Page 27 of Grim

“And who asked you to do that?”

“No one. I was just trying to...”

“I let you into my house, kept you and your daughter off the streets, and this is what you do?” I advanced towards her, my footsteps echoing off the polished floors. “You just take over and rifle through my shit like you own the damn place?”

“No! It wasn’t like that.” Jenna's eyes widened, her body instinctively retreating as she stammered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that...”

“Woah! Hold on, now!” Skid shouted as he came rushing into the room. “This isn’t on her. I told her she could do it.”

“And why the fuck would you do that?”

“I thought it was time.”

“You know how I felt about this shit!” I glanced around the room once more and spotted pictures, books, and sit-arounds that I’d kept packed away in boxes—which only intensified my anger. I hadn’t emptied those boxes for a reason.

I didn’t want those memories haunting me every damn day.

And now, they were all out and in my face. And to make matters worse, she’d seen everything. Touched everything, and the sense of violation enraged me. “Goddamn it!”

I glanced over at Jenna, and shame washed over me when I saw that she was cowered in the corner like a kicked puppy. Her daughter was next to her, and the sight of them both standing there looking utterly terrified knocked the wind right out of me. Fuck. What the hell was wrong with me? They hadn’t meant any harm. If anything, they were trying to do a good thing, and I’d been an asshole for making her feel bad about it.

Jenna looked like she was on the brink of tears, but then, she did something that surprised me. Her back straightened, and her eyes narrowed as she took a step forward. “You know what? Screw you! I busted my ass to clean this place up, and instead of thanking me, you come in here and try to make me feel like shit about it?”

“It’s my house.”

“Yeah, and it had a year’s worth of dust on everything in here.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Now it’s gone!”

I didn’t respond.

I simply stood there glaring at her beautiful face.

“You’re welcome!” She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her daughter's hand and charged out of the room. “Gah. What an asshole.”

“I like her,” Ghost announced with a chuckle. “The girl’s got grit.”

“You can go now.”

“You sure about that?” he snickered. “She’s a bit feisty. You might need some help handling her.”

“Go.” I looked over at Skid as I said, “You, too.”

“Look, I should’ve never told her that she could go through your shit.” I could hear the remorse in his voice as he told me, “Don’t hold it against her. It’s totally on me.”

“Um-hmm.”

“So, on a scale from one to ten, how bad of a fuck up this?”

“That depends.” I cocked my brow. “You gonna get the hell out of here, or are you going to keep standing there pestering me?”

He started out the door as he mumbled, “I’m going. I’m going.”

“Appreciate you watching over things while I was gone.”

“No problem.”

He and Ghost loaded up into his pickup, and then they were gone, leaving me alone to deal with my house guests. I was still at the door, staring at Jenna’s beat-up car parked in the driveway, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned and found Jenna and Luna standing there with their garbage bags full of belongings, and neither of them seemed all that pleased to find that I was in their way.

“What’s this?”

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