Page 99 of No Saint
“You know, when you’re sad and need a little joy.”
“And where is the spanking coming in?”
She winked. “Well, spanking always makes me happy, Jade.”
I really needed to learn not to ask questions with her.
Squishy suddenly bolted across the kitchen, claws scrabbling over the tile before he squeezed his face in the gap beside the refrigerator—presumably where Goose and Maverick were hiding.
“I can’t deal with this,” Wolf said, then yanked the fridge from the wall like it weighed nothing.
“Get the rats, Dog!”
I watched in horror as Squishy let out a banshee war cry and shot into the fray. Wolf was right there with a Coors Lite box. As though he’d been doing it all his life, he caught the poor creature running for its life, then shot to his feet, tipping the box the right way up. We all stared at him in stunned silence. I did not expect to be adding “rat catcher” to the list of things I found attractive in a man. Mechanic, thief, footballer, rat wrangler…was there anything he couldn’t do?
“That’s one.” Wolf held the box up like a trophy. “Bell, you get the other one.”
“Put it in the microwave!” Rogue shouted from the counter.
Horrified, I snatched the box from Wolf. “I’ll microwave your pathetic little balls, Rogue.”
Wolf looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “What are you going to do with them?”
Well, I hadn’t thought about that. I wanted to argue that they had names, so they were practically pets, but the idiot on the counter thought they were actually wild. We really didn’t need to piss off Rogue anymore by revealing our rat exploits. “I don’t know.Notmicrowave them.”
A few seconds of hard stares passed between Wolf and me. “Right…” Then he took the box back and moved past me.
“Wait!” I hurried after him as he strode toward the door. “What are you doing?”
“Letting it out in the yard. Freedom from attic oppression—” He waved a dismissive hand as he pushed the front door open to the humid heat—“or whatever bullshit you’d say.”
“No!” I grabbed his arm before he could descend the porch steps. “They’ll get eaten by snakes, or cats, or…other rats. They don’t know how to fend for themselves.” Yes, I felt guilty for the rats. But we—well, Cassie—had been the ones to buy them, so we were kind of responsible for them. “It would be like sending a Barrington kid to Dayton High.”
“Drew survived,” Wolf said. “They’ll be fine.”
“They won’t.”
“Well, you can’t keep them in a beer box. They’ll eat through that shit in a few hours, and I can’t deal with Rogue anymore.”
I looked at the cardboard box and thought about the poor creature inside being thrown out as easy prey. “It’s not their fault.”
Wolf let out a long, suffering sigh. “Fine.” He handed the box to me. “Just keep it away from the princess in there.” He took his keys from his pocket and started down the steps. “I’ll go get a cage.”
Half an hour later, Bellamy had managed to catch the other rat, and Wolf had returned with not just a cage, but a palace, complete with tunnels and an exercise wheel.
He put Maverick in, then closed the hatch. Wolf took a step back and shook his head. “Hendrix would rip me a new one for this shit…”
He would, but only because Hendrix was a heartless asshole who would never be half as good as Wolf.
“This must have cost you a fortune,” I said.
“I was going to get the metal one, but the guy behind the counter said he’d give me a discount if I posted a photo to InstaPic and tagged the store.”
The perks of being a well-known football player. “Wow. Lucky number thirteen.”
“Not sure what they think rats have to do with football…”
“Maybe the fans will petition you to make Maverick and Goose the team mascots.” My attention drifted from Wolf to the two rats exploring their new home. Goose ran through one of the tunnels while Mav tried out the wheel. “Look how happy theyare.” If only they knew he’d saved them from a grizzly microwave fate.
