Page 5 of Double Daddies
Lifting the rock from the ground—a feat easier said than done considering how weak I am from not eating for nearly aweek save for the fast food the trucker bought for me—I manage to toss it at a window.
The rock hits the glass and falls harmlessly to the ground.
Not even a crack.
Seriously. Could anybody have worse luck than me right now?
Maybe I just need to throw it harder. Shaking out my arms, I pick the rock back up and chuck it at the window again, a little harder this time.
And I'm rewarded with the sound of glass cracking.
Finally.
It takes three more times for the glass to shatter. Relief nearly drives me to my knees as a sob rises in my throat. Pulling my shirt off, I wrap it around my hand to clear the shards away so I can wiggle through. A few of those pieces get lodged in my skin but I can pick them out later. For now, I just want to get inside.
It’s warm in the building, too warm for it to not be heated. Closing my eyes, I will back the fresh tears of relief as I make my way toward a door with gold letters nailed to the front of it.
1C
An apartment building, maybe? If it is, I’ll need to be careful. Moving slowly, doing my best to keep my steps light and silent, I creep through the corridors until I find what looks like a lobby.
Okay, definitely an apartment building of some kind.
The elevator seems too risky, so I head for the stairs, easing the door open as quietly as I can before sneaking up the stairs like a thief. I suppose I am, in a way, though all I’m really “stealing” is a place to crash for the night.
Every floor is the same. Three apartments on each side of the hallway, with a small living area at the end of the hall. It almost looks like what I imagine a college dorm might look like, except for the small number of rooms and the wet bar in each livingarea. Colleges may turn a blind eye to drinking but I doubt they’d go so far as to enable the behavior by installing an actual bar in the dorms.
The building goes on like that for five floors. At the sixth, I’m thwarted by a door that doesn’t budge. There’s a little black box with a number pad off to the side of the door, telling me it’s locked and locked up tight.
So no comfy beds for me, apparently. But at least it’s better than sleeping outside.
Dropping my heavy backpack to the ground, I pull out the old, worn blanket my grandmother made for me before she died. It’s the only thing anyone in my family ever gave me that was worth a damn, and I’ve clung tight to it for nearly ten years now. While it isn’t particularly warm, it’s a comfort I haven’t been willing to risk while sleeping outside.
Propping my head on the backpack like a pillow, I pull grandma’s blanket over my shoulders.
And sleep.
Ezra
Alert: Break in reported in Building A, first floor window, west side of building.
“Hmm.”
Byron looks up from his own phone, where he’s been busy hashing out the details of yet another business merger he’s overseeing from a distance. “What? What’s wrong?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” My boy can be a bit excitable, so I don’t want to alarm him. But he does have a right to know what’s going on at our school. Especially when whatever is happeningis happening in our building. “The alarm system is reporting a break-in at Building A. It could be a false alarm.”
Rolling his eyes, Byron gives me a withering look. “In the three years we’ve had that system up and running, how many false alarms have we had?”
“A few.” Granted, they were all within the first few months of having set the system up, but it’s notimpossible.
Unfortunately, Byron isn’t buying it for a second. “Call Thomas, get him over to the building to check on it. Then call?—”
Reaching up, I lay my hand on the back of his neck, giving it a gentle warning squeeze. “Thomas is already on his way, and the police are on standby. And you are well on your way to a week of no orgasms if you continue barking orders at me.”
“Sorry, Sir.” Blowing out a breath, he runs a shaky hand over his hair. “It’s just that I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to our girls.”
My annoyance fades and with my hand still clamped on the back of his neck, I draw him to me for a long, slow kiss. “Nothing will happen to them. We pay a lot of money every month to ensure nothing happens to them. Just breathe, love.”
