Read Online Pulled Within by Marni Mann - Free Book Online

yelled.
    “But I’m here now,” I replied once I opened the door.
    He looked at his watch. “You have ten minutes before the locksmith gets here.”
    “Just give me a second and I’ll get all my things out. Damn.” I shut the door and hurried toward the building without even glancing behind me to see if Hart had gotten out of the car.
    “Ten minutes,” Vince yelled. “That’s all you’ve got.”
    “Got it,” I shouted back. “Again.”
    “Relax,” Hart said. I stopped in the middle of the staircase and turned around. He was at the bottom, standing in front of the landlord. “We heard you the first time.”
    “She was supposed to be here over thirty minutes ago.”
    Hart’s back straightened, his feet spread apart, his hands stiffened at his sides. “That’s not her fault; it’s mine. So if you’re going to yell at someone, yell at me. Or keep quiet; that would be even better.”
    “But she—”
    “There’s no way in hell you’re going to keep talking to her the way you have been.”
    I couldn’t see Vince’s expression, but I saw the change in his posture: the way his shoulders slouched and his weight shifted between his feet. He slowly turned his head and looked up at me. “I’ll wait for you out here. Let me know when you’re done.” His tone was entirely different this time.
    Hart hadn’t been an instigator in high school, and I’d never seen him in a fight—mostly because nobody had ever tried to fuck with him. Everyone had known that he stood up for what he believed in and didn’t take any shit. It made disliking him even more difficult.
    I couldn’t think about any of that now.
    Using my key, I trundled inside Brady’s apartment, pausing in the middle of the living room to scan it all. He’d lived here for at least a few years. It was a good apartment. Great memories…some bad ones, too. Like the most recent ones of him detoxing on his bed.
    Hart was suddenly in the doorway. “I think we’re going to need a bigger SUV,” he said. I glanced at my side, watching his eyes travel over the couch and the kitchen table, the pots and pans that covered the counter. “Do you want me to go — ”
    “None of this is mine.” I moved into the bedroom, opened my suitcase and threw in all my clothes that were on the floor. I loaded it until it was so full I could barely get it closed. I packed the rest into garbage bags. Then I went into the bathroom and removed everything that was mine, making sure the lids were on tight before I stuck them in the same bag as my clothes.
    “Do you have any boxes? I can start packing the rest.”
    “There’s nothing else to pack.” He stood in the entryway of the bathroom, and I moved past him, dragging the suitcase and the two plastic bags over to the front door. I checked all the surfaces one final time; there was nothing else that was mine. And since I didn’t have enough room in Hart’s SUV to load Brady’s stuff, this would have to do.
    I was going to miss this place.
    “This is everything I own.” The humiliation of it suddenly registered. I slowly met his eyes. In my head, I created so many different reactions that would come out of him, imagining his expressions, his words. His pity. I was waiting for one of those…or all.
    He approached me and took everything out of my hands. “I’ll carry this all downstairs. Do what you need to in here, and I’ll meet you outside.” His voice was gentle—a whisper. Compassionate. It wasn’t one of the reactions I’d expected. “Don’t worry about the landlord…I’ll take care of him if I have to.”
    I watched him move into the hallway, focusing on the provocative curves of his hand as it gripped the knob and pulled the door shut.
    I sat on the sticky floor, tucked my knees into my chest, and wrapped my arms around them. The air left my lungs. I tried to suck it back in.
    Back and forth .
    I hadn’t shown any emotion while Hart had been in here. But now it was everywhere. In my liquid