Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked, as we climbed out of the Rivian. I opened the back seat and clipped Rogue’s leash on before letting him out. He scrambled out of the back, tail wagging in excitement at the action after several hours of sitting and waiting.
“Am I sure I want to confront this creep?” Kenna asked, her voice rising with incredulity. “Of course I’m sure. Plus, I feel really bad now for suspecting you.”
“I’m just saying that Rogue and I have it from here if you want to send me that photo,” I told her, glancing at the still-closed door of my apartment.
There was a man in there I didn’t know, doing who knew what to my things.
Going through my clothes or looking at my case files.
I shuddered, trying not to think about it.
“Oh hell no,” she said, hands on her hips as she glared me down. “I just spent three hours sitting on my ass waiting for this guy to show up. You don’t get to have all the fun of confronting him now that I’ve done the work getting the proof.”
“I wouldn’t say what’s about to happen is fun,” I told her, and she rolled her eyes, turning to cross the street rather than continue to argue with me. I hurried to catch up with her, Rogue trailing along beside me. “I should warn you that this guy could be dangerous.”
“If danger was a problem I wouldn’t be in this job,” Kenna said. “I’m sure Rogue will protect us.”
“He’ll do his best,” I assured her as we reached my apartment door.
I paused, the two of us on either side of the door reminding me of my time in the Academy.
Noah on one side of a door, me on the other, guns in hand.
Now it was Kenna across from me and our only weapons were a hundred-and-ten-pound dog and the evidence on her camera. “Ready?”
“Let’s do this,” Kenna said with a sharp nod, and I reached out, twisting the knob. It was unlocked and easily swung open.
And there, in my little studio apartment, was the man from the image. He stood half bent as he peered into my open fridge and at the sound of the door opening, he turned to look at us with a deer-in-the-headlights expression.
Before anyone could move, Rogue lunged forward with a snarl that caused the man to throw himself backwards and fall to the floor.
He scrambled away despite the fact that Rogue had reached the end of his leash and wasn’t even pulling that hard.
He was loud, though, barking up a storm at the man who did not belong.
“Settle,” I ordered, and Rogue went quiet.
“You can’t have that thing in here,” the man said, as if Rogue were the one who did not belong.
“You can’t be in here,” Kenna replied, stepping past me and lifting her camera to take a photo of him obviously inside my apartment. “We’re calling the cops.”
“I own this complex,” the man said, eyeing Rogue as he stood up, brushing himself off and quickly regaining confidence. “I can be wherever I want. But that dog can’t. No animals allowed. If you bring him in here, I’ll have to evict you.”
“You said you didn’t know this guy,” Kenna turned to look at me for an explanation and I shrugged.
“I don’t,” I told her. “The apartment was set up for me before I got here.”
“Right, of course,” Kenna said, taking my words to mean that Witsec had set it up rather than her brother, but the result was the same either way.
I’d never met this man in my life. Kenna turned back to the stranger in my apartment with a fierce look of determination.
“You own the property? Fine, that doesn’t change the fact that you’re violating her rights to privacy.
Landlords cannot enter apartments without advanced notice. ”
“And tenants cannot have pets,” he replied with a dismissive shrug, the audacity that apparently let him think it was okay to come into my apartment while I was gone returning to him. “I was checking for damage, which is my right.”
“In my refrigerator?” I shot back incredulously.
“Feel free to call the police if you like, but it won’t get you anywhere. Especially when they see the eviction notice.”
“You can’t just—” Kenna began to argue, but the man was already headed towards the door, carefully sidestepping Rogue as he went.
The Cane Corso growled low in his throat but didn’t lunge or bark like I knew he wanted to.
Like some part of me wanted him to, just to see that overconfident asshole cowering again.
“Actually, I can,” he called over his shoulder as he left, heading towards a rather nice Beemer parked across the street.
I stared after him, hating how he had turned this on me.
Not only did I feel more unsafe than before, but now I had to choose between keeping Rogue or having a roof over my head.
A roof I didn’t even want, if it meant the landlord coming in any time he pleased.
Rogue whined and I sighed, moving to close the door before I let the dog off his leash.
“Fuck,” I said as I opened the dog food bag, measuring out two scoops to pour into his bowl.
I’d given him the emergency rations that Effy had recommended I store in my car last night and this morning, which meant I was already going to need to re-stock the Tupperware of kibble I now kept in my trunk.
Rogue’s tail wacked me over and over as he stood at my side, waiting for me to set the bowl down.
I reached down to scratch between his ears before placing the dish on the ground and letting him have at it.
“He can’t get away with this,” Kenna said, moving to set her camera down on the counter and then glancing around my apartment for the first time.
Her nose wrinkled, but she didn’t comment on my lack of belongings or even a place to sit down.
Instead, she began to pace. “Even if Rogue does violate the lease terms that doesn’t change the fact that he’s basically stalking you.
You said he’d been in here multiple times, right?
The two things don’t just cancel each other out. ”
I leaned back against the counter, watching her work herself up.
“In fact, it could be argued that Rogue is an emotional support animal that you got because you felt unsafe in the apartment due to his actions,” she continued.
“Legally, he can’t evict you if you have an ESA letter.
Then, once you have that you can sue him for entering your apartment and he’ll have to pay you a month’s rent.
It’s not much, but maybe that will be enough to keep him from doing it again. ”
“I doubt it,” I said, remembering the fire in his eyes.
The way he looked so at home in a space that was meant to be mine.
There was a streak of entitlement in him that ran a mile wide and I had no doubt that he would be back inside my apartment the first chance he got if only to prove that he could. “You know a lot about housing laws.”
“I’ve dabbled in a lot of different careers,” Kenna replied, pausing her pacing but still caught up in a far-off look that told me she was trying to puzzle her way through my predicament.
There were no good answers though, no solutions left to me.
The truth was that I’d lost all my legal protection when I walked out of the Stafford Police Department six weeks ago.
Or maybe it was the moment Monica texted me to meet her at her home.
Either way, I wasn’t about to get an ESA letter or sue anyone.
I would just have to find a different solution.
“I liked the logic puzzles in law school, but it takes way too long to see the results of your work as a lawyer.”
“Listen,” I said as I squatted down to Rogue’s level and wrapped my arms around his neck as I tried to think of a solution that didn’t end with me sending him back to the shelter just like every other person before me.
“I’m just happy to know it’s a regular creep and not someone more dangerous coming after me.
I’ll just have to find somewhere else to live. ”
“He can’t get away with this,” Kenna argued. She lifted her camera off the counter like I had somehow forgotten the pictures she’d taken. “We have the evidence to make him stop.”
“Maybe, but I don’t have the legal standing right now to go after him, and laying low is my top priority.
” I stood up again, looking her in the eye.
“I appreciate you going through all of this with me, but the truth is that he’s right.
I don’t really have another choice here.
” Men like him counted on their tenants being in compromised situations—not being able to fight back.
It was probably why he was so entitled. And unfortunately, he was right.
I couldn’t afford the publicity of a lawsuit. Not to mention the cost.
“This is bullshit,” Kenna replied, frustration at the injustice lacing her words. She narrowed her eyes, looking around the apartment like the answer she wanted was hidden somewhere in the sparse decor. “Okay, new plan. We’re going to find you somewhere else.”
“You don’t have to?—”
“Oh no,” she said. “You don’t deserve to deal with this. If you can’t sue his ass, at least we can find you a new place to live.”
“While I appreciate the heel turn,” I said, hooking the leash on Rogue’s collar once again. “I’ll be fine. I don’t need you to fix this for me, but if you want to help could you give me a ride back to the café so I can get my car?”
“Of course,” Kenna said. Her voice was distant, distracted, and I got the sense that this wasn’t the end of the conversation.
But as I led the way out of my apartment all I felt was overwhelming relief.
There was no assassin hiding in the shadows or a SWAT team waiting in the wings.
It was just one self-absorbed man who had no sense of boundaries.
And if there was one thing I knew I could handle it was an arrogant prick.