Page 19 of Hard Evidence
“I’m so sorry.Shiro, lie down.”Death was looking more attractive by the second.“No, leave his foot alone.”
“Okay, speak.”
Shiro barked, just as he’d been taught to do.
Uh-oh.The guy was back to looking annoyed.Annoyed with a hint of amusement in his coppery brown eyes.
“I-I-I rented a room here,” I told him, fumbling for my phone.“I’m your new roommate.”
“The hell you are.”
Something like panic began to well up in my chest.I’d paid all that money.Driven for over an hour to get here.Several hours if you counted the many stops for the engine temperature to drop.
“No, look.I spoke with the homeowner’s daughter, and this is the address she gave me.See?”
He scrolled through the messages, quickly at first, then more slowly as he read each one.Dread pooled in my stomach, and I began to get a bad, bad feeling about this.
“You paid someone sixteen hundred bucks to rent a room here?”
I nodded.“Security deposit and first month’s rent.”
“Sorry, but you got scammed.I recognise the pictures—they came from the listing.Whoever you sent the money to, they don’t own this property; I do.”
For the second time, the bottom dropped out of my world.In the grand scheme of disasters, this one wasn’t so serious, but years of being stepped on by Ridge had left me far more fragile than before.Full of tiny cracks, and the slightest pressure in the wrong place opened up chasms.Tears began to leak out.I couldn’t stop them.
“I…I need to make a call.”
Tiffany had been so friendly, so helpful.The kind of person I’d wanted as a friend.Maybe I’d made a mistake?Gotten confused somehow?I held out a tiny shard of hope until I dialled her number and heard the recorded voice.The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected.My heart stuttered as the full horror of the situation hit me—I was alone in a town I didn’t know with only a few bucks to my name, no job, nowhere safe to sleep, and a dog that ate as much as a small horse.The tears kept coming.Sniffing, I wiped them away with a sleeve and tried not to look like the fool I was.
“I’m so, so sorry for disturbing you.I’ll be on my way as soon as I can, but my car overheated and I just need to wait for the engine to cool before I can drive it again.Shiro, come.”
I tried to walk away, and when the guy grabbed my arm, I shrank back on instinct.How many times had Ridge done the same thing?I’d always covered the marks up with long sleeves.
“Shit, I’m sorry.”He released me in an instant.“I didn’t mean to… What happened to your eye?”
The tears?Hadn’t he seen a woman cry before?“It’s been a difficult week.I have tissues in the car.”
“I meant the bruises.”
Crap, I’d bought concealer in the grocery store, but the tears must have washed it away.My black eye was more of a yellowish colour now, but it still looked ugly without make-up.My first instinct was to lie as I always did.
“I walked into a door.”
“And what was the door’s name?”
“Uh…”
“Did you file a police report?”
“It would only make things worse,” I whispered, and when he didn’t look happy, I automatically tried to appease him.“I’m going to file a report about the rent money I paid.”
Not that I expected to get it back.And even if it did somehow get recovered, the process would take months, and I didn’t have months.I needed to find a way to feed Shiro right now.Maybe I could get a job working double shifts and board him somewhere until my circumstances improved?It wasn’t fair to expect him to live in the car long-term, and we wouldn’t be getting a room any time soon.The thought of being alone in a parking lot at night terrified me.
“You know where the police station is?”
I shook my head.
“How long have you been in town?”
