Free Inked Chaos by M. J. Grace

thing.” Tiny announces.
    “Come
on.” says AJ as he grabs my hand, and all but drags me out of the apartment.
    “My
suitcase!” I exclaim as I’m pulled towards two parked cars.  One a black Range
Rover, which he walks past and heads towards the other one, a low slung blue
sports car.  
    “Ross
will bring it don’t worry.  Get in.” he says brusquely, opening the car door.
    I look
from him to the car and back again, and seeing the muscle in his jaw tensing, I
decide not to argue and climb into the car.  As I sink down into the black
leather seat, he shuts the door and stops to talk to Tiny who has just come out
of the apartment building.
    While
waiting for him to join me in the car, I fasten my seatbelt and take in my
surroundings.  I’ve never seen a car like this before, it’s so low to the
ground, and I just know I’ll probably have difficulty getting out of it.
    My
thoughts are interrupted by AJ swinging into the car.  He immediately powers up
the engine, which reverberates around me as he pulls away into the traffic
lane.
    I chance
a glance towards him out of the corner of my eye.  He hasn’t taken his eyes off
the road.  This I am grateful for, due to the fact that he isn’t hanging
around; though strangely I don’t feel scared by the speed we are travelling.  He’s
handling the car well, and intuition tells me I can trust him with our safety.
    “Nice
car.  What is it?” I enquire breaking the silence.
    “McLaren 650S.” he replies
    “Oh! Well I like it, but I’ll probably need help to get out of it.
    Just pre- warning you.” I joke.
    “Thanks,
but don’t worry, I’ll help you out.” he says with a chuckle that turns my legs
to jelly.
    I remember something he said earlier, and it doesn’t make sense.
    When I opened the apartment door to him, he apologised for the flood.  Why
would he do that? It’s not like it’s his responsibility.  Razor would have just
rung him, and said it was an emergency.  My mouth starts talking before I
comprehend what I’m saying.
    “What
did you mean, ‘You’re sorry about this’?” I ask turning slightly in my seat to
look at him.  He briefly turns his head to glance at me with a frown.
    “What?” Then returns his gaze to the road.
    “When I opened the door to you, you said ‘Shit Jorgi I’m sorry
    about this’ why would you be sorry? It’s hardly your fault.”
    “Shit.”
he mutters under his breath.  He takes another quick glance at me, his eyes
guarded and presses his lips together.  Okay, now I’m starting to feel nervous.
 What isn’t he telling me?
    Raising
my eyebrows I question, “AJ?”  
    I
observe as he grips the steering wheel tighter, and takes a deep breath in,
before glancing at me and proceeds to shock the hell out of me.
    “It’s my
apartment.” he admits with a sigh. “Well, one of mine.  I own several; most of
that block in fact, including the apartment that flooded, it’s a kind of side-line.”
    I stare at him, torn between disbelief and incredible anger.
    “What!
You’re kidding me?” I retort.  I glare at him waiting for him to admit he’s
lying to me.  It seems I’m waiting in vain.
    “The
apartment you were going to rent was a dump.” He explains. “It seemed sensible
to let you have one of mine.  At least then we knew you would be safe and
comfortable, with good security and not in some dive.  So that was the decision
we agreed on.  Jen said you wouldn’t like it, so would never agree to it.  So
we decided to keep it to ourselves.  You were never supposed to find out.”
    “Just
one problem Mr Fix-it, Jen was right, I don’t like it and I found out.  I’m
going to kill Jen.” I snap loudly.
    “Don’t
blame Jen.  Raze and I talked her into it.  I’ll take you to see the other
place.  You’ll understand why we didn’t want you to stay there.  Let’s get you
home, get some sleep, and we can sort it all out tomorrow.”
    “Get me
home? What do you mean get me home?