Page 24 of The Hardest Hit
“To keep tabs on us,” said Evan tiredly.
“To keep all of you safe. This is not safe!” This time, he found himself flapping his hands at Evan’s arm. “I cannot have this shit.”
Evan seemed to be chewing over Jackson’s words. “What about the others?” he asked.
“I won’t let anyone hurt them either.”
Evan eyed Jackson carefully. “Anyone? You promise?” Jackson knew what he was asking. Evan was asking Jackson to protect Aiden and, more specifically, Dominique from him.
“I promise,” said Jackson, looking him in the eye.
It was an easy promise because Jackson knew Evan wasn’t the monster that Evan believed himself to be. But Evan had taken years more work to believe that about himself. Evan had always taken too much of the family history as his own burden and now the storage unit had become a testament to that burden. The worst part was that Jackson didn’t know what to do about it.
10
Evan – Tuesday
By the time Evan left work on Tuesday, his head was pounding from too much staring at the computer screen. When he received the phone call from Last Stop Computing, he almost didn’t answer. But finally, he gathered up his energy and answered.
“This is Evan Deveraux,” he said as he picked up, hoping he sounded calm.
“This is Isaiah, from Last Stop Computing. I wanted to update you on the hard drives you dropped off.”
“Great,” said Evan, forcing a smile to his face so that it would come through in his voice.
“I picked up the equipment and I’ve got the hard drives up and running, but I can’t copy them over.”
“Why not?” asked Evan.
“They’re encrypted. It’s not the end of the line, but it’s going to take me another week or two.”
“Oh,” said Evan, trying to decide if he felt grateful for the reprieve or not. “Well, thanks for letting me know. Just give me a call when it’s done, I guess?”
“Yeah, no problem,” said Isaiah.
Evan hung up and walked up the stairs to his unit, only to find Martin, the condo board president knocking on his door.
“Evan! Good to see you! I have gotten four super weird messages from Isabelle Elliot. Something about that Glen guy in C8 being a serial rapist?”
“Yeah,” said Evan. “I was going to call you. He tried to roofie someone.”
“Are you sure?” asked Martin, looking shocked.
“I was standing right there and watched him do it,” said Evan sharply. If the disbelieving response he was getting was anything to judge by, he had no idea how women dealt with these situations. No wonder rape got under-reported. “I was going to call and see if there was anything we could do to get him evicted.”
“Well, gosh,” said Martin, in possibly the most fifties response to a rapist that Evan had ever heard. “I’m just so shocked. Um… Let me think.”
But a prolonged conversation didn’t lead to any solutions. Martin was sad to inform him that there was not much they could do… legally. But Martin and his partner were kings of the gossip chain, so at the very least, Evan was certain that the entire community would know about Glen’s rapist tendencies by the end of the week. Evan was not entirely happy with that, but it was the best he could do for the moment. He wondered if he could just buy Glen out of the building.
He had barely shut the door and taken off his coat when someone knocked on the door again. Evan rolled his eyes, deciding it was probably Martin with one additional thought. Evan didn’t know what his loquacious neighbor could possibly have left to say other than his usual pitches to get Evaninvolved, but Evan didn’t want to join the condo board. He didn’t want to participate in his community. He didn’t like groups and he had no intention of being wrangled into anything where he spent time with Isabelle Elliot. He yanked open the door intending to clarify his position with Martin once and for all.
Olivia stood in the hallway. She was carrying a bottle of wine and her purse and wearing a pair of jeans, boots, and a motorcycle cut jacket that only emphasized how adorably un-tough she looked.
“You said to clear my Tuesday,” she said.
One thought managed to elbow its way to the forefront, pushing out thoughts of Eleanor, Glen, and his family. He had won—Olivia was his.
He reached out, grabbed her by the jacket, and pulled her inside. Slamming the door shut behind her, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, claiming her, putting his mark on her lips. There was a thump as her purse hit the floor and she wound her arm around his neck. At least, he hoped it was her purse and not the wine. He finally realized that possibly, as a greeting, that his approach might be a tad aggressive and leaned back to get a look at her face.
