Page 2 of Puck My Heart

Fuck, I hate leaving civilization.

I really didn’t need the trip down memory lane.

The last time I was on this road my parents drove my older brother Adam and me out to the Ozarks, to the cabin. We went every summer when I was a kid with Sol’s family, then most weekends we could manage together when we first signed with the Chimeras until one year, we didn’t.

Memory lane was a white out blitz. I cursed myself as a fool for not turning around and parking my ass because I didn’t want to be alone this weekend. And because I had something to prove to myself. But right now, that could be a fatal choice.

I strangled the steering wheel as the road shifted beneath me. The wind had buffed my truck about for hours, but this felt different. Not ice, either. Wind, snow—a freaking avalanche for all I knew, I couldn't see shit—pushedmy truck sideways as I fought for traction. Foot to the floor—on the brake, I hoped—I yanked on the non-responsive steering as the sign to Riverbrook Creek flashed by.

Years ago, our fathers thought it was hilarious to rename the old property by the three creeks that converged just below the house in a wide pond that iced over every year. Never this late, not by any usual standard. But like all our weather now, shit happened at different times. Hell, we used to skate on the icy expanse while Mom covered her eyes. I remembered giggles echoing off the snow laden trees that surrounded the cabin on a clear day after snowfall.

I remembered thinking I’d never stop going to the cabin with the people who mattered most.

I remembered the crunch of metal compacting around me, looking across at my brother who stared straight ahead, locked where he sat.

My attention lost to the same spot on the same fucking road only a handful of years earlier, the wheel spun hard in my hands, tearing out of my grip. Suddenly the steering wheel wasn’t the only thing spinning. Memories of giggles crashed into the horror of the last time I was on this road, and the sounds of that day.

I wasn’t laughing now.

A string of language better left at the Chimera’s stadium flew from my mouth as my truck slewed sideways. The road I could barely see anyway became a whirl of white, and I said a prayer I never thought I’d say ever again. But this time, I was ready.

Hey, it’s Hux again. It’s been a while. But if this is it, let me take the hurt this time.

Just me.Please.

The truck jerked forward and every inch of air evicted from my lungs as my seatbelt strained and tautened across my chest, but the strap did its job. Suspended forward, I hung in midair for a moment, the world nothing but a blank haze. Then the truck lurched back and…everything stilled.

I stared at the crooked sign to Riverbrook Creek, bent in the middle where my bull bar impaled it, and the snow drift that did fuck all to stop my sideways trajectory. The rockface beyond that still bore the long etched scars of the last accident stared back at me, icicles dangling from the overhang above. A mere hand’s span separated my door from it. I hadn’t even scraped paint off the sides.

Backing the truck up as I managed a stuttered breath and a mangled prayer I checked around, but no one else seemed to be on the road. I sent off a quick message about the conditions toSol and hoped the information made it through. No one should be out in this shit. Certainly not those with anyone they cared about. For the first time I was glad my passenger seat sat empty.

Thank Christ Sol is late.

That second prayer went heavenward as I inched my way along the two mile drive at a snail’s pace and pretended my hands didn’t shake for nearly careening into the same slice of godforsaken rock that stole the lives of three people I cared for most the last time I came out to the cabin.

The same year when I swore I’d never come back.

Swallowing bile that burned the back of my tongue I pushed forward and hoped no one else was on the road tonight and that unlike me, they all stayed the fuck home. But the glowy light beyond the trees told me I’d be sharing the space with at least one other person tonight.

Now I needed to pull my shit together before anyone else saw the mess the captain of the Jericho Chimeras became the moment he hit a snowdrift.

Happy fucking Valentine’s weekend to me.

CHAPTER TWO

HUX

I slung my duffle bag over my shoulder and stared at the cabin—read small mansion—that looked exactly like it did the last time I stood on the snow laden ground. The windows glowed with warmth from within, and though snow still fell lightly—of course it lessened now—I couldn’t bring myself to break the image of perfect, untouched powder that covered the pathway to the front door. Icicles hung from the veranda, and a shadow flickered beyond the living area.

A reminder thatsomeoneinhabited the cabin, and I was about to intrude on their peace.

Or several someones. I forgot to look at who Sol invited but apart from his girlfriend, Hallie, the place was easily big enough to house four oversized families.

Or at least, it used to.

Double storied with a loft where I used to hide and read—geeky me who hated the spotlight once before it became my job to stand beneath it—this used to be my favorite place in the world. Now I stood outside the refuge of its oak and cottonwood walls, my hands still tremored the slightest amount, and my feet refused to take the first damn step forward.

My pocket vibrated, shaking me out of my haze.

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