Page 12 of Wreck Me

“Seriously. This can’t be legal,” Ginny spat. “There are dog and noise ordinances.”

“Oh, you want me to follow rules when you won’t? Do the rules apply to everyone but you?”

“You lost the rule you were supposed to learn in kindergarten – finders keepers. Also known as you snooze, you lose.”

The man had the audacity to laugh. “I don’t think you’ll be snoozing much anymore.”

“Seriously, you can’t just do this.”

“Ah, but I can. I can play this song—whose message speaks tomyheart and soul—as loud as I want. After you call in a noise ordinance, I can still play it for sixteen glorious hours a day and just slightly softer for the remaining eight. By then it will be so burned into your brain, it’ll be ringing in your head all night long anyway. These dogs howl at night too. At least, that’s what the shelters warned me about when I asked for their least adoptable dogs.” Nico honked his car horn lightly, and it sent the dogs into a renewed frenzy. “But this will all go away, and you’ll be a rich woman if you just agree to do the right thing and leave. Buy yourself a real fixer-upper instead of stealing my tear-downer.”

The blood climbed into Ginny’s face till her ears pounded with it. Her only wish was to sprint down her sidewalk, rip every bumper and mirror off that man’s car and reattach them, using unnecessary degrees of force, to various parts of his body. Forget Roman antiquities—he’d be a deconstructionist modern art Picasso by the time she was done with him! She would title it, “The Audacity of Man.” She might have even traded the house for that opportunity. But as he was protected by squatter-eating dogs, she was stuck inside.

Suddenly, she burned hot as a volcano. Ripping open her robe and tossing it aside, she half-climbed, half-jumped awkwardly over the booth until she stood inside the bay window, which was just tall enough for her to fit. She pushed her tank top- and shorts-clad body against the cool glass, arms outstretched. She knew she must look deranged, but she didn’t care. She preferred it. He needed to know what he was dealingwith. Ginny Heppner didn’t just not give up easily—she didn’t give upat all.

“You will not win,” she screamed into the phone. “You will NOT!”

Maniacal laughter assaulted her in reply as she watched his car drive off down the street.

She continued to stand prostrate against the glass like a squished windshield bug for a few moments more.

Bark, bark, bark! Twang, twang, twang! Bark, bark, bark!

Peeling herself off the glass, she lowered herself and sat on the booth bench she had re-built herself from reclaimed wood and a scrounged collection of miscellaneous screws.

It was just music.

It was just dogs.

Prisoners of war had survived much worse for years and years at a time.

Therealproblem was the constant knowledge thatthat man, the most aggravating man the universe had ever made the mistake of assembling, was the one doing this to her. With the entirety of her frazzled heart, she made herself a promise: he would NOT win.

She pressed her right palm against her ear to dim the song and the barking while, with her left, she called Sadie.

It was time for a little personal shopping.

6

Nico patted the short stack of legal papers on the front passenger seat of his car. “Yep. I’ve got them,” he said to his brother over the phone as he drove back to the house. “Had them drawn up by Monique’s colleague. Once the squatter signs, she’s got twenty-four hours to vacate.”

Out of nowhere, a sheet of newspaper flattened itself against his windshield, blocking his view. Like the rest of the city, Placard Street was experiencing a pummeling by California’s famous Santa Ana winds. For the past two days, dry desert air had whipped down from the mountain passes in strong, irregular gusts. On the highway, it had whistled past his closed windows and made the car shimmy. Here on Placard, it sent trash airborne.

He tapped the brakes and the newspaper fell away. “And then it’ll be safe to get the listing up.”

“You think two days and nights was enough to soften her?” Vince said.

Nico laughed lightly. “She acts all tough, but she’s a fragile little flower. She was practically crucifying herself against the kitchen window by the time I drove away, and she’d probablyonly heard the song seven times. By now, she’s heard it over sevenhundredtimes.” A sense of certainty welled up inside him, and he laughed with more conviction. “She’s gonna beg me to sign these papers.”

“I guess the guy I found to install the speakers in the middle of the night did a good job.”

“Excellent job. Thanks for handling that so well.”

“And what will you do with the dogs?”

Nico tapped the top of the steering wheel, thinking. “It wouldn’t be right to dump them back at their shelters, so I’m making calls to dog rescues. I’m hoping to find a rescue that can take them all together in exchange for a very generous donation.”

“Aw, that’s nice, man,” Vince said.

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