Page 35 of Ravaged For You

You are behind in your rent. After many letters to you, I have now decided to kick you out. Please find all your possessions outside the building. Do not contact me again.

Ignoring my Eastern European landlord’s scrawled handwriting, I crumble up the letter and throw it as far away from me as possible.

He can’t do this. Surely, he can’t. It must be illegal somehow.

Yeah, but I don’t know how it might be illegal. And I’m not exactly in a position to argue with some crazy landlord when everything I’ve ever owned is out in public for anyone to simply take. I just gotta stay here and… I don’t know.

I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do now.

I slide despondently down the condo wall until I’m sitting down in the dirt with my head in my hands, and I begin to cry.

So much for standing up for myself.

Everything seems pointless. I’ve probably lost my job today, I have no money at all, and I can’t even get into my own freaking condo. Where am I going to sleep tonight? What am I going to do with all my stuff out in the street? They won’t all fit into my tiny-ass car.

This has been, without a doubt, the worst day of my life. And I just know that things are going to get a hell of a lot more terrible.

Tears fall from my face as I just think about how hopeless everything has turned out to be. I gently sob as my ass cramps up from sitting on the hard ground.

The roar of a motorbike brings me screeching back to reality. A dark figure on a vintage bike zooms up alongside the curb, their face obscured by a black helmet. They’re clad all in leather. A real cool biker.

As far as I know, no one around here rides a motorbike that looks as ferocious – and as seemingly expensive – as that. He must be a real daredevil, whoever the hell he is.

Probably someone willing to steal my things.

I look up as the biker turns off the ignition and steps off their ride. They remove their helmet.

It’s the very last person I ever expected to see again.

Axel Stoll.

He dumps the helmet on his bike’s seat and starts walking around my pile of crap towards me.

I try to wipe the tears from my eyes on the back of my sleeve in a futile attempt to show face, but it’s clear Axel notices my sorry state.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask him, my voice breaking through my sobs.

He doesn’t say a word as he approaches. His sharp green eyes are the only thing that I see.

“I don’t want you here,” I tell him.

He stops then, just a few yards away. Next to my things. He ruffles his helmet hair, letting the dark wavy quiff of his to flop forward.

“I don’t want to be here either,” he says, pouting with those full lips of his. “But I am here for a reason.”

I blink.

“What for?”

“I’m here to persuade you, Maddie.”

I chortle. You’ve just got to laugh at the ridiculousness of all this. First Lucas and now Axel on a motorbike.

“I know exactly what you’re saying,” I reply curtly. “And I know what you want. The answer is no, just what I told Lucas earlier.”

Axel seems unfazed by my retort. He glances down at my things scattered around his feet. “What’s all this shit doing outside your condo?” he asks. “Is it yours?”

“Yep. It’s all my stuff.”