CHAPTER SEVEN
Shadow
I PULLED UP to my sister’s apartment building and rushed upstairs, pounding on her door before I’d even caught my breath.
Glass shattering and Cat’s scream spurred me to put my boot to the door and kick it open. I heard footsteps behind me and scowled at Shutter over my shoulder. “You’re late.”
I didn’t spend any more time on him as I headed for the sounds of struggles, pushing into Catalina’s room and finding her fighting with some asshole who’d gotten her to the ground.
“Not today, dickhead,” I growled, wrapping my arm around his neck, and dragging him off my sister.
Shutter grabbed Catalina and guided her out of the room. I forced myself to focus on the issue at hand and slammed him to the ground, settling my knee to his neck. He tried to wriggle away, but he was a pencil necked piece of shit who had no idea how to fight, let alone defend himself.
“Shut the fuck up,” I ordered.
“Get off me,” he said on a whimper as I gave him a pat down, retrieving his wallet from his pocket.
“If you ever come near my sister again, I will make it so you shit in a bag, do you hear me?”
“Yes. Just get off me.”
I slid his driver’s license out of his wallet and held it between two fingers. “I know where you live now,” I glanced at the ID, “Dale Dawson. I also have your social security number because not only are you an asshole, you’re a moron and you should keep that shit locked up.” I let the pressure off his neck, stood, and after taking all the cash inside of it out, threw his empty wallet at him.
“I’m gonna call the cops,” he threatened, scrambling to his feet.
“Do it. Make my fuckin’ day.”
“You can’t go around attacking innocent men.”
“And you can’t go around attacking innocent women,” I countered, sliding his cards and cash into my pocket.
“She wanted it.”
I saw red, grabbing his shirt in my fist and slamming him against the wall, putting a hole in it I’d have to fix later.
“What the fuck?” Dale screamed like a girl.
“You wanted it, right?”
Before I could do anymore real damage, however, Doom stalked into the room and frowned. “This the prick?”
“Who are you?” Dale squeaked, trying to pull away from me. I currently had his face pushed up against the wall with one of his arms yanked high up his back making it impossible to move without pain.
“I’m Butch,” he retorted, and I rolled my eyes.
“No. I’m Butch,” I growled.
“You’re a fuckin’ kid,” Doom argued. “Ergo, you’re Sundance.”
“Is Lyric making you learn new words?” I taunted as I continued to struggle with Dale.
“Are you seriously arguing with your boyfriend?” Dale demanded, his mouth smirking.
“Are you seriously trying to be funny right now?” I snapped back, chucking him at Doom who used the man’s momentum against him, pushing him into the doorframe.
Dale squealed again, but since Doom had a good forty pounds and two inches on me, he was a giant compared to Dale, so he didn’t stand a chance.
“Am I taking him back to the barn?” Doom asked.
“I got his info,” I said. “If Dale promises to be a good boy, I’m fine with you letting him go.”
“Fuckin—”
“That’s not a good start to making me believe you’re gonna behave,” I pointed out.
“I’ll behave,” he said quickly, and Doom shoved him down the hall while I followed.
“Cat,” Shutter warned and I watched in surprise as my sister stepped in front of Dale and set her hands on his shoulders.
“What the fuck are you doin’?” I growled.
“I’m really sorry this didn’t work out, Dale,” Catalina said, promptly shoving her knee into his groin so hard, he fell to the floor in a heap of more screaming.
Doom bent down, grasped the collar of his shirt and dragged him out the front door, dropping him on the concrete of the landing and slamming the shattered wood behind him.
“You’re movin’ out,” I decreed, and Cat glared at me. “What?”
“I’m not having this conversation with you in front of strangers,” she hissed.
“What the fuck?” Doom snapped at the same time Shutter growled, “Fuck me, woman… strangers?”
“You were supposed to be watchin’ her,” I said to Shutter.
Shutter was an enforcer for the club, and a young one at that, because if you didn’t know him, he was scary as shit.
“I was watchin’ her,” he said. “I was the one who called you. But you told me you didn’t want me to engage, and I didn’t until I heard her scream.”
“Why the hell was Silas watching me?” Cat demanded.
I smiled. She refused to call Shutter ‘Shutter.’ She always used his real name, and it was something to behold.
Because she was the only one who got away with it.
“I’m gonna go grab my shit,” Doom said. “Come help, Shutter.”
Shutter frowned at my sister, a silent expression of his irritation. I was sure they’d have a conversation about it later, considering Shutter was one of my sister’s favorite humans, so her comment would have been especially hurtful to him.
Doom pulled the door open and I noticed Dale had gotten the fuck out of Dodge, or at least the landing, so I faced my sister who had now set a bag of peas to her eye.
“Rein it in,” she ordered, and I dragged my hands down my face.
“You’re comin’ back to the barn and you’re gonna stay there until we can get you outta your lease.”
“My lease is up, NoNo. Well, it is in twenty-two days,” she said. “It’ll be month-to-month after that.”
“No, it won’t.”
“I’m on the lowest rung of the 9-1-1 ladder, big brother. I haven’t even been there a year, so I won’t get an evaluation or a raise for at least another six months. I can’t afford anything else.”
“I told you—”
“I’m not living with you, Nolan. I love you, but I can’t have a decent sex life if I live with my brother. God! You’re impossible.”
“I’m not talking to you about your sex life.”
“And I’m not talking to you about being roomies,” she snapped back. “Or taking money from you.”
“Who’s impossible now?” I challenged.
She sighed, walking out from behind her island and facing me. “I should have started with thank you. I thought Dale was just a nice guy who worked down the hall.”
“You work with that asshole?”
“Not directly. He works on the first floor. I think it’s some hedge fund company or something.”
“I thought you had the whole building.”
“Budget cuts. We had to rent out space, apparently.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“It’s not like he has access to my floor, Nolan. I met him when we bumped into each other getting coffee. We’re on the same schedule.”