All Rhodes Lead Here

by Zapata, Mariana

  I wasn’t proud of myself, but I took the stairs on my ass, the blanket tucked tight over my head.

  I’d shoved my cell down my bra at some point, and at the bottom of the stairs, I slipped my feet into the tennis shoes I’d kicked off down there earlier, keeping as low as possible, and finally headed outside, still wrapped in my blanket.

  Small animal noises rustled around as I closed the door behind me and locked it, before basically running toward my car, hoping and praying something wasn’t going to come swooping, but I managed to slip inside and slam the door closed.

  Reclining the seat and then pushing it back as far as it would go, I settled in, blanket up to my neck, and not for the first time, I wondered—despite how I’d felt earlier when Mr. Rhodes had offered to let me stay—what the hell I was doing here. Hiding in my car.

  Maybe I should go back to Florida. We had bugs the size of small bats, sure, but I wasn’t scared of them. Well, not really.

  It’s just a bat, my mom would have told me. I used to be terrified of spiders, but she’d helped me work the fear out. Everything was a living, breathing being that needed food and water like I did. It had organs and felt pain.

  It was okay to be scared. It was good to be scared of things.

  Did I really want to go back to Florida? I loved my aunt, uncle, and the rest of the family. But I had missed Colorado. I really had. All these years.

  That eased the harshest edges of my fear.

  If I was going to stay here, I needed to figure this bat situation out, because there was no way, even if I stopped panicking, that I’d be fine with having a bat swooping around while I slept. I couldn’t keep doing this, and nobody was going to come and save me. I was a grown woman, and I could handle this.

  Tomorrow, I’d start to figure it out.

  After another night in my car.

  I was going to get that damn bat out of the house some way, somehow, damn it.

  I could do this. I could do anything, right?

  Chapter 10

  I didn’t need a mirror to know I looked like hell because I sure felt like it the next morning.

  My neck hurt from sleeping in every position imaginable in my car for the second night in a row. I was pretty sure I’d probably gotten a solid two hours of sleep on and off. But that was better than zero hours if I’d stayed inside.

  I still made myself wait until the sun was totally out before going inside.

  And then I immediately stopped when I spotted Amos’s face staring out at me from the living room window.

  And I knew it wasn’t because of my incredible beauty, because fortunately, I’d managed to cover myself with the blanket the same way I’d done the night before, covered from head to toe like it was a rain poncho. Without him saying a word, I knew he was wondering what the hell I’d been up to. There was no way I could pull off looking like I’d gone to the store or a run in the early morning because I was tiptoeing with my shoes barely hanging onto my toes.

  “Morning, Amos,” I called out, trying to sound cheery even though I felt like I’d gotten run over. I knew he could hear me because they opened the small rectangular windows under the big, main ones to keep the house cool.

  “Morning,” he replied in a voice that was cracking with sleep. I’d bet he probably hadn’t gone to bed yet. “Are you… okay?” Amos asked after a second.

  “Yep!”

  Yeah, he didn’t believe me at all.

  “You feeling okay?” I asked him instead, hoping he wouldn’t ask what the hell I’d been doing.

  He shrugged a bony shoulder, still watching me way too closely. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

  I replied the same way he had, I shrugged. Did I want to tell him about the bat? Yes. But… I was the adult and he was the child, and I didn’t want to remind his dad that I was staying in the apartment more than I needed to, so I figured I had to deal with as many things as possible on my own to make this work.

  “I need to get dressed for work, but have a good day today,” I croaked.

  I wasn’t fooling anybody.

  “Byeee,” I called out before hopscotching across the gravel.

  “Bye,” the kid replied, sounding confused.

  I couldn’t blame him for being suspicious.

  And I hoped he didn’t tell his dad, because I didn’t want him to change his mind. Oh well.

  And like I’d been traumatized, my heart started beating faster as I unlocked the door and slowly climbed the stairs, flipping on all the lights and looking at every wall and every section of ceiling like the damn bat was going to fly out and attack me. My heart raced, and I wasn’t proud of that either, but I knew I had to come up with a plan; I just didn’t know what.

  Part of me had expected to see my arch-nemesis clinging onto something upside down, but there wasn’t a single sign of him.

  Oh fuck me, please don’t be under the bed, I pleaded before getting to my hands and knees and checking under there too. I hadn’t thought about that spot until now.

  Nothing.

  And even though I had started sweating again, and I was cursing the fact that I hadn’t applied deodorant before I’d gone to bed, I checked just about everywhere I could think of where my friend could have hidden. Again.

  Under the table.

  Under the sink in the bathroom—because I’d been dumb and left the door open when I’d fled for my life.

  Under every chair.

  In the closet, even though the door was closed.

  But he was nowhere.

  Because I was paranoid, I looked everywhere again, fingers trembling, heart galloping and everything.

  And still nothing.

  Son of a bitch.

  * * *

  Despite having only slept a solid two hours, when nighttime rolled around, I was on fucking guard.

  I’d thought about buying a net, but we’d sold out at the shop and I checked Walmart and they were out too, so I’d grabbed a plastic trash bag, ready.

  Ten o’clock hit, and it was all clear.

  Damn it.

  Even Clara had noted how tired I looked that morning. I’d been too embarrassed to tell her why I’d stayed up. I had to deal with this on my own.

  I wasn’t even sure when I passed out, but I did, sitting upright on the mattress with my mom’s notebook open, back against the headboard.

  What I did know was that when my neck started hurting at some point, the lights still on, I woke up.

  And I yelled again because the son of a bitch was back.

  And he was flying around erratically, like he was drunk; he could’ve been six feet wide, terrorizing me and the home I was living in.

  Actually, it wasn’t a he. This one knew what it was doing—raising hell—and only a woman would be that intuitive and ready to fuck with someone for the hell of it.

  She swooped, and I screamed, flying off the bed and running down the stairs, screaming again, and out the damn door.

  As fate would have it, the moon was bright and high in the sky, illuminating another bat flying around what felt like right over my head but was really more like twenty feet above ground.

  And again, I screamed. This time “Fuck!” at the top of my lungs.

  I’d left my keys! Upstairs! With her! And my blanket!

  Okay, Ora, all right, think.

  I could do this. I could—

  A loud voice boomed, “What is going on?” straight from the darkness.

  I kind of knew that voice.

  It was Mr. Rhodes, and from the crunching gravel, he was coming over. Probably pissed. I’d woken him up.

  Later on, I would be disappointed in myself again for jabbing my finger toward the garage apartment and saying, “Bat!”

  I couldn’t see him. I wasn’t sure if he made a face or rolled his eyes or what, but I knew he was getting closer and closer. But I could hear it in his voice. I could hear him rolling his eyes just from the way he spat, “What?” in the same voice he’d used the day I’d shown u
p.

  “There’s a bat in the room!”

  Finally, I could see the silhouette of his body stopping a couple feet away, and I heard his annoyance as he asked, “What? You’re bellowing over a bat?”

  Bellowing over a bat? Did he have to ask it like that? Like it was no big deal?

  Was he shitting me?

  And like the one outside knew we were talking about its kind, the bat swooped back down toward the light mounted above the garage door, and I pulled my tank top up over my head and ducked, trying to make myself as small as possible so it couldn’t get me.

  Okay, more like Mr. Rhodes would be bigger, so if one of us was targeted it would be him since he had more mass.

  I was pretty sure I heard “Goddamn it” being grumbled right before it sounded like he was walking again.

  Leaving me to fend for myself.

  Either that or the bat had grown fucking feet, a couple hundred pounds, and was on its way to kill me.

  I waited a second and peeked out to see… nothing.

  It was gone. At least the one outside was.

  Or more like he was sitting somewhere. Waiting to pick on me again.

  “Where did it go?” I asked about a split second before I spotted what I was pretty sure was bare feet moving across the ground like that shit didn’t hurt like hell.

  Where was he going?

  “He went back home, to its cave,” he muttered, genuinely sounding disgruntled as he walked away.

  He was leaving me here. To fend for my life. Because this was no big deal to him.

  Then I remembered it was a bat and just about anyone would scream. It wasn’t my fault he was a mutant with no fears.

  All right. I needed to calm down and keep my shit together. Think.

  Or move. Moving was good.

  I got up, glancing up at the sky one more time, and then hustled after Rhodes who was… making his way toward his truck?

  Fuck it, I was nosey. “There’s a cave around here?”

  “No.”

  I frowned, remembering right then that I wasn’t wearing pants but then decided I didn’t care and kept on following him.

  He glanced over his shoulder as he opened the door. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing,” I croaked, but really, all I could think about was safety in numbers.

  Even with how dark it was, I could tell that he was making a face.

  “What are you doing?”

  He might have rolled his eyes, but he had his back to me so I would never know for sure. “Going to my truck.”

  “For what?”

  “To get a net so I don’t have to hear you hollering at the top of your lungs when I’m trying to get some sleep.”

  My heart stopped. “You’re going to get it out?”

  “Are you going to keep screaming if I leave it?” he asked over his shoulder as he rooted around his back seat. A second later, he was out, slamming the door closed and crossing the gravel like it wasn’t digging into his feet like glass.

  I grimaced but told him the truth. “Yes.”

  He opened the back of his work truck and started fiddling around in the bed.

  “Have you caught them before?”

  There was a pause then, “Yeah.”

  “You did?”

  He grunted. “Once or twice.”

  “Once or twice? Where? Here?”

  Rhodes grunted again. “They come in from time to time.”

  I almost passed out. “How often?”

  “Mostly during the summer and fall.”

  I didn’t mean to choke, but it happened.

  “Mice are the real problem during a drought year.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my whole body went stiff as I stared at him tinkering around the bed of his truck, moving things as he stood there in sleep pants and a white tank top.

  “You scared of those too?” he asked in a huff. He was pissed.

  Some people got really quiet when they were mad. I was starting to see Mr. Rhodes wasn’t one of those people.

  “Umm… yes?”

  “Yes?”

  “How often do you get those?”

  “Spring. Summer. Fall.” Yeah, he was angry.

  Too bad for him, I was always down to talk. I choked again. “Is this a drought year?”

  “Yes.”

  I was never going to sleep again.

  I needed to go buy traps.

  But then imagining having to pick up the traps made me want to puke.

  “Finally,” he muttered to himself, standing up straight, holding a medium-sized net in one hand and what looked like thick gloves in another, before slamming the tailgate closed.

  I shivered and watched him head toward the door of the garage apartment.

  “Want me to wait out here? You know, so I can open the door for you?” I was such a chickenshit and it embarrassed me, but not enough to suck it up and be backup.

  I would if he yelled.

  I just hoped he didn’t.

  His stiff, angry body went right by mine. “Do whatever you want.”

  It was that or lock myself in my car until he was done but screaming my head off had been enough. He was already irritated having to come over and deal with this. Deal with me.

  And yeah, that was embarrassing too. I needed to get it together. Suck it up.

  Do my mom proud.

  I’d done some research during the day of how to remove them but hadn’t figured out what the best plan of action was yet. I was well aware that bats were wonderful for a whole lot of different reasons. I understood that they weren’t trying to attack me even when they swooped. I got that bats were just as scared of me as I was of them. But fear wasn’t rational.

  I rushed forward, opened the door, and left it cracked after he went in. Then I crouched there and waited. I might have been out there five minutes, or maybe thirty, before I heard him on the stairs.

  I opened the door more just as he was a couple steps away from reaching the bottom. He was holding the net in one hand and taking the steps fast on big, bare feet. My God, what were those things? Size twelve? Thirteen?

  Tearing my gaze away, I threw the door open as wide as possible, waited for him to cross the doorway, and slammed it closed so the Mistress of the Night couldn’t come back in and pay me another visit.

  And I tried my best to be quiet as I moved to stand behind Mr. Rhodes. He stopped by a shrub, did something to the net, and stepped away.

  I only caught a glimpse of the bat hanging from a branch before she took off, and I let out a squeak that I was going to kick myself in the ass for later. Mr. Rhodes didn’t wait or stay to watch where she went, he just started moving toward the main house without another word.

  I scrambled after him as he tossed the net in the back of his truck, then made his way up the deck as I stopped and stared up at the sky to make sure another one wasn’t dropping out of nowhere.

  He was at the door of his house when I yelled after him, “Thank you! You’re my hero! I’ll give you a ten-star review if you ever want it!”

  He didn’t say anything as he closed the door behind him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still my hero.

  I owed him. I owed him big-time.

  Chapter 11

  I was off a week later, so part of me had expected to get to sleep in, take it easy, maybe go do one of the touristy things in the area. Or maybe do one of my mom’s easier hikes. Since I was going to be around for the near future, I wasn’t in as big of a rush to get them all done. My lungs needed more conditioning anyway. I figured I had at least until October.

  Maybe. What had happened in the middle of the night a week ago might have made Mr. Rhodes change his mind about how long he’d let me stay. I didn’t know him, but I knew there was no way he was over that shit yet.

  The bat, though, hadn’t come back. My brain, on the other hand, was in denial because I still couldn’t sleep throughout the night without waking up, paranoid.

  That�
�s why I was awake when the sounds outside started up.

  Resigned that I wasn’t going back to sleep, I rolled up and got out of bed once another glance at my phone confirmed it was seven thirty and instantly peeked out the window.

  There was a dull, repetitive sound coming from out there.

  It was Mr. Rhodes.

  Chopping wood.

  Shirtless.

  And I mean shirtless.

  I’d expected something nice beneath his clothes from the way he filled them out, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight of… him. Reality.

  If I wasn’t already pretty sure that there was dry drool on my face, there would have been five minutes after seeing all…. That through the window.

  A pile of foot-long logs were tossed around his feet, with another small pile that he’d obviously already chopped, just to the side. But it was the rest of him that really drew my attention. Dark chest hair was sprinkled high over his pectorals. The body hair did nothing to take away from the hard slabs of abdominal muscles he’d been hiding; he was broad up top, narrow at the waist, and covering all that was firm, beautiful skin.

  His biceps were big and supple. Shoulders rounded. His forearms were incredible.

  And even though his shorts grazed his knees, I could tell the rest of his downtown area was nice and muscular.

  He was the DILF to end all DILFs.

  My ex had been fit. He’d worked out several times a week at our home gym with a trainer. Being attractive had been part of his job.

  Kaden’s physique had nothing on Mr. Rhodes though.

  My mouth watered a little more.

  I whistled.

  And I must have done it a lot louder than I’d thought because his head instantly went up and his gaze landed on me through the window almost immediately.

  Busted.

  I waved.

  And inside… inside, I died.

  He lifted his chin.

  I backed away, trying to play it off.

  Maybe he wouldn’t think anything of it. Maybe he’d think I’d whistled… to say hi. Sure, yeah.

  A girl could dream.

  I backed up some more and felt my soul shriveling as I made my breakfast, making sure to stay away from the window the rest of the time. I tried to focus on other stuff. You know, so I wouldn’t want to have to move out from shame.