Free Riss by Kathi S. Barton Page A

we’ve shared.”
    “ I don’t love you. I liked you until this bullshit, but I don’t love you. And for that matter, what have you done for me?” He snorted, and she decided right then she was never doing that again. “You’ve mooched off me for years and years, but I never said anything. Having me bring you in some dinner or having me pick you up some breakfast on the way in. You even had me pick up your laundry when your mother’s washer was broken. You’ve never even offered to pay me back for any of that. Now you think that just because you’re down on your luck I should take you in? You’re fucked up.”
    “ No, I’m not. I’m not crazy.” He threw the bowl across the room, and it shattered on the wall. “You call me crazy again and I won’t be responsible for what I do to you. I’m not fucking crazy. They just said that to me to make me have to stay there. I’m not crazy, and you take it back right now.”
    Kala was afraid. Terrified really. And when she tried to think what to do, she heard a small voice in her head telling her to call the police. How the hell was she supposed to manage that? Looking around the kitchen, she saw her cell phone on the counter near where Dan had thrown his bowl. Picking up the hand towel and a few paper towels, she wrapped her phone in it and went to the wall to start cleaning it up.
    “ Good job, Kala. You clean it up really good, okay? I never thought about us not getting our deposit back when I did that. Make sure you get it all up. We don’t want them to deduct anything from our money.” Taking out the phone, she laid it on the floor as she started wiping down the mess. “I’m talking to you. I need you to answer me. Kala, you’ll have to speak to me sometime. We’re going to be together for a long time.”
    S he hoped that he wouldn’t be able to hear if anyone on the other end spoke when she dialed 911. As soon as she heard the man answer, she started talking to Dan, hoping that the man at the dispatcher office would understand. Her voice was so shaky that she was sure he was going to hang up on her and she’d be dead when they came to redo her apartment.
    “ You brought that gun here to keep me in line, didn’t you? You’re going to shoot me and leave me for dead. I don’t want to die.”
    Dan told her that it was his insurance that she minded him. “I won’t hurt you if you’ll just do what I tell you. You know you want to help me, you’re always trying to help me, and I love you for it. I can’t live without you, Kala, but I won’t have you treating me this way either. It’s not right.”
    “ I’m not going to let you live with me, Dan Carey. I sympathize, but you’re still not living here. You’ll have to leave before things get more out of hand and that gun of yours goes off.” Kala closed her eyes when the man on her phone spoke. She couldn’t hear what he was saying but hoped he was telling her that the police were on their way.
    “ You’ll let me or I’ll plug you full of holes until you do.” Dan laughed, and she heard the man on the phone ask her if she needed help. What the hell did he think she was doing here, having a party?
    “ Yes.” She waited for Dan or the dispatcher to speak and when neither of them did she continued. “I’m afraid of you. You wave that gun around like you’re planning to shoot me. Are you?”
    “ Not if you simply do what I want you to. I would really hate to have to hurt you, Kala, but if you don’t let me live here with you, I’m going to be homeless, and I can’t let that happen.” She glanced at him when the chair scraped across the floor. He was coming toward her, and he had the gun.
    “ I said you’re not living here. I don’t even like you very much right now.” Dan laughed just as the dispatcher told her that help was on the way. “You should know that I’m not going to go easy. I have ways to get you out. You’re not living here with me. We just worked together, and you