Brylee directed him to the apartment building she lived in. He followed her up the stairs silently, but his heavy tread calmed her nerves about facing her roommates.
She turned toward him at the door before she opened it. "They might be a little hostile. One of them last night got in my face."
"Why didn't you tell me this?"
"Because the officer pushed her away, and my mind was on a hundred other things. I'm sorry."
Gage cupped her cheek. "Don't worry. We'll be in and out in a short time, and then you'll never have to see them again."
Brylee exhaled. "You have no idea how good that sounds."
She opened the door and stopped short to see her roommates sitting around the living room watching TV. Brylee closed the door behind Gage.
"My room is this way."
She felt him protectively behind her. The breath exhaled in a painful rush when she saw her room.
"Goddammit," Gage barked and turned toward the other women. "What the fuck happened here, ladies?"
Brylee slowly walked around her room as she listened to Gage take after them.
"One of you better tell me right now, or I'll have a half a dozen cops here searching your apartment. I'm guessing there will be drugs because of the aroma of pot in the air."
One of the women rolled her eyes. "We don't know. We work up this morning, and it was like that."
"You can smirk all you like. I'll just buy her all new stuff. Things you'll never have because you're lowlife bitches."
"Oh, yeah. Where are you going to get the money? Hustling?"
Gage grinned. "No, I own a dozen businesses in this town alone. I probably make more in a day than you do in a year."
Brylee kept picking up things off the floor and setting the stuff that wasn't broken on the bed to take with her. She stiffened when she heard Gage walk up behind her.
Her breath whooshed out when he turned her and pulled her into his arms.
Brylee hugged him tightly and closed her eyes.
"I'm so sorry, baby."
"I should have guessed they would do this."
"Please don't worry. Get the sentimental things you want to keep. We'll get you everything else you need…"
"I can't let you do that."
He held her steady with his hands on her shoulders. "You will let me do that. I'm responsible for you quitting your job and moving. Please, princess. Let me take care of you. It would bring me so much pleasure."
Brylee looked up at him. "I … I guess we can take one day at a time."
"Good. Let's get you packed."
Brylee kept putting things in a few bags she found. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched Gage text someone, and then he got busy putting things on the bed.
"Is there any furniture you want to take?"
Brylee shook her head.
He must have caught the look on her face because he came to stand before her again. "What's going on?"
"They took my jar. It had all my tips in it." She tried to hold back the tears that wanted to fall.
"How much do you think it was?"
"I stopped putting money in it when I noticed they'd been taking it. But I think maybe a few hundred dollars."
"Where'd you put your money if not in the jar?"
Brylee turned, walked into her closet, and knelt down. She dug up one of the loose boards and pulled out a bag. She stood and opened it.
Gage looked into it and started laughing when he saw the wads of money. "Good girl." He wrapped an arm around her waist and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
"Let's get this stuff and get out of here."
She nodded and hurried to find everything she wanted to take that hadn't been destroyed. Within thirty minutes, they were ready.
She heard Gage chuckle when someone knock on the apartment door. She listened to her roommates gasp. "What's going on?"
"I called in a few officers."
Brylee's mouth dropped open. "Why?"
"They said there was a break-in, so I thought they'd want it investigated."
Brylee covered her mouth to quiet her laugh.
"Come on," Gage said and grabbed all but one bag.
They walked out into the living room to see her roommates sitting on the sofa.
"Thanks for coming." Gage shook Tommy's hand.
"Am I going to have to bail you out every day?"
Gage snorted. "Shut up."
Tommy grinned. "So, what's going on here?"
"Well, the girls said there was a break-in last night. The funny thing was Brylee's was the only room that got hit."
"Brylee was with you?" Tommy asked.
"Yes."
"I see," the officer said and turned toward the women. "Who wants to tell me what happened?"
The girls started stuttering.
Brylee stood back and tried not to grin.
"You got this?" Gage asked the officer.
"Yeah."
Gage turned to the women. "I was going to give you rent money to offset Brylee's, but I think you already got it when you took her money jar. By the way, her real stash was somewhere else."
The women looked at each other with a mixture of dismay and anger.
Gage hustled her out of the apartment. " Tommy, I think I smelled marijuana when I walked in."
Tommy's eyes brows rose, and his lips twitched. "Drugs? Well, that's unfortunate." He turned to one of the other officers. "Call in K-9. He'll sniff out whatever's here." Then Tommy waved to Gage and Brylee and went to work.
&nb
sp; The last look Brylee got of her roommates was them huddled together, pale and scared. She would have felt sorry for them if they hadn't stolen from her for so long or mistreated her.
What's the saying about Karma being a bitch? She thought to herself and then grinned.