“Thank you,” I said as I handed the phone back to him. “I think we’ll have to impose on your hospitality one more night, but hopefully by tomorrow I can get someone out here to fix the car.”
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and fought the urge to check it. On the one hand, I really, really needed it to be a response to my ad, but on the other, that was the last thing I wanted.
Dallas and Nolan exchanged a quick look between them, but I didn’t understand what it meant. Dallas typed something again.
I’ll look at your car again tomorrow. Maybe I can get it running once the cold snap eases a bit.
If the whole state of Minnesota suddenly burst into flame, I doubted it would change the outlook on my car, but I nodded anyway and said, “Yeah, thanks.”
The fact was that if I could meet a couple guys at the motel in a span of a few hours, I could earn enough in one afternoon to buy another cheap-ass car that would at least get us to Chicago. Chicago wasn’t New York, but we could get sucked up by that city just as easily as the Big Apple.
“How about some lunch?” Nolan asked. “Newt, you look like a peanut butter and jelly kind of man to me. Just like this guy,” Nolan said as he motioned to Dallas.
“Grape jelly?” Newt asked.
Dallas nodded and then held out his hand. I swallowed hard when Newt automatically took it.
Yeah, he needed to trust just so damn bad.
“He’s an amazing kid, Isaac,” Nolan said as we watched the very tall Dallas lead the very small Newt up to the house.
“He is,” I agreed. “How’s Dallas feeling?” I asked.
Nolan nodded slightly. “Hanging in there. He’ll be better when we get Loki back and get this town off our ass for good.”
His bitterness surprised me. There was clearly a history between the pair and Pelican Bay that went beyond a few freaked-out citizens trying to take their pet away and close their center down. I wanted to ask him about it, but reality intruded right before I opened my mouth.
He and I weren’t friends. Yes, he’d been kind to me and didn’t seem to be holding a grudge over the fact that I’d both stolen from him and slept with the man he’d considered his boyfriend, but even if I could trust that he was being genuine when it came to not wanting revenge for all that stuff, I couldn’t do something stupid and start to think of him as something more. He was just a kindhearted soul feeling sorry for me and my kid brother and that was it. At most, we could repay that kindness by offering support at the meeting tonight.
So I kept my mouth shut and politely nodded and then followed him back to the house when he offered to reheat the lasagna from last night for lunch.
By the time we sat down around the table with Dallas, Nolan, and Newt talking about the most recent Cars movie, my phone had buzzed for a third time and the food in my belly soured.
Yeah, in twenty-four hours we’d be able to get the hell out of this place for sure.
No matter what the cost, either in dollars… or in what was left of my soul.
From the moment Newt and I walked into the town hall meeting, I was sure someone was going to point at us and tell us we didn’t belong. And yeah, I definitely got my fair share of curious looks, but that was nothing new. But no one seemed focused on us for more than a second as soon as Dallas and Nolan walked hand in hand down the aisle toward the small group of people seated at a long conference table at the front of the room. They were all stern-looking older people and something in my gut said this wasn’t going to go well. I saw the sheriff in the corner and while I normally would have been scared to death to even be in the same room with the man, he barely seemed to even notice anyone but Dallas.
Jesus, what was the guy’s damage with Dallas? I mean, Dallas seemed like the nicest guy in the world and yet the sheriff looked ready to spit nails.
The guy in the center of the table used a gavel to get everyone’s attention and as people settled down, I saw Nolan’s mother just a few seats in from the row closest to me and Newt where we were standing along the wall in the packed room. She waved at us and we quickly waved back. She’d seemed nice enough when I’d met her the previous day, but there was something about the way she’d talked about Nolan when she’d been giving me instructions on how to find the sanctuary that had made me think not all was well between the two.
It took a few seconds for the room to fall silent and for the guy to announce the issue that was up for discussion. I ignored some of the back and forth between the council members and focused on Nolan and Dallas, who were holding hands. For a couple where one of them wasn’t able to speak, I’d never seen two people communicate with one another more. I’d never even conceived that you could have that kind of connection with another person where words weren’t required.
I was once again envious, so I forced myself to focus on the conversation. One of the council members had said something the sheriff clearly hadn’t liked because the pissed-off-looking cop got all red and said, “How I do my job is none of your business.”
God, the guy sounded just like Gary.
I felt my muscles tense up at even the mere thought of the man who’d made my life a living hell, but fortunately, a commotion at the entrance to the room distracted me. I felt my insides bounce around with anticipation as I spotted Maddox standing in the doorway.
“It is when you cover up crimes,” he announced.
The whole crowd turned to look at him, but I followed Maddox’s gaze to the front of the room where Dallas and Nolan were standing. Whereas Dallas had been ramrod straight before, I saw him hunched over now. His free hand appeared to come up to wipe at his eyes, but the move was fleeting. But something told me I was witnessing something really profound, so I ignored everything but the two brothers. With his hand still tucked in Nolan’s, Dallas turned so he could look at his brother.
And that was when I saw the proof that something big was happening between the two men. It was there in Dallas’s eyes for everyone to see.
Relief mixed with disbelief mixed with something… more.
I turned to look at Maddox because I was just completely shocked he could bring out such a response in another human being, considering what a dick he was most of the time. But I was surprised to find not an arrogant know-it-all standing there, but a tense and very unsure-looking man who, for once, didn’t look entirely forbidding and unapproachable.
There was still a certain stiffness to him, but it seemed to be more like he was waiting to see how he’d be received. And was he…
I looked closer because I couldn’t be sure what I was seeing.
He was… sweating.
Did that mean he was nervous?
How was that possible? Guys like him didn’t get nervous, did they?
I wasn’t paying attention to what Maddox was saying, but I was surprised when he made a move to open the door behind him. Moments later, Loki entered the room.
Completely loose, no leash in sight.
The animal ran straight for Dallas as the sheriff yelled. I actually saw the man go for his gun and was about to call out a warning when another voice said, “Don’t even think about it, Sheriff.”
Another cop was standing next to Maddox. Several people began talking at once, so I tuned them out and let my eyes drift back to Maddox’s. I flinched, and not in a bad way, when his green eyes met mine.
God, it just wasn’t fair that someone so beautiful was also a dick.
Oh, and straight.
There was another person behind Maddox who I didn’t recognize. He was gorgeous, though not quite as striking as Maddox. But unlike the walking wall, the other guy had an easygoing way about him. He wasn’t exactly smiling, but he was so relaxed that it actually put me at ease. Like he somehow knew everything would be okay.
Maddox patted Dallas’s shoulder as he walked past and stopped in the front of the room, along with the cop and the good-looking man. The head of the committee gave Maddox permission to address the room. Maddox called Loki to him, then to
my surprise, he found me and Newt. His gaze zeroed in on my little brother.
“Newt, do you think you can help me with something?”
When just about everyone turned to look at us, I couldn’t help but jump a little. It was basically one of my worst nightmares come to life. I absolutely did not want these people to notice us. Newt seemed unfazed and only had eyes for Maddox.
“Are you still mad, Mad?” he asked as he scrutinized the big man at the front of the room.
For once, Maddox looked completely taken aback. Several people laughed. Maddox finally relaxed and actually smiled.
He smiled.
Like with his lips and everything.
Okay, so maybe Pelican Bay really was the entryway to the underworld, because it seemed like hell had just frozen over.
“No, I’m not,” Maddox responded, his voice a low purr that had my dick taking notice.
Yeah, right, like it hadn’t jumped to attention the second the man had walked into the room. Newt turned to me and said, “I gotta go help Loki, ’kay?”
His voice was so matter-of-fact, I felt my chest swell with pride. There was no hesitation whatsoever, either in approaching a man who had frightened him just yesterday, or in the fact that he was about to do something completely unknown and in front of a roomful of strangers.
To Newt, he was just protecting his new friend, Loki.
I ruffled his hair and with a thick voice said, “Go get ’em, kiddo.”
Newt turned on his heel and walked straight to Maddox. He threw his arms around Loki’s neck, which caused a few people in the crowd to make some tsking sounds, but otherwise the room was so silent, you could hear a pin drop.
I listened to Maddox explain to the crowd that Loki had been removed from Dallas’s care because he’d bitten a passerby. To my surprise, he asked the cop next to him, a man named Miller, if he thought the accusation that Loki bit someone was true. I waited for the man to deny it, but my stomach dropped out when he said, “Yes, I do.”
Gasps erupted, and my gaze shifted to a very shaken-looking Nolan and Dallas.
Miller continued without being prompted.
“Three weeks ago, when the man helped Jimmy Cornell and another man break into the center and attack a bear that lives on the property.”
There was only one bear at the sanctuary–the one Newt was so enamored with.
Gentry.
I’d seen the huge animal myself when Nolan had taken me on a tour of the place when Dallas had been lying down earlier in the day. The animal had been restlessly pacing one side of his enclosure and I’d instantly felt sorry for him. It wasn’t until Nolan had explained that the bear had recently been through a trauma that I’d realized the behavior wasn’t normal for the animal. To know several men had purposefully attacked the animal broke my heart.
I watched the back and forth between Sheriff Tulley and his deputy, along with one of the council members. From what I was able to take in, the man Loki had bitten during the attack on Gentry had been pressured into filing a complaint against the wolf hybrid, giving the sheriff cause to remove the animal. However, the man hadn’t been an innocent passerby but one of Gentry’s assailants. The whole thing had been an elaborate scheme the sheriff had come up with, along with one of Gentry’s other attackers.
The council member, Jeb, managed to quiet the room down after a minute, and that was when Maddox motioned to the good-looking man next to him. “Can you tell everyone who you are, please?”
“My name is Sawyer Brower. I’m a vet specializing in the care of large animals and wildlife. I treated Gentry, the bear who lives on Dallas’s property, after he was shot repeatedly with a BB gun and burned with cattle prods.”
Several people in the crowd gasped as Sawyer described the nature of the bear’s wounds. I’d seen some of the still-healing injuries myself on the traumatized animal, though I hadn’t realized what they’d been from.
God, humans really could be sick fucks.
“You’ve been working around Loki, right?” Maddox asked Sawyer.
“I have. For a couple of weeks now.”
I noticed my brother and Loki were both on the floor and Newt was playing with the animal’s ears.
I listened as Maddox went on to ask Sawyer about the behavior of wolves and whether or not Loki acted more like a dog or a wolf. But it didn’t become clear to me what my brother’s role in all this was until Maddox asked, “Wolves have a high prey drive, don’t they? They’ll pursue things that are smaller or weaker than them and kill them, correct?”
“Correct,” Sawyer said. I swallowed hard. There was no doubt an animal of Loki’s size could kill a child like Newt with one bite. The animal hadn’t even shown the slightest bit of aggression toward my brother, but if Maddox was going to do what I thought he was going to do, it would change the game entirely.
I felt myself tense up as Maddox looked at Dallas and said, “Dallas, do you trust Loki? Do you trust him with this boy’s life?”
I managed to keep my mouth shut at the ominous question, but I felt like I was going to be sick as Maddox’s eyes met mine after Dallas nodded. I knew what he was going to ask me long before he did.
“Do you trust me not to let anything happen to your brother?”
I wanted to do a million things in that moment, including googling anything and everything I could about wolf hybrids, ask Sawyer a gazillion questions about Loki specifically, and most importantly, grab Newt and hightail it out of there. I knew I could say no and that would be the end of it.
I knew that.
No one would judge me for it, either. I mean, was I really supposed to put the animal’s life above my brother’s?
I opened my mouth to ask that very question, but when my eyes met Maddox’s green ones and they softened just the tiniest bit, I knew that he knew what he was asking of me. And I also knew if he had any other way of saving his brother’s beloved pet, he’d have done it.
But more than anything, I knew, just knew, he wouldn’t let anything happen to Newt.
Don’t ask me how I knew that last part, because I was clueless.
Completely and utterly clueless.
But the same instinct that’d had me sidling closer to Maddox the day before when the sheriff had pulled into the sanctuary’s driveway was the same instinct that had me nodding my head. For his part, Newt hadn’t even seemed to notice that the discussion revolved around him.
I watched nervously as Maddox knelt down by Newt and explained to the little boy that he was supposed to run to me as fast as he could, and that Loki would chase him, but to not be scared. I almost smiled when Newt looked at Maddox with what could only be classified as a duh expression and then said, “I’m not scared. Loki likes me.”
I barely had time to hold my breath before Newt jumped to his feet and raced toward me. Loki jumped up after him and caught up to him in a few strides. I heard people gasp as the big animal reached the little boy, but he didn’t do anything more than run beside him for the final steps it took to get to me.
Relief slammed into me as Newt wrapped his arms around me. See? his eyes seemed to say. I patted his head and then he was gone again, running back to Maddox as ordered.
I sucked in a deep breath as Maddox asked the committee to let Dallas take his pet home and they readily agreed. I thought that was the end of it, but when Jeb ordered the deputy to look into the sheriff’s conduct, more chaos erupted, and the truth came spilling out faster than I could make sense of.
It was a painstaking process to piece together that at some point in the past, Dallas had been accused of driving drunk and causing an accident that had killed his and Maddox’s mother and left their father in a wheelchair. From everything I was hearing, Dallas’s own father had pointed the finger at his son as the driver when, in fact, it had been Dallas and Maddox’s mother who’d been driving the car. Sheriff Tulley had somehow covered up the truth that would have exonerated Dallas even after his father died a couple of years later, and the entir
e town had been allowed to believe the lie. I didn’t really understand the impact of why the whole town seemed so invested in the drama, but one thing was clear.
Dallas had spent his entire adult life being blamed for an accident that hadn’t been his fault and the town had persecuted him for it.
Once Maddox had told everyone the truth of what had happened, the entire room began talking at once, including the sheriff who was screaming at his deputy and the council members. I couldn’t keep up with things and was about to call Newt to me so we could wait outside when my eyes fell on Maddox.
He was standing stock-still in the same spot he’d been in, but there was something different about him. Sweat was dripping down his face and his hands were clenched into fists. His blank eyes were staring at nothing in particular.
It was like he was just… gone.
A moment later, his eyes slid shut completely. And when Jeb suddenly began pounding his gavel to get the room’s attention, things completely changed. Every time the gavel struck the wood block, Maddox jumped. His hands were fisted so hard the knuckles were bloodless. A few people had gotten up to go talk to Dallas and every time they brushed past Maddox, his entire body got tighter and tighter.
Like a rubber band that would snap at any second.
I was moving before I could even consider what I was doing.
I didn’t know what was wrong, but there was nothing natural about the man’s behavior. Not for him, not for anyone.
I carefully stepped over Loki and Newt as I made my way to Maddox.
“Maddox,” I called, but there was just too much noise for him to hear me. I practically yelled his name as I put my hands on his face, hoping to God he wouldn’t instinctively lash out at me. I had a feeling the man was having some kind of flashback or a panic attack, but I had no clue how you were supposed to approach someone in that state.
What I did know was that I needed to get him out of there.
Maddox’s frantic eyes landed on mine, then began darting around. Every time someone bumped him, or the gavel would hit the wood block, Maddox drew closer to the edge.
And I was terrified of what would happen when he gave up the last of the self-control he seemed to be clinging to.
Sanctuary Found_Pelican Bay [Book 2] Page 5
