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?”

But rather than showing him inside, she went out onto the porch.

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

on high alert and tried to look elsewhere. But the tiny shorts she’d on weren’t helping. Her legs seemed to go on forever and even her baby bump was

“Fuck,” he breathed, “I’m so sorry for bothering you.”

her head to the side, causing her honey blonde curls to wrap around one of her breasts and

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

“What can I do

his eyes away from this beautiful woman that 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

that I will need your services right away,”

dead, I’m sorry! My sister had an emergency at her shop, and I stayed late to help.

“Can I convince you to come tonight?”

and looked down at herself. She squeaked and covered her breasts, noticing how see-through her

course, I just need a few minutes to pack.”

in?” Elliot surprised himself with the request. But he didn’t want to

had no

carry the boxes,” Elliot added with a smile.

let out the breath she was holding, “All right, Mr. Brand. But just a warning, we weren’t

a dark eyebrow, “I think I realized that the moment the revolver was pointed through the crack in

“I truly am very

a hand and placed a long finger

“Don’t be,” he whispered, “I’m glad that you’ve had someone to protect

skirted away from his, “Yes, well, something like that. Please come in.”

tried to ignore the way

rot and was damp. However, the bedroom that she led him too was

“Where are the boxes that you can use?”

out of the room and returned with three beat-up liquor boxes. Elliot smiled at

have much. Please just have a seat on my bed.”

she’d a chair to offer him. He looked huge sitting on

As she opened one of the drawers of the

in

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