Junkyard Dog

by Katja Desjarlais

  “Leave him alone!” she called out, wrapping an elastic around her wet hair before she attempted to rescue Alex from Max’s interrogation. She was still carefully tucking in her beige work shirt as she entered the living room to see Max standing in the middle, his arms crossed, and Alex still leaning against the sofa. He looked up at her and grinned lazily, licking his lips and giving her a reminder of just how skilled those lips were.

  “You here to rescue me?” he teased as he pushed himself to his feet.

  She rolled her eyes and picked up her hat from the kitchen table. “Yeah, yeah, pretty boy. I have to head in early tonight, so…” She paused.

  What am I even supposed to say right now? Get out? Call me? Thanks for the make-out session, you’ve obviously had a lot of practice?

  Alex pulled his boots on, staying well out of Max’s reach. “Call me when you’re off in the morning.” He smiled, backing out the door. “Maybe we can grab breakfast before you head home.”

  Grateful for the graceful exit, she waved quickly and let the door close before laying into Max. “Give me my key,” she seethed, extending her hand.

  Max’s shoulders slumped a fraction. “Aw, come on. How was I supposed to know you had a guy over? You’ve never had a guy over. Ever.”

  She laced her boots and shook her head. “You are so damn lucky Alex didn’t flatten you. So damn lucky I didn’t flatten you. You could’ve called. Knocked. Buzzed in.” She thought back to how long Max had been marching into her suite. “Have you ever knocked?”

  “Yeah. Like, five times.” He grinned, holding his hand out to help her to her feet. “I’m driving. And I picked up a whole lot of pizza, so you have to forgive me.”

  She followed him to his truck, scanning the lot for Alex’s SUV before getting in. The pizza boxes were still hot, the late summer heat keeping both the food and the cab uncomfortably warm. “So anything come out of the climb?”

  He snorted, his mouth full. “’Course not.”

  “Did you see Butch anywhere?” she asked, carefully peeling the mushrooms off her slice of pizza.

  “Who’s Butch?”

  “The dog.” She grinned as he picked up the discarded mushrooms and added them to his own slice. “I have to call him something. So I’m naming him after my grandma’s evil old cat. Damn dog took off on me yesterday, leash and all. I’m worried he’ll catch it on something.”

  “Sorry. No Butch and no killer. But I have a date next week with one of the cops from the hike, so it wasn’t a total write-off.”

  She snorted. “What happened to Stephanie?”

  “Ex-boyfriend was a little less ex and a little more boyfriend than I can handle,” he grunted. “That’s a minefield I ain’t touching with a ten foot pole.” Smirking at her, he turned onto the main road. “What’s going on with Alex?”

  “Nothing,” she muttered, wrinkling her nose at a wayward mushroom. “We went on one official date.”

  He grinned wide. “That ended at your place with plans for another? Yeah. That sounds like a whole lot of nothing in the making.”

  “Shut up and drive.”

  Cranking the music, he drove them down the busy highway and onto the deserted roads of the park. Out of habit, he lowered the volume and hovered his foot on the brake once they breached the entrance, the light of dusk a prime time for the wildlife to begin making themselves known. “All right,” he announced as they pulled up to the station. “Let’s get this meeting over with so we can go veg out on the trails for the night.”

  *

  Alex pulled into the tavern parking lot, his phone tight to his ear. “What else am I supposed to be doing?” he growled at Ryan, throwing the SUV into park. “You know as well as I do that a single scent could take months to locate again in a place like this.”

  “Maybe Bo and I should join you,” Ryan offered, his voice slightly muffled. “We could split up, take shifts. I can wrap stuff up here and Bo isn’t working right now.”

  “Big surprise,” he muttered. “No, I’m in no position to put anyone up right now. And the snowbirds’ll be making their way down here soon, so there’s no room at the inn. And with the FBI crawling all over this place, my movements are limited around the scene. If I can’t find the line within a couple weeks, I’ll call you two in. Deal?”

  Ryan went silent for a moment. “Deal.”

  Killing the engine, he strode into the tavern to find Thomas swamped with customers, his surly expression etched deep on his face. Without hesitating, Alex began taking orders from the crowded tables, shooing Thomas to the sanctity of his kitchen with a stack of appetizer requests and a glass of ice water.

  The rush was finally waning when Hades and Seph strode back in, Hades’s towering presence parting the crowd for the diminutive goddess skipping alongside him, her hands wrapped around his forearm. She waved at Alex as they made their way to a booth at the back of the bar, Hades scanning the room’s patrons with mild disdain.

  Ringing through a tab, he pocketed the customer’s phone number and smiled absently as she rose up on her toes to whisper a reminder of their meet-up after his first shift at the tavern.

  Hades watched the exchange with interest.

  Nodding the woman off, Alex grabbed a tray, collecting abandoned glasses as he strode over to his master. “Two visits in one week. No pressure, right?”

  While Hades’s black eyes narrowed, Persephone patted Alex’s thigh and looked up at him. “Alexandros, honey. Please don’t start. You know I dislike unpleasantness.”

  He glanced at a table of drunken women flagging him over for another round. “Aw, hell, sorry,” he muttered, bowing his head a fraction. “Things are just a little hectic around here right now. Let me get caught up and I’ll have a few minutes to update you.”

  “Add a platter of whatever passes for food here,” Hades grumbled, his ire dissipating as Seph squeezed his knee. “And two glasses of wine.”

  Nodding and flustered, Alex returned to his duties, his back prickling with the vigilant gaze of Hades.

  He knew better than to blatantly disrespect his master.

  Knew better but was too caught up in his own head to stop himself.

  He was done for. And he knew it.

  He’d screwed up orders all evening, his mind still clinging to the brief make-out session the night prior.

  The way her knees tightened across his hips when he kissed her.

  The gentle circling of her fingers through his hair.

  Her pathetic attempt to cover up the yawn that ended things and placed him contentedly on the floor, Charlotte’s hand tucked into his as she crashed hard.

  “Who is she?”

  His gaze snapped up from the cooler and he rose, bowing his head in deference to Seph. “Who’s who?”

  Seph tossed Hades a smile across the room before leaning closer to Alex. “Miss Charlotte? The woman we saw here the other day?”

  Placing the beer bottles onto a tray, he bit his lip in feigned concentration. “I have a lot of women in here,” he stated, pulling a wad of papers from his back pocket and tossing them onto the counter. “See if you can find her in these.”

  A perfectly manicured brow lifted. “Gravitating more toward Bo’s habits than Ryan’s, I see.” She opened each paper and meticulously folded them into a neat pile. “You look tired, honey. Hades and I are concerned.”

  Printing off a tab for a table, he shrugged. “Maybe I’m getting too old to be pulling double-duty.” He grinned, hefting a full tray in his hand. “Go get comfortable and I’ll follow you with the wine.”

  Seph returned to her booth, she and Hades quietly discussing him as he dropped off their glasses and circled the rest of the bar.

  Tired didn’t begin to describe how exhausted he was. Between work, the hunt, dating Charlotte, and guarding Charlotte, he was lucky to pull two hours of rest a day. He was running on autopilot, collecting meals and dropping them off while his mind sluggishly ricocheted between Charlotte’s lips and the unexplored pa
rk terrain he’d yet to cover.

  Seph and Hades left with nothing more than a wave, the plates untouched save for a half-eaten chicken wing. By the time he rang out the last tab, he was a few hundred dollars richer and ready to be facedown on his bed. He drove home as the sun rose and walked straight into his tiny shower to rinse the odor of stale booze from his skin before he collapsed onto his mattress and glanced at his cell for any word from Charlotte.

  He picked up his phone and fired off a quick text to her, knowing she wouldn’t receive it until she was out of the park in two hours.

  “If you’re up for breakfast after work, call me.”

  With a killer on the loose in the Tree, a two-hour nap was all he had time for.

  *

  Alex flexed his hands under the table as Charlotte hung up her phone and dug back into her chicken strips. “So they’re pairing you with a cop tonight?”

  She nodded, rolling her eyes. “Yeah. The guy wasn’t at the briefing last night, but Max met him a few days ago and says he’s a total douchebag man-whore.” She grabbed the salt and poured an impressive amount on her fries. “Some Kevin guy. I’d call out sick if I wasn’t due back in an hour.”

  Keeping his face expressionless, he poked at his own meal, his appetite gone once irrational jealousy set in. “Maybe it won’t be too bad,” he said, forcing himself to believe the platitude. “But, in case it is, maybe you should chow down on a ton of garlic and onions.”

  She grinned. “If I’d known about this before we ordered, I’d definitely be on board for that.” She pushed what was left of her meal toward him. “You look way less tired tonight.”

  “Yeah, well, the chick who was supposed to call me and wake me up for breakfast forgot, so I slept all damn day.” He smirked. “I don’t think she realized I was counting on her to be my rooster.”

  Charlotte’s dark eyes narrowed. “Chick.”

  “Woman,” Alex corrected, raising his hands in surrender. “Lady. Female.” He paused. “Hottie.”

  “I’m armed, you know,” she warned, patting her hip. “And this woman was on autopilot for the last three hours of her shift. You need a less overworked rooster.”

  He flagged down the server, motioning for the bill. “I like the rooster I have, even if it is defective,” he replied, tapping her calf with his foot. “You better run. I’ll grab the tab and call you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Thanks,” she said, hesitating as she walked past him. When she bent down to kiss him, the knot that had been forming in his stomach released slightly, his pulse speeding up with her proximity. “Have a fun night off!”

  Taking his time to finish the last of her meal and his, he laid a wad of cash on the table and headed out to his SUV. He hit the highway, making his way to the western entrance of the park and pulling into a small turnout just outside the perimeter.

  The moment he heard playboy Max had deemed Charlotte’s impromptu truck mate a horndog, the hunt for the Pirithous scent moved from the north quadrant to Charlotte’s route.

  She can handle it herself.

  The mantra had been playing softly in the back of his head since he’d left the restaurant. And, logically, he knew she would probably be fine.

  Unfortunately, logic was in short supply in his brain when it came to her.

  He knew it and he didn’t care.

  He stripped down and shoved his clothes into the crevices of a large rock pile, doubling back to the SUV to grab the collar in his glovebox before he dropped down to all fours and his body morphed, the sounds and scents of the landscape temporarily assaulting him as his snout elongated and his ears perked up. Charlotte had a good two hours on him by now, her typical route placing her closer to the Keys. He took off across the desert, his ears and eyes alert to any sign of humans in the darkness. When he passed the Keys with no sign of her, he continued to press eastward, his nose scouring the air for her scent until he caught it.

  Sheep’s Pass.

  Padding across the smooth stones carefully, he made his way over the hills until he saw her truck parked among the small collection of campers unbothered by the prospect of a murderer on the loose. He lowered his head while he approached the vehicle, a low growl emitting from deep in his throat as a man spoke.

  “We don’t have to call it a date,” the guy said, his elbow resting on the open sill of the truck window. “Just dinner and drinks between colleagues.”

  Before Alex could nip at the protruding arm, Charlotte replied, her voice cold. “Call it whatever you want. I’m busy.”

  “How about another night then?” the agent pressed. “You seem tense. You could probably use a night of loosening up.”

  He bared his teeth and closed in on the truck, crouching to slink along the side until he was flush with the grille.

  “I’m busy every night you aren’t,” she bit back. “And I’m tense because I’m stuck in here with a handsy jerk with an inflated sense of self-worth and a juvenile vocabulary.”

  Handsy?

  Raising up on his hind legs, he let out a snarl and placed his paws on the hood of the truck. The guy jumped, a string of curses flying from his mouth as Charlotte gasped in surprise before she recognized him.

  “Awwww, come here, Butch!” she called, rolling down her window and extending her hand out. With his eyes on the douchebag, Alex nuzzled her hand. Noticing his attention was focused on her companion, Charlotte cupped his snout in her hands. “Butch, meet Kevin. Kevin, Butch.”

  Kevin relaxed slightly into his seat. “Big-ass dog,” he muttered, extending his hand toward Alex and conveniently brushing it against Charlotte’s shoulder. Alex snapped at him, grazing the fingers with his teeth and growling. “Not well trained either, huh?”

  “He’s very well trained. I don’t think he likes you,” she murmured, her dark eyes amused. “You are trained, aren’t you, boy? Can you sit?”

  Keeping his attention on Kevin, Alex sat.

  “Such a good boy,” Charlotte purred. “Shake?”

  Lifting his paw to demonstrate just how trained he was, he shoved aside the slight to his ego for the greater good. Namely, to avoid the tranquilizer darts he was pretty certain were stored somewhere in the truck.

  “Animals have a very keen sense of who they do and don’t like.” Without waiting for Kevin to respond, she nudged her door open and got out of the truck. “Here, boy. Let’s get you in the back and I’ll see what I have in the cooler for you. You and I need to have a little talk about where you put your leash.”

  Chapter Ten

  Alex grinned as Max and Charlotte pushed their way through the lunch crowds of the tavern, holding their arms up in victory. “All hail the afternoon shift!” Max announced, earning a round of applause from his fellow rangers. “It was a long haul, but we made it. We survived.” He draped himself backward over the bar counter dramatically, pulling Charlotte along with him. “Barkeep, a celebration tequila if you will.”

  Leaning over Charlotte, Alex took the opportunity to kiss her forehead. “So you survived your night with the douchebag cop?”

  She closed her eyes and smiled. “I did. Help me up?”

  He gently lifted her shoulders from the counter, ignoring the whoops and whispers that rose from the table of rangers as she pulled up a stool and poked Max in the ribs. Alex poured a round of tequila shots for the group, punching them into the till as a promotional tab before setting the tray beside Max. “On the house,” he said, laughing when Max leapt up and began running the shot glasses over to his colleagues.

  “You shouldn’t encourage him,” she chastised, her eyes lighting up when he placed a cup of coffee in front her. “No one needs tequila before noon.”

  “I’d have a celebratory shot myself if I wasn’t working.” He smiled. “So how bad was it last night?”

  He knew damn well how bad it had been. He’d spent most of the night riding around in the back of her work truck listening to Kevin spew story after story about how successful he was, how athletic he was, how i
mportant he was, and how much all his ex-girlfriends still desired him.

  But at least the jerk kept his hands to himself.

  She groaned and rolled her head back. “Well, Becky isn’t speaking to me now because apparently Kevin decided to go around the station and ask about me.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He’s the guy Becky was caught with in the break room.” She shuddered. “Guys like that are just so ew.” Her gaze shifted to the table of women watching Alex with obvious interest and her smile fell slightly.

  He pushed back the urge to abandon his post and head out into town to hunt down Kevin. “You know, you could have just told him you have a boyfriend.”

  Her dark eyes dropped to her coffee, her cheeks lifting as she fought back a smile. “Boyfriend, eh?”

  Catching his own words too late, he crossed his arms and took a slight step away. “Yeah, well, isn’t that what women say when guys don’t take the hint?”

  Dammit.

  Dating was casual. Relaxed.

  The boyfriend label held a lot more expectations. Expectations he couldn’t fulfill.

  As though sensing his unease, she shook her head and looked up at him. “Me saying no to one guy shouldn’t need to be justified by the existence of another guy. If I say no, that should be good enough. I won’t back myself up with some fictional boyfriend to have my decision validated.” She smirked at him and picked up her coffee. “You really do suck at dating.”

  He watched her as she joined the other rangers, pulling a chair up beside Max and holding up a lemon slice for him.

  You’re a moron.

  Every day that passed was another day Alex was digging himself into a hole. The more he talked with Charlotte, the more he wanted her. The more he wanted her, the more he thought about her. And the more he thought about her, the more his time and energy was divided.

  Personal history taught him the sooner he slept with her, the sooner she’d be out of his system and out of his head. It was a foolproof system that had served him well in the past.