Page 36 of The Woman in the Garage

“How’d he get out? With your box?”

“That, they had no answers for. Since there was nothing to go on, I just… didn’t bother with the police. The bruise has faded. Mostly. The fear of going back to the unit, though, that’s still fresh,” she told me as she started walking again.

No wonder she was having second thoughts about being here. The guys at work were being dicks; she was not doing great financially; she’d been attacked. On top of all of that, she was being fucking extorted by my Family.

She was dealing with all of that with no support system. I’d want to run back to Washington too.

“And now I’m paying for a unit I’m too afraid to go back to. While junk piles up in my car.”

“If you want, we can go back to your unit together after this,” I suggested. “Promise no one is gonna put a hand on you when I’m around.”

Was that a little spark of heat in her eyes? Or was that wishful thinking on my part?

“Okay. It would be nice to be able to use my backseat again. And trunk. And passenger seat.”

We sat down on one of the benches, eating our sandwiches before they got too soggy. We talked about tamer things then. The area, what I liked about it, if I’d ever considered moving, where my house was.

We walked out onto the pier after, the wind kicking her skirt and making it dance.

I barely resisted the urge to move up behind her, to press my body into hers, to feel her melt into me.

A family with a bunch of kids ran up then, making us break apart to smile down at them.

“You want kids?” I asked, finding I needed her to say yes to that question more than made any logical sense.

“Oh, absolutely. Being an only child made me want to have a big family myself one day. I’m assuming you want them too?”

“Definitely. Most of my siblings and cousins are heavy into growing their families now.”

“Are all your siblings married?”

“I’m single. So is Dante. And Valley is… maybe single? She doesn’t really talk about her relationships to her brothers.”

“Who can blame her? I mean, not only are you brothers, but…” she said, waving down at me.

But I was in the mob, was what she was saying.

“This was really lovely,” she said when we eventually made our way back to the car. Admittedly, after a lot of walking around, neither of us was ready to head back yet.

“Yeah, it was,” I agreed. “Do you want to go to your unit?”

“I guess it’s probably best to get over my fear before it grows any more.”

With that, we set off back to the shop, scooping up her car, then making our way to the storage facility.

Dasha was a bundle of nerves as we each grabbed stuff from her car and made our way inside.

Objectively, the place was creepy as fuck. Even in the middle of the day. Long, empty, dark hallways. Someone who wanted to do something shady could just come in and hide out to let the lights go off, which would make them invisible.

“What’s wrong?” I asked when we got to her unit.

“That’s… that’s not my lock,” she said, looking down at the padlock.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Positive. My lock had a little red band around it. This one is blue. Look,” she said, producing the massive keychain and trying to shove a key into the lock.

It didn’t budge.

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