Page 50 of Ruthless

“It’ll just take a second. Please?” She adjusts Thor against her side as she waits for me to answer.

Everything inside me is screaming to tell her no, but even I’m not that much of a bastard. And maybe I’ll be able to get more information from her about those visitors. “Yeah. Just give me one sec to grab some tools.”

“All right.” She spins and shuffles back to her apartment.

“Who was that?” Axel asks as he comes out of the bedroom with a washrag.

“Neighbor. Where’s Ken?” I swing my head around him and come up empty.

“Bathroom.” He wrinkles his nose, letting me know what she’s doing in there with that one look—more puking.

An uncomfortable feeling settles in my chest. I hate that she’s so sick, but there’s nothing I can do for her. “Can you stay here with her while I handle this?”

“Yup.” He nods and tosses the washrag onto the counter and spins around to head back into her bedroom when I stop him.

“Make sure she packs all of her shit.”

Axel grins, showing off his dimples from over his shoulder. And I know damn well what he’s thinking. I don’t offer him an explanation because he’s right. Kennedy isn’t coming back here after this shit is all said and done. She just doesn’t know it yet.

“Can I get y’all anything? Pecan pie? Cookies? Sweet tea?” Mrs. Baker asks for the umpteenth time since we’ve been here. She’s been hovering around us ever since we came over with a plate full of cookies in hand, offering us any kind of drink or food she can think of to stuff us with.

Thor is nowhere to be seen, so I assume she locked the little fucker up. Which is a small favor. The last thing I want is him pissing on my feet while I set up the gate.

“No.” Asher gives his typical one-word answers, but it doesn’t deter her from trying.

“No, thank you, ma’am,” Isaac cuts in, making up for the proper manners my big brother and I lack.

She soaks up all the attention Isaac shows her, but it’s nowhere near the attentiveness she’s been giving to my older brother. Come to think of it, she has yet to leave Asher’s side. Since he stepped inside her apartment, she’s been no more than a few inches away from him. Something I’ve found interesting, but judging by the stern expression on my big brother’s face, he doesn’t.

Her place is similar in size and layout to Kennedy’s, but that’s where the similarities between the two apartments end. While Kennedy had family photos all along her walls, Mrs. Baker’s are all bare. There is only one single photo in her living room that I glanced at earlier. Everything about it feels impersonal as hell. It lacks all the warmth that made Kennedy’s place a home before those fuckers destroyed it. It must be another thing she was waiting on her grandson to do for her.

Asher does his best to avoid Mrs. Baker and comes to help me with the gate. I’m damn near done, but I let him pretend for an escape from her attention.

Isaac has gotten even more into character and taken to roaming the apartment pretending to offer her decorating advice. Some of it sounds believable, while some of it sounds just plain nuts. Where he manages to come up with this shit, I have no fucking clue, but he sells it.

I test the gate out a few times to ensure it works properly. Once I’m satisfied that it’ll stay in place and keep Thor locked inside until she lets him out, I stand ready to get down to why I came here. “This should keep him from escaping now, Mrs. Baker?”

“Oh please, Mrs. Baker was my mother’s name. Y’all can call me Ella-Mae.” She grins.

Asher and I share a look at that little piece of information as he comes to stand next to me, coming to the same conclusion as me—we will, without a doubt, be giving Axel shit about this later.

“Baby gate is up.” Asher clears his throat and shoves his hands in his pockets.

“That was fast.” Her face falls, and I can see her mentally calculating something else for him to fix.

“I have one just like it at home.” Asher shrugs but doesn’t offer her anymore of an explanation than that.

“Really? Lucky lady.” She laughs, and a light shade of pink coats the apples of her cheeks. “Oh my. You are a big fella, ain’t you.”

Asher tugs at the collar of his shirt, looking like he would rather be anywhere than here. He takes a few steps back to avoid any more awkward conversation and gets out from under her scrutinizing gaze.

“Ella-Mae?” Isaac steps in front of her, gaining her attention away from Asher as he steals a cookie off her plate.

“Hmm?” Her mouth presses into a small line.

“You mentioned that the noise was bothering you?” He bites into the cookie and smiles at her. Isaac always was a smooth bastard with the ladies.

“Oh yes, it shook the wall in my kitchen where our apartments connect. The darn vibrations almost knocked all of my precious china from my wedding off the counter.” She narrows her eyes at Isaac as she remembers that little detail. “They were my husband’s favorite.”

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