Even the Score(54)

She giggled and pulled her hand back as I turned right toward the garage instead of left toward my house.

We pulled into the garage, and I looped around the wall to our parking spaces, my headlights shining right on Dani’s car.

“What the fuck?” she yelled, sitting up straight. Before I’d even shifted the car into park, we were both scrambling to get out.

Her car was parked just where we’d left it hours before, except now it was sporting four slashed tires.

“Holy shit!” Dani whimpered, shoving her hands into her hair as she stood and stared at her car. “I thought he was done. I thought he was over this. This is crazy!” Her voice cracked as she started to lose it.

“Hey, come here.” I wrapped my arms around her and started to pull her close to my chest, but she resisted.

“No, I’m fine.” She pulled back coldly and cleared her throat. “I can’t believe he did this. What a fucking psycho!”

“Dani, this has gone too far. You know what we need to do,” I said sternly, not really caring if she fought me anymore.

“I know, just wait a minute, okay? Let me take all this in for a second.” She sighed loudly and walked around to the driver’s side of the car, where she froze, staring down at it. “Andy. Call the police. Call them right now.”

Rushing next to her, I followed her eyes to the side of the car, where in thick, black marker it read HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BITCH!

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed 911, suddenly aware that he might not be gone and we might not be alone in that garage. With the phone still at my ear, I ran to my trunk and grabbed a flashlight. As I explained to the operator where we were and what had happened, I walked around, shining the light in every possible nook and cranny he could’ve still been hiding in. After I’d checked the whole level, I sprinted back to Dani, who wasn’t even attempting to hold the tears back anymore.

“He broke my window. And stole the lens.” She sniffed, tears dripping down her cheeks as she handed me the empty yellow gift bag.

“Let’s leave everything in the car so they can take fingerprints, okay?” I pulled my sleeve down over my hand as I took the bag from her and set it back on the seat.

She stood perfectly still, hugging herself and blinking out more tears as she looked down at her car.

“The police are on the way,” I said quietly, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. Thankfully, she didn’t push me away again; instead she turned in toward my chest and cried softly, breaking my heart piece by piece.

A siren in the distance grew louder and louder, and all I could think was that she’d just had the worst birthday ever.





CHAPTER 20

Danicka

The police were there for about an hour taking a detailed report, fingerprinting every inch of the outside of the car as well as most of the inside, and calling the building managers to tell them they needed the video camera footage from that whole evening. None of it made me feel any better, but it did sober me up real quick.

As the tow truck was pulling away with my car on the back of it, Andy sighed loudly from behind me. “I’m so sorry about your birthday, Dani.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I shrugged, feeling numb inside.

“It does matter.” He took a step closer, and I could feel him just behind me.

I crossed my arms and took a quick stride forward. “Please don’t.”

“Hey, come here,” he said softly as he turned me to face him. He hooked his finger under my chin and lifted it so I would look up at him. It was hard to look into his comforting blue eyes and not collapse against his chest in a heap of sadness and frustration, but that wasn’t my style. He’d already seen more emotion from me than most people had. “What can I do to help?”

I turned my head, freeing my chin from his finger, and looked down toward the ground, taking a long, shaky breath. “I’m exhausted. I just want to go home.”

“Do you want to go to my house?” he asked carefully.

My face snapped back up to his, and I narrowed my eyes. “Are you kidding me? You still want to get laid after all this?” I bit out harshly.

His eyebrows pulled in tightly, and he shook his head quickly. “No. No. That’s not what I meant at all. I just thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be alone tonight. I have a couple of guest rooms. We could order a pizza and talk.”

“No thanks,” I fired back, turning away to avoid eye contact before I had another breakdown. “Would you just drive me home, please?”

A loud sigh filled the space between us. “Of course,” he muttered faintly. He sounded hurt, and though I felt bad, I needed to keep my distance.