The Distance Between Us (MAC Security 3)

oom is open plan with a kitchen and two doors toward the back.

I open up the door on the left, it’s a small bathroom comprising of a toilet, shower, and vanity, all in need of a good cleaning.

The door on the right is a bedroom complete with a queen-sized bed, the mattress bare. I switch the light on and look down at the stains. That’s the first thing that will go. Ain’t no way I’m sleeping on that. What the hell is with this apartment and stains? The brown carpet is covered in them too.

I walk back to the living room and grab my bags, placing them on the bed and starting to unpack as I make a mental list in my head of what I need to go and buy first thing in the morning.

I pull up to the complex the next morning and start to empty the truck bed. As soon as I woke up, I was out of the apartment and heading to the shops to grab what I needed to get the apartment up to living standards.

The place is riddled with cockroaches and the stench of it is worse than the truck. Armed with enough cleaning supplies to clean a hundred apartments, I walk past the group of guys that are hanging around the entrance.

“Morning.” I smile, showing my teeth and adding extra peppiness into my steps.

“Well hello there, sunshine,” one of them answers. I look at him and figure that he must be the top dog amongst this group of people. His dark eyes watch me like a hawk and I can’t help but wonder if I know him, he looks familiar but I just can’t place him.

His hand adjusts the backwards cap on his head and he lets his foot drop off the wall the longer I stare.

I smile and huff out a breath. “Think one of you strong men could help me with my bags?”

Catching people off guard is what I do best. Most people would have walked past them with their head down and tried to be invisible. There’s no point in that though, all you’re showing is that you’re scared. Disarming someone like this is what you need to do.

“Sure.”

Top dog takes the bags out of my hands and follows me up to my apartment. I don’t intend to let him in but as soon as I have the door open, he’s pushing in and scanning the place.

“Erm...” I bite my lip and look around. “The place is a mess, I only moved in last night.”

I don’t move from the open door, I might want to disarm him by being little miss peppy, but I’m not stupid. Being in a closed space with him probably isn’t the best of ideas, especially when I don’t even know his name.

“Yeah, all the places here smell like this.” His eyes rove over the apartment and then land back on me causing goose bumps to spread all over my skin as he looks me up and down.

I swallow as he moves closer, his almost black eyes narrowing on me.

“New in town?” he asks and I nod, clutching my hands in front of me. “Maybe I can show you around sometime?”

He’s two feet away from me now and I have to crane my head right back to be able to see his face.

“Sure,” I whisper.

He smirks and nods, side stepping me and heading out of the apartment. I wait a beat before I look outside and see him heading down the stairs.

“Dick,” I mutter as I close the door.

I unpack the bags and pile it all on the small kitchen counter, shoving the rubber gloves on my hands and grabbing the big bottle of bleach. Time to kill those cockroaches.

“Shooting at Wayward Apartments, requesting back-up.” The voice comes over my radio and I lift it off the holder on the dash and click the button on the side to tell them I’m on my way.

I look into the mirror and wait for a break in traffic before I do a U-turn, flipping the switch on the dashboard and making the lights and sirens come to life.

There’s always something going on in Wayward, the area is run-down and in a dangerous part of town. At least half the calls that come through are to do with something going on there. If it was up to me, I’d knock the whole apartment complex down and be done with it. But I suppose that they’d have to move on to elsewhere, so it wouldn’t really solve anything because they’d just be someone else’s problem.

I’m two minutes out when my cell rings, but I ignore it. It’s probably Ty again anyway. He’s been calling me constantly since last night but I haven’t had a chance to call him back. I’ve been on this shift now for fourteen hours straight and I can’t see me getting off anytime soon after this call.

I pull my SUV to stop behind the several other squad cars, jumping out and running over to Kurt who’s already on the scene.

“Fill me in,” I demand.

“Two injured, one dead. The shooter has been apprehended.”