Her son, Gordon, emerged some time later, stomping down the stoop with his arms swinging. “Do you know where she keeps, well, kept, the rat’s leash?” he asked when he reached us at the bottom, a loafer kicking over a potted mum on the final step.
I pulled Stanley close to my chest, the little meatball shaking. For once, he wasn’t trying to eat me. “Where are you taking him?”
Stanley was more like a son to Lil than Gordon ever was. I wouldn’t let him touch him.
“The pound. It’s about time that thing was put down. I’ve been telling her for years he had to go.”
“That’s not necessary. I’ll keep him.” I’d never owned a dog before, but how hard could it be? I’d figure it out. I’d be doing a lot of that in the near future anyway. Might as well throw dog ownership on top of the pile.
“You want that rat?” he scoffed. “Go for it.”
“His name is Stanley.” He might have been a pain in the ass, but he wasn’t a thing. He was a scared little dog whose whole world was gone.
Gordon ignored me, eyeing the stairs down to my apartment in the distance. “How soon can you be out?”
I wanted to push him down them at that moment. Maybe it would knock some manners into him. “Excuse me?”
“Of the apartment. You rent it still, I assume?”
I was surprised he remembered, let alone recognized me. I’d met him two times since meeting Lil. Two times too many. And while it upset Lil to no end that he never visited, I actually preferred he stay away. Both times he’d visited, he’d done nothing but insult her.
“My lease is up at the end of the year.” I stroked Stanley’s fur, knowing I’d have to start looking for dog-friendly apartments. Ones that didn’t mind me owning a dog with a bite history a mile long. Finding something in my budget would be tough. Hopefully three months would be enough time.
He sighed, stuffing his sausage fingers in his suit pockets. “Well, make it month’s end. This shithole will be on the market October first.”
Shithole? Lil’s house was the nicest house on the block. “What? You can’t…”
He assessed me with a laugh before turning to stomp back up the stoop stairs. “I can, I will, and I just did.”
Ethan
I planned to stay in London longer, but when the detail called with the horrible news, I hopped on the next available flight to Boston.
I landed as night fell on the city and headed straight to the penthouse, waving off the guards who were surprised to see me. When I opened my front door, a four-legged monster came charging at me unexpectedly, Stanley headed straight for my ankle with teeth bared, barking like hell.
“Sit, Satan!” I shouted, the ferocious fatty stopping at the last second to flop into a half-assed sit.
Kee darted into the entryway at my voice, her eyes bloodshot and swollen. Swimming in a pair of my sweat pants and a t-shirt, she looked impossibly small and broken, what little strength she had left splintering as she ran into me.
I caught her, staggering backward to brace myself on the wall, her body quaking in my arms, torrential sobs ripping through. Awful, haunting cries. All I could do was hold on, serving as her legs when hers gave out, supporting her when the world was too heavy to bear.
“I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. Lil was more than a friend to her. She was a surrogate mom. A confidant. And now she was gone.
I knew the depths of the pain, the loss of Nan and Pop taking pieces of me into the dark with them. Even my mother’s death did, in a way, regardless of how flawed she was. I wanted to take the ache away, to heal the hole in her heart. But I knew nothing would.
Tears threatened my eyes, unable to picture a world without Lil. She was a larger than life personality, a constant fixture in our lives, whether she was strutting her stuff in her latest leather find or gushing about the men downtown. She was a daily reminder to live life to the fullest without fear.
We stayed locked in the embrace until Kee had no tears left to cry, her body limp in my arms, the last of the sobs leaving her weary.
I carried her to the bedroom and soothed her to sleep, nightmares waking her every so often. When she’d stir, I’d smooth her hair and hold her close, offering what support I could as she battled the sleep demons.
Morning brought the funeral, Lil’s final wishes returning her to the Earth within a day. Kee and I went together, the bodyguards maintaining their distance while we paid our respects.
Kee was the strong one then, greeting Lil’s bastard of a son with a grace I couldn’t muster, giving the waste of sperm a comforting hug and kind words he didn’t deserve. But that was Kee. Kind to a fault. Sweet as could be. Tougher than I gave her credit for.
We skipped the wake and headed to her place so she could grab more clothes. I waited in the car as a precaution while she headed inside with a guard, returning moments later with a bag and an eviction notice, Lil’s cockbag son listing his mother’s house before her body was even in the ground.
The drive back to my place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, though I doubted I would with the blood rushing in my ears, the wheels of revenge already turning full speed ahead. I couldn’t believe someone could be so cold, but it was par for the course when it came to Gordon.
When we reached the penthouse elevator, I excused the guards for the day to have alone time with Kee. We hadn’t spoken more than a few words since I walked in the door the night before, but I saw the questions dancing in
