The Lonely Hearts Club

Chapter 75: Lotta (Bree)

My life is back in routine.

I think I like routines, I feel safer knowing what to expect in my life.

I think I'm over spontaneity and unexpected random events. I've also accepted that Rowan is dead.

Angelo was able to track that phone of Rowans that started up again to a random elementary school teacher who got the phone in a charity shop. He was using it for a class experiment.

So yes, Rowan is actually dead.  But unfortunately he was still able to taunt me from the grave.

Anyway, back to my routines.

Every second day I work in the gallery and Hades pretends to patrol the area. On the days I don't work, I'm on standby as Joey puts him through relentless training methods and practice fights.

Sometimes Joey will plunge the training arena into darkness so Hades can't see, or he'll make him fight in water. Random things to test him, random things to hurt him, which is why I'm here.

As the days pass, Hades gets stronger but quieter, his eyes will get a crazy, dangerous look in them and it takes a while for it to go away.

Right now, we lay staring at each other on the bed, I run my fingertips over the tattoos on his skin. It's late afternoon and I called in sick to work because Hades needs a break from everything and he won't stay home and rest if I'm working.

When his phone rings he closes his eyes and sighs.

"I'll get it," I say, pulling away from him and walking out into the living room. Acorn is swatting at the phone with his paw and swats me when I take it.

"Hello?" I ask, slowly walking back to Hades.

"Hey Bree, it's Angelo," Angelo says. "I'm at Malice and some half-naked man tried to bash the door down, he says he knows you and he said it's an emergency."

"What's his name?" I ask, frowning.

"Mr. Ian."

Mr Ian? As in, the man who lived a couple of doors down from me in Ice Apartments? The man who would only wear his underwear and is a self-proclaimed carnivore?

"He's my old neighbor," I explain. "What's the emergency?"

"He says he found someone woman named Lotta dead in her living room," Angelo says.

No.

Not Lotta.

I sink to the floor in a shocked sort of daze. Yeah, she was a kind of shit landlord, but she was always nice to me. I can't believe she's dead.

"Put him on the phone," I say, eyes watering a little. Hades finds me on the floor and looks at me with a worried expression on his face.

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Please."

Angelo sighs but thirty seconds later, Mr. Ian is on the phone.

"It's a shit fight kid and I dunno what to do!" He says. "I was there when dear Lotta died and she kept saying your name so...I don't know I thought I'd contact you. I don't know where ya moved to or have a phone number to call ya, but I know you were once with that fighter guy and I did some asking around and found out where he works, hoping I'd be able to find you through that." He says before I can question how he figured out a way to get in contact with me.

"Want me to get over there?" I ask.

I need to clear out my apartment anyway and I need to sort a few things out that I've been ignoring.