Rebelonging (Unbelonging, Book 2) (22 page)

"Because according to our agency, the lease
ends tomorrow." He craned his neck as if trying to peer into the
house.

Lease? So the Parkers didn't own the house?
This had to be some kind of mistake. But all these so-called
mistakes were adding up. And in spite of Mrs. Parker's assurances,
I'd be incredibly naïve to believe this was all some weird
coincidence.

Looking at the man, I had no idea what to
say. So I said nothing.

"Did you decide to renew?" he asked.

Oh, screw it. "I wouldn't know," I said,
"because I'm not Mrs. Parker."

"Oh." His brow wrinkled. "Is she home?"

"Not at the moment."

"How about Mr. Parker?"

"Nope."

He reached into the lapel of his coat and
handed me a business card. I gave it a quick glance. It identified
him as Chad Flemming of Executive Properties.

"Will you please have one of them call me the
moment they return?" he said.

"Oh, it'll be before that," I assured him
with a smile that felt stiff enough to crack my face.

When that shiny red sports car disappeared
down the road a couple minutes later, I tried to call Mrs. Parker
again. Somehow, I was incredibly unsurprised when it went straight
to voicemail.

Distraught by this latest weirdness, it was
impossible to fall back asleep. So instead, I spent the next few
hours alternating between anger and worry. Something very wrong was
going on here, and I had no idea what to do about it.

The more I thought about it, the more I
decided that Mrs. Parker's explanation was a steaming pile of crap.
It was pretty obvious that no money was coming, at least not in the
near future, and I couldn’t afford to support things on my own.

If this kept up, I'd be feeding Chucky out of
my own money. Forget buying groceries for myself.

And Lawton was back in town. We were spending
the day together. It was every girl's dream. My dream. But my
house-sitting nightmare kept intruding.

A little before noon, I got dressed in casual
clothes and grabbed Chucky's leash. With Chucky lunging ahead of
me, I trudged to Lawton's house feeling so weighed down, I could
hardly move.

If I were someone like Brittney, I'd probably
just ask Lawton for some money and be done with it. To be all
nicey-nice about it, we'd probably call it a loan. But we'd both
knew the truth.

And then, what exactly would he be paying me
for? Sex? Companionship? Obviously, he could get all of that for
free. But I didn't want to be one of
those
girls, a
dependent, a hanger-on, a groupie. I wanted to be something
different.

When I reached Lawton's front door, I rang
the bell and waited. Chucky was already going berserk, straining at
his leash and pawing at the door like he couldn't wait another
minute to get inside. I knew the feeling.

Although I'd never want to burden Lawton with
my troubles, the thought of feeling his strong arms around me was
almost enough to keep me going.

But when a minute went by, and he still
hadn't answered the door, I looked around, feeling awkward as hell.
It was such a contrast from that one night, when he'd answered
before I'd even touched the bell. Had the newness worn off? So
soon?

I gave it another minute, and then
reluctantly rang the bell again. A couple minutes later, Lawton
finally answered. But instead of a face filled with anticipation,
what I saw was so different and foreign, that I took a small step
backward.

Oblivious to Lawton's demeanor, Chucky
bounded forward. Whining and yipping for attention, he pawed at
Lawton legs. With a half-smile, Lawton crouched down to ruffle
Chucky's fur.

"Hey Buddy," he said. "I know what
you
want." Standing, he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled
out a silvery bag. He shook it at Chucky, who went absolutely nuts.
With a low chuckle, Lawton pulled out a handful of treats and let
Chucky devour them down to his heart's content.

And then, as he crouched down with Chucky, he
looked up. Our eyes met.

"I'm glad you're here." he said.

Funny, he didn't sound glad. And he didn't
look glad either.

"Is something wrong?" I said.

He stood and brushed Chucky's crumbs off his
jeans. "Nope."

I waited for him to elaborate. He didn't.

I glanced back toward the street. "Still up
for a walk?" I looked around. "Or maybe you wanna do it another
day?" I tried to sound like this was no big deal, even though the
thought of trudging away alone was almost more than I could bear.
"I mean, if this is a bad time for you—"

"It's not. Wanna come in?"

In spite of his words, the tension was
radiating off him in waves. As for me, I'd been tense long before
I'd even touched that doorbell. I looked down and spotted Chucky
quivering with excitement. The way it looked, we all had some
energy to work off.

"I'd like to come in," I said. "But do you
care if we walk first?"

"Nope." Lawton held out his hand, palm
up.

I looked down. My eyebrows furrowed.

Lawton broke the silence. "Leash?" His mouth
tightened. "Unless you want to take him."

"Oh," I stammered. "Sorry." I placed the
leash in his open palm. Our fingers touched. His hand was warm and
solid, but oddly unresponsive.

It was a brisk fall day with leaves
skittering around our feet. By unspoken agreement, we headed out on
the usual route.

"So," he said, "you got your call last night,
huh?"

"What call?"

"Never mind," he said. "Forget it."

"Oh," I said as realization dawned. "You mean
that business call?"

"Yeah," he said in a cold, flat voice. "The
business call."

I glanced at his profile. There it was again,
that studiously neutral expression.

"You don't believe me?" I said.

"I never said that."

"But you're not saying you do, either."

He shrugged. "What do you want me to
say?"

I was
so
not in the mood for this. "I
don't want you to say anything," I said. "Not if you're gonna be
like that."

"Alright. If that's what you want." And then,
true to his word, he didn't say a single word for the next two
blocks.

I gave him a sideways glance. This was
so
not how I imagined today going. Between the visit from
that property manager and Lawton's odd demeanor, this whole day was
feeling like a bad dream.

Maybe it
was
a bad dream. If I was
lucky, I was still in bed. Maybe I'd wake up to find money from the
Parkers and Lawton back to his normal self.

Then again, Lawton was anything but normal no
matter what kind of mood he was in. And it wasn't just his amazing
body or movie-star face. It was that lethal dose of unbridled
energy and raw power. It should've made me run. Not to him. From
him.

Today, that energy felt nearly explosive,
like too much heat was confined in too little space. I'd seen him
fight. I'd slept with him, loved him, laughed with him, and yeah,
more than once, cried over him.

But the energy falling off him now, I
couldn't place. Obviously the late-night phone call had set him
off. I tried to see it from his point of view. The call was late,
sudden, and unexplained. If I were being honest, I had to admit, I
might feel the same way.

I softened my voice and tried a new approach.
"You're mad about that call last night, aren't you?"

He shrugged.

"Okay." I blew out a breath. "You know I'm
just staying in that house, right?"

He nodded.

"Well, that call last night. It was from the
home-owner, just some financial thing that couldn’t wait."

"At midnight," he said, more a statement than
a question.

"It wasn't
quite
midnight," I said,
trying to keep my tone light.

"Uh-huh. And how about this morning?"

"What about this morning?"

"Forget it."

Ahead of us, Chucky was straining at the
leash. I spotted a chipmunk darting across a brick walkway. Chucky
went berserk, trying to reach it for about five seconds, until he
spotted a big gray housecat lounging on the other side of the
street.

Chucky lunged toward the cat with all his
tiny might, straining at his leash and barking his fool head off.
The cat looked oddly unconcerned.

I raised my gaze to Lawton and caught him
looking in my direction. Still walking, I gave him a smile, the
secret one we always shared when Chucky spazzed out.

Except this time, Lawton didn't return the
smile.

And then, something else caught his
attention. His gaze left my face, and his expression darkened. I
turned and saw exactly what had caught his attention.

In the Parkers' driveway sat a slick black
Mercedes.

Up ahead, on the Parkers' porch was an
unfamiliar man in a flashy business suit. I wasn't expecting
anyone. Then again, I hadn't been expecting a lot of people who'd
been showing up lately.

I glanced at Lawton. His face was stony, but
he said nothing. Chucky, meanwhile, had given up on the cat and was
straining toward a group of elderly power-walkers coming toward
us.

I glanced back to the porch. In one hand, the
man held a briefcase. In the other, he held a large manila
envelope.

I turned to Lawton and said, "I'll be right
back."

Before he could respond, I dashed ahead,
jogging down the Parkers' long driveway and hurrying up to the
house.

The stranger, an overly tanned man with poufy
blonde hair, stood legs apart, hands on his hips. He lifted a wrist
to study his watch. It looked like a Rolex.

"Can I help you?" I said.

Slowly, he turned to face me. "Chloe
Malinski?"

"Yes?"

"I assume you have I.D.?"

I froze. When someone comes to your door and
demands I.D., it was never a good thing, especially when they
looked like a parody of some celebrity lawyer.

"Do
you
have I.D.?" I said.

His gaze narrowed. "Are you the house-sitter
or not?"

I glanced at Lawton, suddenly wishing I'd
asked him to come with me. Something was definitely off with this
guy.

The guy followed my gaze. He spotted Lawton,
who was watching us with an expression I could only describe as
hostile.

The man cleared this throat. "Sorry," he
said, "it's been a hell of a week."

"You have no idea," I said.

"Anyway," the man said with another quick
glance toward Lawton, "the Parkers sent me."

"Why?"

"Because I've got your money, and I'm
supposed to deliver it."

"What money?" I said.

The man looked at me like I was a world-class
moron. "Bounced checks, bank problems, any of this ringing a
bell?"

"Of course it's ringing a bell," I said, "but
I wasn't expecting someone to show up here in person."

"Yeah? I wasn't expecting to be running my
ass all over town today, but here I am. So I guess we're both
surprised now, aren't we?"

"By any chance," I said, "are you the
brother-in-law?"

His gaze narrowed. "What's that supposed to
mean?"

"Never mind," I said.

"Yeah? Well, don't believe everything you
hear," the guy said. "I did everything I was supposed to. It's not
my fault if it got all messed up."

"Of course," I said.

"So like I said, I've got your money." He
gave me a deadpan look. "But obviously, I can't just fling it at
whoever comes up the driveway claiming to be the house-sitter. I
need to see some I.D. Got it?"

Grudgingly, I reached into the back pocket of
my jeans and pulled out my slim travel wallet. I retrieved my
driver's license and handed it over.

He gave it barely a glance before handing it
back. Then, he pulled the envelope from under his arm, undid the
clasp, and reached inside to remove a small sheet of paper.

That done, he held out the envelope toward
me. "Your money," he said.

I took the envelope and peered inside. I saw
a neat stack of bills. I was thrilled to get it, but utterly
confused by the method. "Cash?" I said.

"Yeah. The Parkers were pretty ticked. They
figured you wouldn’t trust a check. By the way, this covers the
next month's expenses too, so don't be trying to cash any of those
old checks."

"Should I count it, or—"

"Yeah, and I've got to watch, because if any
of it goes missing, I'm not getting the blame this time. Besides,
you've gotta sign a receipt." He glanced toward the front door.
"Wanna invite me inside?"

"Not particularly," I said.

"Suit yourself," he said, "but that's a big
wad of money to be counting out here in the open."

"Yeah, well I'm not exactly alone," I said
with a quick glance toward the street, where Lawton still watched
with an ever-darkening expression. Obviously, this was taking way
too long.

I pulled out the money and started counting,
adding as I went. Mentally, I compared the amount of cash to the
total of all those bad checks.

When I was done counting, I felt myself
smile. It covered everything – the checks, the overdraft fees, and,
as Mrs. Parker had promised, a nice bonus. I wouldn't be splurging
on a spa treatment, but a new car battery was definitely in my
future.

I felt like a huge weight had lifted from my
shoulders. And to be honest, I felt more than a little guilty for
not giving the Parkers the benefit of the doubt.

"By any chance," I said, "do you know
anything about their lease?"

"Yeah, that got all screwed up too," he said.
"That'll be my next stop. Lucky me."

I pulled the money from the envelope, rolled
it up, and stuffed it in the front pocket of my jeans. Still
smiling, I handed him back the empty envelope. "Got a pen?" I
said.

He pulled a shiny gold pen from his lapel
pocket. He handed it over along with the receipt. I checked the
amount, signed on the dotted line, and then handed it back.