Chapter 237: Bare Apartment
*That’s the deal. I get a blowjob; you get your heat back. – John Erik*
“Chance.” Karan knocked on his door.
He looked up at the upset woman standing in the doorway. “What’s wrong?”
“Bear is sending Jax over. I need you to go take care of something.”
Yeah, something. He was pulling into the Tuscan Place apartments. If there was a worse place to live, he didn’t know of it. After parking his bike near a melting snow pile, he went up the icy steps outside the Italian inspired building. Why was there no salt on these steps?
On the landing he pulled out the keys that Karan gave him from his front jeans pocket. Two keys. An old Volvo key and a house key. Hell, even he had more keys on his keychain. Bike key, room key, house keys to his mother’s condo and siblings’ houses. Two keys. What woman only had two keys?
Chance approached the door only to discover that it was slightly open. He pulled the gun out from the back of his waist band. As soon as Karan told him where he was going, he pulled the lock box out of his desk and retrieved his gun. Gripping the handle of the Glock, he pushed open the teal door.
The man standing in the middle of the apartment made Chance think of a bad porn from the seventies. Mid-thirties with greasy hair and what could only be described as a porn mustache. He had a beer gut covered by a stained grey Steelers shirt. His ripped jeans were also stained, and the shoes were worn bare.
Steelers. Of all the teams, why the Steelers? In Chance’s opinion, it just made him a little worse.
Before the man looked up, Chance knew who it was. John Erik Custard. Owner of Tuscan Place. Rumored pimp. All around sleezeball.
John Erik looked up and smiled. “I should have known that the little slut would be with one of you.”
“And now you know. Leave her stuff and clear out.”
“There’s hardly anything here.” John Erik snorted. “I know you. Everyone around here knows you.”
“Everyone knows the Saints.” Chance replied.
The other man chuckled and tossed the few pieces of jewelry he held onto the fold out couch. “Not the Saints. You. Just take a Chance. You go through women faster than they go through clothes. Some men are hooked on the bottle or pills. But you, you’re addicted to women.”
“Yeah, but Rye is my fix. She’s mine and you’re pissing me off.” Chance warned making sure that the other man didn’t see how rattled he was.
Rattled by what the man said. And by how easily he claimed the irritating woman as his. But even more, by how right it felt to say she was his.
“When you’re done with her, send her to me. If she’s with you, she’s not as innocent as she acts.” John Erik headed for the door. “I’ve got some ‘friends’ that could really blow your mind.”
Chance watched him leave before closing and locking the door. He walked over and sat on the edge of the pull-out bed. For the third time in less than a month, he had been called out for his string of women.
Turning slightly, he looked at the jewelry on the cheap, thin mattress. A wedding set on a gold necklace with two heart charms, one had Daddy on it while the other had Mom.
Chance stood up and looked around the small room. Along with the hideously ugly olive-green couch was a pale pink four drawer dresser with unicorn and rainbow stickers. At the end of the couch was a metal A-Team folding table.
That was all the furniture. Everything in the room. Three pieces of furniture. And could you really call the folding table furniture?
The white walls were bare except for two pictures and a case holding a folded American flag. On the brass plate was Michael Ray Lynch and years indicating that he lived to be thirty-six.
One picture had a family of four. He picked out Rye from the gray patch in her hair, just like her dad. They were at the leaning tower of Pisa. Her dad, he assumed it was Michael Ray Lynch, appeared to be pushing the tower over. Ten-year-old Rye, and who he guessed to be her older sister and mother were on the other side holding it up. They all looked so happy.
The other picture told a different story. The parents were gone. The sister was gone. Rye wore a royal blue cap and gown in front of a sign declaring that “Jackson High and my family are proud of me!” The irony was not lost on him. Other seniors probably had pictures in front of the sign with families and everyone smiling proudly.
Rye was by herself. She looked tired. What should have been a proud and happy day in her life, was not. She was exhausted and already beaten down by life. Although she smiled, it did not reach her eyes.
Chance reached out and lightly touched the picture. She was alone. Had been alone for years. But now, whether she knew it or not, or even wanted it, she had a new family.
Pulling his phone out of his inside pocket on his cut, he called his brother. Werewolf was in Scotland, and Bear was stepping into his shoes for a few weeks at the security company. After hanging up with him, he called Toad.
There was no way Chance could handle having her at Pop’s Place. But there was no way that he could leave her here either. Even if he could fix the heater. Law was sent over with his pickup. Other than the few pieces of furniture, Chance almost felt like he could move her with a few trips on his bike.
Then he called the daycare, and that call did not go the way he wanted. Karan refused to be the go between.
“If you want her to move, you’re going to have to tell her.” Karan said over the phone.
“She doesn’t like me.” Chance complained. “Karan, you can convince her.”
“A woman who doesn’t like Chance? You must be losing your touch.”
He could picture her sitting in her office with a giant grin. Rubbing his forehead, he pleaded with her. “Please, Karan. She barely talks to me. She won’t listen to me.”
“You better figure it out. She’ll be leaving for the hospital in about twenty minutes.”
"I still have her keys."
"She's taking my car."
Then she had hung up on him. Law arrived and Chance climbed on his bike and headed for the daycare.
Chance knew what time it was. He knew when Rye left for the hospital. He knew when she came back every day. He knew what time she would arrive in the morning. He knew what time she left in the evening.
He refused to think about why he knew so much about her. Chance did not want to think about why he always made sure to be back from lunch at the same time as Rye. There was so much about that infuriating woman that haunted him.
It irritated him that she would smile easily with Karan and the other women. She would laugh at what Jax would say. She spoke with Werewolf and Bear like they were old friends.
But whenever Rye would look at Chance, it was with anger. Hatred. Contempt.
He was determined to show her that he was not the horrible person that she thought he was. But when she was around, he became that asshole that she saw. He insulted her. Took cheap shots.
He didn’t know what it was with this woman. She infuriated him. It was like she looked at him and saw all his flaws. He could hide them from others. But that woman laid them bare for the world to see.
