Razed (Barnes Brothers #2)(53)
Her shoulders and arms were bare. Ruched silk clung to her torso, dipped low over her breasts. The blouse ended at her hips and a skirt of midnight started, only to end a few inches later, revealing legs that just went on and on.
Zane found himself envisioning grabbing that cloth, dragging it up . . .
“Are you ready?”
Her voice startled him out of the daydream and he jerked his gaze upward, met her eyes. “Ah . . .”
She lifted a brow.
“Sorry.” Zane had to clear his throat, feeling pretty much like he had when he’d shown up on the doorstep the first time he’d actually asked a girl out—and she’d accepted.
The yelling picked up next door and lines appeared near Keelie’s mouth. Zane held out a hand. “Looks like you’ve got your own live reality TV show living right next door.”
“Yeah.” She glanced over and then looked back at him. “Wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for her. He busts his ass. She up and disappears with his paycheck half the time.” She jerked a shoulder in a shrug. “The good news is . . . they aren’t the worst neighbors I’ve ever had.”
“What’s the bad news?”
She lifted a brow. “Listen to them. Do I need to expand?”
“Good point.”
She glanced past him, sighing. “The cops will be here in a minute.”
“Cops?”
“Yeah.” She angled her head to the other building. “That’s my landlord. He’s on his phone. Fifty bucks says he’s calling the cops.”
He had nothing to say to that. As the yelling next door got louder and louder, he stepped aside and gestured to his car. “You ready? I’m starving.”
*
Just brilliant.
Keelie settled into the passenger’s seat with a mental groan. Before Zane had managed to shut the door, she caught the wail of sirens. She’d been right—her landlord had called the cops, it seemed. Rarely a month went by when this didn’t happen with Tara and Nolan. She glanced in the mirror, watched as Tara hit her boyfriend—or whatever Nolan viewed himself as these days—punching bag seemed more apt.
He took it like a champ, his head swinging from the force of the blow, but all he did was stand there. She saw him spit something—it looked like blood—on the ground and then he turned away.
Tara kept screaming, the sound muted by Zane’s car.
If Nolan would see the light and maybe press charges against Tara one of these days, he could probably fight for custody of the kids, maybe even win. Battery wasn’t a charge that belonged solely to the male persuasion, something that Keelie had seen with her own two eyes, and she’d seen it a lot since those two had moved in. There was rarely more than a week or two when the poor kid didn’t have either his eye blackened or his mouth swollen, thanks to his lady’s attention.
But he wouldn’t leave.
Cops came peeling around the corner as Zane pulled away from the block. “Is this just a typical Saturday night?” he asked softly.
“Nah. This is actually fairly quiet.” She gave him a grim smile. “Once she went after him with a lead pipe.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.” She shrugged, thought about the baseball bat she kept tucked behind her front door for just such occasions. She’d even hauled it out once, threatened to use it.
The cops had let her go with a warning. The fact that they knew all about Tara probably had plenty to do with why Keelie hadn’t gotten arrested for assault. That, and the fact that Nolan’s forearm had been broken from the first blow Tara had laid on him with that lead pipe.
Tara had pled guilty to assault but she’d ended up doing only three months and then she was back home. That had been when their oldest was six months old.
If Nolan had left then . . .
“And he’s still here,” Zane said, shaking his head.
“Because of the kids.” Keelie glanced up at the apartment, but the little girls were nowhere to be seen. Thank God for small favors.
“He’s not helping them any.”
“No.” She slid him a look. “He’s not. He ought to just take them and go.” Blocking out the familiar flash of lights coming up behind them, she focused on Zane. “So . . . you told me you were making me dinner.”
A smile curled his lips. “Yes. I did.” He caught her hand and lifted it to his lips. “And I told you that you just might be amazed.”
“You’re doing that on a fairly regular basis, Zane.”
He chuckled. “Just wait.”
Chapter Ten
“So . . . favorite movie?”
She eyed him over the steak and cut another bite, popped it into her mouth and chewed before she spoke. “I’m eating. Be quiet. I want more.”
Zane laughed. “Hey, you were the one you grumbled a few weeks ago that we weren’t the typical get to know you thing. We’re here, nobody is going to interrupt. Ideal time, right?”
She rolled her eyes and looked down at her plate. “The steak is almost gone.”
“I guess I should have bought bigger steaks.”
She rested a hand on her belly. “Maybe.” Sighing, she leaned back in the seat, feeling just a little too full. “Although I already ate too much.” Reaching for her wine, she eyed him narrowly. “Favorite movie, huh? Addams Family—the one they did with Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia. Only the first one, though.” She waited for a comment.