Page 2 of Hidden Ties (Made Men #11)

ONE

WHAT’S HIS NAME?

V alerie waved to one of her neighbors who lived across the street. The single mother was friendly and helpfully reminded her when she forgot to put the trash out.

Unlike him , she thought, driving past the neighbor who lived right next door as he removed his mail from the mailbox in front of his house.

Parking in her driveway, she grabbed two grocery bags then closed the car door with her foot before walking to her house.

An irritating imp that lived inside of her came out to play when she saw her neighbor walking back to his house without even bothering to say hi to Katie, who was the other neighbor, or her; it set her imp off.

“’Sup, Sal!” she yelled obnoxiously. “How ya been?”

The only reason she knew his name was because Katie had told her when a package had accidentally been delivered to her house.

Sal came to an abrupt stop at her yell. “Fine.”

Fine? What kind of an answer was that?

She wondered how he could walk with that big fucking stick up his ass.

“I’m good, in case you wanted to know.” Giving him a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth grin, she jiggled her bags until she was able to put the key in the lock of her door.

Sal looked at her over the top of his glasses, as if trying to remember who she was.She was tempted to remind him that she had lived next to him for the last six months.

“Glad to hear it.”

Did the dude ever smile?

Curtailing her imp from continuing to pester the man, she went inside her house and shut the door behind her with a shove of her shoulder. He could have at least kindly asked if she needed any help.

Placing the heavy bags on the counter, she started putting the groceries away.

She grabbed two handfuls of MoonPies and shoved them into her snack drawer, leaving it open. To save time, she decided to just tilt the rest of the bag’s contents into the drawer before shoving it closed with a thud from her hip.

Quickly, she put away her almond milk in the fridge before opening the freezer and stacking all the frozen dinner meals she had purchased neatly inside.

She closed the freezer, folded up her reusable bags, and put them away. Then she finally took a blue Powerade out of fridge before she went back to her snack drawer to stare down at her assorted treats.

“Decisions, decisions …”

Choosing a banana-flavored MoonPie, she carried both into her room to make herself comfy at her computer. She put on her bulky pink headset and returned to the game she had been playing before going on her grocery run.

“You there, Valkyrie?” a guy immediately asked.

“I’m here,” she answered Justice on the mic.

“You get your MoonPies?” he joked as he skillfully gunned her down in the game.

“You know it. If you had bought the house next to me when I told you to, I could have tossed you one out the window.”

Male laughter sounded through of the headset.

“He must be there. You only say that when he’s there for the weekend.”

“Just saw him,” she confirmed, taking out one of his men in a blaze of glory.

“Has his date showed yet?”

“Nope. Usually, his entertainment for the night doesn’t show until closer to seven.”

“You got his timetable down pat. You stalking him? That’s a punishable offense, you know.”

“Don’t have to.” She shifted her eyes from her game to look out the window toward the house next door. “I can kinda see his front door from where my computer is.”

The room she sat in was at the front of her house, while the window she sat in front of faced the side his house.

Her house also had a bit of a smaller front lawn, which allowed her to view more of the front of his house, including his driveway.

From what she could tell, his home had a strange configuration, where the front door indented into the home, giving her a sideview of his front door.

From a window on the side of his house, she had tried her best to see through the blinds, and her best guess was it was his living room.

“You could try putting the computer facing away from that direction.”

“I wish. My house is old as hell. This is the only outlet that won’t trip the breaker from my setup.”

“You could also put your setup in another room …” Justice suggested.

Valerie rolled her eyes. “Geez, I should have thought about that.”

Taking out two more of his men, she successfully took a dive off a building to land on another high rise. “All of the outlets in this house are fire hazards. When I sell this game, I plan to rewire this shithole.”

“Have you heard back from Game Hookup?”

“Not yet.” Pressing a button on her controller, she blew a bubble. Once it was large enough, she stepped inside to float down to the ground. “You think that’s a good sign or a bad sign?” she asked.

“Dunno. I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

“I wait much longer, I’m not going to be able to buy my MoonPies. I’ve already had to switch from Little Debbies to Great Value.”

“I bet that hurt.”

Grimacing as Justice destroyed half her team, she ran into the closest building to restock her weapons. “I still have my team.”

“I meant giving up your Little Debbies.”

“Oh … it’s not too bad, but the Nutty Buddies definitely don’t taste the same. But I refuse to give up my MoonPies.”

Looking over the edge of her computer, she saw a tiny sports car pull into her neighbor’s driveway. “My neighbor’s date is here, right on time.”

“Damn, Valk, you were right on the nose.” He cleared his throat before continuing curiously. “What does she look like?”

She took a vicious bite from her MoonPie, some crumbs spewing out with each descriptive word.

“Blonde, big boobs, and looks like she came out of a centerfold. Dude is more predictable than the news. He only stays in his house for one weekend every other week, gets laid, and then disappears into thin air for another week.”

As she talked and chewed, she was methodically taking out his team until Justice was the last one remaining and his avatar disappeared into a building before she could take him out.

“Why don’t you like him? He sounds like a perfect neighbor to me.”

“Dude has to be a cheater. Why else would he rent a house to stay only for one weekend every other week? He doesn’t get any mail other than ads. Or a package that gets delivered when he’s staying there.”

“His behavior does seem shady.”

She knew, for Justice to agree, that meant something.

Using her controller, she moved her avatar, searching for him. Was he waiting for her to come into the building to take her out?

She stealthily made it to the building Justice had gone into and was about to equip her X-ray vision goggles when Justice jumped down on her.

“Nice move,” she complimented the other gamer.

His laughter sounded in her ear. “Nah, you’re just paying more attention to your neighbor than the game.”

“Not true. I couldn’t care less what he’s doing.” Despite her words, she couldn’t help herself from shifting her eyes back to the window to look at his house. “I wouldn’t even know his name if Katie hadn’t told me.”

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“Salvatore. Salvatore Lastra.”