Chapter 2 #2
“Can’t do,” she replies stubbornly with narrowed eyes.
“This house has been empty for two years, and I’ve been coming here all this time.
I’ve been cutting the grass and fixing the gutters after storms. I might be the only reason the house hasn’t fallen apart yet.
You,” she points a finger at me, “should be thanking me instead of ordering me to leave.” Her voice turns vicious.
“I will soak in the moon here. The house lets me.”
“You will not,” I hiss back, making a move to get in her face to maybe scare her a little with my presence, but she squares her shoulders back, simultaneously dropping her knees and taking some kind of yoga position.
I stumble over my own feet, realizing she’s a real redhead. I can see it from the tiny triangle of bright hair between her legs. The rest of the skin is bare. Smooth. So smooth.
“What are you doing?” I cry out, covering my eyes and looking away.
“Soaking up the moon. Be gone.” She graciously waves her hand in the air, dismissing me.
The muscle on my jaw ticks. “You need to get out of here!”
“Make me,” she challenges, squinting her eyes.
Both my eyes are twitching now. “I’m warning you,” I say in a low voice.
After giving me a long, disregarding look, she closes her eyes, placing her hands on her spread wide knees. My gaze drops again, and it takes quite an effort to look away.
Instead of listening to my vague threat as any sane person would, she sits up straighter and starts humming a tune.
“Lady,” I growl.
The humming intensifies.
“Lady!” Louder this time.
The humming matches my voice.
“Fuck!” I throw my head back, glaring up at the moon who’s put me in this position.
The first thing I want to do is grab this woman and throw her over my shoulders just so I can dump her over the fence into her own backyard.
But I’ve just moved here. It’s literally my first day in this town, and maybe this is the local looney everyone adores.
It’s not a good way to start my life here. So I decide to go with the right way.
“I’m calling the cops,” I say, striding back toward the house. I wish I’d grabbed my phone before charging out here.
By the time I’m back in maybe two minutes, I pray she’s not there. But she is. Still humming at the moon.
“Fucking shit.” I wipe my face with my hand and dial nine-one-one.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency, hun?”
Ignoring the ‘hun’ part, I focus on the problem in my backyard. “I have an intruder on my property.” Then I mumble the address. The silence on the other end of the line should have tipped me off, but I’m too riled up to notice it.
“Hello?”
“Cheryl will be there shortly.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Whoever this Cheryl is, she’d better hurry up.
I’m glaring down at the naked intruder when the cop car lights come from the front of the house. Moments later, a female officer leisurely walks our way. She’s in no hurry to help me out here.
When she reaches us, her face is twisted with a knowing smile.
“Nora, what are you doing?”
One of Nora’s eyes pops open. “Soaking up the moon.”
“Soaki—” Then the cop shakes her head. “You know what, whatever. Let the man be. Go to your house.”
“Can’t do, officer .” She closes her eyes, clearly mocking said officer. “The moon is not the same in my backyard.”
A weird noise in the cop’s throat sounds awfully like a snort. Then she says, “Nora, you have to go. Or I’ll have to detain you. ”
That draws the naked witch’s attention. Both her eyes pop open as she stares at the cop.
“Yeah?”
“Nora,” the cop says with a warning.
“Cheryl,” the witch replies with the same tone.
“Nora,” she starts again, but we both know where it’s going.
This is where I lose my patience. Walking up to the sheet on the ground, I grab it, turn to the naked woman, and throw it over her shoulders.
“What—”
Her question drowns in a wave of shrieking when I grab her off the ground and haul her over my shoulders.
“What are you doing? Cheryl!”
“Sorry, Nora,” the lazy cop apologizes tiredly. “He has the right to defend his property.”
“Especially when you’re not doing shit,” I throw back, making her rear back.
“Excuse the fudge out of me, but you just came to town and you’re already bringing your own rules.”
Ignoring her dumb comment, I keep striding toward the fence separating our properties. There should be a way she got in here, so I can squeeze her right back through. I’d much rather throw her over the fence, but I don’t want to risk her having broken bones after the fall—the fence is high.
I walk along the whole perimeter while she’s punching my back with her fists, showering me with colorful profanities impressive even for me who spends my days on constructions sites.
“What are you going to do?” the cop asks, hot on my heels but not trying to interfere.
“Deliver her back. How the hell did she get in here?” I whisper under my breath, stopping when I can’t find a hole in the fence .
“Once you’re off your property, I can arrest you for assault.”
Coming to a halt, I feel a wave of rage rise from the pit of my stomach. It starts as a small spark. A weak one. Until it grows into a raging fire.
Dropping the woman on the ground, I walk up to the officer and lean closer to her. “Get her out of here. Now.”
Fisting my hands by my sides, I walk back to my house, feeling their curious stares on my back.