“You are as insolent as your mutt!” the woman informed me.

“Probably more so,” I said with a nod.  “Look, it happened—can’t change that now.  If she does have pups, I’ll pay for it, okay?”

“You’ll pay the cost of the litter she was supposed to have!” the woman demanded.

“How much is that?”

“She could have had as many as ten of them,” the woman said with a smirk.  “At two thousand a piece, you do the math!”

“Twenty grand for a bunch of dogs?”  I rolled my eyes.  “Whatever.  I’ll pay you based on how many pups she does have.”

“I would have bred her multiple times with the stud dog,” the woman informed me.  She gave me a nasty little smirk to go with her attitude.  “She would have had more.”

“Then let him fuck her a couple more times,” I suggested.  “He could use the action.”

“Most certainly not!”

“Then the deal stands.”  I took a step forward and leaned closer to the woman.  I made sure I was right up in her face and staring down at her before I dropped my voice low.  “I suggest you take it because the humor of this situation is starting to wane a bit.  You don’t want me pissed off, or I might decide to just take a clothes hanger and fix the whole situation.  Capisce?”

I didn’t tend to use Italian as much as my co-workers, but quite frankly, sometimes it made the point better than English.  The woman took a step back as I lifted my eyebrows and stared her down.  She obviously picked up on my meaning, huffed her agreement, and then hauled her dog back toward the apartment entrance.

“Jesus, Evan!” Lia whispered as the woman scurried away.

“It’s all right,” I said, trying to sound reassuring.  “I don’t know if I could have cock-blocked him under those circumstances either.”

I snickered a little, grinned down at Odin, and started back to the apartment.

“That’s not what I meant,” Lia muttered as she fell into step with me.

“What, then?”

“You practically threatened her!”

I shrugged one shoulder.

“It shut her up, didn’t it?”

“Not the point.”

“What is the point?” I sighed and opened the door for Lia and me to enter with Odin prancing behind me, still looking self-satisfied and downright cocky.

“What if she calls the police?”

“For what?  Me offering to pay her for her fucking dogs?”

“No, for threatening to violently abort them!”

“I wouldn’t have done that,” I scoffed.  “Besides, at that point, it would be her word against mine.”

“I was a witness you know.”

I stopped for a minute and looked at her.

“Are you saying you’d speak out against me?”  I watched her carefully, wondering if she would really do that.  I was used to running in the kind of circles where that offense would be punishable by death, and I was a little taken aback that she’d consider it.  My skin went a little cold at the idea.

“Are you saying you would ask me to lie for you?”

“Yes.”  I kept looking at her, waiting for her to respond, but she just seemed dumbfounded.  I was a little pissed but figured the conversation was over and she understood where I was coming from, so I made my way back to the apartment with Odin trailing behind and Lia remaining silent.

At least, she did until we got inside.

“I have no idea whether you’re serious or not,” she said.

I walked into the kitchen and started to rummage around in the fridge.  I didn’t reply to her because I didn’t see any point in answering.  The whole conversation was making me mad, and I honestly didn’t know how to deal with it.

My idea of conflict resolution just didn’t fit the situation.

Avoidance was my next best option, but Lia seemed hell-bent on keeping me from doing that.

“You said you wouldn’t really hurt that dog, but then you would expect me to lie for you.  How am I supposed to know when you mean it and when you don’t?”

I opened up one of the drawers in the refrigerator, but I only looked in the direction of the food that was in there.  None of the actual contents were registering inside my agitated brain.  I closed the drawer and then pushed some of the containers around to see what was behind them.

“Are you even listening to me?” Lia asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Then why aren’t you saying anything?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Do you think this might be a little more important?”

I backed away and slammed the fridge door hard enough that the contents rattled.

“No,” I said, “I don’t.  I think this is total bullshit.”

Lia started to open her mouth, but that’s when my phone rang.  I was thrilled for the interruption and grabbed it out of my pocket immediately.  I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered just to get myself out of the argument with Lia.

“Yeah?” I said into the phone.

“Open the fucking door,” the unfortunately familiar voice on the other end said.

As if I wasn’t pissed off enough.

Trent stood in the hallway looking like the rat-bastard he was when I opened the door, but I blocked him from coming inside.

“Who’s this?” Lia asked quietly from behind me.

“Get in the fucking bedroom,” I snapped.  “Now.  Stay there until I tell you otherwise.”

Lia grumbled something under her breath before she walked away from me and into the bedroom.

“You do like to play ‘Mister Elusive,’ don’t you?” Agent Trent had somehow managed to get my phone number and the location of my apartment.  The annoyance I had been feeling toward the situation with Lia coupled with Odin’s impending fatherhood began to boil into something far more heated.

Fuck a duck.

“I don’t like people showing up unexpectedly,” I replied.  “What do you want, Trent?”

“I expect regular updates,” he snapped back at me.

“Well, I didn’t see that in the fucking contract!” I yelled at him.  “As I recall, my instructions were to get you something on Gavino Greco that could put him away.  That’s going to take some fucking time, so get off my dick!”

“Listen, you little shit,” Trent growled.  “You need to remember who is calling the shots here.  If I don’t think you’re performing up to standards, I’ll pull this deal, and your ass goes straight back to jail.  Considering you’ve already put a couple of Moretti’s guys in the river, I don’t think he’ll be inclined to help you out.  He’d probably be more inclined to take it out on that pretty little brunette’s cunt.”

I tightened my fingers around the phone still in my hand, tight enough to make my knuckles go white.  My teeth crushed against each other, and my eyes began to burn behind their lids.  I barely stopped myself from killing him right then and there.

“Don’t say another fucking word about her,” I hissed through my teeth.

“Hey, bitch!” he yelled out, still smiling.  “Maybe you ought to check into the asshole you’re living with!”

I stepped closer and shoved him farther into the hallway.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” I warned.

“Sore spot, huh?”  I could see the laughter in his eyes.  “Is she nice and tight on your cock, huh?  Don’t wanna share?  Then you better fucking listen to me.”

“Don’t push me,” I warned.  It was taking everything in my power just to control my breathing and not crush the phone at the same time.  “I said I’d do what you wanted, but don’t fucking push me.”

“I want updates,” Trent repeated.  “I’m assuming those two dead bodies got you into Greco’s outfit?”

“Not yet confirmed,” I replied, “but that should do it.”

“You tell me when you’re in,” he ordered.  “Tell me immediately.”

He turned around and stomped down the hall to the elevator.  I slammed the door shut and then threw the phone across the room, shattering it against the wall.

How the fuck did he figure out where we were, anyway?

“What was that?” Lia asked as she came out of the bedroom and looked at the phone debris on the floor next to the wall.  “What happened to the phone?”

“I dunno,” I snapped back at her.  “Maybe there’s a problem with the fucking battery.”

“You’re resorting to sarcasm?”  She narrowed her eyes at me.

“Only when you insist on asking stupid-ass questions.”

Lia’s eyes blazed, and she placed her hands on her hips as she started in on me again.

“I’m sorry if smashing phones and threatening the neighbors is something that’s so commonplace with you, but it’s still a bit of a shock for me.  I suppose I should also get used to having to lie for you as well?  Do I need to learn to use a gun in case I need to kill for you?”

“Now who’s fucking sarcastic?”

“Am I?” Lia fumed.  “I don’t know.  I have no idea what you expect from me!”

I didn’t know either, but I wasn’t about to say it.  I stomped past her and into the bedroom.  Eating was no longer important, and I just wanted the day to end.  Lia continued to go on, but I stopped listening to her as I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the shower while she was in mid sentence.

The hot water didn’t improve my mood.

Lia was sitting on the edge of the bed when I walked out wearing just a towel around my waist.  Before she had a chance to say anything, I flipped on my electric toothbrush and acted like I couldn’t hear her.  Unfortunately, that activity didn’t last very long, and when I turned around, she had her arms folded across her chest and her eyes focused right on me.

I marched out of the room and poured myself a scotch on the rocks before going back to the bedroom.  Attempting to ignore Lia’s glaring eyes, I stared out the window and sipped the drink.  After a minute, I glanced back to her, but she was still obviously pissed.

“You done with the avoidance tactics?”

How did she understand me so well?

“I could go with distraction,” I countered as I lowered the towel a little.  Lia continued to glare with her arms crossed.

I sighed and copied her gesture.

“Why did you threaten that woman?” Lia demanded.  “Why was that necessary?”

“It was necessary to shut her up,” I answered.  “I did it to keep you from seeing a side of me you really don’t want to run into.”

“Do you get bigger muscles and turn green?” she asked.

“Nice.”

“I wasn’t raised like this, Evan!  In my house, you didn’t threaten people when you were angry, and you didn’t lie.  And you certainly didn’t kill people for money!”

“You wanted to know!” I slammed the glass down onto the windowsill and then shouted at her as I moved toward the bed.  “You wanted to know what all this shit was about.  I didn’t want to fucking tell you, and I told you once it was out, I couldn’t take it back, but you still wanted to know!”

“Knowing doesn’t mean I’m okay with it!” she yelled back.  “It definitely doesn’t mean I’m going to participate in any of it!”

I took another step forward, and Lia pushed herself backwards with her hands and the heels of her feet until she reached the center of the bed.  I didn’t know exactly what she meant by not participating, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the details.  I just knew that if she kept talking, I was going to get really pissed off, and I had to get her to stop.

“You need to cut it out,” I told her.  My knees bumped up against the bed.  “Just drop it.”

“No,” she said firmly.  “I’m not going back to doing whatever the hell my boyfriend tells me to do.  I’ve lived that life—not anymore.”

I couldn’t take it anymore.  In frustration, I moved forward, grabbed both her wrists in my hands, and held them up above her head as I pushed her into the mattress.  Tossing one leg over her torso, I straddled her and leaned in close, which caused the towel around my waist to fall off to the side of the bed.

“You are pissing me off,” I growled.

“So what are you going to do about it?”  Lia’s jaw was set and her eyes tight—almost daring me.  I wasn’t sure exactly what she was daring me to do, but the feeling was still there.

“I don’t know yet.  I’m not used to this shit.”

“What ‘shit’?”

“Having someone around who is questioning what I do or say.”

“Is that what I’m doing?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe you need it,” Lia said.  She tilted her head to one side a bit and twisted her hands.  I didn’t release her wrists—I tightened my grip a little instead.

Having her lying there beneath me—even though she was clothed—was getting me obviously hard.  I watched Lia’s eyes glance down and dilate slightly at the sight of my cock lying on her stomach and growing by the second.