The Fighter (The High Rise, Book 1) (2 page)

Shit.

No way am I
turning around to see HTG laughing at me. And I know it
has
to be him because that’s just my luck. Instead, I hold a hand to my
ear as if I have earbuds in and can’t hear him because, you know,
that doesn’t look ridiculous.

The elevator
doors open and I get in quickly hoping he isn’t paying attention
and the doors close on him before he notices, but, alas, I’m not
that fortunate. HTG follows me in and as I stare straight ahead,
softly humming and bobbing my head to music I’m still not hearing
and more than likely appearing even more ludicrous than I did
before, I know he’s staring at me. Several seconds go by before I’m
finally forced to look at him since he’s still just standing there.
Crap. I glance over and give him a weak smile noticing he’s even
more good looking up close. God. Dark hair that’s a little long on
his neck, chestnut eyes that are sharp and alert, and a chiseled
jaw to match all the hotness he has going on everywhere else. He’s
now wearing an old Alice in Chains t-shirt that stretches tightly
across his well-developed chest and I have to purse my lips to keep
from drooling. When he raises his eyebrows at me, I’m forced to
take a nonexistent earbud out and raise my eyebrows right back at
him in question.

“What floor?”
he asks, lips twitching and I know he’s trying not to laugh at the
absurd girl next to him.

“Oh! Um,
seventeen, please,” I tell him watching as he pushes the button
then put my “earbud” back in and face the front mentally cussing
myself out for being so dumb.

“Never seen
those before.”

I turn toward
him again and take out the “bud” knowing I’m just making myself
look more idiotic as the moments pass. “What?”

“I said I’ve
never seen invisible earbuds before.” He smirks at me before facing
the front himself and I know the jig is up. “Great song, by the
way,” he adds with a chuckle.

My shoulders
sag at having been found out and I turn toward him ready to face
the music, as it were.

“You’re right.
Look, I know you saw me run into the pole or at least after I
nailed it and now I’m pretending to listen to music so I don’t have
to talk to you because I’m embarrassed. And I also know you’re more
than likely a player.” At his look of surprise, I clarify, “A jerk,
a tool, a cad.” I see him mouth the word “cad” as he frowns. And
still I soldier on. Go me. “Guys who look as good as you are
usually pricks and because of that, it wouldn’t do me any good to
talk to you since I’ve had it up to here with assholes lately.” I
raise my hand to the top of my head and flick my wrist to prove how
fed up I am. Perfect. “So can we just forget this ever
happened?”

He smirks and
now I want to die of embarrassment at my verbal diarrhea. Yep. I’m
a great first-impression kind of chick.

His smirk
turns into a handsome grin which turns into an even more handsome
smile as he looks down at me. “Are you always this honest?”

I nod
shrugging sheepishly. In the silence that follows I find myself
biting my lips to keep my stupid mouth shut. But as he continues
watching me, the pressure’s too much and it opens. “Yep. Don’t ever
ask me for the truth because I’ll more than likely tell you.”

While I
am
tactful about telling it like it is, he doesn’t need to
know this. And I’m thinking this all needs to stop now because I’m
feeling some chemistry between us which is not good, so I throw in
the next part to scare him away. Not that
he’d
fall for
me
or anything. No, the reverse is more likely to happen
because he’s totally hot, and I’m one-bazillion percent sure I
couldn’t resist jumping in bed with him if he so much as blinked an
eye my way because of the guy sabbatical I’ve been on.

So all the
nopes to this shit.

I most
definitely don’t need him being nice, making me develop a crush on
him only to find out that he really is a jerk turning my suspicions
to realities because I think it just might devastate me. So I hit
him with my worst making sure to drive him away. “And don’t tell me
any of your deepest, darkest secrets because they could come out
just like that,” I lie, snapping my fingers for emphasis.

He laughs.
“I’ll make sure to remember that.”

With that out
of the way and since we’re here and I’ve decided this is going
nowhere, I might as well make the most of it and find out what his
story is since I know I didn’t lease him his apartment.

“So when did
you move in?” I inquire curiously. I know Diane didn’t hook him up
because she would’ve bragged about how good looking he is making
sure to let me now that he asked her out. She’s in her late
forties, very pretty but kind of a snob (okay, so she has a huge
stick up her ass) so I doubt she’d go for the tattooed type. Maybe
it was Walter. He’s older and wouldn’t give a flip what this guy
looks like as long as he made a commission.

“Two weeks
ago.”

“Yeah? Who was
your leasing agent?”

He raises an
eyebrow at me and teases, “Is this one of those secrets I shouldn’t
tell you?”

I can’t help
but laugh. “No. I work for Kyle Properties and I know I didn’t work
with you, so I was just wondering who did.”

I see his
whole body suddenly go rigid and his smile is now gone. This makes
me frown at his change in demeanor and I wonder what just
happened.

“Actually, I
went through a proxy so I’ll have to ask them who it was,” he
informs, his voice sounding clipped.

Dang. What the
hell did I do to instantly piss this guy off? And, hm. That’s
unusual. Most people do their own leasing but whatever. Maybe this
guy’s someone famous or something and wants to keep his
privacy.

“Nope. Not
famous,” he answers gruffly and I guess I must’ve said that out
loud.

Jeez. I’m on
fire today.

“Sorry. Just
thinking out loud.” I shake my head in disgust at myself.

“Heath
Noble.”

Heath Noble?
Is that who leased to him? I’ve never heard of him and I know he
doesn’t work in realty around here. Maybe he’s new. I look up at
HTG with a frown. “Who?”

“Me. I’m Heath
Noble.” His dark eyes are narrowed on mine as he holds out his hand
for me to shake.

I gaze first
at his handsome face then glance down at his hand. My eyes next
wander up his arm with the full sleeve, mesmerized by the gorgeous
colors of the tattoos on it thinking Heath is a perfectly badass
name to go with his amazing body before realizing I’m staring. “Oh,
um, Laney Kyle,” I respond wanting to smack myself in the forehead
before putting my hand in his which is huge and envelops mine
completely.

“Of Kyle
Properties?”

“That would be
correct,” I answer. He squeezes my hand a little too tightly for a
moment then abruptly lets it go. Well, ouch, kinda. In the silence
that follows, I gaze over at and quip, “So are you?”

The sullen
look he gives me surprises me and he retorts, “Am I what?”

Well, this has
kind of fallen flat but I forge ahead. “Noble?”

He snorts
haughtily and faces the front not answering.

Well, okay
then.

I now see the
number board has only punched in my floor. “You’re on seventeen
too?”

He nods still
facing the front not looking at me. “Mmhm.”

We both face
forward now, standing in silence for a moment and I wonder why he’s
suddenly gone so cold. Weird. When the elevator reaches our floor,
he sarcastically sweeps a hand out for me to get off first as he
sneers.

Wow. He turned
asshole quickly. Most guys at least wait until I’ve turned them
down for sex on the first date before they show their true prick
colors. Jeez.

I get out and
in a last attempt to be nice, after taking a few steps I turn to
say something to him and run right into him.

“Oh, God, I’m
sorry,” I say when I find myself smashed against him. He’s huge, at
least six-four and with all those muscles I know he’s got to
outweigh me by a hundred pounds. His hands have landed on my waist
and I can’t say I’m completely sorry because it feels nice. I look
up into his deep brown eyes that for some reason have gone hard and
it throws me off balance because I can’t figure out what I’ve done
to make him so mad. “I-I was just gonna say if you ever need to
borrow a cup of sugar or something, I’m in 1712.” I nod my head
toward my door.

“I’ll think
about the
something
, Laney.” He curls his lip up giving me a
wicked leer then squeezes my waist before letting me go and I think
I’m clueless right now. He’s been giving off negative vibes since I
told him who I was and now he gives me a sexy look and suggestive
squeeze. Very strange.

I walk the few
steps to my door getting out my keys then let out an “Oh!” when I
see he’s stopped and is waiting to make sure I get inside safely.
Or at least that’s what I hope he’s doing. I mean, for all I know
he could be a burglar and when I unlock the door, he might barge
right into my apartment, ransack the place then walk out with my
TV. I hesitate for a moment, clutching the container of Mace on my
keychain in my palm in case he makes a move to go inside and rob
me. Hey, I have a very nice TV!

As I stand
there debating whether to open my door, I remember that I’m a
pretty good judge of character after having worked with clients for
going on three years and I’ve more often than not been able to peg
the freaks. He didn’t give off a weirdo impression but I’m finding
I’m not so sure about him now. That mood change really took me off
guard.

“I’m not gonna
rob your place or anything,” he mutters narrowing his eyes at me
again.

“Oh! Well,
that’s good…” I answer feeling my face get hot for his having read
my mind. I put the key in the lock and turn it then after opening
my door I glance back at him. “So, it was nice meeting you.”

He does one of
those guy head jerks before turning and heading down the hallway
toward his own apartment.

I have to
confess I watch him go not regretting that decision even a little
bit because he looks very good going. When he reaches his door, he
turns and gives me what looks like an assessing glare, which makes
me frown, before he disappears inside his apartment
.

Two

I’m about to break my
arm from patting myself on the back for not slamming my apartment
door
.

I stalk down
the hall toward my bedroom, pulling my shirt over my head tossing
it onto the floor near the clothes hamper in the corner. Close
enough. Inside the bathroom I turn on the shower then finish
disrobing cussing under my breath the entire time.

I thought I’d
done my homework but I guess I skipped over this valuable piece of
information:

Laney
Kyle.

“Laney,
fuckin’,
Kyle
,” I spit out as I step inside the shower.

As I lather
up, I think about why I’m even here.

To say my kid
brother’s a fuck-up would be putting it mildly. He might have the
biggest heart there is but he got left holding the door when brains
were being handed out.

So I’m here to
save his ass. Well, his, his wife’s and his newborn daughter’s. Six
months ago, his wife Kamryn ran into some trouble. She was four
months pregnant and bored, or that was her excuse anyway. She and a
friend of hers started hitting the casinos. This friend, who’s
married to an agent that manages several big-time actors, has money
coming out her high-falutin’ wazoo. Kam and Aaron? Not so much.

Aaron had just
started working for me. He’d been fuckin’ around with other shit
while I kept telling him that as a project manager over
construction sites, I could give him something steady. But he
didn’t want to listen. Thought he had to make it on his own. So
while he was nickel and diming it, Kam was blowing pretty much
everything he brought in trying to keep up with her friend,
unbeknownst to Aaron, of course. So when he went to make the rent
payment there was nothing there. He threw a fit, Kam cried and he
left. Came to me, told me he needed help, I hooked him up with a
job gave him an advance and things with them seemed to be going
well.

Except while
Aaron was working for me, Kam hooked up with her friend and hit the
casinos again. To hide it from him, this time she found a loan
shark who spotted her the cash which she thought could be paid off
without Aaron ever finding out. Bad decision. Bad fucking decision.
Because by the time Aaron knew what’d happened, he was in deep
shit.

Kam had
borrowed “only a thousand bucks” not having any idea what she was
getting herself and her family into. When she’d finally confessed
what she’d done, four months later and right as she went into
labor, they were in debt for over fifty grand, the terms of her
borrowing being that the money would triple every month it wasn’t
paid back plus twenty-five percent interest.