Page 25 of Junkyard Dog

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 intothe 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.

---