Lucy straightened, sniffed at my hand a few times, and finally squeezed herself between me and Everett, her ears folding back.
The door opened.
Lucy started growling.
The man’s eyes lifted to Everett’s and widened. “Ohfuck—” He tried to slam the door, but Everett stopped it with ease, Lucy snaking into the room, snarling.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” the guy whimpered, stumbling back a few steps, his hands up.
Everett sauntered in, and I was right behind him, shutting the door quickly behind me. “Do you have our money, Tommy?”
Tommy? God, what a shitty ass name. No character, no aesthetic. Not Tom or Thomas, butTommy. Not a name I would use in my books, that’s for sure.
“I was going to get it, I swear,” he tried, his legs hitting the back of his recliner.
Lucy snapped, her fur raised.
Tommy whimpered, trying to get away from the dog.
“That’s our dog,” Everett hummed tauntingly. “She hasn’t had her daily dose of meat yet today, and she’s been craving it. $10,000 Tommy,” he sang.
“I’ll get you the money, I promise,” he pleaded. “I lost my job, I didn’t know what to do.”
Everett’s smile turned wicked. “Oh, I don’t like liars, Tommy.”
His eyes widened. “Please, please, I’m sorry, I’ll get your money, I’m sorry.”
I glanced around the room, taking it in. Nice, sort of clean, a normal little apartment filled with normal things. Nothing spectacular, nothing extraordinary.
I walked over to his table, glancing over his things while Everett continued to intimidate him, Lucy’s snarling comforting. There was safety in this room. For me, at least.
Certainly not for Tommy.
I moved around some of his papers, his untouched mail. Who was Tommy? Why did he need the money? Nine months was a long time ago, and if had always had the same job, an unremarkable apartment, nothing new here, then where did the money go?
Gambling?
A secret family?
A porn addiction?
My fingers slowed when a red envelope came into view. Red was a loud color. One that screamed ‘open me, I hold secrets’.
But it was a felony to open other people’s mail.
Did that matter in this situation? I picked it up, studying it. No return address, something stiff inside.
I held it up and turned to Everett who seemed to be waiting patiently for me.
He gave me a single nod, Tommy’s eyes widening. “I have the money,” he gasped, turning back to Everett. “I have the money, it’s in the safe in my room. I have the money.”
I rose a brow, glancing to the envelope and back.
“Someone doesn’t want us opening his mail,” Everett hummed. “Good girl,” he praised, his eyes flicking to my lips and back.
That feeling that I had a smile just under the muscles around my lips filled me again, but it never quite got there.
“Good girl.”That was me. Because I had gotten curious, and I had looked rather than just standing around and watching.
