“I’m fine Dad. My doors are locked and I’m in for the rest of the night.”

“I don’t like you living there, Addie-girl.”

“I believe you’ve mentioned that, Dad. But, I told you I’m fine here and I’ve got my doors locked and the chain latched too. I’m fine.”

“Stubborn. You’re just like your mother,” he mutters.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I laugh.

“Goodnight, Princess.”

“Night, Daddy.”

I hang up the phone and sigh. The apartment is lonely tonight. Ida Sue came by earlier today and asked if she could keep Kong. She’s really grown attached to the dog. I should probably just give him to her, but we’ve kind of bonded too. If I move to Houston or Dallas though, most apartment rentals there frown on pets and even if they don’t… With my budget, I doubt I’d get lucky enough to live by a park where he could enjoy the day. I’d have to drive to it and my schedule will be grueling if I get the job.

I frown thinking about it. When I first came back from France I was sure of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Coming to Mason… I thought I had found a home again, but now it’s all weird. If Black and I aren’t dating I feel weird hanging out with his family. Which pisses me off, because I liked his family. I’d like them even if I didn’t like Black. The past couple of days I’ve wished I never met Black. That way I could have met Petal and the others naturally and…

And not feel empty because Black doesn’t want to see me anymore.

“Open up, Addie!”

Speak of the devil…

My heartrate accelerates. I can feel it. I hate that excitement is the first thing I feel when I hear Black’s voice. I think about ignoring him. I really should. It’s been two weeks really since I’ve talked to him. I sit there in the chair and wait. Suits him right. He thinks he can just come over here on Friday night and think I’m home! He thinks he can ignore me then come over here and demand I answer the door!

Asshole! Black Horn Lucas is an asshole!

“I know you’re in there, Addie! I see your car. Now open up the door!”

“I could be on a date, asshole!” I yell, before I even think about it. It’s just the fact that he infuriates me so much!

“Well if you are, then you wouldn’t be yelling at me!”

“You’d make a saint yell at you even during a holy communion with God!”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know! You’ve got me upset!”

“Open this damn door before I break it in!”

I stomp to the door. The big-face jerk probably would! He doesn’t care that it would ruin my security deposit! Of course he doesn’t! He doesn’t care about anyone but his big fat self, with the pretty blue eyes and the heart of steel! No… steel is too nice and shiny it’s more like lead or rusty iron!

“What do you want?” I complain, as I yank the door open.

“You need to pack your bags,” he says, anger still locked on his face. It’s those damn eyes that grab my attention though. I hate those eyes. They’ve been haunting me at night.

“I’m not packing! Asshole. It’d serve you right if I stabbed out your eyes with a fork!”

“My eyes….”

“A rusty fork! A rusty fork to match your rusty, full of iron heart!”

“Have you been drinking?”

“Not yet! But if I have to deal with you much longer, I probably will!”

“Addie, I have to get into work, just pack your damn bags and let’s get out of here,” he says, like he’s trying to be reasonable—like I’m the one being completely unreasonable.

“I’m not packing my bags! Why should I pack my bags? What are you even doing here?” As I talk to him—more like yell—I’m stabbing him in the chest with my finger. I advance step by step, making him back up. When he gets off my door step and is finally on the grass of the small—miniscule really—yard, he refuses to move. That’s a shame, I would have liked to have marched him all the way back to his mother’s house.

“I told you not to move to these apartments,” he says putting his hands on his hips and staring down at me.

“You…” I stop because, for a minute I don’t quite connect. It takes me a minute before I realize what he’s saying. “You told me not to move to these apartments?!?!”

“Exactly,” he says calmly—way too calmly.

“You told me not to move into these apartments!” I scream… I think. I’m so mad that I’m not sure how loud I’m talking. Right now the only thing I’m sure of is that I want to kill him.

“Stop screaming at me like a banshee!” he orders, his voice louder but still cold, stoic and unfeeling.

In hindsight that is probably what breaks me. I have so many emotions where Black is concerned, but he can just stand there and be calm and cold and look at me with those eyes—eyes that are only saved because I don’t have a fork in my hand—and it’s like he doesn’t have any emotional involvement.

“I hate you!”

“I’m getting that, but if you don’t quiet down I’m going to have to run you in for causing a disturbance.”

“A disturbance?”

“You’re attracting your neighbors and disturbing their evening.”

I don’t look. Realistically, I know they’re probably looking if they are home because the apartments are tiny and not exactly soundproof. The place is a dump really, but the nerve of Black!

I take a deep breath and try to wrap my head around what he’s thinking.

“Why are you here?”

“I don’t like you being here. These apartments are too dangerous. Your father should have never allowed you to move here, but since he failed to keep you under control, I’m here. Now pack your bags.”

“You don’t like me living here…” I whisper the words, mostly talking to myself. “Failed to keep me under control…”

“Addie—”

“Don’t you dare,” I warn him and this time my voice is quiet. Deathly quiet.

“What?” he asks and for a second I think I see a trace of emotion on his face. I don’t know what it is, but it better be fear.

“Don’t you dare come to my place and tell me that I need to pack up my shit… Shit, by the way, that I’m still unpacking because you don’t think this place is safe for me. Don’t you dare!”

“Princess, I just did. Now get your shit—”

“You’re insane! You’re completely insane. You’re nobody to me, Black Horn! Nobody! Don’t you get that?”

“I—”

“We dated—if you can even call it that and now we don’t. Now it’s over.”

“We dated, Addie. We were a couple!” he growls, and finally—finally I’m getting emotion out of him. The problem is that now I just want to hit him—hit him until all the anger and hurt I feel towards him is gone.

“I don’t think you can call it that, since you couldn’t close the deal, buddy!”

That’s when I hear the people around us. They’re laughing now, not that I care. I’m about to go to jail—probably for the rest of my life—for killing a cop!

“Check it out brother!” I hear someone laughing. “Po-po couldn’t get it up with the Chiquita!”

Black growls at the man, but his attention remains on me.

“I didn’t seal the deal because there was never—”

“That’s right! Never a place. Well now I have a place!”

“It’s a shit place!” Black yells back.

“Well at least it’s a place and I don’t still live at home with my parents!” I scream back.

“Oh dude! That’s cold. Copper still lives at home with his mamá!”

“Fuck!” Black barks. “Get your fucking clothes Princess or you won’t like how I retaliate.”

Then, before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m slamming my hands on his chest, slapping him, hard. I even try to bring my knee up and kick him, but he somehow blocks that.

“You asshole! You just kicked me to the curb without warning! You go weeks without talking to me and then you think you can just show up and order me out of my own apartment? You’re crazy! You’re an egotistical, self-centered, cold-hearted bastard!” I scream and with each insult I can think of I hit him. Black lets me hit him, he doesn’t move. “You’re a prick!” I scream.

“That does it,” he growls. He lifts me up, kicking limbs and all and hefts me over his shoulder.

“What are you doing? You put me down this instant!”

Black walks to my door. It only takes him three strides, but each step bounces his powerful shoulder into my stomach. I thought he was taking me inside my apartment, but that doesn’t happen he slams the door shut, and then he’s walking to his car.

“What are you doing? I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You don’t have a choice,” he growls.

“This is America! Land of choices!” I argue. “And I choose for you to put me down and then you leave.”

“That’s not happening,” he says opening the back door of his squad car.

“You can’t just force me to go with you!” I argue. “That’s kidnapping! You’re breaking the law! You try it and I’ll make a citizen’s arrest and force Luka to book you!”

“It’s not kidnapping,” he says all but tossing me in the car. It takes me a minute to get up off my back and sit. When I do Black is completely blocking me, leaning down on the car door with his hand on the top of the car. He looks bigger somehow—and he was already huge. His face isn’t stoic anymore either—it’s full of anger. “I’m arresting you, Princess,” he announces and he slams the door shut. I immediately scramble from the seat trying to open the door back up, but there’s literally nothing to open the door with…. There’s no handle… there’s nothing. I look up as he gets into the front and there’s a huge metal cage like thing blocking the front seats from the back. I shudder a little at the reason the car is made the way it is.

Who has been in here before me? What kind of person needs to be subdued in a car with doors that only open from the outside and essentially a cage between them and the law?

“Don’t do this, Black! You can’t arrest me! I’ve done nothing wrong!” I yell, a little bit of panic mixed in with the anger now. I’m claustrophobic and this small back seat with no way out is bringing that to the forefront.

“You assaulted a police officer, Princess,” he says, starting the car. “That’s against the law and it’s my job to uphold it.”

“You’re insane,” I whisper. “You’re totally insane!”

Black ignores me and puts the car in drive, backing out of his parking spot.

I really am going to kill him!