Read Shut Off (Just This Once #3) for Free Online

mingle with people of money, what is she doing in the hood? I saved the address in my maps with the intent that I would be making a visit the next day while Joel was at work.
    I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for, but seeing as how I wasn’t finding anything on her anywhere else, I figured it wouldn’t hurt. I had no intention of actually interacting with her, but only hoped that I would gather some type of intel that would make all of the investigating and sneaking around worth it.
    I practically inhaled breakfast and skipped off through the house to get ready, my body vibrating with nervous energy at what I was about to do.
    Waving to the guard as I passed through the gates to the community, I hoped I would be able to get back in without Joel. I didn’t want to involve him in any part of my plans. He had enough on his plate without knowing what I was up to. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t approve of what I had planned anyway, seeing as how he didn’t even want to tell me that there was a court date already scheduled.
    Our conversation was tense the previous night with all of the things we couldn’t say to one another—both of us looking to protect the other, while harboring information that could make or break whatever was happening between us. I continued driving down the road while trying to decipher exactly what to call our “relationship.” I wasn’t exactly his girlfriend. I wasn’t so sure he was even looking for one. And I sure wasn’t looking for a boyfriend when I went to the club that night. Maybe a little company. Someone to dance with. At most, someone to ask for my number so I wouldn’t feel like a complete leper. And then he showed up and all rational thought left the building. Maybe it was the alcohol.
    The maps app from my phone called out directions, steering me North of the 95. I knew I was getting closer the more chain-link fences, bent awnings, and wooden garages I saw. The deeper I drove into the shadier part of town, the more of an outsider I felt. It was risky going out there, not just because it was unsafe but also because I was nervous about being anywhere near her.
    What if she happened to be outside when I pulled up? What if she recognized my car? What was the worst that could happen by my showing up? Could she file a report against me, claiming I was stalking her? She’d probably get away with it, just like all this other shit she would probably get away with. I didn’t let my thoughts deter me from my goal. I knew Lara was lying, and I was going to do everything I could to make sure she didn’t get away with it. I had worked in law long enough to know that bitches like her got away with way too much. Not this time.
    “Your destination is on the right,” my phone blurted out just as I’d turned onto her street. The house was directly across from a trailer park. There was no landscaping in the front yard, only compacted dirt and dried leaves that had fallen from the palm tree next door. On the right side of the lot was something that may have acted like a fence at one point, but now was nothing more than crumbing concrete surrounding a small mound of dirt. Everything about the home screamed destitute—from the barren yard, to the rusted bars over the only window in the front of the house, to the peeling paint, and, finally, to the roof that looked to be missing a few tiles.
    The driveway had so many cracks, it looked like a mosaic littered with oil stains. Parked just outside of the garage was a brand new BMW in a fire-engine red color that looked like something the devil himself would own. A white, rusted Grand Am was parked just outside the house, seemingly fitting in with all of the other broken down, decades-old vehicles that crowded the street and, in some cases, front yards.
    I stopped my car just outside the neighbor’s house, adjacent to the Grand Am, but within perfect view to see the comings and goings of the house. As I put the car in park, I realized the