Page 32 of Junkyard Dog

She accepted it and sat down beside him. “Meh.” She shrugged. “You’re young. Maybe the nomadic bartender lifestyle will lose its appeal at some point.”

With a grunt, he leaned back against the sofa, stretching his arm across her shoulder. She settled into him and began asking a litany of questions about RV living as he tangled his fingers in her hair. Once she was satisfied with his responses, she stood up and opened her purse, popping a mint. “Movie?”

He hesitated.

He definitely didn’t want the evening to end. But he wasn’t an ass either. “Let me tell you a few things first, and if you’re still into a movie after that, I’ll pick up my dirty socks and put one on.”

Charlotte eyed him warily and sat just out of reach, her sudden closed position momentarily throwing him. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Go.”

Flipping through everything he wanted to say, and matching it up to everything he could say, he took a deep breath. “Bartending is kind of a secondary job,” he began, studying her reactions intently. “My brothers and I work for another business that sends us all over the world, and right now, Coachella Valley is it.”

Her expression changed, her dark eyes widening slightly in interest. “That’s pretty cool!” she exclaimed. “What do you do?”

Hitman.

Killer.

“Bounty hunter.”

She froze, her brows shooting up. “What?”

“We track down bad guys for payment,” he continued, his fingers itching to reach for her. “My brothers are pretty heavy into it. Definitely more invested in it than I am. We’re tracking one now with a pretty important payout for us. If we catch the guy, I’ll be moving on to the next job.” He ran his hand through his hair. “So this,” he said, gesturing between them, “has a time limit.”

She sat back against the far side of the sofa, her arms wrapping around herself. “You kill people for money.”

“Catch,” he corrected, thinking about the loophole he was currently exploiting. “I catch them, alongside my brothers. I’m better at picking up the trail than they are, so I’m more on the recon side.”

Bullshit.

Her dark eyes narrowed. “How bad are these bad guys?”

Poisoned bloodline.

“All I can say is that for each one we eliminate, we save dozens of lives.”

She looked away, her lips pursing. “So this killer in the park, is he one of your hunts?”

He shrugged. “Won’t know until I track him down. The guy I’m after now was in this area six months ago, so it’s definitely possible. The kills are consistent with his profile.”

She regarded him for a few agonizing moments. “And I take it fraternizing with the locals is frowned on?”

He ran his hands through his hair and leaned forward onto his elbows. “Yeah, that’s the problem. I’ve been putting my brothers off for a month now, and there’s a really good chance one or both of them will be coming here any day. And my boss probably wouldn’t be too pleased to find out I was spending any hours off the clock or extending my time here for even a day.”

“Why are you?”

He gave her a pointed look. “Why do you think? Because the tips at Tom’s Tavern are too good to pass up? I’m hanging around in the hopes I can, I don’t know, have a half-assed normal relationship before I’m shipped off to hell.”

Literally.

“Hence why you’re spilling all this now,” she stated, crossing her arms.

“No,” he argued. “Well, yes. I’m spilling it because I really, really want to kiss you again and it doesn’t feel right to do it unless you know where things stand. And because, yeah, I have an older brother who’s kind of controlling and a twin with more issues thanVoguewho could show up tomorrow and screw me over in any way they deem appropriate.”

She went silent again until her lips turned up slightly. “A twin?”

He glared at her. “Seriously?”

“I’m sorry.” She laughed, tugging at her shirt hem. “It’s just a lot to take in and I have no idea how I’m supposed to react.” She adjusted her position to face him. “You track down killers, pass them to your brothers who, what, dispose of them? And then you leave. Oh, and you’re currently lying about your work to your family, who may or may not show up here and be really pissed. Did I miss anything?”

---