Chapter 5

Blake knocked on Brandy’s door and heard scuffling inside. What the hell was that about?

He knocked again.

“Just a minute!” Brandy called.

Blake looked down the quiet hallway of the apartment building. Honestly, the place was a dump, and for the millionth time, he thought about using some of the Saviors money and moving Brandy into a new one. However, the fact of the matter was he just didn’t care enough to move her out of here. Brandy was an excellent lay, she had access to great drugs, and they shared a few laughs together. She gave him the distraction and relief from his life he needed, and right now he needed some heroin. Why wasn’t she opening the damn door?

He knocked again, and an older woman two doors down poked her head out. She looked to be in her sixties, with short gray hair and heavy lines surrounding her blue eyes. Her face was long and thin, and she looked like someone who had been around the block a time or two and seen more than her fair share of bad shit, that life hadn’t exactly been kind. He wondered if his assessment was correct, but then decided he didn’t care. He didn’t care about much these days.

“Sorry,” Blake said. “She’s home—I hear her in there—but she must be on the shitter or something.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “She probably hidin’ her drugs.”

Blake’s heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

The woman shook her head. “I used to be like her. The party girl. The girl everyone came to for a good time.” The woman stepped out, her green nightgown draping on her skeletal body. “This is what the party life gets you,” she said, gesturing to her body. “Hepatitis C, a weekly dialysis treatment, and a memory so bad I can’t even recall what I had for lunch.”

Blake looked her over. Man, she did look bad, like death would be calling any day. If he were her, he’d probably just eat the business end of a gun and call it good.

“If you’re smart, you’ll walk away right now,” the woman lectured. “That girl is headed for nothing but trouble, and she’ll take you down with her. Trust me on that one.” She then went back into her apartment and shut the door.

Blake stared at the old, faded brown linoleum floor. What did that mean, that Brandy would take him down with her? Give him bad drugs? Some STD? He always thought of himself as a pretty intelligent guy, and he knew within his heart he shouldn’t be going down the path he was on, but right now he felt he didn’t have a choice. He had nowhere else to go.

The Saviors offered him protection against his own government. He was a wanted man with a nice bounty on his head. Lately, he had been thinking he never should have searched out the Saviors. When he had been an FBI agent, he should have just minded his own business and thrown away that damn letter he received with the ash on it that had been sent by a Colonist. He should have just kept on living his life and pushed aside the pull to know exactly whom he was and what he was made of. Granted, that was hard to do when you were fifteen years old and watched your father kill your mother, and then explode into a pile of ash when you buried a bullet in his chest.

After that, his life continued to be difficult. Hating the cold of Alaska, he made his way down to Arizona and ended up in Phoenix. He was a street kid for a while, until a restaurateur named Henry had caught him going through his garbage and offered him a job and a place to stay. Henry had mentored him, been his friend, and he’d stood by him as Blake went to college and then on to the FBI. Working in the special unit of the FBI had opened Blake’s eyes to a whole new world that existed right here on Earth.

What the fuck was Brandy doing in there?

He pounded on the door again, this time louder, not caring if he woke up the entire floor.

The door opened, and Brandy stood there in a green strapless nightgown that fell to her mid-thighs. “Blake! I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”

“What’s going on? What took you so long to get to the door?”

Brandy shrugged and smiled. “I told you, I wasn’t expecting you,” she said, stepping aside.

He bent down and gave her a quick kiss as he stepped in. She shut the door.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “I thought you had business to take care of.”

Blake nodded. Something was off in the apartment, but he couldn’t place what it was. “Business is done.”

“Well then, sit down, honey,” Brandy said. Blake gazed around the apartment, happy that Brandy didn’t question him about things. He could be as vague as he wanted and she never probed. It wasn’t like he could tell her about SR44, the Saviors, and the fact that he was half-Colonist. Keeping those things secret was for her own safety as well as his own. He had a good thing going with Brandy, but he’d never trusted a woman before in his life—excluding his mother and Annis—and it had worked out just fine. His mom had been dead a long time, and look what he got by trusting Annis: a one-way ticket to misery so thick and deep, he was now snorting drugs just to get through the day. If he thought about how far he’d fallen and how pathetic his life had become, he wanted to hit himself in the face.

Blake took in the one-bedroom apartment. A hallway to the left of the small kitchen led to the bathroom and bedroom. The second-hand furniture had lost its luster a long time ago, but Brandy kept the place clean and it was comfortable. He carefully studied each piece of furniture, looked at the pictures on the walls, and gazed over at the bare kitchen counters. Everything looked like it was in its right place, but the hairs on Blake’s neck were standing on end.

“Do you have company?” he asked.

Brandy shook her head. “No. Why?”

Blake glanced around one more time. “Just wondering.”

He took off his jacket as Brandy sunk into the couch. “I’m so glad you were able to come by tonight, baby,” she said, tapping the seat next to her.

He sat down, the uneasy feeling lessening. “Oh yeah? How come?”

Brandy snuggled up to him. “I just got some new stuff in, and I wanted to share.”

Blake smiled. That girl is headed for nothing but trouble, and she’ll take you down with her. He pushed the thought aside, his body aching with desire at the thought of heroin. “I’m game,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

Brandy stood and slipped the nightgown over her head. Blake looked over her naked body, his cock giving a jolt letting him know it liked what he saw. He noticed that he didn’t have much interest in sex with all the heroin he’d been doing the past couple of months. The feeling the heroin gave him was far better than any orgasm he’d ever had. Maybe tonight he’d wait to do the heroin until after sex, something he hadn’t done. He always finished off Brandy and got his high on, never bothering to get to completion himself, but Brandy liked to make sure he came.

Yeah, he was ready for some sex tonight.

“Come on, Blake, you know the drill,” Brandy said, holding out her hand to him. “You get me off, you get a little treat.”

He took her hand, and she led him to the bedroom.