CHAPTER
NINE
KODIAK
I’m almost to her apartment when my cell phone rings. I see it’s her number, and I don’t let her say anything when I answer.
“Sugar, I’m pissed. Your ass is red as soon as I see you.”
“Help me, Ry. Help. He’s in our apartment. I don’t know how he got in,” she cries into the phone, and I hear Oly sobbing in the background.
“I’m almost there.” I push the accelerator to the floor.
I look at Icarus in the passenger seat. He jumped in to help keep me calm when I found her. He pulls out his phone and sends a text, then gives me a nod. He’ll have all the guys there as soon as possible to hold me back.
“Who is in the apartment, Marnie?” I need to get information out of her, just in case they disappear before I get there.
I take the turn onto her road, the back end of my truck sliding out, and I power through it. With four-wheel drive engaged and my tires pointed where I want, I know the truck will go exactly where I need it to.
“It’s Jim. He was standing in my hallway from the bedroom. Oh my God! He said he wished he put a camera in my bathroom.” She starts to sob.
“Baby, I’m on your road.”
I pull into the complex parking lot and head for her building. In all these months, she hasn’t invited me to her place, and I’ve never been inside.
“How did he get past her?” Icarus asks. I know he’s been inside her apartment. “That hallway is past her living room. He had to come in through a window or some other way.”
Icarus opens the center console and pulls out my gun. He hands it to me, and I slip it into the back of my tuxedo pants. I’m so glad I listened to that voice telling me she was in danger and headed straight here.
“Open the fucking door.” I hear a male voice over the line.
Marnie and Oly scream.
I slam the truck into park and sprint up the stairs, two at a time. Planting my feet, I swing my leg and kick the door at the jam. It crumples, just like I knew it would. Chintzy ass locks and cheap doors.
I see the man banging on what must be a bedroom door. He spins around the moment I crash through.
“You’re a dead man.”
I raise my gun. He tries to take off down the hall. I pray the bullet doesn’t go through him as I fire a shot into his ass, giving it a lot of flesh to go through and his hip bone. He drops to the floor, screaming in pain.
“Shut him up,” I order Icarus as I move to the bedroom.
I push on the door, but it won’t budge.
“Sugar, it’s me.”
Something scrapes along the floor on the other side, then the door opens. I step in and take both my girls into my arms.
“I’m never letting you go again.”
Marnie clings to me, sobbing, and Oly holds on just as tight.
Icarus walks up to take Oly so I can get a full grip on my girl and calm her down. Jim, the creepy neighbor, moans from the floor, saying he’s going to press charges. I’m about to shoot him right then and there when Wing and Sparky walk in.
“PD is on their way. Heard it over the radio,” Wing says
“Fuck. I need to take care of him.”
