Page 27 of Jack Rabbit (Dark Trails #1)
27
JACK
A s the sun sets, I wait in my truck. I narrow my eyes as I look at the luxury sedan incongruously parked outside a scruffy duplex on the outskirts of town, all sagging gutters and peeling paint.
The unfairness of Bunny being robbed of his security deposit gnawed at me all morning until I decided I was going to solve the problem. Starting the morning with that kiss — and the promise of more mornings like that stretching forward all the way to the horizon — was a hell of a silver lining, but the fact that his asshole landlord left him literally without a roof over his head made my blood boil. It took a little digging, but it wasn’t too hard to find the guy, or the other rentals he still owns around here.
I give the house a once-over. I’m betting he’s here to collect on this chilly night. With two apartments in this building, odds are he’ll have plenty of cash on him when he walks down the weathered front steps. I park around the corner underneath a broken streetlight and wait.
When I see the front door swing open, I hop out. I pull my baseball cap down low over my eyes, yank the triangle of bandana tied loosely around my neck up over the lower half of my face and check my pockets. Zip ties, duct tape, knife. Hopefully it’s not going to take that much work, but I wanted to come prepared.
I accost him on the sidewalk. “Time’s up, Joey,” I snarl. He jumps, obviously not expecting to encounter someone here who knows his name — especially not someone much bigger than him with his face hidden.
The instant his hand drifts towards his waistband, I’m on him. He’s got a zip tie securing each wrist to a belt loop on the back of his pants before he even manages to finish his volley of curses at me.
“Shut the fuck up, lowlife,” I snap. I’m tired of listening to him, so I throw an arm around his neck and squeeze. He struggles for a bit as I pull him off the sidewalk and into the darkness of the vacant lot next door. I wait patiently until he’s lights-out before I release his throat.
When he comes to with a shake of his head a minute or so later, he’s on his belly with my knee in his back. A piece of duct tape is slapped over his mouth and another zip tie is threaded between the laces of his boots. Who knew these skills would turn out to be so versatile?
“You had a rental property that got seized for back taxes a little while ago,” I say. “Sound familiar?” He mutters something behind the duct tape and I snort out a laugh.
“Yeah, whatever. At any rate, you screwed your tenant out of the rest of the month he’d already paid you for as well as his security deposit. Consider me his collections agent.”
When I tug his wallet out of his back pocket, he tries to struggle. I’m not in the mood. I give the back of his head a hard whack with an open hand, bouncing his nose off the ground. I can hear his howl even through the duct tape.
“What’s that? Didn’t like that?” I thread my hand through his hair to jerk his head back. “Hmm, maybe settle the fuck down, then, dickhead.”
He blows out a hard breath through his nose. “Just for the record, I’m not a thief,” I tell him as I thumb through the contents of his wallet. “I’m just taking what you tried to weasel out of paying your tenant.”
I count off what he screwed Addy out of and not a dollar more, tossing his wallet in the weeds as I take my knee off his back and stand up. He starts immediately thrashing around, trying to get out of his bonds. I aim a kick squarely at his midsection. After it lands with a dull thud, he stills.
“By the way, probably not smart to carry around so much cash,” I say with a snicker as I walk away. “Might make you a target for robbers.”