Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
With nothing else to do, I went to the freezer and pulled out my dirty little secret.
An ice cream sandwich.
Those things were the absolute bomb, and I hated myself for eating as many as I did.
Once I’d peeled the paper off, I started to pick up Davis’ toys, piling them in a bucket, and contemplating throwing the entire thing out in the dumpster.
He’d never notice.
My mother spoiled him.
If he wanted it, my mother got it for him.
He was her first grandbaby, of course, so wasn’t that how it was supposed to go?
She’d also been one of the contributing factors to why Davis was an asshole.
Sure, he was kind…now.
Before Aaron had spoken to him, he’d literally been the devil. I’d wondered if he was going to ever grow out of the little temper tantrums he threw.
He was nine, after all.
But after Aaron, he’d become a good kid.
He was still messy as hell, but he wasn’t purposefully argumentative any longer.
After taking the last bite of my ice cream sandwich, I contemplated getting another one when I started hearing sounds.
I ignored it for a long while. Turning on the radio, I focused on cleaning the pigsty of an apartment up.
I was on my second sweep of the apartment when the radio finally went silent, enabling me to hear the sounds that were still filling the apartment.
At first I thought it was the neighbors. They were in a band, and there were times I would hear them playing songs or their instruments.
Then the howling started to come into sharper focus, and I realized that there was no way that that sound belonged to the band next door.
No, it sounded like a dog!
But my neighbors didn’t have…
I flew into action, running to the front door and throwing the thing open so hard that it slammed roughly against the wall.
The moment I got the door open, the howling became even clearer.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“What is that sound?”
I turned to the neighbors, the ones in the band, and apologized.
“That’s Tank,” I explained. “He’s a Police K-9 that our neighbor is watching.”
He was watching him, right? Wouldn’t the police need their drug dog?
I never got the full story.
“Can’t you shut him up?” Cody asked.
I glared at him.
“You’re one to talk,” I snapped. “You play your guitar until ungodly hours in the morning, and you’re going to complain about a dog that’s barking at two in the afternoon on a Saturday?”
“Yes.” Cody nodded his head. “I am. I have a gig tonight. In two hours, actually.”
I growled.
“Go away and let me see if I can calm him down.”
“I have a key if you want to go in there,” Cody said.
My brows furrowed. “Why do you have a key?”
“The tenant before him was part of the band before he moved away. Used to feed his fish on the days he was out of town,” Cody explained.
I thought about it for a moment.
Surely going inside to comfort him would be better than talking to him through the flimsy door, right?
“Okay, give it to me. If I can’t get him to calm down through the door, I’ll go in and talk to him.”
The door was unlocked, but I didn’t want Cody to have a key to Aaron’s apartment.
“You’re acting like it’s a human. It’s a dog, woman,” Cody informed me.
I ignored his comment.
“Key?” I asked impatiently.
Cody disappeared in his apartment, leaving it open wide enough that I could see inside.
The place looked like a cesspit.
Old drink cups from every place he’d ever eaten at in the last month littered chairs, tables and the floors when there wasn’t enough space on the table. Trash was strewn around the floor, and I was fairly sure he had enough dirty laundry all over the place to fill all three of the huge ass washers and dryers that were downstairs for the tenants.
The howling started to get worse, and I could hear a loud banging following each howl, making my heart start to pound.
Cody went to the kitchen, which I could see was also in need of cleaning, and rummaged through what was likely his junk drawer before coming up with a key on a keychain that was more than likely a marijuana leaf, though I couldn’t confirm since I wasn’t exactly sure what a marijuana leaf looked like.
“Here,” he said, his gaze falling to my chest as he handed it over.
I took it, resisting the urge to cover myself.
I wasn’t dressed poorly.
In fact, I was in tight jeans that were definitely worn in, and a black camisole.
I was also wearing black socks with the Superman symbol dotted on them, but I was fairly sure it wasn’t my feet that Cody was focusing on.
“Thank you,” I told him. “Call…”
Before I could finish asking him to call 911 if he heard me screaming, he slammed the door, and I glared at it.