I gritted my teeth and tried not to admit that he was right.
I’d forgotten to set it.
Just like I did most nights.
I just didn’t remember.
It wasn’t my fault.
I wasn’t used to having a stupid alarm.
The only reason I had one now was because my brother had insisted when he’d moved me into my new house.
“That’s not smart, Mikey,” Flint grumbled as he started to look around.
He saw it at the same time that I did.
“Looks like they stole your computer,” Flint said as he stared at where my old laptop had once laid.
I looked at the spot that had a collection of dust on the table around it, meaning I hadn’t moved it in quite some time, and then looked at Flint.
“Why would they steal that? That one doesn’t even work.” I threw up my hands.
Flint’s eyes, however, weren’t on me. They were on where the laptop had once laid.
“Why would a kid be told to try to distract you and steal your laptop?” he countered.
I opened my mouth to say something, but immediately closed it.
That was twice in two days, one of my computers had nearly been stolen and another actually had been stolen.
What the hell?
“No idea,” Flint grumbled. “What I do know is that you need to start setting your fucking alarm.” Flint turned his attention to the officer. “Did you dust for prints?”
The officer shook his head, but ended up doing just that a few seconds later as he walked toward the door to go get his bag. He came back in moments later to start dusting for prints, just in time to hear the two men continuing to lecture me on ‘women’s safety.’
By the time that the officer was done about twenty minutes later, I’d had enough.
“Listen,” I snapped. “I will set it from now on. What I will not do is listen to y’all bitch anymore. I’m done. Done. Finished. No more!”
Croft rolled his eyes at me at the same time my brother said, “Well maybe if you used your fuckin’ brain.”
I pointed at the door. “You can leave now.”
Flint threw up his hands. “I was just worr—”
“Leave!” I growled.
Flint sighed and made eye contact with Croft, letting him know that it was ‘his turn’ now.
Well, I had a surprise for them.
I was nobody’s to be taken care of.
I was a strong, independent woman.
Just as my brother headed for the door, I said, “And I want my gun back, you procrastinating bastard!”
Flint flipped me off as he left with the officer, leaving me alone with the intimidating man at my back.
I turned woodenly, as if what I was about to see would traumatize me for life.
When my eyes found his, it was to see him staring at me with barely contained fury.
“What’s your problem with me?” he asked bluntly. “I live right across the road. I would’ve gotten here in less time than it took for you to call your brother.”
He had a point but… I didn’t like him.
“My automatic response isn’t to call some random man that I barely know,” I told him honestly. “It was to call the man that has been there for me through thick and thin. The man that I trust with my life. The man that I know better than I know myself. I don’t know you, Croft.”
His eyes narrowed. “And why is that, Carmichael?”
My brows rose at his words.
“What do you mean, why is that?” I stiffened. “I don’t know you because I don’t know you. It is what it is.”
His eyes narrowed. “I asked you out on a date.”
I rolled my eyes at his high-handed tone.
“And?” I asked. “We didn’t go. You were too busy. With Karen, I think was her name.”
His brows rose at the scalding anger in my voice, but there was literally no way in hell that I could hide that.
“I was working with Karen on a case. She works at the firm with me. The case was rather large,” he explained. “I don’t know what this has to do with Karen. She wasn’t the reason that you bailed on the date.”
“Actually, she was,” I said. “You brought her to the gym that day. She practically molested you through the whole workout. You barely even looked at me. And to top it all off, you walked out the door with her instead of waiting for me. So yes, I bailed on the date. Who wouldn’t?”
“I walked outside because she needed help moving a box from her car to mine,” he said. “Which you would’ve known if you hadn’t left yourself.”
“I didn’t leave,” I countered. “I was in the kids’ room saying bye to all of the kids.”
Croft narrowed his eyes. “Bullshit.”
“Not bullshit,” I snapped. “I was there. I never left.”
He drew in a deep breath, then let it out.
“Karen’s nothing” he started to say, but his phone interrupted him.
He pulled out his phone, and I saw the screen as he shoved it back into his pocket.
“Nothing, huh?” I asked. “It’s four in the morning. People who are ‘nothing’ don’t call at four in the morning.”
Croft shrugged. “Sometimes she calls and texts. I’ve been putting my phone on silent lately because of it. You’re honestly lucky that I had it on loud because I usually don’t. Otherwise I wouldn’t have made it over here as fast as I did.”
I lifted my shoulders as if I couldn’t care less.
“I didn’t call you,” I said. “And there was no one here when you got here so…”
So, let that sink in.
I didn’t need him.
I certainly didn’t need the complication and drama that Karen was likely to provide.
The only man I needed was my brother, and that was that.
CHAPTER 4
CrossFit: realizing that you’ve joined a cult and you’re okay with it.
-Text from Croft to Flint
CROFT
I arrived at work the next morning tired as fuck because not only had I been woken up out of a sound sleep, but I hadn’t been able to stop
