Page 32 of Keeping Guard
“I told you, he’s not my dog.” He didn’t like the way she was frowning at him, as if she found him lacking, which he was. She just didn’t know how far down he’d fallen. If she did, she wouldn’t be offering him a bed in her pretty room.
It was time to go. Noah ignored the weird pang in his chest that grew with each step he took away from her. By the time he reached the door, his feet felt like they were encased in cement blocks, making it almost impossible to walk out.
For her sake, he had to. He was in a bad place, and dragging her down with him wasn’t an option. He opened the door, and Lucky shot through ahead of him. “Hey, you’re supposed to stay with her.” Lucky looked up at him with those two-different-colored eyes, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, and his tail swirling like helicopter blades.
“You’ll need this,” Peyton said, tossing him Lucky’s leash.
Before he could reply, she closed the door, and he heard the click of the lock. “Guess she’s done with both of us.”
Lucky whined, apparently not happy about that.
As he crossed the street, headed for the garage and his car, he glanced down at the thing he still wasn’t sure was a dog. One blue eye and one brown eye stared up at him, and Noah had the feeling Lucky was disappointed in him.
“You’re not the only one,” he told the dog. There was a long list of people he’d let down.
He was steps away from entering the garage when he noticed a homeless man sitting on a blanket at the corner. His eyes were closed, and he was strumming a guitar. The man was good, and Noah recognized the song, “Imagine” by John Lennon. What got his attention, though, was the other man standing over him... Peyton’s ex.
Noah stopped, his instincts kicking in. The homeless man was clearly ignoring whatever her ex was going on about. Noah didn’t like that Dalton was in the area. She’d said he lived in a gated community, so that wouldn’t be in downtown Asheville.
“We need to do a little recon,” he told Lucky. “Stealth is the name of the game. You got that?”
Enough people were passing by that Noah was able to come up behind Dalton without the man being aware of him.
“Look, I’m offering you a hundred dollars. That’s more money than you make in a week sitting here on your lazy ass. All you have to do is call me when she leaves.”
The asswipe wanted to spy on her? Lucky growled, and Noah assumed the dog was picking up on his tension. Not wanting Dalton to know he was there, he took a few steps back.
The homeless man kept playing, ignoring Dalton, but he opened his eyes, his gaze going straight to Noah. He lifted a hand, gave Noah a salute, then closed his eyes and continued playing. Had the man recognized that Noah was military?
Noah backed away. If he was smart, he’d cross the street, get in his car, and put Peyton and her problems in his rearview mirror. He had his own issues to deal with, and he wasn’t doing such a good job of that. Obviously, he wasn’t smart because a few minutes later, he was knocking on her door.
She had a peephole, and he stood in front of it, making sure she could see his face. As soon as the door opened, Lucky gave a happy bark.
“Noah?”
“We need to talk.”
She stepped back, then dropped to her knees, letting Lucky shower her with kisses on her chin. You’d think it had been days since they saw each other, not just minutes. As she leaned over Lucky, her hair cascaded around them like a black curtain. He wanted his hands tangled in that hair. For the first time in his life, he was jealous of a dog. He walked in, dropped the leash, then closed the door and locked it.
After she and the dog finished their lovefest, she unhooked his leash and stood. “Talk about what?”
“Is your offer of a room still good?” What the hell was he doing?
“Depends. Why the change of mind?”
“Your ex. He just offered a homeless man money to spy on you.”
Her eyes widened. “Joseph? He wouldn’t do that.” She rushed to the window.
“You know the man?” He followed her to the window. Dalton was gone, but had he gotten the man to agree?
“Yeah, he’s my friend. I need to go talk to him.” She disappeared down the hallway and returned a minute later with a pair of flip-flops. She dropped them to the floor, slid her feet in them, and then grabbed the key to her new door from the counter.
Lucky tried to follow them out, but Noah pushed him back. “Stay.”
“How do you know Dalton offered Joseph money?” she asked when they were in the elevator.
“Heard him.”
