that was coming at him in a parking garage, and he had nowhere to go since he had a pillar on one side, and a concrete guardrail on the other.