Fuck, that really did look bad.
I grabbed a napkin from the scattered stack on the blanket and at the same time, we wiped each other’s mouths.
Looking back over at Archer, I flinched when I came face to face, literally, with Bogey. He had a face only his mother, or Archer, could love. It was like his jowls weighed fifty pounds each and were pulling the underneath of his eyes down with their weight.
If that wasn’t bad enough, his breath smelled like a dead animal.
That death breath chose that moment to hit me making me clap my hand over my face and try to move out of its range.
“What are you doing here?” I tried to ask through my hand and not breathe at the same time.
I wasn’t a novice at this– you couldn’t avoid it, so not breathing was the only way. If you breathed through your mouth you could taste it, that’s how bad it was.
We’d taken him to five veterinary offices who had all done tests and asked their dental experts to come and look at it. Sadly, for Bogey, and for us, it was the luck of the draw. He had the breath of a bowl of assholes, terminal to all who had the misfortune to inhale it.
“Huh?” Archer asked like he couldn’t make out the words, raising his brow at me. He knew full well what I was saying, he just wanted me to remove my hand and smell his dog’s ‘analtosis’ breath, the bastard.
“Oh my god,” Luna whispered, looking at me in horror.
“It’s the dog!” I pointed at Bogey who sat down and wagged his tail.
“Stop blaming my dog for your ass,” Archer answered, smirking at me and then looking upset when Luna looked up at him.
The two faced, shit sniffing, son of a…
Thankfully, the dog chose that moment to pelt Luna with his breath. I would have laughed at the way she panicked and tried to wave it away, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference if Bogey hadn’t started shaking his head and bitch slapped me with his ears.
“Fuck off,” I snapped, gently pushing him away from me. I swear Archer had trained him to do this shit.
In fact, knowing my older brother, he probably fed him skunk spray tablets or something like that. He was the oldest out of all of us and had made our lives a living hell since we’d entered the world. He swore it was all accidental, but there were only so many times that things could be innocent.
Glaring over at him, I repeated the question that had previously been muffled by my hand and lack of oxygen. “What are you doing here?”
“Was out looking at things,” he motioned over his shoulder at the ATV that neither of us had heard. “Bogey took an interest in what was over here, so I got off and followed.” The smug smirk on his face said it all– he’d done it on purpose. Looking innocently over at Luna who was now sitting upright and watching Bogey warily, he added, “I was worried that someone might have had an accident. Are you feeling okay after not riding for so long, Luna? Should you be riding a horse with a broken foot?”
“Aw, you’re always so sweet,” she said to the lying shit bag. “I’m okay, thank you. It was a blast finally riding again.”
“I’ll bet,” he replied, walking slightly closer to us. “We’ve missed you around here something fierce.” That bit might not be a lie, but the middle finger he was discretely flashing me at the side of his leg said it all.
“Cockblocker,” I mouthed, my eyes narrowed on him.
His smug smile quickly dropped when I used the napkin still in my hand to wipe inside Bogey’s jowls and then threw it at his head. Fortunately for me, and very, very unfortunately for him, it hit him on the corner of his mouth making him freak out and run to the lake and wash his face.
It may have been an overreaction when he gargled with the water, but who could say.
“That wasn’t nice,” Luna hissed at me.
“He’s not nice!” I replied, sounding only slightly childish. Okay, I sounded fucking petulant, but for the love of all things holy– the guy got an A+ in being an asshole. Literally! On two of his report cards, his teachers had even said something to that effect, and the only reason it wasn’t on all of them was because my parents wised onto it and made sure to have monthly meetings with his teachers. They were worried that if it made it onto his transcripts, he’d never get into college and leave their house. They didn’t actually say the last bit, but we all knew they were thinking it.
Rolling her eyes at me, she looked back over to Archer who was now walking toward us and glaring.
“I was just going to add when I was so rudely interrupted,” he growled, his eyes focused on me. “You might want to think about getting Luna home.”
I wouldn’t have jumped up the way that I did if he hadn’t tugged his earlobe, using the signal we’d come up with if there was an emergency or problem.
“Yeah, good idea.” I started picking things up and putting them back in the basket with Luna helping me.
Passing it over to Archer to put on the ATV, I moved Luna quickly over to her horse and lifted her up onto the saddle.
All the way home I gave her reassuring smiles as we followed behind Archer and Bogey. Inside I could feel the acid eating away at my stomach, though, as I went through every scenario I could.
I had a feeling that this involved Luna’s father.
Time was up!
9 Luna
I didn’t have much experience with men. That was a depressing thought given how old I was. A twenty-one-year-old virgin. Gross! Well, maybe not to some, but to me it was.
Growing up with an addict as a mother and an asshole addict for a father, I hadn’t really been able to focus on boys. Add on Levi’s close position in my life, and no boy would even come near me.
Then I’d been dragged away from that safety by Dad, and any man who’d come near me had made me panic. I wouldn’t put it past my father to have sold me, or certain parts of me, even before I knew what he was up to. Plus, all the men who knew my dad were dirty and gross.
Now, I was back surrounded by the Townsend family and all of that had changed. The close proximity was curing me of so many psychological issues that hadn’t really stood out to me as actual issues until I’d been removed from my father’s toxic bullshit. Enclosed spaces and the dark were still an issue, and I would never admit it, but I was afraid to be alone in case he took me again.
I had also noticed that I looked to the men I trusted whenever a new male came around, watching for their physical and emotional reactions to the person so I could decide on my own. If they were calm and greeted them in a relaxed and trusting way, I was more relaxed too. So far, the other possibility hadn’t reared its head because everyone who worked here or came around was meant to, so I had no idea what I’d do if the opposite happened.
And finally, I was blatantly feeling attraction to a male– a specific male. That had been something that happened as soon as I’d seen him again, but at no point since had I frozen or been scared of something happening between us. Obviously, I was worried about my lack of experience, but other than that, nope not one problem to be seen.
I was currently standing in the man in question’s kitchen while he stood outside talking to Archer. Looking around, I took in the space. Noah’s house was modern but had a slightly country style look, too.
He’d mixed the older building with a nice clean modern finish. The outside had elements of wood paneling mixed with a slightly off-white brick and plaster build. There were big windows and sliding glass doors that were modern, but that suited the classic aspects. They were designed to keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They also canceled out a majority of the noise which I thought was pretty damn cool.
The living room had a stone floor and a huge fireplace that reminded me of Robin Hood for some reason. The furniture was a large brown leather sectional with huge cream cushions on them. They were fabulous and as comfy as they looked.
In the kitchen, there were cream shaker style cabinets with a huge island in the center of the room. The tops of the counters were a gray stone
, and I couldn’t figure out if it was thick slate or concrete, but it looked awesome. It all suited him perfectly, a man’s man house.
On that thought, I realized that I hadn’t called my brother Madix in a couple of days. I was worried that I was bothering him, so I was trying to leave it a little longer between calls just in case.
Picking up my cell from the counter, I pulled up his number and hit call. It only rang twice before he answered it.
“Lu,” his deep smoky voice sounded in my ear. “You okay, girl?”
I freaking loved my brother. He was the best big brother in the history of brothers.
“Hey, Mad! How you doing?”
There was silence for a beat and the sound of a door closing, then he replied, “Asked you first, Lu.”
Snorting, I looked out the window and took in Archer and Noah still talking. Their jaws were tense as were the lines of their body as they spoke.
“All’s good, Mad. Levi had to go to one of the sites…”
I hadn’t even finished the sentence before he was interrupting me.
“Why didn’t he call? Where are you? I’ll come get you now.”
There was the jingle of keys and rustling his end of the phone, no doubt him picking up his ‘pocket shit’ as he called it.
“No, no. There’s no need. I’m staying with Noah until he gets back.”
Every last bit of noise his end stopped. I’m pretty sure the birds stopped tweeting where he was too, no doubt wondering what the hell was the problem.
“Noah?”
I blinked and looked at the man in question, still standing with the same pissed off expression as Archer said something. “Yeah?”
“You’re staying with Noah?” he clarified.
“That’s what I just said, wasn’t it?” Maybe I hadn’t? What exactly had I said to him, I couldn’t remember?
There was another beat of complete silence before he groaned and there was a thud. “Ah, fuck! Wasn’t there any other crazy available?”
That was how he referred to the Townsends– the crazies. He didn’t just do it behind their backs, nope he would totally say it to their faces too. Growing up, he’d been very strict on a lot of morals, one of which was, ‘never say behind someone’s back what you wouldn’t say to their face’, but I was sure there were instances like this when that wasn’t a good motto.
“Noah will keep me safe, Mad,” I sighed. “He’s probably the best of the crazies for the job.” At that moment, both Archer and Noah started speaking more heatedly and were waving their arms up and down at their sides. It almost looked like they were trying to take flight. “Do you think he’ll try to get me back?” If anyone knew what my dad would do, it was Madix.
“Your dad?” Rolling my eyes, I stayed silent and left that as my response to the stupid question. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “I wouldn’t put it past him. In fact, I’d be more inclined to say yes than no.”
I was about to answer when something thudded in the pantry just off the kitchen. Spinning to face the door, I watched and waited until it thudded again and then screamed. Of course, he had noise canceling windows so he couldn’t hear me. Suddenly, I hated them.
“What the fuck is going on?” Madix yelled down the phone.
“There’s something in the pantry!” I was starting to really panic. “It’s trying to get out.”
“What the hell? If it’s a human, why doesn’t it just open the door?”
That was a good question. Maybe Dad had hired a wolf or something to get me?
I was about to voice my thoughts when there was an almighty thud and the wood cracked slightly. Screaming my ass off, I spun and ran toward the front door hearing more thudding behind me.
I’d taken the weird boot thing off my broken foot when we’d gotten home because I hated the thing, and it felt like it was going to explode each time it connected with the floor. It could explode, I didn’t need it. Well, it could explode after I got to the safety of the two Townsend men standing outside.
I opened the front door with so much force that it hit the wall of the house with a crack. I didn’t care one bit as I ran full pelt toward the two Townsend men who were looking at me with concern.
“There’s a wolf!” I screeched, launching myself at Noah. He went back on one foot as I hit him, then lost his balance.
He landed on the grass first, the oxygen leaving his lungs audibly, and then I landed on top of him, winding him even more. Seeing an opening for some up close and personal time, Bogey came bounding up and started licking our faces with his tail wagging like it was a machine.
Neither of us dared to open our mouths, regardless of what had sent me running outside like a crazy woman.
There was only so much a person could take though.
“Staaaaaaahhhp!” I shrieked, throwing my arms over my face to try to protect me from his tongue and putrid breath.
“It stinks! Don’t you ever wash?” Noah yelled, doing the same thing with his arms.
“Why is it burning?”
“Put it away, you ugly bastard,” Noah gave up trying to hide and started gently pushing the huge hound away.
“Motherfucker!” came my brother’s roar over through the phone that was miraculously still in my hand. “You better not be talking to my sister like that!”
“Mad?” I gasped, moving to bury my face in Noah’s stomach, whilst trying to continue talking into my phone.
“What the fuck is going on? And what’s in the pantry?”
“What pantry?” Noah asked, finally coming out from the protection of his arms seeing as how Bogey was now licking his own balls.
“That’s why I came out,” I jumped off his torso and pointed back toward the house. “There’s a wolf in the pantry!”
“And that’s what I was just about to tell you about,” Archer snorted, crossing his arms with a huge grin on his face. “You have a visitor!”
Noah
“A visitor?” I asked in disbelief. “You left a wolf in my house?”
“No,” he said slowly, using the tone we normally used with Tate. “Seems you and Levi spoke to Benito about something,” he lifted his eyebrow in question but continued to grin at me.
Oh shit, I’d forgotten about that.
All of a sudden there was a huge crash in the house, and we all spun to face the door. Moving in front of Luna, I placed myself between her and the dog that I’d asked for. I didn’t think anything would happen, Benito was the best at training them, but you never knew.
There were about ten seconds of silence before a tan-colored face appeared in the doorway. I could feel her tensing up behind me, but then the rest of the dog appeared, and she let out a ‘huh?’ type noise and relaxed slightly.
I watched as it sat down and then tilted its head to the side as it watched us back. It was a cane Corso, one of the best and most protective guard dogs available. Benito bred and trained them and was also contracted by the military and police to supply dogs to be trained by them. Levi and I had discussed this weeks ago, and I’d forgotten all about it.
“Benito says it’s a formentino cane Corso,” Archer informed us as he stared at the dog too. “He’s not fully grown, but he’s trained. Unfortunately, he’s also the runt of the litter, so Ben said it would be harder to shift him onto someone else.”
Moving slowly out from behind me, Luna leaned into my side and asked, “Is that the dog from Turner and Hooch?”
When we all shrugged, Archer pulled his phone out and looked it up. “No, but they look alike.”
“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?” a voice yelled, sounding far away.
Jumping, Luna lifted her phone to her ear. “Sorry, sorry! It’s a dog, apparently it was dropped off and Archer forgot to tell Noah. I’ll call you back, okay?”
I didn’t hear whatever was said back, but she hung up and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
“Is he friendly?”
“Ben said he was. He’s trained to o
bey Russian commands,” Archer replied.
“Why Russian?” Both of us asked at the same time.
“Most dogs are trained to obey German, but people were cottoning onto that and learning the commands. That made the guard dogs and service dogs easier to confuse and try to control, so they switched recently to Russian.” He’d totally asked Benito the same question, there was no way he knew this information. “Here’s a list of commands,” he said as he tossed a folded piece of paper in my direction.
Opening it up, I looked at the words and then shook my head. “I don’t know how to pronounce this shit!”
“Google it,” he suggested as he whistled at Bogey and turned to walk away. “Oh, by the way,” he moved so that he was walking backward and watching us both. “Seems your new puppy is still growing!”
Both Luna and I swung to face the dog again, taking in the size. How fucking big was he going to get?
Either I asked it out loud or she was thinking the same thing, because Luna pulled her phone out again and looked up the breed.
“On average, twenty-eight inches…” she murmured, reeling off the information. “That’s not so… one hundred and ten pounds?” she shrieked. “I weigh ten pounds more than your dog is gonna end up weighing!”
“Your dog,” I muttered, looking back at the beast. He was really very cute– a light beige color with a grayish muzzle area and blue eyes.
“My dog?”
Nodding, I took a step toward him and crouched down as I held my hand out. The dog stayed where he was, but his head tilted in the other direction at my action. “Yeah, he’s your guard dog.”
I heard her move behind me but stayed watching to see what our new dog was going to do.
That was until I heard Luna yell something that sounded like the name of a vegetable.
“Ohranyai,” she yelled, and then the whole thing went to shit as the dog launched itself off the porch and started barking in my face like a rabid werewolf.
Until Fools Find Gold: A Providence Gold Series and Until Series Crossover Page 8
