Page 23 of Protect Me
“Get to her place now.” Pregnancy made her breathless all the time, but now she was doubly so. I straightened, alarmed by the panic in her voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can you drive?”
“Yes,” I drawled, glancing at my knee. “I’ve been driving myself to physical therapy three times a week for the last week.”
“Listen, Vik, I can’t tell you what’s going on but I have a bad feeling. There’s a guy that . . . the story isn’t mine to tell, okay? Please go over there. Get your eyeballs on her. She’s not answering my calls and I need to know she’s okay. Then,” she said in a firm tone that reminded me of Amma, “you tell her to get on that phone and call me, because if it’s what I suspect, there’s going to be no forgiveness for hiding it from me!”
Her voice had climbed to a shrill note. I already had my car keys in hand and one crutch under my arm. The fact that this could be a terrible idea occurred to me, but I pushed that thought away and kept going.
No.
It had been awhile since I’d done anything big for someone else. I’d been a quiet, selfish bastard for well over a year now. Maybe, on some level, I needed to do this as much as Katelyn might need me.
“I’m on it, Vini. I’ll call you after I arrive.”
ChapterSeven
KATELYN
“Evicted?”
The word fell off my lips in an astonished voice. I blinked, stared at the paper, then back to Teddy, my landlord. He shifted uncomfortably, porch boards creaking. He wore a wind jacket and a cowboy hat pulled low over his white hair and bulbous nose. A nose I very much wanted to punch right now.
“Sorry, kiddo.” He sucked on his front teeth. “Got a grandkid that needs a place to stay. They’ll be here in a week.”
“You’re kidding.”
He shrugged. “That’s the way of it.”
“There are laws against this! You have to give me a reasonable notice. Two weeks, at the very least. I can’t find anywhere inPinevillein a week.”
His gaze hardened into flint and it took all my willpower not to step back. “Show me where in our contract,” he muttered, “that it states such a thing.”
My breath caught.
He had me there.
Desperate situations drove people to stupider things than a hastily sketched agreement to pay him cheap rent every month. Teddy certainly had stepped in when I needed the help last winter and allowed me to rent out an apartment above his garage that he and his charming wife rarely used.
They lived in the attached house, the entrance to my apartment was in a well-lit backyard near a Jacuzzi they never used, and I didn’t fear for my life in this quiet neighborhood, far off the beaten path. No apartments admitting people in and out that I didn’t know. No neighbors to be concerned over.
No dark, poorly lit parking lots.
The rules were so easy to abide by here.
I closed my eyes and pulled in a deep breath. Until this moment, Teddy and I had a great rapport. I paid on the first of every month, and his wife, Betty, brought me Sunday dinners. The thought of losing that stability left a knot in my throat. I swallowed it back.
“Okay.” I licked my lips. “I’ll . . . figure something out.”
His expression melted a little. His wife was a sweetheart, but he’d always been rough around the edges. No doubt he came to deliver the news because she wouldn’t have been able to kick me out.
“I’m sorry, Katelyn. They really need the place and we can’t tell them no.”
I nodded. In fact, I understood. Felt a pang of jealousy for their loved-grandchild that had built-in support systems. But I didn’t have the words to say it, just nodded and closed the door.
The paper trembled when I pressed my back to the door and slid down. A calendar near the door, sprinkled with cartoons that always made me laugh, caught my eyes. Vini had given it to me at Christmas.So you think of me every day and laugh,she’d said.
