Unauthorized Return (Unauthorized Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Aria drove another twenty minutes before taking an exit and driving down the pothole-lined country road. Within two minutes she was at her destination. She pulled in front of the 2-story, older, dingy apartment building with the kids playing hopscotch in the parking lot and the residents sitting in lawn chairs in front of their doors like the cement walk was a porch. She smiled. She had actually grown up in Tetam county in an apartment building much like this for the first nine years of her life. She felt right at home here.
    From where she had parked she could read the phone number off the sign, right over the top of the words UNITS AVAILABLE. She pulled out her cell and dialed it quickly. A bored sounding man answered and she asked her one and only non-negotiable question.
    “Do you have anything available today on the first floor?”
    “Nope sweetheart, but I got two on the second floor.”
    “Thanks.” She pushed the end call button and threw the car into gear.
    Coleton was looking out the window but swung his head towards her. “No good?”
    “Nope. Nothing on the first floor.”
    “And we have to have first floor because …?”
    “In case we have to run for it. We don’t want to have to jump to the ground.”
    He nodded, his face grim. “I thought that might be it.”
    Silence fell over them as she drove eight more miles to the only other apartment building in the area. If this one didn’t have what they needed she was stuck driving back to Westwood Harbor. But she had faith she would find a good place. Coleton wasn’t complaining yet either. That was a good sign.
    She pulled into the parking lot of the next place, which looked identical to the first, and parked directly in front of the sign. She dialed the number again and got a woman this time, with a bit more spunk in her greeting.
    “’Lo?”
    Aria asked her question and held her breath.
    “Course now, sweetheart, we got a one-bedroom. When you wanna come look at it?”
    “Now. I’m in the parking lot.”
    “Course you are. It’s 5B. I’ll meet you in front.”
    “Stay here,” Aria admonished Coleton and waited a beat, figuring the complaints would start now. But he just nodded and watched the children play on the sidewalk. Aria poked him in the arm and held out her hand to him. He looked at it blankly for a moment until she helped him. “Money,” she prompted. Understanding crossed his face and he dug the bills out of his pocket and put them in her hand.
    She climbed out of the car, quickly shoving the currency in her pocket, then hurried over to wait in front of 5B. The sound of a baby crying made her look around but she didn’t see it. In one of the apartments probably.
    Within two minutes a woman appeared from around the building and approached her with a hip-rolling walk that made Aria feel like smiling. But she didn’t. The woman was older than Aria - at least forty, maybe closer to fifty, but she was keeping age at bay. She wore a white, button-down shirt, tied at the waist over a pair of denim Daisy Dukes. From the neck down, she looked like a caricature of a country woman from the 70s, but when Aria looked at her face, she saw pure punk rock. The woman had a hoop nose ring and stunning, short purple hair that was styled to stand straight off her head like she’d been electrocuted. Aria knew she would have liked her once upon a time. These days she didn’t seem to like anyone.
    “Howdy, I’m Minnie,” the woman said, holding out her hand. Aria bit the inside of her lip to keep her mouth from dropping open. Howdy and Minnie? It was too much.
    Aria shook the woman’s hand and was surprised at the firmness of her grip. Then in a second it was over and Minnie had the door unlocked. “Fully-furnished - fridge works, stove works, A/C works, but there’s no dishwasher,” Minnie monologued as Aria’s eyes adjusted to the sudden gloom. Dark shapes greeted her. Couch, coffee table, TV. So it was furnished, that was good. Aria walked