“Candy, can you come in here?” Jameson bellowed through his office door. He shuffled the papers on the desk as much to have something to do as anything productive. He didn’t really know what the hell he was going to say to her. But this wasn’t the first time this had happened, not even this week.

“You yelled.” He took a good look at her. She looked like a shadow of the woman who had run screaming from him that first day. She barely had any makeup on, her clothes were shapeless and drab, and she had let her roots grow out. Not that he gave a damn what color her hair was but seeing her so lost was killing him.

“Yeah, close the door. Please.” When she turned to face him he would have sworn there were tears in her eyes. “Hon, Axel brought this to me.” He slid the expense check across the desk.

“I wrote that out for him. He had to buy some camera equipment.”

“I know. Look at the amount.”

“Oh, Oh shoot! I’m sorry, I’ll write him a new one.”

“Babe, I’m not worried about the check, well, except if you keep moving everything over one decimal point I’ll be bankrupt quick. Seriously I’m worried about you. This isn’t like you, and it’s getting worse. Did you call your doctor?” It had been two goddamned weeks. Her gaze didn’t look above her toes. “Candy, there isn’t any shame in admitting you need help.”

“Like you would?”

“If I was sinking under the way you are? Hell yes.”

“You have no idea what this is like.”

Fuck, he was tired of pussy-footing around. He cared, more than he damn well wanted to admit but her thinking she was the only one with problems was getting damn fucking old.

“Really? You’re going to say that to me? To. Me.” He thumped his chest like the caveman he felt like. “I suppose you know what it’s like to have your legs stolen from you? What it is like to have the woman you think you love walk into your hospital room and tell you she is leaving you for the guy that cut them out from under you? What it is like to find out a couple weeks later that they were doing speedballs while he was out on bail waiting for the trial. Meanwhile, you were working your fucking ass off to get back some kind of dignity. That the day you decide to say fuck it all and swallow a bullet is the same day you find out that the girl and her boyfriend O-D’d and the truly fucking shitty kicker is she was pregnant and far enough along that you’ll never know if she took your kid with her.”

He was panting like he’d chased down a perp. He hadn’t said those things to anyone, well except the VA shrink, and even then not that bluntly. Now the tears in her eyes were unmistakable. Fuck. He was an ass.

“I never heard she was pregnant.” Candy’s voice was a whisper, he wanted her to scream at him, rage at the unfairness of it all and then they could hold each other. Just the two of them taking on all challengers. He loved her and this was killing him one thin slice at a time.

“Doesn’t matter now. I shouldn’t have said anything. But don’t think I don’t know how hard it is.”

“Jameson…” Something in her voice set off his alarms. The next few minutes were going to suck.

“Candy, don’t. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I did, I just wanted you to know you aren’t alone.”

“I think I should move back to my place. Bitsy can stay with you if you want.”

“I don’t want the dog, I want you to stay.” Fuck, his chest burned like she’d poured acid on his heart.

“I think, maybe, I’m not good for you, not good enough for you.”

“Bullshit! Candy, come here hon.” She moved a half step closer but still outside his grasp. “Candy, sweetheart, I, fuck this is hard.”

“I’ll make it easy. I quit. Now we don’t have to see each other. I’ll take a cab and get my stuff. I’ll be gone before you get home.”

“That isn’t what I want! Candy, I love you, fuck, I love you more than you do right now.”

She backed away and tears tracked down her cheeks. “Jameson, I’m not enough. I’m not ready. I have to go. I’ll clear out my desk this weekend.”

And then she was gone. Well, fuck it! It was way past time for a drink. He yanked open his bottom drawer and pulled out the bottle and a shot glass.

He was on his third shot when he noticed Axel leaning against the door jamb.

“The fuck you want?”

“Nothing at all. Just wondering what you’re celebrating so hard.”

“Not a goddamned fucking thing.”

“Suppose not, I saw Candy run out of here like you’d set her on fire.”

“This is complicated kid.”

“Always is. Gimme that before you regret having anymore.” He let the kid pull the bottle from him. Getting drunk wasn’t going to fix anything anyway. “I hate to say this but, wanna talk?”

“Fuck no, I want to hit something, hard. But I guess I’ll have to settle for talking.”

Axel dropped into the chair on the other side of the desk and slouched down with his legs stretched out in front of him. He’d capped the bottle, sticking it under the chair. The kid never touched alcohol, he’d watched it destroy his parents. The thought snapped Jameson out of his pity party.

Getting drunk wasn’t going to help Candy and he knew for a fact it wouldn’t help him. He needed a battle plan.

“Oh fuck, I know that look.” Axel started laughing. Jameson pulled up the ‘Candy’ tab on his computer and a neat grid of images popped up, all live feed. He kept the sound on mute. There hadn’t really been any reason to even look at them much with her at his place but now he double checked sight lines and angles. He could see most everything, with the exception of the bathroom because as much fun as watching her shower in person was, it would be damned creepy if he wasn’t in there with her.

“Fuck.” The thought hit him like a sucker punch. He loved her, hell he’d even told her so, not that she’d said it back, not that it fixed anything. But at least to him it meant something. He’d do whatever he had to, to keep her safe, even if she didn’t want him. Jesus, he needed his head examined or a suit of armor because he was pretty sure that shit went out with the Middle Ages.

“You going to clarify that, or is it just a general comment on your life?”

“Smart ass, you did a good job at Candy’s.”

“Thanks, oh damn, you did finally tell her, right? Fuck, man. Tell me she knows you’re spying on her?”

“Well...”

“You are a bastard.”

“I’m not gonna interfere. I just want to make sure she’s okay, I swear.”

“I start to think you’ve stepped over the line, I’ll yank you back. I’ll tell her too, and help pull the damned things.”

“I swear. Axel, she’s in a really bad place right now.” The kid turned grey.

“Like Ernie, kind of bad place?”

Ernie was Axel’s father’s name. The same guy he’d watched drink himself nearly to death and then swallow a bullet when he couldn’t stand it anymore. He figured it hurt less if the kid called him by name instead of dad. “Yeah.” The word just hung there between them.

Finally, Axel whispered. “You can’t let that happen to her.”

“Not going to. But she doesn’t want to see me right now.”

“What the hell did you do?”

“Nothing! Fuck, okay I lost it, a little, I apologized but... Look, she’s been doing the pitiful thing for two damned weeks. I snapped. I’m not proud of it. If she’d just get angry...”

“She’s not a guy.”

“Like I hadn’t fucking noticed?”

“No, I mean her shit doesn’t come out as anger. Especially a woman like Candy, she’s gonna curl up inside herself until she’s so small she disappears. I saw it with my mom.”

“I suppose. Still all the shit happening in her neighborhood, you’d think she would get a little angry.”

“Not going to matter much longer anyway?”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“When I was talking to the cops about gang activity in her area. Which it turns out, there really isn’t any they can find. None of it matters anyway because the whole place is going to get bulldozed for the new highway spur.”

“Candy said it had been cancelled.”

“Weird, the city said they’d been in touch with a neighborhood rep.”

“Any idea who the rep is? Because I can take a guess and I may need you to post my goddamned bail.”

“Never got the name. Truthfully, I didn’t think much about it. Figured you were going to ask her to move in with you when it came down to it.”

“I might at that.” Okay, he shouldn’t be happy that she was going to get thrown out of her house and he wasn’t, but the thought of her living with him permanently, hell he wouldn’t be a guy if that didn’t make him smile a little.

A flash of movement caught his eye on the screen. “The goddamned pencil neck cocksucker!” Axel jumped up and was staring over his shoulder now.

“That’s the guy I saw the day of the fire.”

“No shit. The sonofabitch has been buying up the old people’s properties, cheap, because who else is going to want them with the crime and gang activity.”

“But the cops...”

“He’s got the old people convinced it’s pointless to call. And he was the one feeding them the information on the gangs and shit. Fuck, why didn’t I see this sooner?”

“’Cause you were thinking with your little head?” The kid grunted when Jameson’s elbow connected with his solar plexus. “Fuck man... Turn the sound on asshole.”