"At midnight," I said, not bothering to hide my doubts.
"It wasn'tquitemidnight," she said in that teasing tone of hers, the one that normally made me smile no matter what.
But this time, it didn't. I kept on moving. "Uh-huh. And how about this morning?"
"What about this morning?"
"Forget it," I muttered.
I felt a tug on my wrist and looked to see Chucky straining against his leash. In front of us, a chipmunk made a break for it, running just out of Chucky's range. Chucky went nuts, lunging toward it for like five whole seconds, until he spotted a big gray housecat sitting on the other side of the street.
Chucky froze, and then started barking his head off, acting like he'd chew the cat up and spit it out, if only the leash weren't holding him back. The cat looked at him like, "Yeah, sure you would."
Out of habit, I looked to Chloe. We were still walking, and she was smiling down at her dog. I loved that smile, but today, all it did was piss me off – because everything was pissing me off.
When she looked to me again, she was still smiling. I didn't smile back. I couldn't. Not today.
And then I saw something else – something that made me stop dead in my tracks. Already, we'd circled back to Chloe's place. Until this moment, I hadn't really noticed. But now, I did. And I didn't like what I saw.
In Chloe's driveway was a familiar black Mercedes.
The douchebag – he was back. And he was standing on Chloe's front porch.
Chapter 41
The guy wore the same sort of flashy business suit that he'd been wearing the last time I'd seen him. In one hand, he held a briefcase. In the other was a large manila envelope.
As for Chucky, he'd given up on the cat, and was now lunging toward a group of senior citizens who were power-walking toward us. I held Chucky firm and turned my attention back to the douchebag.
He was just standing there on Chloe's porch, looking around like he was expecting someone. Who? Chloe?
Funny, this was the third time I'd seen him, but it was the first time I'd actually seen him when Chloe was around. I glanced toward her, wondering what she'd say now.
"Hey, that's my uncle. Wanna meet him?"
"Look, my landlord's here."
Or maybe I'd get really lucky, and she'd say,"Who the hell is that creep? Can you run him off for me?"
But she didn't say any of those things. Instead, she said, "I'll be right back." Without waiting for a response, she turned and started jogging down the long driveway.
Watching her go, I felt my blood begin to boil. I didn't know who the guy was, exactly. But I knewwhathe was. His words from earlier rang in my memories.
"What about nice girls? If you like 'em sweet, I got them, too."
Chloe was a nice girl.
Supposedly.
I stood, watching as she hurried up to the front porch and started talking with the guy. I couldn't hear a damn thing they were saying, but the conversation looked friendly enough. They talked for maybe a minute before I saw Chloe glance in my direction.
Following her gaze, the guy turned to look, and I knew the exact moment he spotted me, because he practically jumped out of his skin.
It almost made me smile. So, he wasn't happy to see me? Yeah, that made two of us, except in my case, I wanted to kill him.
Slowly.
He turned and exchanged a few more words with Chloe before giving me another quick glance. I glared over at him, not bothering to hide my hostility.
