Page 7 of Ride Hard
Throwing one last look back, the man was gone, but my heart didn’t stop thundering in my chest. Slamming the fob against the sensor, I was granted access. Pushing through the door, I closed it behind me and heaved a sigh of relief. Safe and sound fornow.
Hightailing it up the stairwell, I reached the fifth floor and pushed out into the hallway. The sound of televisions turned up to a million and the odd bark of a dog echoed through the concrete as I made my way toward my apartment. Rounding the corner, I came to a screeching halt when I saw Mrs. Adelstein at herdoor.
She was wearing her usual getup comprised of a fluffy pink dressing gown and matching slippers. Tonight, she had purple rollers in her graying hair, and her wrinkly hand was clutching her dressing gown together over herchest.
Mrs. Adelstein was a selective agoraphobic. She didn’t like to go outside the apartment block but reveled in the business of everyone who lived in it. I was sure she had notebooks filled with surveillance on all her neighbors, including me. All that was missing was her tinfoilhat.
“It’s late,” she said when she sawme.
The only way was past her, so I sidled by her door and flashed her a fakesmile.
“I was studying,” Isaid.
“Oh, that’s right. It’sMonday.”
She didn’t seem to be interested in chatting, so knowing what was good for me, I kept walking. Fishing out my keys, I let them fall from between my fingers and shoved the first one into thedeadlock.
“Sloane,” she called out, signaling she’d had anafterthought.
Rolling my eyes, I plastered on a smile before I turned around. “Yes?”
“There was someone knocking at your doorearlier.”
“Oh?” I froze, the smile twitching on my face. I didn’t want to move again, but if I hadto…
“He was loud. Next time, tell him to knock a littlesofter.”
“Who was he?” I asked, a bad feeling crawling up and down myspine.
“A mean looking man,” she went on. “Leather jacket, boots. He knocked and knocked, and I told him to fuck off. You better not be mixed up in the drugs. A smart girl like you?” She clucked her tongue and shuffled back into her apartment. The door slammed closed, and I jumped as the sound echoed down the concretehallway.
Leather jacket and big boots? Was it Chaser or someoneelse?
Undoing the second lock, I slipped into my apartment and made sure all the locks were in place before latching the chain. Turning on all the lights, I flipped the sofa back and reached inside the lining. My fingers brushed past springs and stuffing before they rubbed up against what I was lookingfor.
Taking out the nine-millimeter handgun and the box of matching bullets, I sat on the floor and loaded the magazine, listening to the sounds of the apartment block. A kid screamed, television noise roared through the wall, a door slammed, muffled voices were arguing, and a telephonerang.
If Chaser was right and someone was coming for me because of my asshat father, then I would be ready. And if Chaser came back… Well, I wasn’t sure what I would do if he turned up again. He hadn’t gotten the message last night if Mrs. Agoraphobic down the hall was handing in herreport.
I just wanted to bealone.
I’d put all this shit behind me years ago. I was getting on with life, and even though things weren’t amazing, they were better than they ever could’ve been living in that shithole. Out here, in the real world, I was a human being. Back there, at the Fortitude MC compound, I was a commodity. A fucking bargaining chip with a bleak future as a trophy wife to a petty druglord.
Yvette wanted me to take Chaser the hottie out for a ride? If she onlyknew.
If I kept refusing him and his crazy offer of protection, there was no doubt in my mind he would try to take me by force. When the moment came, I would have to beready.
No one gained their freedom by hiding their head in thesand.
Slamming the full magazine into the handgrip of the gun, I made sure the safety was on and glanced at the door. I would put a bullet right in Chaser’s pretty boy face before he took meanywhere.
He could count onit.
