Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Blink slept hard that night. Probably a combination of holding Josie and the exhaustion of the amazing sex they’d had. He’d never been with someone more compatible. He’d surprised himself with some of the things he’d said and done.
But since Josie didn’t recoil or seem repulsed by his sudden dominant streak, he tried not to worry about it too much. He’d simply done what felt right at the time. Had told her what he’d been thinking deep in his soul.
This morning they’d slept in and cuddled. Did Blink want to make love to her again? Yes, of course. But he’d taken her hard yesterday, and he wasn’t a small man. And even though she fit him perfectly, she was still tiny. There was no way he’d do anything that would hurt her, so he pushed his need down and simply held her.
And it was awesome. Having his woman lay against his chest as they talked about her mom, about his childhood, about some of his missions—without details, of course. Blink felt more at home than he had since he’d moved out of his dad’s house.
And now they were in his truck and on the way to her former apartment complex. She’d called her landlord yesterday, and they’d arranged for a time to meet so she could get her belongings.
Blink was both grateful and pissed at her landlord. Relieved he hadn’t simply thrown away Josie’s stuff, but not thrilled at how quickly he’d re-rented her apartment in the first place, after she hadn’t come home from her vacation.
Pulling up to the lot, he saw the complex didn’t look super expensive, but it wasn’t run down either. The neighborhood seemed to be fairly middle class. Average.
He and Josie knocked on the office door and a man around Blink’s height answered. He looked clean-cut and businesslike. He greeted Josie and led them to the building next door, where he opened an apartment door. “Sorry, but you’re going to have to figure out which boxes are yours. I just kind of shove everything in here when people leave. When it gets too full, I eventually take it all to Goodwill or other charity shops.”
Blink frowned in annoyance. But his Josie was as gracious as ever.
“It’s okay. I appreciate you holding onto my things for as long as you did.”
The man nodded, then pulled a check out of his pocket and held it out. “For your furniture.”
Josie took it and put it away without looking to see how much it was for.
After an awkward pause, the man said, “Glad you’re okay. I wondered what happened. Take your time in here. When you’re done, just lock the door behind you.”
When he left, Josie turned to Blink. “It’s okay, Nate.”
“It’s not okay,” he said with a shake of his head. “He sold your furniture, probably ripped you off in the process, then dumped all your things in here with the crap people just leave behind when they go.”
Josie put her hand on his arm. “But they’re here. That’s all I care about.”
Blink nodded, but he still wasn’t happy. “I can’t really help you look through boxes, because I don’t know what’s yours and what isn’t, but I can carry everything to the trailer.”
And with that, they began the daunting task. There were a lot of boxes in the empty apartment. Apparently the manager was lazy and only brought things to the thrift shops once in a blue moon.
After working their way through the sea of boxes, Josie found what seemed to be her belongings against a far wall, under a bunch of other boxes. Josie opened each one, checking to make sure the items inside were her own, while Blink acted as courier, carrying them from the apartment to the trailer he’d rented.
He was walking toward his truck in the parking lot for the tenth time or so, when he heard a commotion behind him. Turning, he saw two women standing in front of the apartment where Josie was working. And they were yelling at the top of their lungs.
Blink put the box down right where he was standing on the sidewalk and quickly ran toward the women. A few people were starting to gather, watching the spectacle. It wasn’t until Blink heard what they were saying that his anger spiked.
“…wouldn’t be dead if it wasn’t for you, bitch! You led him on, treated him like shit! All he wanted was to be loved, and you shit all over that.”
“It should’ve been you with a bullet in your head! You’re going to pay for what you did to Ayden!”
Blink wasn’t normally a violent person. And he wasn’t the kind of man to put his hands on a woman, but without a second thought, he shoved the younger woman aside, away from the door, so he could get between the hate the two women were spewing and his woman.
“What the fuck ?” he asked, as soon as he was inside the apartment. Josie was standing in the corner, surrounded by boxes, while the two women harangued her from the entryway, blocking her from going anywhere, from getting away from their hateful words. She looked a little shellshocked and a lot freaked out.
“Who the hell are you?” the older woman asked.
“I’d ask who the fuck you are, but I already know. Millie and Genevieve Hitson, I presume,” he drawled.
“That’s right. But who the hell are you ?” Gen, the younger woman, repeated.
“I’m Nate Davis, and I’m Josie’s man. You need to turn around and leave. Right now.”
“No,” Millie said, crossing her arms over her chest. “This is a free country, and I’m allowed to go where I want, and say what I want, to whoever I want.”
“Not to Josie, you aren’t. How the hell did you even know she was here? ”
“Unlike her , we have friends here,” Gen told him.
“So you had people spying for you. Awesome,” Blink sneered.
“She killed my son!” Millie said angrily. “She needs to answer for that.”
“Josie had nothing to do with your son dying. He was the idiot who rented a boat and took it into notoriously dangerous waters. As a soldier, he damn well should’ve known better. He crossed into Iran illegally and was killed as a result. What I want to know is, why didn’t you tell the authorities about Josie? You both knew she went to Kuwait to visit him.”
“We figured she died too,” Gen said, a little too defensively.
“ She should’ve been the one who was shot!” Millie shouted, obviously not ashamed in the least by the hate she was spewing.
“So you would’ve preferred for your son to be thrown into an Iranian cell and tortured?” Blink asked. He shouldn’t be trying to reason with these women, but he needed them to understand exactly what Josie had been through.
“The government would’ve gotten him out!” Millie yelled. “She should’ve rotted to death in that cell. Paid for her sins. For killing my son!”
Blink was done. There was clearly no arguing with Ayden’s mother. “Get out,” he said, taking a step toward them.
“No,” Gen said, straightening. “What are you going to do? Make us? There are witnesses. You touch us and you’ll go to jail for assault. Do it. I dare you!”
Frustration ate at Blink. He wanted nothing more than to shove the two women out the door and slam it in their faces. But they’d probably just lurk outside until they exited again. And it wasn’t as if they could hang out in this apartment forever. He wanted to go home. Get Josie away from this place so she’d never have to come back.
“Let’s just go,” Josie said softly from behind him. But there was no way Blink was leaving without Josie’s stuff. And he wasn’t going to put up with either of them being harassed while they packed.
Without another word, he pulled out his phone and dialed 9-1-1.
“Who are you calling?” Millie asked.
Blink ignored her. “Yes, I’d like to report an altercation at the Bayview Apartment Complex.”
“You called the cops? Pansy-ass loser!” Gen said.
“Two women, Millie and Genevieve Hitson, are harassing my girlfriend. Threatening her. Yes…we need assistance immediately. All right.”
“You asshole!” Gen shouted.
“Figures a bitch like her would be with someone like you. You’re going to regret messing with me!” Millie told Josie, looking her dead in the eyes.
“Millie,” Josie said softly, a worried look on her face, obviously still hoping to smooth things over with her ex’s family.
But Blink was done. That was a clear threat. “No one’s messing with you,” Blink said as calmly as he could, aware the 9-1-1 dispatcher was listening. “You were the ones who came here to yell at Josie. All we’re doing is trying to pack her things and get out of here.”
“Running away like the scared little nobody you are,” Millie sneered. “No backbone. You were never good enough for my Ayden. He felt sorry for you—no friends, no real career, pathetic orphan.”
Blink stepped toward the women and this time didn’t stop until he was towering over them both. “Step back,” he growled.
“Make me,” Millie countered, lifting her hands and shoving Blink. Hard.
He didn’t move an inch, which seemed to frustrate the older woman. She shoved him again, but he merely shifted his body weight to absorb the impact.
“Freak,” Gen muttered under her breath.
Thankfully, the sound of sirens wailed close by.
“Don’t come near her again. Stop sending her emails. Your son is gone. I’m sorry for that, but it wasn’t Josie’s fault. You need to move on with your life and let Josie do the same.”
“Not a chance in hell,” Millie hissed. “She destroyed my son, and I’m going to do whatever it fucking takes to destroy her !”
A police car pulled into the lot and two officers quickly got out and walked up the sidewalk, to where Blink was blocking the entrance to the apartment.
“Step back, ladies,” one said.
To Blink’s relief, they did as ordered.
“We weren’t doing nothin’,” Gen whined. “ They started it. That guy, the big one, he was threatening us!”
“That’s not what the dispatcher says,” the first officer retorted.
“This is public property,” Millie said defiantly. “We aren’t breaking any laws. ”
“She put her hands on him,” someone in the growing crowd said.
“Yeah, I have it all on video,” another said.
“Do you want to press charges?” one of the officers asked Blink.
He opened his mouth to say yes, he most definitely did, but Josie put her hand on the small of his back and leaned around him.
“No. We just want to finish loading my stuff and leave,” Josie said.
Blink sighed. He’d do whatever Josie wanted—but that didn’t mean he’d leave her vulnerable. “We do want to file an order of protection against them.”
“I’ll get your information so we can send you a copy of the incident report from today, which you’ll need to file. You can download the application for protection online.”
Blink nodded.
“I’ll send you the video I took if you give me your number,” the bystander told him.
“Appreciate it.”
Millie turned to walk away, but the officer who wasn’t talking to Blink reached out and grabbed her arm. “Ma’am, we need some information from you.”
With that, Millie began to fight—hard. To Blink’s surprise, it took both officers to subdue her. Throughout the altercation, Gen yelled for them to stop, that they were hurting her mother. It was bedlam, and all Blink could do was wrap his arm around Josie and hold her against him as they watched everything unfold. It took a while, but finally Millie was taken away in the back of the police car, while Gen followed behind in her vehicle.
The people standing around wandered away…but Blink couldn’t help but wonder which one had called Ayden’s relatives, letting them know Josie was there in the first place.
Trying to shove the unsettling thought to the back of his mind, Blink turned to Josie. “Did you find everything?”
“I don’t know. I still need to go through some more boxes.”
“Well, go ahead and do that so we can get the fuck out of here.”
To his amazement, she giggled softly.
He was blown away by her all over again. He brought his hand to her nape and leaned down to put his forehead against hers. “You’re amazing, Spirit. You have every reason to be freaked out right now, and yet, you’re standing tall.”
“They’re upset. I get it. Their brother and son died. I was going to break up with Ayden, but I didn’t want him to die.”
“I know you didn’t, sweetheart. You do know it wasn’t your fault, right?” Blink asked, afraid that she was taking those bitches’ words to heart.
“Yeah. I told him I didn’t want to go on that boat,” she admitted in a whisper. “At first, all he said was that he had a surprise for me, and I should wear my swimsuit and cover-up. When we got to the dock and I saw the boat, I didn’t want to board. I’d thought we were going to a pool or beach or something. He insisted that it would be fine. Fun. I said it was too dangerous. That’s when he started belittling me, like usual. I didn’t want to irritate him further. I should’ve refused, but just because I didn’t stand my ground, that doesn’t mean what happened was my fault. It wasn’t even his, really. He was just being too cocky.”
Blink closed his eyes briefly. She was being a lot kinder than he would’ve been in the same situation. “I still want you to submit that order of protection.”
To his relief, she nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he agreed, then straightened. “Find the rest of your stuff so we can go home.”
“Home,” she whispered. “How is it that I’ve been in your apartment for so little time, but it already feels like a safe haven?”
Blink was speechless. His apartment wasn’t anything special. It was pretty average. But for her to feel safe there made him all the more determined to make sure she always felt that way.
“Thank you for being here with me,” Josie said. “For helping me.”
“Always,” Blink replied, then kissed her briefly before heading to the door. He needed to put some space between them, otherwise, he’d end up taking her right then and there.
Checking to make sure the coast was clear, Blink hurried toward the box he’d dropped on the sidewalk earlier, when he’d heard Millie and Gen’s awful words. He packed it into the trailer then went back to the apartment.
To Josie.