Junkyard Dog

by Katja Desjarlais

Alex ran his hands through his hair and looked up at the towering rocks of the Chasm.

  “At least this time, our clothes are still in style,” Bo grumbled, tearing his shirt off over his head and tossing it aside.

  “I doubt any of our stuff is still at the campsite,” Ryan murmured, looking at the sun’s position in the sky. “We’ll be best off dogging it to Alex’s trailer.”

  “If it’s still there,” Alex stated, halfheartedly scanning the area for signs of a beautiful brunette park ranger before he snapped his attention back to the task at hand. “My SUV’s probably been impounded. My wallet. Phone. It’s been over a month.” He glanced over at Ryan. “You think you still have a job?”

  “Unlikely.”

  Bo snorted. “You’d think Hades would tuck a few gold coins into our pockets or something.” He peeled his jeans off and flung them over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  Ryan stripped down with deliberate slowness as Bo transformed, folding each item before placing them on a rock. Alex followed suit, swatting at Bo when he nipped at his ankles.

  The brothers tore over the sand, sticking far from the paved roads and dirt paths that peppered the park. Alex led the way, giving wide berth to Lost Horse Mine and skimming against the ridge and peaks until they reached the Keys. The sun was dropping fast, the cover it would provide within the hour eagerly anticipated by the brothers. Standing on a familiar ridge, he scanned the territory for signs of life.

  Or white work trucks.

  He stalked down the hill, Ryan and Bo holding back until they were given the all clear. Small lizards were making their evening rounds, scurrying between the chollas and taking refuge under the larger bushes. He paused, a familiar scent assaulting him.

  Dog food.

  Glancing back at his brothers, he shook his head quickly before descending the rest of the hill, stopping at the empty bowl, a few pieces of kibble still nestled at the bottom. He wrinkled his nose and looked toward the road, half expecting Charlotte to be crouched beside her car, hand extended.

  Finding nothing but a delicious rabbit huddling motionless a hundred yards away, he doubled back to his brothers and led them across the deserted terrain.

  *

  Bo and Ryan remained across the street, tucked tight in the shadows of the parked cars as Alex waited outside the trailer park gates, slipping in alongside a car and creeping along the fence until he came up on his site.

  His site, and his SUV.

  Checking the darkness for onlookers, he transformed and dropped to his knees, running his hands along the underside of his trailer, his fingers gripping the small plastic container and pushing it open. Key in hand, he scanned the area quickly and crept into his trailer, pulling the door closed and flicking on the light.

  Power’s still on.

  He entered his bedroom and grabbed some clothes, tossing two sets onto the sofa and yanking his jeans over his hips before he threw on some shoes and jogged to the gates. He keyed in the code and motioned for his brothers to stick to the outer fence as they made their way to his trailer. Bo bounded in first, his tail bouncing off the tight quarters until he transformed.

  Ryan held back, entering only after Bo moved out of the way to give him room.

  “Your SUV made it here,” Bo called out, his head ducked into the barren fridge while he fastened his jeans.

  Alex opened his cupboard and set a few cans of soup onto the counter. “You start this, I’m going to check it out.”

  Grabbing his spare keys, he unlocked the vehicle and opened the passenger door, leaning in to hunt for any sign of how it got from the park to his site. Coming up empty, he eased the door closed and popped the hatch, brows rising as he took in the meticulously stacked piles.

  Camp stove.

  Backpacks.

  Boots.

  Hefting the first of the bags onto his shoulder, he scooped up the boots and opened his trailer door, dropping the items in before going back for the rest.

  “Tell me Ryan’s credit cards are in that pile,” Bo pleaded, ripping open one of the backpacks. “This soup smells like shit and I want pizza.”

  Ryan held his hand out for his bag, rifling through it for a moment and producing the desired Visa.

  Bo snatched it away. “Thank fuck. Alex. Call it in.”

  “We have three phones here,” he muttered, setting them on the counter. “All dead, but all here. Ryan, could you plug these in?”

  Spreading the phone chargers throughout the small trailer, Ryan frowned at the stack of clothes and camping gear. “Your little ranger?”

  He shrugged, hoping he was projecting a much calmer response than the one that had a vise grip on his chest. “Maybe. I’d put my money on her partner, though.”

  Though Max didn’t seem like the kind of guy to fold socks before packing them.

  Ryan’s phone buzzed to life, pulling the attention off Alex as Bo launched into the onerous task of selecting pizza toppings and hot wing heat level.

  *

  Charlotte laughed as the little girl squealed, backing away from the small lizard Charlotte held gently in her hand. She placed it back into the sand and rose to her feet, adjusting her hat. “Have fun tonight! Remember to put your campfire out before you go to bed.”

  The little girl nodded solemnly and waved while she got back into the truck, Max giving the family a quick salute as he pulled back onto the road.

  “Now we’re clocking out late,” he grumbled, his foot a little heavier on the gas than usual. “Bad enough we’re even here.”

  She grinned. “Some of us were responsible with our consumption last night. Maybe others of us could learn something.”

  Flipping her off, Max pulled into the station, groaning as he opened his door and stepped into the heat. “Some of us shouldn’t answer our phones on our day off. And some of us shouldn’t volunteer others of us for extra shifts.”

  She linked her arm through his. “But then I’d be saving people from the great five-inch lizards alone, and you know you can’t let that happen.”

  Max grunted, his eyes squinting behind his sunglasses.

  The poor guy was hurting, painfully hungover from overindulging the night before.

  She clocked out and led Max to her car. “I’m going to drop you off at home to shower and then I’m going to pick you up and take you out for dinner to make amends.”

  “Damn right you are,” he muttered, putting his hat over his face until they pulled up to his apartment. “Gimme an hour.”

  She glanced down at her phone as she hit the main road, her breath catching when she caught the message that flashed across her screen.

  “Thank you.”

  She turned her phone over and returned her attention to the road.

  She hadn’t actually expected Alex would return. When she was carefully packing the abandoned campsite up, she’d treated it as she had any other.

  Respectful detachment.

  As she’d brushed the sand off the small tent, rolling it tightly and wrestling it into its nylon bag, she’d talked cheerfully with a sweet retired couple from Canada, answering their questions about the wildlife and the best places for easy hikes.

  While folding the discarded shirts and shorts, she’d snacked on a package of crackers and watched a small coyote watch her.

  She’d even padded the deserted phones between the layers of clothes, resisting the urge to swipe the recognizable one to life and hunt for any information to justify, or negate, what she had seen.

  She pulled into her apartment complex, slipping her cell into her purse before she headed upstairs to shower.

  Max had been silent when he dropped her off at the site that evening, a wariness in his eyes as she’d packed the SUV up, tossing the tent into the back of Max’s truck when the thought of spiders nestled in the folds of the fabric overtook any logic.

  It had been his eagle vision that spotted the pile behind the back tire, a bottle-opener keychain poking through the sand. He’d followed her close as s
he drove the SUV through the park and hit the highway, her speed fluctuating with every unfamiliar sound the vehicle made.

  She stepped out of the shower and dried off, glancing at the time.

  Max.

  He’d held his tongue when she quietly parked Alex’s car beside his trailer, sliding his keys under the seat. He’d said nothing when she pulled their work truck up to the Keys the next night and set a bowl of kibble onto the sand. And he’d continued to hold back when she repeated the action every shift since.

  All he knew about the night of quake was what she had told him.

  He didn’t need to know about the hallucinations she was slowly starting to process.

  She took her time getting dressed, giving her hair a chance to move from soaking wet to damp as she stood in front of her closet contemplating her choices, finally settling on an emerald green sundress she hadn’t worn in ages. With a quick touch up of her makeup, she filled her purse, ready to treat her coworker to a meal he sorely deserved.

  Picking her phone up off the counter, she swiped her thumb over the screen and reread Alex’s short message before she deleted it, slipping the cell into her bag and heading out the door.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Alex passed Ryan the release papers and followed him through the impound lot. “Think Bo will be up when we get back?”

  “Doubtful,” Ryan replied absently, beelining toward the row where his hatchback sat. “We’ll hit the road tomorrow morning.”

  He inspected every inch of the exterior before unlocking it and getting in, repeating the intense scrutiny inside. Easing forward to give him room to open the passenger door, Ryan drove them out of yard, silent until they hit the main drag.

  “Will you be pursuing the woman again?”

  Alex stared out the window. “She saw us.”

  Checking his rearview mirror, Ryan adjusted the angle. “I know. She gave us the information packets.”

  “No,” Alex said slowly. “She saw us. With the Pirithous. And me.” He swallowed and exhaled loudly. “She saw me transform. Saw us end him.”

  Ryan went quiet, his brows knotting as he considered the complications a witness could bring about. “We’ll check online to see if she said anything,” he finally stated, pulling up to the trailer park and keying in the gate code. “This is a discussion for all of us.”

  He dragged his feet into the small trailer, inching past Ryan to wake Bo. “Get up, dickwad,” he called, booting his twin’s dangling arm. “Family meeting.”

  Hunched over his phone, Ryan scanned the area news from the past month, muttering updates about the stalled FBI investigation and the subsequent shrinking of its ground force in the valley. “Well, she didn’t talk.”

  Bo rose up on his elbows, scratching at his bare stomach. “Who?”

  “Charlotte,” Alex replied as he sat at the kitchen table, her name feeling foreign on his lips. “She saw us.”

  Swinging his legs down, Bo shrugged. “Standard protocol then.”

  Ryan’s hand shot out to Alex’s shoulder, forcing him back into his seat. “I think this case warrants a little more consideration than a blanket doctrine,” he stated, his fingers digging into the muscle. “Perhaps given Alex’s past relationship with her, killing her should be pulled from the table.”

  Bo snorted. “Whatever. We’re uprooting to Albany anyway, aren’t we? Feel her out for any evidence she might have squealed and deal with it from there.” He yawned and leaned over to the fridge to grab a beer. “What bar are we hitting up tonight?”

  Ryan stared Alex down. “I think we need to discuss Hades’s response to your attachment.”

  “There’s no attachment,” he growled, shaking Ryan’s hand off his shoulder and rising to his feet. “Hades has every right to keep his junkyard dog leashed, right? Besides, we have a job to do.”

  “Perhaps Seph—”

  “Seph won’t intervene.” He looked out the window at his SUV. “She loves her little show ponies. Sit. Smile. Shake a paw. We’re trinkets to her, dolls she dresses up and parades around so everyone can compliment her on her pretty little pets.”

  Bo set his empty beer on the table. “It is what it is, man. Always has been, always will be. And you were fine with it until that chick came into the picture.”

  *

  Max set his phone down and dipped his last fry into the ketchup smeared across his plate. “The Washout?”

  Charlotte leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “Aren’t you getting a little old to do this every night?”

  “Aren’t you getting a little old to have a purse with hearts stamped all over it?” Max tossed back, grinning when her lips drew into a tight line. “Exactly. Everyone’s already there. To the limo, Jeeves!”

  Shutting her car door with more force than necessary, she reapplied her lipstick and backed out of the stall. “You’re running defense,” she warned. “Any drunk who comes near me is on you to fend off.”

  “Then you’re running offense,” Max countered, rifling through her purse and lifting her eyeliner out to examine it. “Any hot chick who comes near me, you talk me up.”

  She grinned, parking at the far end of the lot. “Deal.”

  The bar was packed, the music making even the loudest of conversation nearly impossible as they made their way toward the table of rangers seated by the dance floor. She waved to everyone before tapping Max on the arm and nodding to the bar to let him know she was covering his first round.

  She swung her purse over her shoulder and squeezed through the crowd, her eyes locked on her destination. When she was within reach, she stuck her hand onto the bar to claim her spot, wedging into place against a beautiful blonde and the back of a tall guy leaning against the counter. The blonde smiled at her and slipped into the throng of people, giving her enough room to stake her spot, the bartender smirking when she angled her elbows out to increase her footprint.

  “Two ryes and a water, please,” she yelled over the din.

  The bartender nodded and got to work, chuckling at something the tall man beside her said. She looked up as the man turned, dropping her head immediately when recognition set in, running a hand through her hair to create a veil to hide her face until she could leave, her heart pounding.

  “Excuse me?”

  Charlotte ignored him, burying her head in her purse as the bartender set her drinks down.

  “I’ll get those,” the man said, setting a twenty down. When her head snapped up, her mouth opening to protest, he looked down at her, his dark brown and amber eyes worn. “Consider it a meager token for returning our things.”

  Fighting the urge to look around the bar for another tall blond, she gave him a tight smile. “Thank you. And you’re welcome.”

  She gathered the drinks up and backed away, keeping her head down until she made it back to Max.

  If he was here, she didn’t want to know.

  *

  Alex slid the shot of tequila to Bo, shaking his head. “Nope. No more. I’m out.”

  Bo shrugged and pounded back both shots, his bloodshot eyes closing for a moment before he turned his attention back to the women who had squeezed into their booth an hour earlier.

  Alex shuffled over a fraction, subtly angling his legs away from the high-heeled foot sliding up his calf from across the table. Scanning the bar, he caught sight of Ryan beelining toward them, his hands loaded with bottles.

  “We should head out after this,” Ryan stated, handing out the drinks and thanking the redhead when she slid over to give him room to sit. “I want to be on the road early.”

  Bo waved him off, stretching his arm behind the brunette to play with the blonde’s curls. “I’m sleeping the whole way, so…”

  Ryan’s eyes flicked around the room. “Alex and I’ll meet you back at the trailer then.”

  Alex polished off the last of his beer and stood, happy for the graceful out. He snapped his fingers at Bo to get his attention. “Hey. Call when you’re on your way.”<
br />
  “Yeah, yeah,” Bo slurred, cocking a brow when the brunette whispered into his ear.

  Ryan perused the bar again, stepping up tight to him and nudging him to the left. “Let’s go.”

  Shaking his brother’s arm off, Alex began jostling through the crowds, wincing when a piercing squeal echoed in the room, the intro to a song that brought back way too many memories blasting through the speakers. “We should grab a burger on the way home,” he yelled over his shoulder, craning his head back when Ryan’s response was drowned out by the frantic dance floor rush. “I sai—” He stopped in his tracks.

  Charlotte was steps away from him, shaking her head and rolling her eyes as Becky dragged her toward the center of the room. Tugging her arm back, she turned, her smile freezing when she caught sight of him. Becky’s eyes widened as she released her and she leaned into Charlotte’s ear, backing up when Charlotte nodded.

  “Hey.”

  He swallowed, vaguely aware of Ryan drawing up beside him. “Hey.”

  Her eyes moved to his brother and she gave him a tight smile. “Hey again.”

  Ryan nodded, elbowing him and tilting his head toward the exit. Taking the hint, Becky did the same to Charlotte, stepping between them and latching on to her arm.

  He remained rooted on the spot as Charlotte disappeared into the crowd without glancing back, the rich green fabric of her dress fluttering around her thighs.

  He didn’t remember seeing that dress before.

  Running his hand through his hair, he tore his gaze off her. “You knew she was here.”

  “I ran into her at the bar when I grabbed the last round,” Ryan replied, following him as he pushed open the lounge doors and stalked toward the SUV. “I wasn’t sure seeing her was something you wanted. Or needed.”

  Revving the engine, he ripped through the streets in silence, ignoring Ryan’s subtle braking motions in the passenger seat.

  Needed.

  He attempted to rub out the knot forming at the back of his neck as he pulled up to the trailer. “Crash in the back with me,” he muttered to his brother, flicking on the lights and tossing his keys on the counter. “I’ll leave the door unlocked for Bo. But there’s no way he’s sleeping in my bed.”