Page 56 of No Cap

“Oh, yeah,” I mumbled. “So I was picking up Hollis…”

“Who’s Hollis?” Quinn asked.

“Hollis is the stalker Quaid had me looking out for to protect that comedian who was in town not long ago,” I said.

“I’m sorry, but can you repeat that?” he laughed. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

“You heard me,” I chuckled.

“Okay,” he said. “So you’re dating a stalker?”

“I’m not dating her…” I paused, reconsidering my answer before saying, “Yet.”

“Okay, so this stalker you’re not dating yet, what’s she got to do with why you called me earlier? On my day off, might I add. I was sound asleep, and you woke me up. I wasn’t even able to get back to sleep,” he grumbled.

I would’ve felt bad had I not been in such a shit mood.

If there was one of us who slept less than me, it was Quinn.

Being the leader of the gang unit was hard.

Especially when there was a gang war going on.

Then again, there was always a gang war going on.

“You were sound asleep, I woke you up, and you still call me back over an hour later?” I asked.

“I don’t wake up well, and you know it.” Quinn chuckled, clearly amused with himself. “Now tell me what you called for.”

I rolled my eyes, then got down to business just as the light turned green.

I rolled my eyes at a distracted driver who ran the red light. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid colliding with him, then responded.

“Saw Costas riding up and down Hollis’s block. Right in front of her apartment complex,” I explained. “Made the circuit twice while I was there.”

“What?” Quinn asked, sounding a whole lot more serious.

So I repeated what I saw.

“Where does she live?” he asked, sounding like he was searching for a notepad to jot some notes down on.

I explained, telling him about the area where I saw Costas driving, what he was driving, and then explained about the apartment building that she lived in.

“Sounds like a perfect place to run some shit,” Quinn mused. “Empty apartment building. Mostly. No one around to narc on him. I’ll get my guys down there, see what we can find out.” He hesitated. “Are you bringing her to dinner?”

I grinned then. “Yeah. And my next call is to Mom. Listen to this shit…”

By the time I finished the call with my brother, explaining what had happened today, then called my mom and told her who I was bringing to dinner, I’d made it back to Hollis’s place.

When I pulled up, surprisingly finding a front row spot right in front of the apartment, I saw her get out of the car way in the back of the apartment’s lot.

Surprisingly pleased that she’d waited for me to get there to get out of her car, I waited for her to arrive at the front door of her apartment complex before saying, “Let’s grab that stuff out of your car.”

She shook her head sadly, then fell into step beside me, not saying a word.

I didn’t like this dejected Hollis. I liked the openly argumentative, going to go down fighting no matter what it takes, Hollis.

Gathering up all of the stuff but the smallest bag, we threw it all into my truck and locked the doors.