Yolo (Carter Brothers #7)

Chapter 10

Frog parking only. All others will be toad.

— Parking lot sign

GARRETT

I could hear her crying.

It was literally breaking my heart.

“ Bindi ,” I called out. “ Can you go open your door?”

“ No ,” she said through her tears. “ I’m going to stay right here and cry.”

I eyed the distance from my balcony to hers, and decided not to risk it.

My family probably wouldn’t understand my falling to my death from five stories because I wanted to get to a crying woman.

So instead, I stayed exactly where I was and watched her cry.

She did it silently, and that hurt my heart even more.

Was she silent when she cried because that one time she was forced to be, and it became such an ingrained habit that she couldn’t cry any other way?

I’d looked up the robber that had gone to her house when she was fourteen and stolen all kinds of stuff.

They’d found him at a house a couple of blocks over after he’d left, and Bindi had been brave enough to crawl out and call the police.

The guy was currently serving a life sentence for robbery because he was a many times over repeat offender.

The judge had finally thrown the book at him at his last trial and he would be there for the rest of his life.

“ Bindi ,” I tried again when I just couldn’t take it anymore. “ Could you please let me in?”

She sniffled, then shook her head. “ No , Garrett . I’m sorry I even came to your place today, to be honest. I shouldn’t have involved you since you said it was dangerous to be seen with you right now, anyway. Had you found whomever it was that was following me, you would’ve been obligated to do something about it, and that would’ve drawn attention to you and me.”

She was right.

I hated that she was right.

But I didn’t feel right about tonight.

I saw how scared she was, and that wasn’t something that she would’ve overreacted about.

Even worse, the night shift attendant had said he’d seen someone out in the dog park with her, as well as leaving with her.

I’d asked him to pull those tapes, and I’d be looking at them tomorrow before I left.

She stood up after a long time and wiped her eyes.

I studied her face in the soft glow of the porch light, amazed that she could have cried that hard and not look the least bit splotchy.

Fuck , she was beautiful.

She smoothed down a lock of her curly hair, then said, “ Night , Garrett .”

I winced.

I hated that she wasn’t calling me “ Gee .”

She went inside, and I was left outside with Boss , wondering what the hell I was supposed to do from here.

There was no way in hell I was going to be able to stay away from her.

None .

Except when I got the message from the night attendant, paired with the video of Bindi in the dog park, I realized that I could stay away from her.

Easily .

Especially since the man that was at the dog park was because of me.

The leader of the Breakers gang, and the man that had put a price on my head.

The only question was, did he know how I felt about this woman? Or was he there just scoping me out, and saw her there and took the opportunity to terrify her?

To say that I woke in a bad mood after last night would be an understatement.

“ I’m up, I’m up,” I said to Boss .

Boss licked my cheek, and I peeled my eyes open and stared at the ceiling for a bit before forcing myself out of bed.

I’d spent hours last night going over scenarios in my head, and the only one I could come up with was that I needed to distance myself from Bindi .

There was no way that we’d been found out.

That he knew that I wanted her with the strength of a thousand suns.

Boss barked, reminding me he was still waiting, and I sighed.

“ Go outside and sit there while I finish,” I muttered.

Boss gave a bemused sniff and went out onto the balcony.

I went to the bathroom.

When I was finished and had my teeth brushed, I grabbed a pair of sweatpants off the end of my bed and slid them on.

Next were the socks that I’d worn yesterday, as well as the glasses that were next to the nightstand.

I didn’t bother with a shirt, because I planned on throwing my hoodie on as I left.

But when I called to Boss that I was ready to take him outside, he never came.

I frowned and walked to the sliding glass door that led to the balcony— I’d slid a huge dog door insert into the slider so he could go and come as he pleased.

When I got there, I found Boss on his belly, head between the railing, paws slightly hooked on the edge of the floor, and tongue lolled out.

“ What are you doing?” I asked him as I moved to the window beside the balcony.

When I looked down, it was to see a hand come up from the balcony below and hand out a potato chip.

I rolled my eyes as Boss leaned down to snatch it up greedily.

When I picked up my phone and shoved it in my pocket, Boss gave one last woof and headed toward me, eager to get outside.

“ Come on,” I said. “ Let’s go to the shitter.”

Boss ran at my side, eager to get downstairs.

I allowed him the freedom to take himself ahead of me, and emerged outside to find him already in the dog yard. An elderly woman, Timmy , waved. “ He was ready and wasn’t willing to wait for you.”

I snorted. “ He has zero patience.”

“ Agreed .” She chuckled as she walked back to her seat, picked up her crossword puzzle and ignored me.

Everyone that lived here were good people.

I liked them all—at least the ones that I came into contact with.

Glancing one last time at Boss as he played, pooped, and peed everywhere, I pulled out my phone and read through the messages that came in overnight.

One in particular that I zeroed in on first was the message from Quaid .

I’d sent him the video last night of Baron Harper , the new leader of the Breakers Gang , and he hadn’t gotten back to me until this morning.

Quaid :

What is he doing? Who is that girl?

Instead of doing the long texting thing, I picked up the phone and called him, heading toward the more secluded part of the dog area so no one would overhear what I had to say.

“ Quaid ,” Quaid answered shortly.

“ It’s Garrett ,” I said. “ You know, the person on your caller ID .”

“ I know who you are,” Quaid grumbled. “ I just had eight people call in today. I’m not in a good mood.”

I’d thought about sending the text to Quinn , who was now over the gang division instead of my brother, Quaid , but ultimately decided to go with Quaid since he was the one running the gang division when all the shit had gone down with me getting stabbed.

“ Do you need me to cover anything?” I asked.

“ It’d be really fuckin’ nice, but I know that you have to go sniff out the high school, so I won’t ask that of you.” He sighed.

“ I’ll probably be done around eleven. I can cover whatever you need after that. Just tell me where,” I offered.

“ Who’s the girl?” he asked instead of answering me.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “ She’s the girl that Gable and I saved when we were hiking in Colorado . The girl that was hit in the head with that boulder and left.”

“ I thought she lived in New Mexico ?” he wondered.

“ She did,” I confirmed. “ But she moved here to get away from her ex, who might I add is also still an issue and followed her down here. As for the video I sent, last night Bindi told me that she was in the dog area at our building. Some guy approached her. I sent you the video last night. He followed her out onto the street, then down the road. When she realized she wasn’t shaking him, she came back, and came to my apartment instead of her own.”

“ Smart girl,” he said. “ Did she move there because of you?”

“ No ,” I admitted, slightly wishing I’d been the reason. “ We were both more than surprised when we met up.”

“ You have to stay away from her,” he pointed out “ I think it might be time for you to get the fuck out of that building. If you care about her, that is.”

I narrowed my eyes. “ Of course I care about her.”

“ Then leave,” he emphasized. “ You can’t put her in danger. Being blind, she likely already has all the danger she can handle.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, keeping my eyes squeezed shut.

A laugh had my eyes snapping open and my hand dropping to the chain-link fence in front of me.

My head turned, and I watched her walk up with Rooster at her side, happily prancing along.

Every time he pranced, his head would butt her hand.

“ She’s there, isn’t she?”

“ I’m at the dog park with Boss ,” I admitted. “ Way across the yard. She can’t see me.”

“ She can’t see, period, dummy,” he pointed out.

I winced.

“ Your house is practically ready. You just need to order furniture, and that takes like two seconds,” he pointed out. “ Get it done, bro.”

I sighed. “ I will.”

“ I’ll send Ellodie with you,” he said helpfully. “ She likes doing that shit.”

“ Fine ,” I grumbled.

“ Tomorrow ?” he asked.

“ Yeah ,” I conceded.

“ Give your notice to your landlord,” he said. “ Pay the rest of the months. But get out of there.”

I knew he was right.

But why did the thought of leaving her feel like a hole was opening up inside my chest?