Logan Chapter 126

-Emory-

Riding with Hammer and Silverson is more entertaining than I thought it would be. They’re spending the whole drive talking about security terms and strategies, as well as different classes that can be taken to get better at it. I had no idea that Silverson had served in the military as well. I wonder what the percentages look like for humans vs shifters in the armed forces? Do they get together and watch each others’ backs? Or do they mostly ignore each other? I don’t want to interrupt their camaraderie to ask, so I just hold onto my questions until the ride back.

We arrive at the apartment building and Hammer takes a short second to give me side eye and a quick head shake. “No wonder Logan couldn’t leave you alone here. It’s a shithole.” I haven’t figured out how to articulate offense but also agreement when he pulls me out behind him.

We walk first to the rental office, to talk to my landlord about breaking the lease. We squelch single-file down the hallway that still smells like pee and drugs- more so here than even my hallway upstairs. Gordon isn’t well-liked among his tenants. I imagine it’s that much worse for Hammer with his sensitive shifter nose. We finally troop up to the actual door and I knock to get his attention. This door is almost always closed- Gordon usually isn’t “in” and isn’t accessible through any other form of communication than face-to-face. I’ve tried. He has an email address, but he doesn’t reply, nor does he answer the phone number posted on the door.

I see a shadow moving under the door as Gordon looks through the peephole to see that it’s me on the other side. I hear him walk away. I knock one more time. “Gordon? I have a few things to discuss with you.” No answer.

Hammer pushes me behind him and slams his fist into the door. “Open the damn door, Gordon. We know you’re in there and I sincerely doubt you want to mess with me today, let alone Logan Úlfur!” There’s a quick couple of steps before the door is yanked open.

Gordon stands in the doorway, disheveled as usual. He’s got a stained white shirt under an open short sleeve button-down with flames coming up from the bottom. He has on khaki-colored cargo pants and a pair of dark brown Crocs. It’s like a teenager from the early 2000s tried to guess what business casual should be. “What do you want? You’re the whore in the paper, right? Emily? I don’t need your brand of trouble here.”

I roll my eyes. “You have my paperwork under Emory Davis, actually. I was on the third floor. Obviously, my circumstances have changed and I need to break my lease. What do I need to do to make that happen?”

His gaze sharpens with an edge of greed. “That’ll be a thousand dollar contract fee, plus another five hundred for having that damned dog in here- don’t even think you’ll be getting your deposit back. Don’t pretend to think nobody snitched about it. I saw that mutt out my goddamned window every day, anyway. Plus I need April’s rent.”

I tally all the fees in my head; with rent and everything Gordon is trying to scam more than four thousand dollars out of me. I can feel the outrage rising in my blood, and my skin starts to tingle. Hammer looks askance at me and shoulders back in front of me. “Done. You’ll get a cashier's check by the end of the day.”

I’m still trying to object to the price gouging as Hammer drags me away by the back of my collar. I see Gordon’s face light up with the satisfaction of a successful con, and I see red. Despite my struggling, Hammer doesn’t let me go until we get to the stairway and he wouldn’t be able to safely drag me up them.

“You have to control yourself, Emory. And I would have appreciated being briefed on this condition before now. You will explain this when I get you back into a controlled environment. Now take me to your apartment.” I shrug my shirt back into place on my shoulders and lead him up two flights of stairs. My skin is still tingling- I’m still mad about how Gordon and now Hammer have treated me. I deserve more respect than this. I’m Luna. I can feel my vision changing, smell Hammer’s irritation with me, smell my scent and Logan’s entwined in the stale air of my apartment leaking out from under the front door. I need to calm down. I can’t shift here. I don’t know for sure if I can shift back and Logan isn’t here to make me. I don’t even know what I would shift into.

I take a couple of deep breaths before I look back at Hammer, now in control of myself. “I thought it was because you and Logan were together, but you smelled even more wolfy back there. We’ll be talking about that more later. Now sort out what you want to keep and what you want to lose. We’ll send people in to get it later. When we get this door open, you stand to the right, directly next to the doorway, while I clear the rest of the apartment.” I nod my agreement and do what he says. It only takes a few seconds to check my closet, under my bed, and behind my shower curtain for any intruders. Of course, there isn’t anyone here.

Looking around, there isn’t a whole lot I own that we don’t have a better version of at the pack house. “Okay. We can pretty much assume that we don’t need any of the furniture or kitchen stuff. I want my favorite coffee mugs. I’ll have mostly clothes and pictures I want to take with me.” I head straight into the kitchen and pull out my two favorite mugs, then pause a moment to look around the main room of my apartment.

I can still see Logan’s wolf hair on my couch. I remember us watching trashy TV, cuddled together. It was a different time in my life. I was a different girl, then. Thinking back to my experience here, I can already tell that I’m more confident without Cora. I’m more dominant and assertive. I fight for what I need, now, and sometimes even what I want. The girl that lived here feels like a fragile creature that I barely knew. She would never have made it as Luna. She was a victim, and Cora encouraged her to stay that way.

I walk back to my room in silence, Hammer silent behind me. Once I set the things I want to keep in a pile with a notecard on top labeling it as such, Hammer leads me back to the car and Silverson drives us back home. I’m not looking forward to this conversation. I don’t know much more than he does, and what I do know is scary and strange to me.