The photos weren’t in the right spots. I scanned the wall until I found it. The picture that didn’t belong.
Someone had been in my goddamn room and I had a pretty good idea who it was.
Moving slowly, I crouched down and picked my bat up. As I rose to my feet, I heard the sound of someone stepping unknowingly onto the creaky floorboard downstairs.
Chapter 1
Charlie
“Remind me again why we’re moving,” I groaned, pulling another box of stuff out of the back of my best friend Kara’s Jeep. “We had a perfectly good apartment.”
Kara laughed. “Because the walls were thin,” she replied slyly.
“Oh God,” I muttered. “Couldn’t you have said something about how small the apartment was?”
“It was,” my nephew Draco said, coming up the driveway carrying a dresser. “Too small for all of us.” He paused and grinned. “Especially when Kara and I want to get down.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be so goddamn loud,” I called after him as he walked away.
“You’re one to talk,” Kara said as we made our way into the house. “You’re louder than both of us.”
“But I’m not fucking a member of your family,” I pointed out. “I mean, I’m glad you’re together, obviously.”
“Obviously,” she agreed.
“But it’s cruel and unusual to hear just how together you two are.”
Kara snorted. “Point taken. But hey, we’re on completely different floors now. Problem solved.”
“God Bless America,” I said, dropping my box in the center of the living room.
“That goes in our room,” Kara said as she kept walking.
Sighing, I stared at the box I’d just put down. “Draco can move it later.”
The house was bustling with people that were helping us move and thank God for that, because we were also consolidating two apartments. Draco and his twin Curtis had shared an apartment in the same complex as Kara and me, but now we’d all be in the same house. Well, almost all of us. Curtis was off doing some shit for the club and no one was saying when he’d be back. Either they didn’t know, or they weren’t willing to tell us. We just had to go along with it and make sure there was a room for him at this new place, whenever he graced us again with his presence.
“You’re dawdling,” my mom said, coming through the front door with grocery bags in her hands and dangling from her arms. “The faster we get this shit unloaded the faster we can all sit down. Get moving.”
“Easy for you to say,” I replied. “You’re carrying groceries.”
“I just cleaned out the boys’ fridge,” she said with a laugh. “Be glad you’re moving boxes.”
“I’m ordering pizza in about fifteen minutes,” Kara’s stepmom Rose hollered as she carried a box inside. “If anyone has any requests, keep it to your damn self!”
“You’re such a sweetheart,” I joked as I passed her.
“They can eat what I order and smile while they’re doing it,” she called to me over her shoulder.
“Rose is getting pizza,” I told Kara as she moved around me, her arms wrapped around a random pile of shit that hadn’t fit into a box.
“Good, I’m starving,” she replied. “I want pepperoni and olive.”
“Make sure you tell her that,” I said with a snicker.
“Grab the keys out of my pocket, would you?” she asked, jutting out her hip. “Move my Jeep onto the street so they can move one of the trucks into the driveway.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” I said, pulling the keys out of her jeans.
“Move your ass, Charlotte,” my dad said as he carried a coffee table inside. “I’m tired of movin’ this shit from the street.”
“Not my fault that your logistical team is a nightmare!” I said, hurrying toward Kara’s Jeep.
“Don’t run anyone over,” my cousin Tommy ordered, pointing at me. “I don’t want the neighbors pissed at me.”
“Ha,” I shouted. “The neighbors are going to fucking love us!”
Tommy glanced over his shoulder at the family a couple houses down that paused in their basketball game to stare at me. “Yeah, looks like they’re impressed,” he drawled.
I reached up and scratched my nose with my middle finger.
After moving the Jeep down the street I walked back toward the house my cousin Tommy was renting to us. I liked it, especially after living in an apartment for the last few years. Two stories, a big back yard, a big garage and huge driveway for all of our cars. Most importantly it was within our price range. Tommy swore he wasn’t giving us any type of family discount, but I wasn’t so sure. He’d flipped so many houses, keeping some to rent and selling others at a profit, that renting to us on the cheap wouldn’t hurt his bottom line. Of course, he’d never admit to it.
“Charlie!” one of my favorite voices in the world called out behind me.
I spun around. “When did you get here, Rebel without a cause?”