“I applied for a job today,” Zoe told Charlie as they walked away from the Methodist church, after the meeting.

“That’s great! I hope you get it.”

“Thanks, Charlie. And thank you for talking me into going to the meeting today. I think I might go to another one soon.”

“I have to confess something to you, Golden Girl, I didn’t think you’d show up.”

She smiled. “You know what? I only showed up to prove to you that I would.”

He laughed. “Whatever gets you there, I guess. You catching the bus?”

“Yeah. Where are you staying these days?”

Charlie suddenly looked excited again. “I been staying with a few other guys at a house down at the end of Victory Boulevard.”

Victory Boulevard was part of a vacant subdivision just a few blocks from where they were. The city kept talking about restoring that whole area, but as of yet, they hadn’t had the funds. A lot of homeless people squatted in the houses along the vacant streets there, until the cops came along and ran them out. Zoe had avoided them, knowing that if the cops found her in one of them, it would get back to her papa.

“That’s good,” she said. “Just be careful. The cops do a sweep every month or so.”

“Yeah, but it’ll be good while it lasts. It beats the hell out of sleeping on concrete every night. This one has a fire pit and an old barbecue in the back yard that we can cook on, and the plumbing still works.”

“Wow, that’s good. Why does it have water still, I wonder?”

“I don’t know, but I ain’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. All we need now is electric and we’ll be set.”

That gave Zoe a bad feeling. The only vacant house she ever stayed in that had water turned out to be a grow house. The basement had been filled with wall-to-wall marijuana plants and a generator to run the grow lights. The man that owned the plants showed up, waving a shotgun around one day. It had scared her to death. “Charlie, have you really checked the place out? I mean, maybe somebody is growing something there…”

“Nah,” he said, unconcerned. “They’d need electricity for that, or at least a generator. The water thing is probably a fluke, it probably got left on by accident.”

“Maybe, but if it has a basement or an attic, I’d check them.”

Charlie’s eyes widened at the thought. “I don’t do confined spaces.”

“What about your friends, the other people that stay there?”

“I don’t think any of them will be okay with going under the house or into a crawl space. It’ll be okay,” he said, thoughtfully. “We ain’t tearing the place up. We put some old furniture in there that was found and fixed it up real nice.”

Zoe sighed. Something was telling her that Charlie wasn’t safe there. She wasn’t sure she liked this newfound intuition of hers, but she said, “How about if I check it out for you?”

“You’d do that?” Charlie’s face brightened again.

“Sure. You took me to your meeting. I can do this for you.”

“Thanks, Golden Girl.” They walked together for about two blocks with Charlie doing most of the talking. He knew all the gossip on the streets and he filled her in as they walked. When they got to Victory Street, Charlie suddenly stopped in his tracks. “Son of a bitch, what do they want?”

Zoe followed his gaze to a large blue house at the end of the block. There was a pair of Harleys parked out front. “Do you know who they are?” she asked.

He shook his head but said, “Those are some really nice bikes for this neighborhood. The only one around here that rides bikes like that are the Defenders.”

Zoe knew who the Defenders were, even before the night of the accident when she saw the dead man wearing their patch. She’d never had to personally deal with them and for that she counted herself lucky. The neighborhood was their territory and if you weren’t looking to join up with them, you were wise to keep your distance. They had a reputation as cold-blooded killers and even the street gangs that operated in the vicinity feared them. “Why would the Defenders be here?” Zoe was startled when Charlie took her arm and pulled her behind a giant sycamore tree in the front yard of the house they were standing in front of.

“They’re running us off,” he said, more to himself than to her, she thought. She looked back down at the house, where three men in varied states of dress were coming down off the porch with what looked like their belongings in tow. The men walked hurriedly through the gates of the yard and past the motorcycles. Zoe’s eyes went back to the empty, wide porch as a fourth man came out the door. That man was yelling at someone in the doorway that she couldn’t see. “Damned fool is going to get his head blown off,” Charlie said with a sigh. Just about that time, one big man, and then another, stepped out of the doorway. Zoe could only see them from behind, and they were both wearing vests with Defenders patches. The homeless man was backing down the steps, but still yelling at them. She couldn’t make out his words, but it was obvious that he was irate. Suddenly, one of the men took out a gun while the other turned in their direction with his eyes scanning the street. “Shit! They’re going to shoot the old fool. He doesn’t mean any harm; he’s touched in the head.”

Zoe hardly heard Charlie’s words. Her eyes were focused on the man watching the street. He was tall and had light brown hair that touched his shoulders. Zoe couldn’t make out his features from where she and Charlie were watching…but a tingling sensation rushed through her body as she looked at him. She shivered with the realization that she was looking at Levi, the object of desire in the erotic dreams she’d been having. What the hell is going on?