Home Is Wherever You Are (8 page)

Chapter 13 - Trouble on the Horizon

Things had been going good, too good. I should have seen this coming, but I hadn’t. I had been working for Christianson Electric for five months. Most of those jobs had been for Venture Builders. We were in the middle of a job, when we got a call from Leon, and he told me and the other guys to leave the Venture site and move to the subdivision Kyle was heading up. We hurried over there and got to work. I thought it odd, but I didn’t put two and two together until it was too late.

I was lucky I was good and fast when it came to pulling wire, because in the end, I was more efficient than the other guys. Leon let them go slowly, and each time he showed up on the site, I would freak out, worried I would be next. I was working my butt off, and in the end, it was down to me and Kyle. I knew Leon wouldn’t fire Kyle. He was close to their family. He was always asking about Kyle’s wife, Darlene, and their little boy.

We were finishing up the last of the jobs, when Leon gave it to us straight. They were going under, but they would have a few more months of work for just Kyle and I. Leon was selling off the work trucks to keep them afloat. When I told Addy about it, she picked up a couple more shifts at work, and I felt like I had failed her.

I had been working for Leon for almost a year, when he finally pulled Kyle and me aside. “Well, boys, I told you this day would come, and now it’s here,” he said, motioning for us to follow him. “You have a decision to make. I’m selling the last two trucks, but it’ll be without the tools. Now, you can either take the tools as payment and sell them or use them yourself, or you can let me sell off the tools and wait for your paycheck in the mail. Either way, this is it. Today was your last day of work.”

I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I had been pricing tools and stuff for my little handyman business, and I knew for a fact that what was on the truck was worth more than what I was owed. “I’ll take the tools,” I said.

Kyle rubbed his chin. “I’m going to need the paycheck. I’m sorry, Leon, I know it’ll be more work for you, but I can’t risk not being able to sell them to pay our bills.”

“I understand. Matthew, will you need a ride home?” he asked, looking at my little bike. I realized there was no way I would be able to get the tools home with it.

“Yeah, if that’s okay.”

Leon patted my back. “I really appreciate you boys sticking with me, even when you knew we weren’t going to stay in business. Venture Builders claiming bankruptcy and stiffing us really killed us. I filed several mechanics’ liens on the buildings we worked on, but I suspect we’re not the only ones who did. Those building will be hard to sell half-finished. I don’t imagine I’ll be seeing that money anytime soon,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s a shame they were allowed to do such a thing.”

Leon and Kyle helped me load the tools up into Leon’s truck.  The amount of equipment he gave me was amazing, and I wondered if Kyle regretted the choice he had made about not taking the tools.  Leon even helped me unload them into the house, and I put them in my room. I didn’t trust that they wouldn’t get stolen in the shed, and it wasn’t like I was using that room, anyway.  Addy and I had moved past the show of going to separate rooms long ago. Every night after dinner, she would lead me back to her room, where we would strip down and snuggle.

I made dinner tonight and waited for her to come home. She came in looking exhausted, so I made her a plate and took to rubbing her feet, like my father had taught me.  She groaned and sighed in relief.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“Good, I made out great tip-wise,” she said, dropping the wad from her apron on the table.

“That’s good. Today was my last day. Leon wasn’t able to give me a paycheck, but he gave me a truckload of tools, which are worth more than what he owed me. I put them in the second bedroom, so they wouldn’t get stolen.”

“That’s fine.”

“He gave me his personal number, so I can use him on my resume, but I was thinking I wanted to look into starting my own business. I have most of the tools I’d need to do that handyman thing like your father suggested.”

She let out a sigh and rubbed her face. “I don’t want to go back to Woodville, Matthew.”

We had gone back for Thanksgiving, and things hadn’t gone well. We had been in the grocery store, grabbing some last minute things, when some girl approached me. She was far from pretty, and the way she touched my arm made my skin crawl. I saw Addy tear up further down the aisle and decided to not play so nice, pushing the girl away and telling her I had to get back to my girlfriend.

I quickly pulled Addy into my arms, kissing her soundly. Then the witch screeched, “The mouse? Whatever! You don’t know what you’re missing.” 

Truth was I was glad I was missing it. I later found out that witch was the infamous Jennifer, and I was glad I had offended her and wished I could run into her again, so I could give her a piece of my mind.

I didn’t push the issue of going back to Woodville after that. We stayed at Daniel’s, and I slept on the couch. We would have to get married before we ever moved back to Woodville, so Daniel wouldn’t kill me on the spot, when he found out I had been sleeping in the same room as his baby girl.

Our physical relationship was still moving slowly. I was not saying that is wasn’t moving. It was just really slowly. We were up to third base touching now. So yeah, thankfully, we were getting off. Even if it wasn’t sex, it was close enough for me. It wasn’t like I had a lot of experience with it, anyway, so I was cool with moving slow, now that I was getting some release, and like Addy pointed out, she didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant this way. Neither of us was in a position to handle taking care of a baby. We just weren’t financially stable enough.  That and we weren’t married. Daniel would kill me dead without remorse if I impregnated his baby girl out of wedlock.

“I’m going to work on the yard a little and get the house looking nice. I don’t know of much else that needs to be done to the place.”

“No, you’ve fixed everything and kept up with it really well. Maybe you could just do a little touchup painting on the siding?” she suggested.

“Sure, babe,” I said, kissing her softly and led her back to our room. She giggled, when she saw my boxers. She had seen them all several times, but they always brought a smile to her face. Tonight I was wearing tiger boxers that said
“Pouncing Pussy”
on the waistband, but after losing my job, I didn’t feel much like pouncing pussy. I just held her that night, not really feeling worthy of a hand job. I got her off, though, because she always slept better when I did. Her eyes sparkled when she released, and her cheeks pinked, making her the most beautiful woman in the world. I didn’t know how I had ended up with her, but I sure as heck was happy I had.

Addy let me sleep in, only kissing me goodbye, just as she left for work. I took my time, lounging around, before I finally made it out front to trim the hedges and weed the flowerbeds. There were some bulbs already planted that were just starting to sprout. I was sure once they bloomed, the place would look great.

“Matthew?” I heard my name and turned around. “Matthew Martin, is that you? I wondered what the hell happened to you.”

“Jeremy.” I wasn’t cool with him being here. I didn’t want him anywhere near Addy. “I’m glad you found your pack. I tucked it aside for you, so no one would find it. I’d seen you go back into those bushes a couple of times, so I’d hoped you’d come across it.”

“Yeah, man, so what the hell happened to you?”             

I shrugged. “I was offered a job, and I took it.”

“Sweet, dude, are they here now?” he asked eagerly.

“No, they’re at work.”

“Awesome, come on then, let’s clean this place out,” he said, pushing toward the door.

“No,” I said, grabbing his shoulder. “They don’t have much money, Jeremy. If you take their things, they won’t be able to replace them.”

“Who gives a fuck? I need a hit.”

“Hit?”

“Look, man, I don’t know what your problem is, but I need cash, so move it, or I’ll move you.”

“You’ll have to move me,” I said sternly. He was not getting my girl’s stuff.

He charged at me, slamming me against the doorframe. I used it as leverage to throw him across the yard. “Just go, Jeremy!” I yelled at him. But he wasn’t leaving. He looked livid and crazed. He came running at me again, but I stepped to the side last minute, and he took a bad hit, as he crashed into the doorframe. I yanked him back to his feet and shoved him toward the sidewalk. “Stop it and get out of here, man!”

He sneering at me, as he danced around me like a boxer, taking a few swings at me. I dodged the first two, but I ended up catching a hit in the jaw. He followed with one to the gut, and I tried to bring in a side kidney punch, before I went down hard.

“Get away from him! I’ve called the police!” I heard Addy shout.

I panicked a little, knowing she would probably remember Jeremy, or that Jeremy might remember her.

“You!” I heard Jeremy yell. I looked up at him, trying to make it up off the ground and get between them. “You hooked up with the bitch who pepper sprayed me?”

“What?” Addy cried.  I looked over at her to see her holding her pepper spray out and pointed at Jeremy.

He took one last kick at me, and then he ran off, moving before Addy could spray him or the cops could come. I didn’t like that Jeremy was still out there. He was trouble, and now that he knew where Addy lived, I was worried he would come back, looking for revenge.

Chapter 14 - Pepper Spray Princess

The cops showed up quickly, and Addy pointed them in the direction Jeremy had run. They drove around looking, but I knew they wouldn’t find him. He was probably hiding in some bushes somewhere. I gave them his name, because I knew it, and I told them he was a man I used to work with at my last job. I watched as Addy scrunched up her nose at me. I was sure she thought I was lying. I hoped she would let me talk to her long enough to tell her the truth.

The cops made the report and said they would keep an eye out for him.  When I said it was the same guy who had stolen her stuff last year, they promised to look up the offense. Honestly, I was not surprised he was out of jail. Petty theft with good behavior didn’t carry much of a sentence these days.

When the cops left, I watched Addy walk into the house, and I wondered if I should follow. I wasn’t sure if I was still welcome. She saw me standing in the doorway and shook her head at me. “So, were you in on it?”

“In on what?”

“Stealing my stuff, did you pick me as the mark or something?”

“NO! I never was into that. That was all Jeremy, and he got himself arrested the same day.”

“That’s how you knew they had my stuff. I wondered about that. How could you be so sure that my stuff had been confiscated? I mean, what are the chances of the cops actually catching the guy?”

“From what I gathered, he tried to take them to the pawn shop he mugged you in front of. The store clerk had seen the whole thing and called the cops, when Jeremy brought them in to sell.”

She shook her head at me. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”

“You
can
trust me, Addy.”

“Can I? You’re friends with a pretty shady guy, Matthew. Birds of a feather flock together. Did you really not steal all this stuff?” she asked, waving around to all the free furniture I had picked up for her.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I knew she had a right to be upset. I should have told her I knew the jerk who had stolen her stuff. “I’m sorry, Addy.”

She just shook her head at me and walked off into the kitchen. I wondered if I should leave, but I really didn’t have a place to go, and I didn’t trust that Jeremy would stay away. She made dinner and called me to come eat. That night after dinner, she walked to her room and closed the door. I knew better than to push her and went to my room, trying to figure out what to do.

The next morning, we were woken up by a banging on the door. I grabbed a crowbar and answered it in just my boxers. “Settle down, boy,” Daniel said, and I let out a breath and stepped back. He looked me up and down and scowled at my underwear.

“What? You woke me with your banging, and I wanted to get to the door before Addy,” I said and looked back down the hall and rubbed my face.

He shook his head, and I looked down at my boxers. I just had to be wearing one of my silly jungle prints in front of her dad. This one had frogs on it, with their tongues out catching flies. The waistband said “
Tongue
Specialist”
on it.

“I’m going to get dressed. Addy should be in her room,” I said and walked down the hall to my room. Luckily, my clothes were still in there. I was sure Daniel thought we were still living in separate rooms. Well, at this point, we were.

He stopped me in the doorway, grabbing my shoulder. “Hey, Matthew, the guys at the station said you took a few good hits,” he said and patted my bruised jaw.

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to let him in, no matter what. Addy’s worked too hard for this place. No one is taking anything from her if I can help it.”

“Listen, boy, they’re just things. If he’d had a knife or a gun, you could’ve been in a bad way. When it comes down to you or some things, I know my girl would pick you.”

I nodded okay, but I didn’t believe that. I was pretty sure she was on the verge of kicking me out.

I went to put on some clothes and get breakfast started, leaving Addy to Daniel. It wasn’t long before the two of them were making their way into the kitchen. Addy wouldn’t look at me, and Daniel looked me up and down again, I was sure noting that my frog boxers were out of sight. I set the table quietly and waited for someone to break the silence.

“So, Addy says you know this guy?” Daniel asked.

I nodded. “We used to work at a call center together, before the company slowly went under. Jeremy was in the first wave of layoffs. I was in the last.”

“And you met up with him again?” Daniel prompted, and Addy scowled.

I rubbed my face, not liking what I was about to reveal. “Yeah, after I lost my place, I was on a corner, when Feral Fred went nuts on me.”

“Feral Fred?” Daniel asked, slightly amused.

“He’s the homeless guy who stands on the corner of Fourth and Main. I didn’t know it was his spot or whatever. He was really wailing on me, when Jeremy came up and settled him down. After that, I followed Jeremy around, trying to stay out of trouble.”

Daniel looked over at Addy, who was looking at the fridge like it was very interesting.

“So, this Jeremy guy steals stuff?”

“Yeah, sometimes, he mostly just stole tips off of outside dining tables when I was around. He broke into a few cars, but Addy was the first person he’d ever mugged that I knew of.”

“He was in my car, when I came out of the store. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting me,” Addy added annoyed.

“I’m sorry, Addy, really I am. I didn’t know he was going to steal stuff. We split up all the time to panhandle and find stuff to eat.”

“You were homeless?” Daniel finally asked.

I frowned, but nodded yes.

“How did you meet Addy?” he asked.

I looked over at Addy to see if she would answer. Daniel looked over at her, too. “Well, Addy, are you going to tell me how you met this guy?” Daniel asked, jerking a thumb in my direction.

She closed her eyes, and a small tear escaped from one, making me feel horrible.

“She picked me up,” I finally answered. “She held me at pepper spray point and made me strip off my shirt and shoes to make sure I wasn’t a druggy. She scared me half to death. She’d seen the sign I was holding that said I’d work for food and, well, that was just what I did.”

“I thought you were an electrician?”

“I’m a certified electrician now, but the company I was working with just went under as well. I have all the tools and experience, but the market isn’t so great for hiring.”

Daniel frowned and looked at Addy. “You picked Matthew up off the side of the road?”

She nodded quietly. “He didn’t smoke or drink, or do drugs.”

“He’s still a man, Addy! What the hell were you thinking?”

“That’s what I said.”

“No, you didn’t, you said it wasn’t safe to pick up strange homeless men,” she snapped.

Daniel looked at me and laughed.

“What? It was raining. I was in her shed, and she wanted me in her house. She didn’t know me from Adam.  What if I was a criminal? She could’ve really been hurt,” I pointed out.

Daniel shook his head. “You’re lucky he wasn’t a criminal, Addy.”

She rolled her eyes at him, and he let out a frustrated sigh.

“Have you heard anything on the hunt for Jeremy?” I asked.

Daniel shook his head. “No, are you worried he’ll come back?”

“Yeah, he was pissed that Addy had pepper sprayed him and also mad that I wouldn’t help him rob her. The dude’s been on the streets too long and is off his rocker.”

“This is ridiculous, I’m fine!” Addy fussed.

Daniel slipped her another canister of pepper spray. “Keep this on you, and make sure Matthew is around to pick you up from the nightshifts you’re working.”

She pouted at him, but huffed, “Fine.”

Thank heavens. I was worried she would fight him. I was glad she didn’t. Maybe she was finally getting it that Jeremy would not give up.

Daniel gave me a hand with a few of the larger pieces of siding that needed replacing, and then he headed home again. He told me to try and talk Addy into moving back to Woodville if I didn’t think it was safe here. I told him I had the money saved up to start that handyman business. I just had to get my girl to move.

It was a month later that Addy had finally had it with me driving her everywhere. She said it had been long enough, and she was sure Jeremy would leave her alone. I called Daniel and asked him what to do. I honestly hoped he would fight her on it, but he didn’t.

Two days later, my worst fears were realized. I was at home, when I thought I’d heard Addy come in, but I didn’t see the truck. I stepped outside and looked around, but there was no sign of her. I called the diner, and she told me she was on her way. When I walked back into the house, I was knocked out cold. 

I woke up sore, tied to the chair with my own flannel shirt. Jeremy was there with another guy. They had a gag in my mouth, and they were looking through my tools. “Got yourself a nice setup here, man,” the other guy said. “Who did you steal this from?” he asked, waving a drill at me. I growled in response, and he just laughed. “No matter, we’re stealing it from you.”

I heard the front door open, and I freaked out. I knew it was Addy. “Matthew?” she called, looking for me.

“That’d be the pepper spray princess, You need to watch out for that bitch,” Jeremy said. The guy nodded his head, and they both tied handkerchiefs over their faces.

“Let’s go have some fun,” they whispered and headed out into the hall.

I was yanking my hands like mad, pushing the gag from my mouth, and I finally got it out. “RUN!” I shouted, but then I heard her scream.

I was panicking. I didn’t want them to touch her. I felt a lump in my pocket and realized I had my phone. I quickly wiggled my hands around and squirmed, all the while listening to them yelling and Addy fighting them off. I finally got 911 dialed and dropped the phone. Thank heavens I knew they could still hear me. I shouted, “There’s someone in the house, and they’re attacking Addy Stratton!  I’m tied up and can’t help her!”

I jerked harder, trying to get my hands free. “Hurry up and get here now!” I heard fabric tearing and Addy screaming, and I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I got up, chair and all, and ran down the hall, ramming into the slimball hovering over my girl.

“How do you like it, bitch!” Jeremy said, as he shot pepper spray in her face. I used the chair to my advantage and rammed him, falling down and sitting on him with the chair, pinning him down. The other guy was getting up from where I had rammed him and came after me, but I kicked him in the nuts. Yeah, I was playing dirty. I literally had my hands still tied behind my back.

There was a banging on the door and shouting from the police.

“Get in here!” I screamed, and they came running in to see me sitting on Jeremy and the other guy holding his crotch. Addy was gripping her torn shirt, crying as her eyes swelled up. Her face was red. The cop called for an ambulance, as his partner cuffed the ball gripper. They untied me and then secured Jeremy. I wrapped my arms around Addy, and she panicked until she heard my voice. “I’ve got you, you’re safe. They’re taking them away now.”

She sobbed into my shoulder.

I looked up at the cops and heard the ambulance coming. “I’m going to take her to change her clothes.”

The cop agreed and let me lead her down the hall, where I pulled off her torn pepper-sprayed clothes and put her in a cotton t-shirt and clean jeans. “Matthew, I can’t afford an ambulance.”

I kissed her head. “We’ll make payments, baby, don’t worry. You just need to get yourself taken care of.”

She didn’t fight me, as I led her out to the paramedics. “Do you want me to call Daniel?” I asked.

She sobbed and nodded her head yes. The driver told me to meet them at Houston General, and I took her keys, as they started flushing her eyes. The cops told me the detective would be taking our statements at the hospital.

I realized my phone was still on the floor in my room. I picked it up. “Hello?”

“Sir, are they there? Are you alright?” a worried woman asked.

“Yes, thank you for sending help so fast.”

“That’s my job. I’m glad you’re okay. May I speak with an officer?” she asked.

“Yeah, hold on,” I said, walking out and handed the phone to one of them. “It’s the 911 operator.”

He nodded and talked quietly to her for a moment, and then said goodbye, hanging up.

“Are you going down to the hospital?” they asked.

“Yeah, I just need to call her dad, so he can meet us there.”

“Alright,” they said and headed to their squad cars.

Needless to say, Daniel was livid and said he would have to arrange some alone time with that jerk. I got a feeling Daniel really knew how to handle himself. I hoped he gave him a good hit for me, too.