Quit Bein' Ugly (The Southern Gentleman 3)

I just hoped that he could hold out. Because if I ever caught him with Carmichael in his sights again, he was fucked.

CHAPTER 3

CrossFit: the only place where saying ‘beautiful snatch’ isn’t a form of sexual harassment.

-Text from Carmichael to Flint

CARMICHAEL

It was the squeak of my window opening that had me sitting straight up in bed.

I looked over to Danger, the Alaskan malamute puppy—now more of an adult—that I was fostering. Only, Danger wasn’t there. I’d paired her out with her prospective match just yesterday.

See, I owned a pet matching website.

A person in our immediate area that was looking to adopt a dog went to my website. We asked them a series of questions and then paired him or her up with their perfect pet. So far, we had a ninety percent success rate.

But that sucked for right now, because having Danger here would’ve really been helpful. She may not like me, but she didn’t like anybody else, either.

My heart was pounding as I stared in horror at the room beyond where my bedroom door was.

The living room window squeaked when it was opened.

Quite badly, too.

I’d been meaning to spray some WD-40 on it for months now since I liked to have the windows open at night, but I’d never gotten around to it.

Thank God.

I swung my legs over the bed and practically dove into the sweatpants that I’d left on the floor.

Once dressed I yanked my phone free of the cord that was charging it and dialed my brother.

He didn’t answer on the first ring. He answered on the seventh.

I was nearly about to hang up when he grumbled a hello.

“There’s someone breaking into my house,” I hissed quietly as I tiptoed to the bedroom door and locked it.

All sleepiness left my brother’s voice when he said, “Did you call 911?”

No. I hadn’t even thought about doing that.

Jesus Christ. Where was my head at?

“No,” I admitted. “I panicked.”

He said something to who I assumed was Camryn then told me to go into my bathroom and lock the door.

“I don’t have a gun. You have it,” I nearly cried.

I’d given it to him last week to clean, and he hadn’t given it back.

Why didn’t I just clean it myself? I knew how!

I knew why, though. I was lazy and I hadn’t wanted to go to the store to buy a new kit to clean it with because my old kit was somewhere packed in a box and I didn’t know which one.

Now, I was seriously regretting my decision to do that.

I should’ve told myself to stop being a lazy bitch and gotten my boxes unpacked. Instead, I’d done the unthinkable, and now I was left with someone breaking into my house and no way to defend myself.

It was then that I realized that at some point, I’d hung up on my brother.

I’d just decided to call him back when there was a rather strong knock on my front door.

I frowned, wondering if I should answer it, then thinking better of it when I didn’t know who was outside.

Instead, I decided to stay put and wait for Flint, just in case.

My phone rang and I practically jumped when it started to vibrate in my hand.

Answering, I placed it to my ear.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s Croft at your door,” My brother said. He sounded like he was running. “I told him where the spare key was. Don’t freak out when someone starts creeping around the house. There’s another officer on his way that might get there before me, too. His name is Maddox. He’ll let you know when he’s close.”

I closed my eyes as relief poured through me.

Croft was here.

That meant that whoever had tried to come into my house definitely wouldn’t have stayed.

Croft was my next-door neighbor.

Had I known when I moved in that Croft lived in the house next door, I would’ve turned right around in my moving truck and never looked back.

But, as for right now, having him so close really worked for me.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“I’m on the bike. Hard to talk and ride. I’ll be there soon.” Then he hung up, leaving me staring at the door with worry written all over my face.

Two minutes later there was a soft knock.

“It’s me,” Croft called loudly. “It’s clear.”

I opened the bathroom door and rushed to the bedroom one, throwing that open too.

I didn’t even register that the man was in sweatpants and sneakers.

Nope. All I noticed was that he was there, and that I was still freaking out.

I threw myself into his arms and latched on to his neck so tight I heard him choke.

“Was anyone in here?” I asked worriedly.

“No,” he answered. “No one. The window was open, though. The flowers around the door were trampled, too.”

My stomach knotted and I looked worriedly at Croft.

“Did he come inside?” I wondered.