Page 14 of Fight for Me

CHAPTER III

BRODY

I yawn as I get into my apartment after my shift at the station doing some shitty paperwork all day. I don’t know how much longer I can do this. The sheriff was onto me from the start and is making my time here as insufferable as possible. I was supposed to get to Bell Ridge, investigate for six months tops, and move on to the next case, but it turned out to be more complicated than we originally thought. Add to that a certain smart mouth complicating things even further for me and here I am.

I walk straight to the fridge to grab a beer, massaging my stiff neck on the way. I untwist the cap and pull a large gulp, sighing in contentment at the feel of the cold, heavenly liquid. What a fucking day. No, scratch that. What a fucking week.

I eye my fridge one more time, considering heating up some food, but when I feel the tiredness weighing me down, I ignore my growling stomach and move to the living room to plop on the couch. I grab the TV remote and flip through the channels until I find some hero action movie and then put the volume on low. Staring at the screen, and not really seeing it, I am almost nodding off when my phone starts ringing. It’s my private number, the one I only share with my friends and family. I take it out of my pocket and frown sleepily at the unknown caller before answering. “Hello?”

“Hey, Handsome. Did I wake you?” I hear a very familiar voice ask in a faked cheerful voice, sounding a little winded.

“Jen? Why are you calling? What happened?” I sit up in alert, sleep immediately forgotten. Jenny has never in almost two years called me so I know something must be seriously wrong.

Jenny sniffs and then answers casually, “Oh, you know, the usual teenage stuff.” She clears her throat when I don’t say anything, waiting for her to elaborate. “So, uh, Brody. You remember all of that about me needing help and then you showing up on your white horse to rescue me?”

I grunt in response, my body tense.

“You could say that now is the time,” she admits reluctantly.

I stand up, ready to get on the road. “Where are you?”

Jenny sniffles again, and then instructs, “Turn around and look out the window.”

“What?” I mutter, but automatically whirl straight to my window, only to rear back in surprise when I see the contour of someone’s head in the darkness barely reaching the windowsill.

“How the fuck did you get up there?” I ask in bewilderment.

Her white teeth flash in the darkness as she grins at me through the glass.

“Unimportant. Focus. I need you to pull me in through the window,” Jenny answers on the phone.

“Why didn’t you just knock on the door like a normal person if you knew my address?” I argue, but start unlocking the window after putting the phone away. I lean out and see Jen balancing on the narrow metal step in between levels.

“What the fuck, Jen?! Did you jump here from the fire escape staircase?”

“Brody, I would love to chat about how fucking agile I can be, but I don’t know how much longer I can hang onto the wall.” She scolds me and I grab her outreached arm to pull her up. Jenny weighs next to nothing so I lift her easily, but on her way over she loses balance and tumbles fully into my arms. She starts to remove herself ungracefully, and I detect something off about her movements.

“Jen?” I watch her apprehensively as she sways a little.

She groans in pain, her wild hair obscuring the full view of her, and I move the dark curtain of locks away, only to pull away in shock when I get a full view of her busted face.

“Fuck,” I mutter just as she starts to collapse. I lift her in my arms and rush to lay her down. She moans when her body meets the surface of the couch.

“My hero,” she whispers jokingly before closing her eyes with a sigh.

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