Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 76934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
The pawnshop might not mean much to anyone, but it meant a lot to me. And I protected it. Myself, of course. But also by paying the Costas for their protection. Was I getting a discount? Sure. Actually, Brio hadn’t wanted to take my money at all. I’d been insistent. Mostly because it seemed cool. Even if that extra cash in my pocket would have made life a little easier.
I glanced up at the camera in the vestibule near the door, hoping it caught whoever had messed with the gate.
But even as I lifted it, I noticed something else.
A busted door lock.
“Son of a bitch,” I snapped, making Tuna jump. “Come here,” I said, reaching down to scoop him up.
I knew the smart thing would have been to step back, get somewhere dry, then call Brio, Leo, or any of the other guys to handle this.
But the gate was down. Which meant that whoever had been inside was likely long gone.
I pushed open the door and sidestepped behind the counter, reaching for my gun as I set Tuna down on the floor. He immediately shook, splashing water everywhere.
I needed to take his coat off, but I wanted to make sure we were alone first.
“Stay here,” I whispered to him. As if he ever listened to any commands I made.
With that, I checked the gun and carefully steadied it between both hands as I crept down one aisle, then the next and next, until I was sure the front was clear and stepped into the back room.
Fear sliced down my spine as I spotted several overturned boxes, shelves that had been rummaged through, items knocked over or broken. But there were no men hiding in the shadows, no one waiting to jump out and attack me.
As I suspected, they were gone.
I exhaled hard as I made my way back out front, looking more closely at my shelves. Because if they messed around in the storage room, of course they would in the front.
They’d been more careful there. Some things were knocked over or placed in the wrong spots. But at least nothing seemed broken. And if anything was missing, it wasn’t something I immediately recognized.
With a sigh, I made my way back to the counter, bringing up my tablet and looking for the footage from the cameras.
Footage that wasn’t available.
“Oh, come on.”
I scrolled the footage clips back, back, back.
There was nothing for days, almost a week. Actually, exactly a week. But the camera also didn’t catch anyone messing with it. So maybe it just malfunctioned. It was ancient. And the wiring in the pawnshop had issues on and off.
It was just a coincidence.
But there was a tingle on the back of my neck as I pushed the tablet back under the counter.
I leaned down, removed Tuna’s rain slicker, and hung it to dry, then made my way back through the store to get myself a big cup of coffee.
To find the damn machine wouldn’t turn on.
It was going to be one of those days.
“Dammit, dammit, dammit!”
“You okay?”
“Jesus!”
I whipped toward the sound of the voice, my hand shooting toward the knife in the drainboard as my heart flew up into my throat.
Then there was Christopher, his hair a little damp, his hands raised in surrender.
“Sorry. I thought you would have heard the chime.”
“I was too busy knocking the coffee pot around.”
“Did it have it coming?”
“The bastard stopped working.”
“After only forty-five years? The nerve.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“You’re soaked.”
“It’s raining.”
“I know you live inside a movie set from the 1930s, but there’s this brilliant new invention out there. They call it an umbrella. It keeps the water off of you.”
“And that would be a great idea if one would fit in the alley leading to my apartment.”
“Leading to? I thought you lived above the pawnshop.”
“Been looking into me, huh?”
“Leo mentioned it.”
“Mmhmm.” Liar. “Well, in what I can only assume was greed, when the buildings around this one got built, they squeezed them right together, sealing off the door I used to have leading up to the second floor. Well, technically I still have the door. You just can’t open it anymore.”
“So how do you get upstairs?”
“The next street over. There’s a long, narrow alley. I pretty much scrape my shoulders just moving through it. No room for an umbrella.”
“I know the way this city inconveniences its residents shouldn’t surprise me, but damn.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, reaching for some paper towels to squeeze some of the water out of my hair. “Has it been a week already?”
I hadn’t been counting or anything. Or adding him to my board.
“Went fast,” he agreed.
“How has settling in been going?”
“Been invited to four different dinners already.”
I tamped down the jealousy that sprang up.
I would saw off a toe for an invite to certain members of this family’s tables. And not only because they were all annoyingly amazing cooks.