“Stoney!” she panted out and I pushed into her room to find a man attempting to climb out of her window.
I grabbed him by the nape of the neck and waistband of his jeans, pulling him backward.
“This asshole just tried to rape me,” she panted out.
“So you threw him out the window?” I asked.
“No, he decided to try and jump when he heard you break down the door.” She kicked him in his side. “However, I had no intention of letting him get away so easy.”
I could see a bruise forming on her cheek and her lip was split.
“That bitch—”
“Shut the fuck up.” I slammed my fist into his face. The force was enough to knock him out. Once I knew he wouldn’t wake up for a bit, I texted Sundance.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, grabbing a tissue and dabbing at her lip while she tried in vain to pull her torn T-shirt together over her chest.
I averted my eyes and focused on the unconscious man in front of me. “Monthly payment.”
She sighed. “You’re early.”
“Sundance said to deliver today, so I’m delivering today.”
“I wish you wouldn’t deliver at all.”
“Babe, it’s Greenie’s money.”
“It’s blood money,” she snapped, grabbing a clean T-shirt and pulling it on.
I pulled the envelope out and set it on her dresser. “I’ll let you take that up with Sundance. His call.”
She let out a quiet huff. “You should take it.”
“I’m not fuckin’ takin’ your money, Miranda.”
“Oh my god, Stoney, you were closer to him than I was.”
“Bullshit.”
Greenie and I had grown up together. We’d patched-in together and been closer than brothers. His death had rocked me to my core and sent me into a dark place for a time, but making sure his sister was taken care of had helped keep me going.
She sighed. “I release you of your duty.”
“Doesn’t work that way,” I said, pulling zip-ties out of my back pocket and securing the guy’s hands.
“You just happen to have zip-ties?”
“Yeah,” I said, standing.
“Stone—”
“Miranda!” Sundance bellowed.
“You called him?” she growled.
“Yeah, I called him. He’s gonna deal with this shithead.”
“I was handling it.”
