by Evie Nichole
“Yeah. She came home. Then she left again, and I heard her on the phone talking to that girl who lives across the street.”
“The girl across the street?” Cisco was going to need a little more than that. “Do you mean”—what was the name of her friend—“Allie?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“Did she go to Allie’s apartment?” How did this old woman know this stuff? Did she just stand at her peephole all day long watching what happened in the hallway?
“Yep. That’s where she went,” the woman assured him. “You better go after her if you want to arrest her.”
“Not a cop, ma’am,” Cisco called over his shoulder as he left. “But that was nice of you to rat her out anyway.”
Sometimes people absolutely blew his mind. Why they seemed to revel in other people’s misfortune was beyond him. Of course, Cisco was a lawyer. People in his profession basically reveled in everyone’s discomfort. So, maybe he couldn’t really pretend he was any different than anyone else.
He nodded to the old woman and turned to leave. It was odd. Her door closed. He heard it. Yet there was no doubt in his mind that she was watching him every single step of the way as he exited the building. How this was possible he did not know, but Cisco would have bet a month’s worth of paychecks that it was true.
He stepped back outside and headed for his car. The low-slung sports car looked odd parked on the curb beside half a dozen beat-up four-wheel-drive SUVs, a few sedans, and a few even older trucks. He did not belong in this neighborhood, and the longer he stayed here, the more obvious it was likely to become.
Cisco stopped walking several car lengths away from his vehicle and paused to look around. There were mostly large, nondescript cement buildings here. It was nearly all residential dwellings. Some of the ground-floor units were occupied by things like barber shops or cafes, but for the most part, he was in one of the most densely populated areas of Denver. In fact, there weren’t many areas like this one in Denver. The buildings were not very tall. They looked nothing like the tenements or projects in other large cities. For the most part, Denver was a newer city and far more urban than anything else.
The sound of a shout drew his attention. He was not the only one. Kids playing in a park nearby, some young men talking together and passing a basketball between them, and even a few mothers who had been watching their children while enjoying a conversation with their neighbors were all suddenly staring in fascination at a five-story cement block of a building.
“Bitch, you had better get your ass out of our apartment and don’t come back!” A male voice drifted out of the building’s double front doors. “We don’t need your attitude and your complaining. Do you understand me?”
To Cisco’s horror, he absolutely recognized the woman who fired the next verbal volley. “Oh, I understand you, but I’m not going to listen! Do you get that? You don’t live here. You don’t pay the bills or help out with the rent! Your name isn’t on the lease, and you’re a damn drug addict who brings your junkie friends over to eat every scrap of food in the apartment!”
Cisco held his breath as he realized that it was most definitely Melody shouting at the top of her lungs as she exited the building pushing a scrawny man in his early twenties down the stairs in front of her.
If her expression was anything to go by, Melody was on fire! Her green eyes were shooting sparks, and there had to be fire crackling off the spiky knot in her hair. She was still dressed in her work clothes, and she was wagging her index finger in the young man’s face as though he was a little boy caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
“Ryan Pullman, you are the biggest waste of space on this planet!” Melody shouted. “You are sucking my best friend dry, and I’m done letting you do it! Do you understand me?”
Ryan started to push back a little, but Melody was ready for him. She had claimed a position two steps up from the man, and it gave her a little bit of height on the guy. When he tried to push back, she just lashed out with her foot and caught him in the knee.
“Hey!” He looked around at the people watching. “You saw that! She attacked me! Call the cops, man!”
“Dude!” One of the other young men started laughing. “You want us to call the cops because you’re getting assaulted by a chick? You sure?”
The young men were still laughing when Ryan snarled something barely intelligible at the second woman who was cowering behind Melody as though she had just woken up from a Rip Van Winkle worthy sleep.
“No!” Melody snapped. She swung her open hand at Ryan’s face, but he dodged back just in time. “Don’t you talk to her! You’ve got this poor girl so high she can’t tell up from down. She lost her job because of you, asshole! She’s got no money and no prospects, and this is your fault! Do you get me?”
Cisco felt his internal warning bells start to jangle, but at the last second, Ryan seemed to fold. He held up both hands. Snarling insults underneath his breath, Ryan stomped off down the block. Melody watched until Ryan was around the corner. About that time, Cisco realized that she had spotted him. He didn’t care that he’d just witnessed a scene, but he could tell that she did.
For the moment, it felt like the best thing to do was to focus on the other woman—Allie. At least that was who Cisco figured the pathetic creature was. She was considerably thinner, paler, and far more pathetic looking than the last time Cisco had seen her at the coffee shop, but in Cisco’s experience, a bender could do that to people pretty quickly.
“You don’t have to help.” Melody’s tone was terse.
Cisco glanced around at all of the people now staring and yet not making a single move to do anything other than gawk. “I think I’m just fine. Thanks.”
The two of them struggled to get the young woman back into the dingy apartment building. She was stumbling and lurching from right to left as she walked, as though she could not manage to find her balance anywhere in the middle.
With a group effort that included Allie biting her lip as she struggled to walk up the stairs, Melody and Cisco just barely managed to get Allie back into the building. The door hissed shut behind them, and they were inside a darkened hallway that smelled faintly of stale chicken noodle soup.
“Her apartment is on the first floor.”
That was the only thing that Melody said as they helped Allie lurch down the hall toward her doorway. It was hanging open. That made getting her inside easier. Of course, it wasn’t like Allie was fighting them. She kept muttering that she wanted to go back to bed. It was difficult to understand what she was saying. It was a lot of mumbling and choking and gurgling as far as he was concerned. He had no idea what the woman was on, but he had a bad feeling that it wasn’t going to end well.
“Should we call a doctor?” Cisco finally asked Melody. “She doesn’t look very well.”
“She’ll be fine.” Melody gestured to a sagging couch. “Let’s just get her there.”
Allie stumbled and nearly fell flat on her face when she spotted the flat padded surface. Cisco growled as Melody was almost pulled off her feet. This was not working. It was ridiculous.
“Here. Let me.” Cisco tried not to sound bossy, but that was difficult under the circumstances.
He scooped Allie up off the floor. She smelled vaguely of old sweat and something else really unpleasant. He deposited Allie on the sofa. She immediately curled into the back of the ancient piece of furniture and closed her eyes. Cisco wondered deep down if she felt as though the room had suddenly stopped spinning because she was now stationary. It had been long years since he’d had any experience with this sort of thing. His youngest brother, Met, had been a heavy drinker since high school. It most certainly ended in more than one bender and a whole slew of hangovers. But for the most part, his brothers had never required Cisco to provide more than a place to crash for the night. This felt different.
“Are you sure we don’t need to call a doctor?” Cisco asked Melody once again. “She looks pretty bad. I don
’t know what substance she’s taking, but aren’t you afraid she’s overdosed?”
“On weed?” Melody snorted. “Not likely. “Unfortunately, it’s legal here in Colorado.”
“Right.” Cisco looked at Melody. “Surely that’s not all. Look at her.”
Melody sighed. She put her hand on his arm and gazed up into his face. “Thank you. Really. I do appreciate your concern and your help.” Melody paused and gazed down at her friend. “She smokes until she can’t think about anything. I know that studies say that weed isn’t addictive and all that. I know what the research shows. But the problem is that a person can become addicted to the feeling they get from escaping reality.”
“So, that’s what’s happening here?”
“She just smokes until she doesn’t know her own name and couldn’t tell you a thing about the sorry state of her life.” Melody sighed. She put her hands on her hips and stared up at the stained ceiling. “You know, like the rest of us. She just wants an end to all of the drama and problems.”
“I think that’s fair,” Cisco whispered. He sucked in a quick breath. The apartment smelled horrible. He really wanted to get out of here. He really wanted Melody to get out of here too. The place was an absolute pigsty. He knew from experience that people needed to clean up after themselves. That was part of the recovery process. The more others kept cleaning up messes and making things better, the more the addiction kept spiraling.
“I should probably stay here,” Melody said with obvious regret.
Cisco pursed his lips. He didn’t like that idea, but it was her choice and not his. “What will you do for her if you stay?”
“I don’t know.” Melody glanced around at the cluttered dirty mess of paper plates, pizza boxes, takeout containers, and rotten food scattered about. “I should clean up, I guess.”
“That’s not helping her,” Cisco pointed out gently. “She needs to see the results of her decision. It’s her life to clean up. Not yours.”
“Then, I guess I would make sure she doesn’t get choked or something.” Melody leaned over her friend and peered at her lifeless-looking body snoring away on the sofa. “I just feel like I shouldn’t leave her alone.”
“Because if you do she might get into more trouble?” Cisco was guessing, but it made sense. Melody was a constant caretaker. It was sort of her thing.
“Well, I guess. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Sweetie,” Cisco said gently. “I need to talk with you about some things that happened today. You need some food. I need some food. So, let’s go get some food. I’ll bring you back in a little while and you can check on her.”
Melody seemed to waffle for a moment, but only a moment. Then she bobbed her head and let out a bone-deep sigh. “All right. I won’t lie and say that food doesn’t sound good.”
Thank God he hadn’t had to hogtie her and throw her over his shoulder. His hogtying skills were even more scuffed up and out of use than his cowboy boots.
Chapter Seventeen
Riding in Cisco’s car was even more intimidating than riding in his truck had been. Or maybe it was the situation. Who knew? Melody couldn’t even be sure her entire range of crazy emotions wasn’t caused by the weird visit she’d had from Cisco’s “girlfriend.” Surely anyone would have the right to be totally weirded out by a woman coming into their place of business with the sole purpose of ordering them away from a friend—uh huh, yeah, friend.
Maybe that was the other reason that riding in Cisco’s car was such a big deal. It certainly wasn’t anything negative about him. The man was a freaking saint! He had helped her drag her idiotic friend back into Allie’s apartment. Then Cisco had very nicely reminded her—without being a know-it-all—that Melody being an enabler wasn’t going to help Allie’s situation at all. Now Cisco was parking in front of a little corner deli a few blocks away from her apartment building.
“I’ve actually eaten here a time or two when I was visiting an old college friend who worked at a pro bono legal aid office around the corner while we were still in grad school.” Cisco smiled as he turned off the car and prepared to get out.
Melody didn’t know what to say. It was hard to imagine him in anything but the fanciest of circumstances. But maybe that was just how she saw him. “So, this is slumming for you, huh?”
“Slumming? That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Cisco made a face as he exited the vehicle. “This is Denver, not Philadelphia or Boston.”
“I suppose.” Melody got out of the car and tried to close the door without slamming it. She didn’t want to hurt his car. “I’ve never been to any other cities. In fact, the farthest I’ve ever been from Denver is Colorado Springs.”
“School trip?” He raised an eyebrow.
“How did you know that?” She allowed him to hold the front door open for her.
He smiled as she walked past and winked at her. The silly little action sent a riot of chills down her spine. He affected her so much! It was insane.
“It was a guess. I think everyone went down to the Springs to see Garden of the Gods and the very old part of town while we were learning about state history.” He laughed. “I seem to remember that trip being very boring.”
“I didn’t think it was boring,” she protested. “It was way better than never seeing anywhere else at all!”
They chose a corner table and sat down. A waitress bustled up. She was an older woman wearing the standard uniform and hideously serviceable shoes. She smiled at them as she took their orders, but Melody could see the exhaustion behind her pale blue eyes. That was one of Melody’s worst fears. That she would somehow turn into this woman the older she got. The woman wasn’t wearing a wedding band. She didn’t look as though she had anything very positive in her life, and sometimes Melody feared that she would end up just like this.
“What are you thinking?” Cisco murmured after the waitress had bustled off to the kitchen.
“That I don’t want to be that woman when I grow up.”
The words slipped out before Melody could think about how they might sound to someone like Cisco. He frowned. “That’s why I want to talk to you about your land.”
“About that,” Melody said thickly. She swallowed back the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. “You really shouldn’t be doing this for free. You know? And I can’t pay you. And there’s no guarantee that anything will come of it anyway. Paul Weatherby might have enough pull to force me to sell it to him just because I can’t pay the taxes.”
Cisco was now staring at her with a very flat expression on his face. It felt as though he just looked at her forever. She could not stay still. She squirmed. She fidgeted with her napkin. She moved her silverware around on the formica tabletop. It was all she could do to keep from changing the subject and just pretending that nothing was happening and nobody had threatened her.
“What happened today?” Cisco’s voice was not demanding. It was the opposite. It was coaxing. It encouraged a confidence. And dammit all, she really wanted to give into the urge to confide in him. He was a smart man. He would be able to help her.
“It was just a bad day.” Well, that was true enough. “My boss decided to blame me for Allie’s bender and the fact that she didn’t come to work or call.” Okay. Melody hadn’t had any intention of sharing even that much, but the story was just tumbling out without any sign of slowing. “So, my boss decided to cut my hours and hire someone else just in case this should happen again. She’s trying to claim that we’re all required to stay at work until the next shift comes in, even if that means we work straight through because someone else doesn’t show up.”
“That’s usually the manager’s responsibility,” he commented. “Sounds like your boss is trying to pass the buck. That’s wrong, Melody. I’m sorry.”
“Now my hours are cut. I’m not going to make enough money to pay the repair guy to fix my car for another five months at this rate. Allie got fired, which probably means she’s going to ask me for money to hel
p her out.” Melody swallowed. She needed to stop. That was it. There was nothing else to say. “And then the woman in the blue dress who was your date the other night came in and told me to stay away from you. She insisted you aren’t going to be handling any legal issues for me and that I’m ruining your career.”
“What?” His voice was sharp. “She said what to you?”
Melody repeated what she could remember. “She told me that if you continued to work on my case, it would ruin your career and that I needed to look elsewhere because you were out of my league. There was some other stuff about my bad hair and bad clothes, but that’s pretty much the gist of it.”
“Bad hair and bad clothes?” He sounded as though he could not even process what she was telling him. “She said that to you?”
“Yes. She accused me of drooling all over you the other night. She was very upset about this.” Melody started laughing suddenly. She pressed her fist to her mouth to stifle the sound, but she was still cackling like a crazy person when the waitress brought their drinks and food back to the table.
“You okay, ma’am?” The waitress actually looked concerned, bless her.
Melody wheezed a bit to find enough breath to speak. “Yes. I’m fine. Just one of those days, you know?”
The waitress patted Melody on the shoulder. “Oh, honey, you go ahead and lose it. Girl, we all know what those days are like!”
There was something oddly encouraging about the idea that she was not alone in trying to stumble through life feeling as though she had only been given less than half of the start that other people had. It was a bit like trying to play a board game with the pieces missing.
Cisco waited for the waitress to leave before saying anything else. “I’m so sorry, Melody. Vittoria had no right to talk to you like that.”
“But is she right?” That was the niggling doubt that bothered Melody so very much. “Was she right when she said that your helping me is going to ruin your career?”
