Page 16 of Junkyard Dog

“What the hell!” She gasped, hitting her brakes and checking her rearview mirror. She squinted as the other vehicle’s door opened, her foot ready to hit the gas.

“Charlotte?”

“Alex?”

His large hands gripped the top frame of her car as he leaned over her window. “Fancy meeting you here,” he stated, one brow lifting.

“I…” She looked down at the time. “What are you doing out here?”

“Looking for you,” he said flatly as he looked around. “Am I good to text Max and tell him you’re fine?”

Dammit. Max.

“Oh,” she mumbled, dropping her gaze from the biceps twitching in her peripheral vision. “Right. Max. Yeah. I’ll text him when I hit the highway. Did he send you out looking for me?”

He hummed in response, his lips drawn tight. “I got off early and volunteered.” He pushed off the car and began walking away. “I’m following you back to town. Don’t speed. Last thing I need tonight is a ticket.”

Chapter Six

Alex stood atthe bar, his back to the door while he carefully removed each bottle of alcohol from the top shelf and wiped it down before replacing it in perfect alignment. A slice of sunlight pierced the lounge when the heavy door opened and the first patrons of the afternoon entered. “Be with you in a moment,” he called over his shoulder, finishing up the row and inching the final bottle into place.

“Take your time, Alexandros.”

His hand froze midair as the familiar voice slithered across his spine. He turned to Hades, giving Persephone a tight smile. “Hey.”

Seph hopped up onto a stool and reached across the bar to push Alex’s hair behind his ear. “Hey yourself, boy.” She glanced around the empty lounge before giving him a bright smile. “Keeping busy?”

Nodding absently, he dropped his head a fraction in deference to his master. “Been a long time since I’ve seen you venture topside.”

Hades’s black eyes flicked to his wife, her pointed look urging him to pull up a chair beside her. “Someone’s becoming anxious to have her boys back home,” he stated, sitting down and placing one hand on Persephone’s knee. “How’s the hunt going?”

“Slow and steady,” he replied, grabbing two chilled mugs from the cooler and holding them up for Hades’s approval. “It’s a big area to cover, but I’m making my way through it.” He fought the desire to roll his eyes as Seph reached over again and rolled down the wayward hem of his shirt sleeve. “Are you here for business or pleasure?”

Hades waved off Alex’s gesture toward the beer taps. “I’m here to find out why my tracker hasn’t locked on to the Pirithous scent in this region despite a second sighting.”

Glancing around the empty room, he set Persephone’s perfectly poured beer in front of her, slipping a napkin under the glass and turning his attention back to his boss. “I’m doing what I can between shifts here,” he stated, instinctively clasping his hands behind his back. “I’ll find him. I always do.”

Seph took a sip of her drink and set it down, smiling politely. “I know you do, boy,” she cooed, subtly pushing the beer away. “But if there’s an issue we can help with, you really need to let us know. We miss you boys back home.”

“Nothing more than a rough start.” He gave his mistress a smile and a wink to reassure her he was fine. “These jaunts topside every decade or so always take a few months of readjustment.” Sliding his phone across the counter to her, he smirked. “Check out what these can do.”

His bosses had yet to fully grasp that the topside world didn’t work on the same barter system used in the underworld, an issue that frequently left the brothers scrambling with every venture.

Hades rose to his feet and held his arm out for Seph, peeking over her shoulder as she swiped the phone to life and delicately tapped on the music app, smiling as she squealed in pleasure when a song came through the cell’s speaker. “Fascinating as this is”—he chuckled, pushing the phone back toward Alex—“we need to return home. Stay the course and bring the line down swiftly, Cerberus. We miss our guard dog.”

*

Charlotte took adeep breath and pulled the tavern’s door open, carefully balancing the box of baking on her hip. The bar was almost empty, the lunch crowd gone and the first of the after-work crowd still an hour away from trickling in.

“Alex?” she called over, smiling at the stunning strawberry-blonde woman skipping past her on the arm of an immense man with jet-black hair and a deep set scowl.

“Hey, Miss Charlotte. What can I get you?”

Glancing quickly at the baking, she gave him a nervous smile. “After a very long lecture from Max, I figured I’d bring you something to say thanks. For checking on me. On your night off.”

His closed expression, the same one he’d worn the night before, morphed into mild interest as he flipped the lid of the box open and cocked a brow. “You baked for me?”

She pulled her hands from her pockets and tugged at the cuffs of her sleeves. “I picked them up from the grocery store.” She grinned. “But I chose the box.”

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