There were two other people there but the judge was running late so I didn't get the chance to tell him about taking it easy on my woman from now on. I signed some shit for her colleagues who knew me from TV and wouldn't stop going on and on about my last fight. Now they were looking at my girl in wonder. I bet they were wondering how she'd landed me, little did they know, I was the one who'd lucked out there.
I looked the place over and when I was sure it was safe I kissed her goodbye so I could get on with the business of moving her shit to my place. "Call me if you need me. You took all that shit out your purse like I told you."
"Leave my purse alone you lunatic, now get out of here, I have to get to work."
"Fine, I'll see you for lunch."
I left her and headed straight for her place after picking up some boxes and swinging by to but her the biggest can of pepper spray I could find. Who'd have thought when I touched down three days ago that this was in my future? If I was like her I'd probably put the brakes on out of fear of it being too soon, but patience has never been my forte.
I kept my senses open and looked around as I climbed out the car, but there was no one around. Upstairs in her place I did a walk through. I could see where the cops had dusted for prints and was glad she wouldn't be coming back here. She didn't need this shit in her life.
"What the fuck does one little girl need with all these shoes?" I guess I knew where most of my paycheck was gonna go. I started throwing shit into boxes. I got as much as would hold in my truck with plans to come get the rest another time. It took me five trips to the truck before I headed down to the maintenance office.
I knocked on the door and the lone man in there looked away from the TV he had mounted on the wall with some morning news special streaming by. "Can I help you? We don't have any vacancies at this time, take a card and check back in a couple months." He barely spared me a glance as he went back to what he was doing.
"Not so fast, the condo in building four just opened up." I stood just inside the door and looked around at the not so neat room.
"The hell you say." He put on his glasses and rifled through some folders in his desk drawer. "Nope, it says right here that that place is rented through the summer." He threw it back in the desk dismissively.
I didn't really want to tell him too much about what was going on, but knew I might have to share a little. I tried to remind myself that this guy had a job to do and he wasn't really trying to be the asshole that he appeared to be. I took another stab at it while holding onto my patience.
"The occupant is getting married and won't be needing the place any longer." That ought to do it, what the fuck do I know about rentals, I've never had to rent anything but a hotel room in my life.
"That's not the way it works boy, she has to pay her way out or stay out the time, otherwise we take her to court."
"Listen, there's something else going on here, there was a break-in at her place the other night." He looks part human the thought of a young woman alone in that situation ought to get his protective juices flowing. It wasn't the money I could easily pay that no problem. It was the damn principle of the thing.
"That's for the police to handle."
This motherfucker is outta his mind. "It was a little more than that, she's being stalked and the person knows how to get to her here." By now I was beyond my give a fuck meter. I guess it's just me but I don't think anyone should have to be locked into anything if their fucking life is in danger.
The situation that had started out so smoothly had fast become anything but, maybe because of his brash attitude, or the way he seemed ready to brush off anything I said. Is this what she would've had to face if she'd come to him seeking help?
Not one fucking dime for this hump, and if he fucks with her I'll string him up by his balls. No wonder she was so gun shy when it comes to men. If all she had to deal with were stalkers and assholes, it was a miracle she hung around.
He opened his mouth to say some dumb shit to me but I was already over his ass. "You give me a hard time on this, I will call every local news reporter and tell them that a young woman's life is in danger and all you can think about is the bottom line. Then I'm gonna come back here and knock the fuck outta you for being stupid."
Now I was in his face so he'd know this wasn't a little five foot two woman he was dealing with but a grown ass man who had no problem wringing his fucking neck. "Who did you say you were again?"
"The name's Hunter, Wyatt Hunter."
"The Wyatt Hunter?" His eyes opened wide and he looked me up and down with a whole new attitude. He came around the shabby desk with his hand outstretched. Now he was a fan girl at a One Direction concert.
"Oh man this is so-I'm your biggest fan." I just glared at him and ignored the hand, not my kind of people this one. "I'll take care of it, you tell your friend she has nothing to worry about."
I waited for him to call somebody about the paperwork and gave him the number to fax it to since I had no intention on seeing his face again lest I break it.
With that squared away I called Jace for an update but he had fuckall to tell me so I rode around a little trying to catch sight of this guy. I only met him that one time but was sure I'd know him anywhere.
That was a lesson in futility, so I headed to the house to drop off her shit and answer ma's hundred and one questions. "I don't like it not one bit." She ranted her way around the kitchen lighting into me like I'd given the asshole lessons in how to be a fuckwit.
"I know ma, we're taking care of it."
"Well how are you supposed to do that if you don't even know where he is?"
"Jace is working on it." She mumbled some shit under her breath but stopped harassing me. I called Traci to see how she was doing before hitting the home gym for some much needed relief.
It was almost time for lunch by the time I was done so I snuck out the house to go get her before ma got her hooks into me again.
I took her to eat at one of my favorite places and was reminded of what a circus my life is. In a small town like ours everybody pretty much knows each other unless you're an outsider. So I spent most of the hour fielding questions and accepting congratulations.
"And who's this?" Joe the owner of the bistro came over to our table when the hoopla died down. I took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles. "This is my fiancée." She almost fell out the damn chair but I squeezed her hand to keep her quiet.
Joe's is like the local gossip mill. I'm not stupid I chose this place for a reason. I was locking her in. By the time we left everyone knew she was mine and I was pretty sure they would all look out for her from now on. She was hard to miss, five-two and a head full of red hair.
My eyes were glued to her ass on the way out and she caught me. I couldn't resist patting that plump flesh as we crossed the door. "Quit it Wyatt, people are watching."
"So? It's mine isn't it? I can touch it if I want." I sounded like a two-year old brat but whatever.
Traci
Oh he's good. He thinks I don't know what he's up to but I'm onto him. I would tell him that he could stop now, that I am well and truly caught but it was fun watching him try to corner me. His fiancée, the man has no shame. The butterflies in my stomach weren't as busy as they were just this morning. I'd had some time to think while away from him, and now instead of the sickening fear of what could go wrong, I felt a new joy for things to come.
Since I'd always locked myself away from the whole relationship game I had nothing to measure this up against, though I was pretty sure this wasn't the norm, but it looked like it was ours. His mom had whispered to me quite giddily that she'd never seen him react this way to anyone, and she too seemed pretty sure that this was it. If I wasn't mistaken she was already picking out wedding patterns. The whole family is nuts.
True to his word he hung around my work place for the rest of the afternoon after having some kind of powwow behind closed doors with the judge. I was more than a little surprised when the man I knew to be a brusque no nonsense semi tyrant called me into his office afterwards.