Page 18 of Junkyard Dog

Rolling his shirt up to his shoulder, he angled his right side toward her. “It’s one continuous piece across my back that stretches down my arms. A work in progress.” He straightened his sleeve. “I’ll show you the whole thing sometime. This probably isn’t the most appropriate place to show you that or the one on my chest. But enough about my ink. What I want to know is how someone your size is strong enough to take on someone Max’s size.”

The blush returned, leaving him little choice but to lean forward and hope his shirt hid his physical reaction to it.

“Peace officer training,” she said, taking a sip of the coffee. “Everyone finds their niche, and mine happened to be channeling pent-up rage into flattening bad guys.” She smirked. “Or flattening Max.”

“Speaking of Max, have you two ever been a thing?”

She hesitated just long enough for him to conjure up a whole lot of visions he didn’t want to think about.

“Well, we did kiss once,” she said slowly.

Fucking kill him.

“But it was just for a picture to send to his mother so she’d think he was dating a nice girl.”

He cocked a brow. “Did she buy it?”

“She said we looked like an old married couple who should have divorced a decade ago but were attempting to put up a good front for the sake of the children.”

Blinking a few times as he processed her words, he dropped his hand to his knee, his knuckles grazing her thigh as all memory of Hades, his mission, and his brothers slunk to the recesses of his mind. “And since then?”

“Oh, yuck. Ew.”

*

The cooling misterslining the patio powered down as the sun began to sink on the horizon and Charlotte glanced down at the tab, nudging Alex gently in the ribs when he snatched it from view and placed it facedown with a stack of bills. “I won’t fight you this time, but next time is definitely on me,” she stated with feigned sternness, catching the implication of her words a fraction too late.

A strange look flashed across his face before he smirked and tucked his hair behind his ear. “If I knew you were game for a next time, I wouldn’t have talked so fast this time.”

Biting her lip, she hooked her purse onto her shoulder and stood. “So, do you see colors differently out of each eye?” she wondered aloud as he downed the last of his fourth coffee. “Like, are things bluer with your right?” When he looked over at her, brows raised, she grinned. “I’ve been trying to figure it out since I saw you without your sunglasses.”

“Never thought about it.” He chuckled and straightened to his full height. He covered his blue eye first, then the hazel one. “No difference. Is that why you always look at me like I’m a specimen under a microscope?”

You’re a specimen, all right.

“I’ve been wanting to poke at your eyes since I saw them,” she replied.

Grabbing his wallet and keys from the table, he offered her his hand. “Not gonna lie. That’s a little freaky.”

He escorted her out of the bistro, slowing their speed as they approached their vehicles. “So, I have Max’s number,” he stated, leaning against his SUV and gently tugging her close to him. “But I’d rather not go through him to set up another date with you.”

She took a subconscious step back, untangling her fingers from his as she pulled her phone out and handed it to him. “I don’t really date,” she blurted out as he used her phone to fire off a text to his own.

“I don’t either,” he muttered, giving her cell back and grinning with his perfect teeth. “So neither of us will be shocked when this goes to hell. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Chapter Seven

Alex paced thesmall hall of his trailer, his phone tight to his ear. “Yeah, I’m still on the hunt,” he growled. “I’ve been out four times this week alone.”

Ryan switched his tone. “Look, I’m sorry, man,” he grumbled. “I’m just a little on edge, and Bo’s going off the rails again. The sooner we track down the final descendants, the sooner—”

“Yeah, yeah,” he interrupted. “We all want to wrap this mission up. But it’s a big area with a lot of ground to cover.” He ran his hand down his healing ribs. “There’s been nothing in the news about any murders in the region, but usually there’s a break between the second sighting and the first kills.”

“Maybe Bo and I should relocate.”

He stopped pacing and ran a hand through his hair. “Give me a little more time to scout the smaller towns, and I’ll call you the moment I pinpoint our target. It would be a big help if you scan the news, though.”

Ryan went quiet. “Bo said you called him about a girl. That wouldn’t have anything to do with your inability to track down the bloodline, right?”

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