7:28 PM Elliot Brand: A driver will arrive at nine to assist you with anything you would like to bring to the new apartment.

8:02 PM Elliot Brand: Ms. Johnson, I would like to confirm that you will be available at nine in the morning tomorrow.

8:47 PM Elliot Brand: Is something amiss? Have you decided not to take the job? Might I remind you, Ms. Johnson, that you signed paperwork this afternoon and are already a Brand Employee?

9:13 PM Elliot Brand: If I cannot reach you, I will come and speak to you face to face.

Elliot was fuming by the time he pulled into the rundown neighborhood that could only be described as the slums. Sirens wailed in the night air, far louder than any crickets had hoped to achieve.

The home looked to be held together with chicken wire and clapboard. Crumbling brick littered the front porch along with hundreds of cigarette butts.

Elliot knocked firmly on the door. There was a rustle behind the curtains and then the lights went off.

Did she think she could hide from him? He knocked louder, “We both know that you’re in there, Ms. Johnson.”

The door cracked open and the unmistakable sound of the gun being cocked ripped through his ears.

“Amanda?” Elliot’s hands tightened into fists. How dare she pull a gun on him?

The door opened a little further and he saw a woman in her fifties with a light between her yellowed teeth wearing a dirty housecoat.

“What you want with Mandy? You the fucker that put that baby there?”

Elliot could only stare.

The woman raised the gun to be level with his chest, “Better start talking fancy man.”

“What’s going on out there?” A man’s voice bellowed from somewhere inside. “Can’t a man get some sleep, damn it all to hell!”

“I’m her new employer,” Elliot stumbled over the words just as he heard a rustling behind the woman. He looked up and saw Mandy.

Her eyes were wide with disbelief, “Mr. Brand? What are you doing here?”

around her mother and unlatched the door. But rather than showing him inside, she went out onto the

material left little to the imagination and he could make out her lovely nipples

on weren’t helping. Her legs seemed to go on

“I’m so sorry for

to the side, causing her honey blonde curls to wrap

sorry, Mr. Brand. I apologize for my mother, she probably thought you were

Heat filled Mandy’s cheeks. “What can I do for

was apologizing for things that she’d no control over. A wave of protectiveness washed through him. He couldn’t let her stay here, not for another night, another

that I will need your services right away,” he stumbled over the

had an emergency at her shop, and I stayed late to

Elliot nodded, “Can I convince you to come tonight?”

Mandy blinked and looked down at herself. She squeaked and covered her breasts, noticing how see-through her pajamas were in the

“Of course, I just need a

in?” Elliot surprised himself with the request.

knowing that this man had no idea how they really

need to carry the boxes,” Elliot added with a

“All right, Mr. Brand. But just a warning,

Elliot raised a dark eyebrow, “I think I realized that the moment the revolver

“I truly am very sorry.”

hand and placed a long finger against

that you’ve had someone to protect you.”

Mandy’s eyes skirted away from his, “Yes, well, something like

both. Mandy tried to ignore the way her mother was yelling at the television. She

of rot and was damp. However, the bedroom that she led him too was clean even if terribly small.

Elliot’s voice was gruff, “Where are the boxes that you

of the room and returned with three beat-up liquor boxes. Elliot smiled at her, “What can

have much. Please just have a seat

chair to offer him. He looked huge sitting on the edge of her tiny twin bed.

she opened one of the drawers of the dresser, Elliot stopped her.

put these items in a box if you want.”

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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