Someone tried to cut them off, and Matt had to slam on the breaks to keep from hitting the idiot. Mel held her breath then let it out in relief when Matt simply backed off instead of needing to prove his manhood to the other driver.
“You weren’t there when we finished,” he said, as though their conversation had not been interrupted.
“No. I was called away. By the time I got back, you and your brothers were gone, but the bartender told me you liked to play pool at that place.”
He cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe you went there alone.”
“Not one of my brighter moments,” she admitted.
“So why did you?”
“You’ll want to turn right here,” she directed, avoiding his question, “then take an immediate left onto Clearview.”
He followed her instructions, checking his rearview mirror to make sure the van was still with them.
“So why did you?” he repeated.
“Turn left at the third traffic light—on Fourteenth Street—then look for Gartland Avenue and turn right.”
“You’re gonna have to tell me sooner or later, you know.”
“Later,” she said, “so I can tell you all at once.”
Matt didn’t look happy about it, but he stopped asking questions and continued to follow her directions.
“Here’s my street, but keep going—there’s an alley behind the house, and a small parking lot. You guys won’t be able to leave your van there overnight, but it’ll be fine for now.
They turned left and found a bright security light marking the small gravel lot behind an old three-story house. Mel directed him to her parking spot then had to wait for him to come around to help her out of the car, because, she didn’t think she’d make it on her own. The van pulled in behind them and after turning around, took a spot on the far end of the lot, just off the street. As Matt helped Mel out of the car, she saw the big, burly shadows that were his brothers approach, and her mind flashed back to what she didn’t want to believe she’d seen at the bar.
In for a penny, in for a pound, as her grandmother used to say. She decided her questions would have to wait until she was sitting down.
“I’m on the third floor,” she told them, as she used her key to let them into the back door.
4
The Lockeland Springs historic neighborhood was a gentrified turn-of-the-20th-century area. The houses had all been preserved and renovated, with a few of them—like hers—turned into multi-family housing. Though she’d never be able to afford to buy a place here, the rent on the smallest of this historic home’s three apartments was just within her reach—if she watched what she spent on everything else and kept the AC turned up in the summer and the heat turned down in the winter to keep her electric bills down.
One thing this house didn’t have was an elevator, and once she had struggled as far as the first landing, Matt gently lifted her into his arms and carried her the rest of the way. Mel didn’t put up even a token protest, which she was certain told the men all they needed to know about how bad she really felt. When they entered her apartment, she directed them to the front, where the combined kitchen/living room sat overlooking the street. Matt carefully set her down in the kitchen, and she gratefully sank onto one if the wooden chairs at the round corner table.
“You got any aspirin around here?” Matt asked.
Mel had to think a moment. “I have some generic acetaminophen. It’s in the upper cabinet to the left of the sink.”
Matt got it down and opened it for her. “Water okay, or you want something else.”
“Water’s fine.”
Matt poured her a small glass he found in the same cabinet then handing her the glass, sat beside her at the table. Mel swallowed the pills then laid her head in her hand. Matt gently rubbed her back and neck until she finally looked up at them.
“Won’t you sit down?” she asked. “There are a couple more chairs in the next room you could pull up.”
“I don’t need to sit down, darlin’,” the older man said. “I only need some answers.”
“Introductions, first,” Matt said, continuing to rub her back. “Mel, these are my brothers—John, Mark, and Luke.” He indicated each of the three younger men in turn. “And this is our Uncle Bart. Everybody, this is Melinda Darling. Mel, she likes to be called.”
“Uncle Bart’s here to keep us out of trouble,” John, the youngest, said as he pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down across from her.
“And I got you all into trouble tonight,” Mel said, hugging Matt’s flannel shirt to herself. “I’m so sorry.”
Bart shook his head, looking resigned, but he took the chair next to her. “These yahoos don’t need any help gettin’ into trouble, ma’am, but I’d sure like to know what tonight was all about.
“She tell you anything on the way back?” he asked Matt.
Matt shook his head. “Only that she heard us play last night, and she needs to talk to us.”
“Hey, that was you at the bar last night!” Luke said. “I just knew I’d seen you someplace.”