Page 86 of Forced Proximity
I walked past them, not missing the guns in their hands as well, and headed for the front door.
Before I got to unlocking it, though, I hit the panel on the side of the wall nearest the stairs so I could see the outside cameras.
What I saw had me growling in frustration.
Today—no, yesterday—had been god awful.
I was mentally exhausted from saying goodbye to my best friends at a funeral that had come way too soon, and the last thing I wanted to do was deal with the complication on the porch right now.
I disarmed the alarm and drew in a deep breath to settle myself.
Yet, I did it anyway, leaving the gun on the stairs as I walked to the door to open it.
There were two females on the porch, looking like they were about to murder each other.
Daniella pushed forward like she was catapulted from a gun and ran straight into my chest.
She bounced off and hit the floor, then looked up at me dumbly as if she’d fully expected me to move.
“What are you doing here?”
Daniella scrambled to her feet. “I saw her with you at that funeral! Y’all were all over TMZ. I reverse searched your name, and this address came up. You lied to me! That was Dru’s apartment! Also, I’ve moved into her place since it’s obvious that she’s not using it. The manager gave me a key.”
That made me angrier than I already was. “You broke into her apartment?”
“I did!” she hissed, rubbing her nose. “Now, let me in. I need to talk to her.”
A surge of protectiveness rocketed through me as I made the decision that this woman would have nothing else to do with Dru.
I didn’t care what I had to do, but she was going to go the fuck away, whether I had to put her in prison to do it.
I wouldn’t kill her.
That would make Dru sad, but I didn’t think Dru would care if she hung out in prison as long as she was safe.
“You’re not talking to anyone,” I declared. “It’s the middle of the night. We had a really long day yesterday, and we have a really long day today. You’re going to leave, and then I’m going to fire whoever the fuck let you in here.”
That last part was directed at the security guard who was shifting from foot to foot, who had the gall to look sheepish.
The women had probably laid on the charm to be let in, and hadn’t cared that the security guard at the gate would be fired for not doing his job.
That was, I was coming to find out, fairly usual for Dru’s family. She told me a lot that they were selfish as fuck.
It made sense, though, that they were interested in Eugene.
Part of the reason I’d never wanted to work with him on anything was his lack of caring about consequences. He didn’t care that a road through a town would displace farmers that were living there for centuries. What he cared about was the money he would get from the developers that would line his pockets.
Oh, and let’s not forget about the one time he asked for a favor getting a certain judge on his side when it came to a shelter in need of rehoming. He failed to mention that the shelter he wanted moved was a homeless shelter and that by moving it, it would cause the homeless to have to walk miles farther, having to cross freeways to do it.
No, needless to say, I couldn’t fucking stand Eugene.
Where the fuck was he, anyway? Couldn’t he come clean up his own mess?
“I’m talking to my sister. We need to get this settled.” Daniella crossed her arms. “And this bitch won’t leave me alone!”
I looked at Jennifer, the aunt.
Well, not the aunt.
