Torch Scene Read Online Free PDF Page A

It scared me, and I forgot to say anything about the rent.”
    “Did he damage anything?”
    She shrugged. “I couldn’t tell. I hadn’t been in there that long when he came home and surprised me.”
    “And let me guess, when you asked him to pay you the rent, he threatened to take you to court because you entered his home illegally.”
    “Yes. He said he’d get me money when he could and that I’d better leave him alone. So I waited a couple more months, and still no rent.”
    “What’s the other reason for not evicting him?”
    She laughed but there was no mirth in it. “I found out that it’s not that hard to evict someone…well, there’s a bunch of hoops you have to go through and it costs to file paperwork and get the sheriff to come out to your property, if it comes to that. But the real issue is trying to recover your money. I’d have to take Nick to court, which would mean getting a lawyer and paying court costs, and even if I won and he had to pay those costs, I knew he didn’t have it to pay me. I figured I had a better chance of trying to work it out with him than if I evicted him.”
    I sipped my beer. “Do you know why he didn’t have the money?”
    “I know he lost his job, or at least the job he’d put on his rental application, because I finally called to check on it, and they said he no longer worked there. And the neighbors have seen him around at odd times, so it didn’t seem like he had a nine-to-five job.”
    “Do you remember the name of the company?”
    She thought for a moment. “No, it was some data company in the Tech Center.” The Denver Tech Center was a huge business complex southeast of downtown Denver. Finding a ‘data company’ in the tech center would be like finding a polar bear in a blizzard.
    “In the meantime,” she continued, “my own finances were stretched thin because I can’t make the mortgage if I don’t have the rental income. So I started taking extra shifts, but I was still getting behind in my own bills.”
    “Why didn’t you say something? I could’ve helped.”
    She shook her head. “I couldn’t do that. We’d only just begun dating. What would you think if I started asking you for money? Anyway, I thought I could get it resolved with Nick. I know, that was wishful thinking on my part, but I kept thinking it would work out. Then Darcy complained about him making noise again, and I went up to talk to him. There was no answer, so I tried the lock, but I couldn’t get in.”
    “He changed the locks?” I was incredulous.
    “Yep. I couldn’t get into the apartment I owned.”
    “This is like Pacific Heights ,” I said, referencing a movie with Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffith. Keaton played a renter who never pays, destroys his apartment and changes the locks, and much more.
    She nodded. “Yeah, I thought about that. And just like Melanie’s boyfriend in the movie, I got into an altercation with O’Rourke.”
    “Oh no.” I sat back. “What happened?”
    “A week ago, I was down in the basement, doing laundry, when he showed up. He saw me and left. I followed him upstairs and we got into a shouting match on the front porch. I told him I’d had it and that if he didn’t get out of the apartment, I’d find someone to throw his ass out. He said ‘just try it’ and laughed. And then I…there was a potted plant on the porch and I threw it at him and yelled something about making sure he’d get what was coming to him.” Her jaw clenched. “I was just so mad, I was literally seeing red, and I wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. And I did, because that pot hit him on the forehead and made his head bleed. I was having money trouble and was working extra shifts to try and get by, and he thought it was funny?” She stopped. “What?”
    I’d seen Willie angry a handful of times, but I’d never seen that temper take on a physical aspect. “I was wishing I could’ve seen you clock that jerk.” I smiled, trying to ease the