Read Online Tied - Part Four (The Tied Series) by Ellen Callahan - Free Book Online Page B

if we need anything else,” the officer said, “Have a good one.”
     
    We watched him go before heading in the opposite direction - back toward the train, to a corner bodega where the girls were waiting for us. I hadn’t even wanted them that close, but they’d insisted.
     
    “I was hoping they’d at least tackle him,” Mallet said.
     
    “Yeah. Pretty anti-climactic.” I dragged my heavy boot along. Of course I’d known that seeing Rabbit arrested wouldn’t fix my foot. It wouldn’t fix anything, really. I don’t know what I was hoping for. Relief? I just felt tired. Doing the right thing isn’t very exciting.
     
    Katherine and Riley rushed out to greet us when we reached the block where they waited. Whatever rush I was missing when Rabbit got stuffed in that cop’s car, I felt when I saw her. My tired body buzzed back to life. I wrapped my arms around her.
     
    “How’d it go?” she asked.
     
    “Too smoothly,” I said.
     
    “It was actually boring,” Mal added.
     
    Riley rolled her eyes. “Guys. Seriously. Boring is good in this scenario.”
     
    “Feel better?” Katherine asked me.
     
    I shrugged. “I guess. I feel ready for whatever’s next.”
     
    “Tony’s waiting for us,” Mallet said, leading the way back toward the train, “That’s what’s next.”
     
    I followed in silence. Katherine held my hand but she read my mood and didn’t push.
     
    Boring is good , I reminded myself. So what if I didn’t get to release all my rage on that fucker’s face? It’s over . It was hard to let all that anger go after clinging to it for so long, but Katherine’s tight grip on my hand anchored my thoughts. Her. The baby. The apartment.
     
    I’d never forget about what had happened - I’d have the scar and the limp forever. And I was disappointed to realize that maybe I’d never entirely stop being angry.
     
    But I was ready to move forward.
     
    ○●○●○●○●○
     
    In our case, moving on meant moving out. Mallet’s brother Tony was waiting for us at their father’s apartment in Brooklyn. My least favorite borough, for no other reason than “trendy people like it.”
     
    “Wow,” Katherine said when we stepped out of the subway. “It’s a nice neighborhood.” It kind of was. Even I was impressed. The street was alive with pedestrians - businessmen and strollers and people walking their dogs. There were little boutiques and coffee shops and bars everywhere we looked.
     
    “It wasn’t so nice when my parents bought the place back in the eighties,” Mallet said.
     
    “Mal, we can’t do this,” I said, “You could make a killing off this apartment. Rent it to some transplants at triple what you’re charging us.”
     
    “We want people in there that we don’t have to take care of,” Mal said, “You’ll unclog your own drains and change your own lightbulbs or hire your own guys to do it. We don’t want to play landlord, you know? We don’t have time. This is a good deal for both of us.”
     
    “And we’ll really renovate the place, Mal, we promise,” Katherine said when we reached the front of the building. It was clean, and landscaped, and almost too nice. How could I not feel guilty? Even Katherine wore a concerned frown as she looked up at the brick entryway. “I mean, as quickly as we can afford to.”
     
    “Whatever you can do,” he said, “But don’t worry about it.”
     
    Tony let us all inside. Stepping into the actual apartment spelled out a much different story than the outside told. I understood why they were so willing and eager to just hand the place to us on the cheap to deal with. It was like a timewarp. It hadn’t been upgraded, or hell, even painted, since his parents had bought the place almost thirty years ago.
     
    But it was perfect. There was plenty of space and that was all that mattered. It could be painted, it could be cleaned. Most of the furniture was gone - that explained why Mallet had been so busy lately. Some