Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

7:28 PM Elliot Brand: A driver will arrive at nine to assist you with anything you would like to bring to the new apartment.

8:02 PM Elliot Brand: Ms. Johnson, I would like to confirm that you will be available at nine in the morning tomorrow.

8:47 PM Elliot Brand: Is something amiss? Have you decided not to take the job? Might I remind you, Ms. Johnson, that you signed paperwork this afternoon and are already a Brand Employee?

9:13 PM Elliot Brand: If I cannot reach you, I will come and speak to you face to face.

Elliot was fuming by the time he pulled into the rundown neighborhood that could only be described as the slums. Sirens wailed in the night air, far louder than any crickets had hoped to achieve.

The home looked to be held together with chicken wire and clapboard. Crumbling brick littered the front porch along with hundreds of cigarette butts.

Elliot knocked firmly on the door. There was a rustle behind the curtains and then the lights went off.

Did she think she could hide from him? He didn't want to admit such a thing even to himself. He knocked louder, “We both know that you’re in there, Ms. Johnson.”

The door cracked open and the unmistakable sound of the gun being cocked ripped through his ears.

“Amanda?” Elliot’s hands tightened into fists. How dare she pull a gun on him?

The door opened a little further and he saw a woman in her fifties with a light between her yellowed teeth wearing a dirty housecoat.

“What you want with Mandy? You the fucker that put that baby there?”

Elliot could only stare.

The woman raised the gun to be level with his chest, “Better start talking fancy man.”

“What’s going on out there?” A man’s voice bellowed from somewhere inside. “Can’t a man get some sleep, damn it all to hell!”

“I’m her new employer,” Elliot stumbled over the words just as he heard a rustling behind the woman. He looked up and saw Mandy.

Her eyes were wide with disbelief, “Mr. Brand? What are you doing here?”

Mandy scooted around her mother and unlatched the door. But rather than showing him inside, she went out onto the porch.

Mandy had on a tank that had seen better days. The thin material left little to the imagination and he could make out her lovely nipples through the material.

His cock was on high alert and tried to look elsewhere. But the tiny shorts she’d on weren’t helping. Her legs seemed to go on forever and even her baby bump was glorious and womanly.

“Fuck,” he breathed, “I’m so sorry for bothering you.”

Mandy tipped her head to the side, causing her honey blonde curls to wrap around one of her breasts and exposing part of her neck.

“You have no reason to be sorry, Mr. Brand. I apologize for my mother, she probably thought you were the landlord.”

Heat filled Mandy’s cheeks. “What can I do for you?”

Elliot couldn’t tear his eyes away from this beautiful woman that was apologizing for things that she’d no control over. A wave of protectiveness washed through him. He couldn’t let her stay here, not for another night, another hour, or another minute.

“I have found that I will need your services right away,” he stumbled over the words. “I tried to text you.”

Mandy frowned, “My phone is dead, I’m sorry! My sister had an emergency at her shop, and I stayed late to help. I just got home a few minutes ago and plugged it in.”

Elliot nodded, “Can I convince you to come tonight?”

Mandy blinked and looked down at herself. She squeaked and covered her breasts, noticing how see-through her pajamas were in the porch light.

“Of course, I just need a few minutes to pack.”

“Can I come in?” Elliot surprised himself with the request. But he didn’t want to lose sight of her.

Mandy hedged knowing that this man had no idea how they really lived.

“I will need to carry the boxes,” Elliot added with a smile.

Mandy let out the breath she was holding, “All right, Mr. Brand. But just a warning, we weren’t expecting company.”

Elliot raised a dark eyebrow, “I think I realized that the moment the revolver was pointed through the crack in the door.”

Mandy was mortified, “I truly am very sorry.”

He held up a hand and placed a long finger against her bow lips.

“Don’t be,” he whispered, “I’m glad that you’ve had someone to protect you.”

Mandy’s eyes skirted away from his, “Yes, well, something like that. Please come in.”

She opened the door and a wave of second-hand smoke hit them both. Mandy tried to ignore the way her mother was yelling at the television. She showed Elliot to the back stairs and then descended.

The basement smelled of rot and was damp. However, the bedroom that she led him too was clean even if terribly small.

Elliot’s voice was gruff, “Where are the boxes that you can use?”

Mandy swallowed and walked out of the room and returned with three beat-up liquor boxes. Elliot smiled at her, “What can I help you with?”

She blushed, “I don’t have much. Please just have a seat on my bed.”

She wished that she’d a chair to offer him. He looked huge sitting on the edge of her tiny twin bed.

As she opened one of the drawers of the dresser, Elliot stopped her.

“I can put these items in a box if you want.”

Mandy nodded gratefully and grabbed a different box to put her toiletries in. She gathered up her two nice pairs of shoes and a few dresses from her closet. The truth was that almost everything here was from before she was pregnant.

When she’d finished, she turned to see Elliot staring at a black lace bra that was dangling from his fingertips.

Mandy gasped, and Elliot dropped the garment as if he had been burned.

“I beg your pardon,” his voice was gruff, and Mandy realized that the drawer underneath the one he had started on contained all her bras and panties.

Mandy swallowed a hysterical laugh, “I suppose that you know more about me now than my last four boyfriends.”

And then she wanted to kick herself for spraying that out into the world.

“What do you mean?” Elliot took a step closer to her.

Mandy shook her head, “I was being stupid, it is nothing.”

Elliot moved until he was directly in front of her, “Amanda—tell me.”

Mandy ran a nervous hand through her hair.

“It is only that you have not only been to my house, which I have never brought anyone home before. But you have seen inside of my room, experienced my crazy mother, and then you packed my underwear, I think some of those have been around for the last century.”

His lips twitched, “A century?”

Mandy flushed, “Or longer.”

“I will let you rifle through my underwear drawer if it makes you feel any better?”

Elliot wasn’t sure who was more surprised at his offer, Ms. Johnson, or himself.

But the moment laughter bubbled over her lips he had been damn glad that he offered. Mandy’s flushed cheeks and sparkly eyes had him captivated as she giggled.

“You’re exceedingly kind, Mr. Brand. But I think I will leave your underwear alone for now.”

Elliot smirked, “Well, just so you know the offer is still open.

She laughed again, thinking that he was a good sport for helping her feel more at ease. Elliot wasn’t so sure that he wasn’t dead serious. He would let her see his underwear right now if she wanted to. And that shocked the hell out of him.