Page 9 of Kept By the Loan Shark

“You need to report them to the management,” Kyle urged.

“So they can retaliate even more?”

“Call the police then,” he said.

“And say what? That my brother ran out on some drug and gambling debts and I’m being harassed because I won’t pay them?” I shook my head. “That’s more trouble than I need.”

“Is it a lot?” Kyle adjusted his grip on the heavy basket. “What Ronnie owes?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t want to know.”

“Why can’t you ask Hagen for the money?”

“He’s not an ATM,” I replied with a frown. “And, anyway, he’s already done so much to help my brother. I’m not going to ask him to open his wallet again.”

“You shouldn’t have to ask. He should volunteer to help you, if he loves you.”

“He does love me. It’s not his job to ride in like my knight in shining armor and save me every time I have problems.”

“Yes, it is,” Kyle insisted. “That’s the whole point of a relationship. The man is supposed to take care of his woman. Doesn’t he want you to be safe?”

“Of course, he does,” I replied, more harshly than intended. “He would do anything for me.”

“Except pay these debts?”

“Pay what debts?” Hagen’s voice startled both of us. He had been leaning against my door, waiting for me. He pushed off of it and removed his aviators. His gaze moved from my face to the wet clothing, and his jaw clenched. “What happened?”

“Just a little disagreement in the laundry room,” I said airily, not wanting him to go full-blown knee breaking loan shark on Janine and Travis.

“They took her clothes out of the machines, threw them in the trash and used the money in the machines to wash their own laundry,” Kyle said, ratting me out to Hagen. “They also pissed on her laundry baskets.”

Hagen’s nostrils flared. “Stay here.”

“Hagen,” I pleaded, “don’t.”

He ignored my plea and stormed down the sidewalk, his long strides purposeful and strong. In his jeans and grey Henley with those black boots, he looked tough and mean. I wanted to chase after him, to tell him not to make trouble, but I stayed put. Some part of me, a part of me I hated to acknowledge, liked his alpha protectiveness.

“We should probably get inside,” Kyle suggested, his arms straining under the weight of the wet laundry stacked on top of his.

“Right,” I said, tearing my gaze away from Hagen’s back. Arms full of wet clothing, I realized I couldn’t reach my keys. “Can you grab my keyring out of my pocket? It’s on this side.”

“Sure.” Kyle braced the heavy basket of clothes against the wall and plucked the keys from the thigh pocket on my leggings. I ignored the touch of his fingers a little too high on my thigh, certain it had been an accident as he tried to hold up the basket and find the keys. “Got ’em.”

I stepped to the side so he could unlock my door. He followed me inside to the kitchen where we dumped my wet clothes in the, thankfully, empty sink. He pulled my mail from the back of his jeans where he had tucked it earlier and handed it over to me. “Looks like you got a rent increase, too.”

“Is it bad?” My budget was tight, and I wasn’t even sure where I would start to make cuts if I had to pay higher rent.

“Twenty percent.”

“Shit.”

“It’s only a problem for you if you’re staying to do your graduate work here,” he reasoned. “Your lease is June to June, right?”

“No, it’s month to month. Before Ronnie left, I had been thinking about switching complexes to a place closer to the university. They only had two-bedroom units available which was perfect because he could share the rent with me, but then he had to leave and I missed my lease re-up deadline.”

“And they put you on month-to-month,” he finished for me.

“Yeah.”

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