At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(163)

As he got close to me, I assured him, “I’ll talk to her.”

Joe didn’t look at me, he kept walking and I watched as he put a hand to the fence, threw his legs over it, landed on the other side, walked straight to his house, around it and then he disappeared, going to his garage.

I didn’t know what Joe had in his garage, except his Bullitt car, the hood of which I knew intimately. But I didn’t figure Joe going there was a good sign.

I also saw my girls didn’t obey, not even Kate. They were standing in the yard. Kate was staring at the grass, looking pissed. Keira was staring after Joe, looking worried.

I jogged to Tina’s door and knocked, shouting, “Tina, really, you need to open up, we need to talk before Joe gets back.”

She didn’t open the door. I knocked and called again. She still didn’t open the door. I was knocking again when Joe was suddenly there.

He pushed me to the side and went into a squat. Then he did something with little tools at her lock, the door opened, he straightened and strode right in.

I stood in stupefied silence not only because my boyfriend knew how to pick a lock but would and did until I heard Tina screech, “What the f**k? You can’t just walk into my house! I’m callin’ the cops!”

“Call ‘em, I’ll wait,” Joe replied and I rushed in to see Tina at the mouth of her hall, Joe standing in the living room in his scary as shit, sinister, arms-crossed-on-chest, badass, alpha male stance.

“You broke in!” Tina shrieked.

“Yep,” Joe agreed.

“What the f**k!” Tina repeated.

“Okay, everyone just –” I started.

Joe cut me off by ordering Tina, “Write a check. Five hundred dollars. Made out to Violet Winters and do it now.”

“You’re f**kin’ crazy?” Tina screeched.

“You do it, this is done, no more,” Joe stated. “You don’t, I’m in this war and, trust me woman, you do not want me in this war. I’m done with you, you’ll move to the next f**kin’ county.”

“Are you threatening me?” Tina snapped, leaning forward, clearly having a death wish.

“Yep,” Joe replied, calm as could be.

“You can’t break in my house and threaten me!” Tina yelled.

Joe looked around then back at Tina. “Pay attention, bitch, I just did.”

Oh Lord.

I walked across the room and got close to Joe, wrapping my hands around his bicep which was usually firm but now it was flexed and it felt like steel.

“Joe, honey, go home. I’ll talk with Tina.”

He twisted his neck and looked down at me. “Gave you that chance, buddy. I told you she f**ks with your yard, we got problems.”

“But, Joe –”

“She f**ked with your yard, we got problems.”

“She toilet papered my yard!” Tina shouted. “It took me hours to clean that shit up.”

Joe looked back at Tina and I could only see his profile and it scared me. She got the full face and shrank back.

“She didn’t do that to your yard, woman, she was in bed with me. You shit where you live, pissin’ people off, you gotta expect retribution. And you make a habit of shittin’ where you live. Who f**kin’ knows who did that to your yard? All I know is, it wasn’t Vi. You retaliated against the wrong person that person is my woman and your retaliation crossed a line. She can’t clean that shit up without it costin’ her and you’re gonna f**kin’ pay for it.”

“Fuck you!” Tina shouted and Joe shrugged, dropped his arms and turned away.

“So be it,” he muttered, sliding a hand along my shoulders and moving me to the door where he stopped and turned back to Tina. “I was you, I’d think about it. You got until tomorrow mornin’ to put a check in Vi’s mailbox. You don’t, it’s on. You get me?”

“I’m callin’ the cops,” Tina returned.

“You think Mike Haines and Alec Colton and the boys who work with ‘em are gonna be fired up to help you?” Joe asked, this finally penetrated and Tina’s face twisted. “Yeah,” Joe murmured as he noticed Tina was realizing maybe she should have made some friends along with all the enemies she created along the way. “Five hundred dollars, Tina, in Vi’s mailbox by nine o’clock tomorrow morning,” he finished then he turned us again and walked us out the door.

When we hit the fence, he picked me up and lifted me over setting me on my feet. Then he jumped it, took my hand and walked us to the dead grass in my yard where the girls were standing.

“It smells of bleach,” Keira informed us, Joe’s mouth got tight, Kate saw it and shoved Keira’s arm.

“All right girls, take the shopping bags in the house,” I ordered, wondering if I’d have time to do anything about my yard before Bea and Gary got there and thinking I wouldn’t considering I only had one day and I’d be working that day.

“Should we –” Kate started and I looked at her.

“House, baby,” I said softly, “we’ll worry about this tomorrow, yeah?”

She nodded, tagged Keira, they went to the Mustang, got the bags and went into the house. Joe stood staring at the word in my lawn.

“You okay?” I asked.