Page 71 of Dirty Legend

Ugh, she loved this car. I’d think about that fight another day. Today had already been a lot.

“What do we do now?” I couldn’t believe we’d actually pulled it off. We’d gotten into their house and left our little surprise and gotten out. As far as I knew, no one had seen us come or go.

“We’re going to make an anonymous call to report it, but not until they’re home from work.” Maddox gripped the wheel a little tighter.

“Okay, and how will we know it worked? Are we coming back to watch?” I didn’t know what was going through his head, but that didn’t seem like a great idea.

“Fuck, no. We’ll call Connor. He’s got a buddy from his time in the Marines who’s a detective for SPD. We’ll see if he can get any info that way.”

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline. Maddox was one of the least social people I knew. If he wasn’t trying to get laid or hanging out with us, I didn’t know a whole lot about what he did, but I never saw him making small talk or trying to get to know people better. Then again, my parents had a whole different view on Maddox than I did, so what did I know?

The dude was a complete mystery, and he’d been one of my best friends for over ten years.

“How do you know about Connor’s cop buddy?”

“Last year, when we were up here, I had drinks with Connor and the guy one night. They were catching up, I was there for the alcohol.” Yeah, that made more sense.

We pulled into the garage at Amara’s, and I stepped out of the car, pulling my phone out of my pocket. “We’ve got about five hours until they should be off work. I’m going to deal with the movers. I think we should call about six.”

Maddox nodded in agreement.

“Do you want to call it in then, or should I?”

He pulled out his phone and looked down at it. “I’m going to grab a Lyft to the store. We’re going to need a burner phone, and I’m sure as fuck not driving in this clown car again.”

I laughed. “Fuck, how am I going to convince her to get rid of it?”

“Sucks to be you, dude. It’s times like this I’m glad I’ll never be a one-woman kinda guy.”

I scoffed. “Sure. I can’t wait for the day to say I told you so.”

“Not gonna happen.” He tossed the keys over the roof of the car at me, and I caught them in my palm. “I’ll grab us some food while I’m out, too. I’ll be back in an hour.”

He walked out, and I was left wondering how he could be so calm about all of this. It didn’t seem like this was his first time fucking with somebody’s life.

I stepped into the house, making my way back to the room to finish packing. The moving company said they’d be here tonight to pack everything and drive it down to our place in Cali. Fuck, we needed to get a bigger house. With Amara and the baby moving in, my condo was way too small. I’d worry about it when we got back. One thing at a time.

* * *

Six o’clock rolled around,and I was edgy as hell. I’d twisted my nose ring around so many times it was starting to hurt, and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. Maddox sat on the couch, eyeing me as I paced back and forth across the room.

“I’m gonna call it in.” He pulled out the ancient-looking flip phone he’d picked up this afternoon and dialed 9-1-1. I could only hear his side of things.

“I want to report some suspicious activity I witnessed.” He sat up straighter on the couch with the phone pressed to his ear. “A woman was screaming and kicking as two men dragged her into their house.” More silence on this end. I’d asked him why he needed to tell them there was a woman involved when there wasn’t, and he said just telling the cops there might be drugs there meant they’d need to get a warrant to go in and search. If they thought someone’s life was on the line, they’d go rushing in without giving it a lot of thought.

He repeated the address and hung up the phone, pulling the battery out and smashing it under his boot before throwing it away. His eyes lifted to meet mine with an intense stare. “Those fucking guys are about to get exactly what they deserve for messing with our family.”

I nodded because that was all I could really do. I’d said it before, and I’d say it again: Maddox could be one scary motherfucker.

“How long should we wait before we call Connor’s friend?” I asked.

“When are the movers coming?”

“They should be here any minute. They said it’d take a couple of hours.” I looked around the house. Amara didn’t have a lot of stuff, so it didn’t seem like it’d take them too long to pack it all up and haul it out of here.

He nodded and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m going to shower and change. What do you think about flying home tonight instead of tomorrow?”

The tightness in my chest lifted for the first time all day. “That’s the best idea you’ve had all fucking day.”

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