Page 47 of Love in the Wild

Gage ripped open another box and pulled out two gallon jugs of motor oil, hefting them onto the shelves in the stockroom. Beau’s place always had stock, and man did it make life easier. Gage didn’t have to waste his time running to shops in Cody because they ran out of the basics.

Tim walked in, wheeling hand trucks with three more boxes stacked on top. “That’s the last of it.”

Gage tipped his chin and kept unloading jugs. If he timed things right, he could replace a ball joint before lunch.

Before Hadley pulled up in her little purple car to scramble every last brain cell in his head. She had a way of draining out all the common sense, leaving him defenseless.

He needed defenses against Hadley Morgan. He needed walls like Fort Knox to keep that woman out of his thoughts.

When the boxes were empty, he broke them down and hauled the cardboard to the dumpster behind the garage. Winter had decided to make another appearance and drop a foot of snow on the ground, and the only sound in the air was the crunching beneath his boots.

He tossed the cardboard into the dumpster and turned to walk back inside just as his phone rang with the ringtone reserved for his family. He cursed before pulling it out of his pocket, already dreading the news on the other end of the line.

“What?”

“Rome’s here,” Bruce said, not bothering to bristle at Gage’s unfriendly greeting.

Gage bit back another curse. The Howards had been waiting for Rome Wilson to show up for months. There was a bunker filled with stolen guns and ammo hidden out on Howard land, and Rome had volunteered to be the runner.

Volunteered was a stretch. Rome was being paid a considerable amount to be the one to make the move. After months without a word from Rome, Gage had kinda given up on the only Wilson brother who wasn’t behind bars. Rome could have been locked up or dead for all Gage knew.

But the snake lived to die another day.

The call went dead, and Gage shoved the phone back into his pocket. He hated leaving in the middle of his shift at Beau’s since it brought in the best money, and it was a double slap in the face that he was being told to put his own skin on the line.

Bruce could show Rome where the bunker was. Tommy or Cain could do it. No, they had to call Gage and drag him away from his only respectable job so he could commit a dozen felonies before nightfall.

Gage burst through the back door like a bull coming out of the chute. “Beau!”

“Office!”

Gage stalked down the hallway and stopped at Beau’s office. “I hate to do this, but I gotta run.”

Beau scoffed. “Duty calls?”

“Something like that.”

Beau leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I need you. I really do. I like you. You work hard. What I don’t like is what you do when you leave here.”

“Sounds like we’re on the same page.”

“Then give it up. Don’t leave. Stay here and earn a steady paycheck.”

Gage shook his head. “It ain’t that simple, boss.”

Beau turned his attention back to the computer screen. “What are you working on?”

“I was about to replace the ball joint in bay three.”

Beau didn’t look away from the screen. “I’ll take care of it.”

Gage’s hands fisted and flexed at his sides. Why couldn’t he tell his uncle to do his own dirty work? Why couldn’t he break up with the whole Howard clan and start somewhere new?

Because not a single one of them had mentioned Thea to him since they beat her senseless. That meant they planned to finish what they started, and Gage had to figure out what they knew about her.

If he left, he wouldn’t have any chance of finding out what kind of revenge they had planned for Brett and Thea. The score was far from settled, and Gage at least had a chance of overhearing things if he was still on his family’s good side.

Gage clocked out and left. Thanking Beau for not giving him more of a hard time for leaving sounded like a slap in the face.

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