Page 2 of Outcast
Sugar’s tongue rolled out, and she finally sat her butt on the pavement, some of her tension uncoiling.
“Don’t sweet-talk my girl,” Axel protested. “We’re pissed right now. How could you invite this traitor back home?”
“That’s a little harsh,” I muttered.
I’d had reasons to leave. It wasn’t something I’dwantedto do. Staying would have made things so much worse.
Not that Axel knew any of that. Not when I’d been here one day and gone the next without a single word of explanation.
If I could have said goodbye without dragging him into the mess… Well, I’d made the best choices I could to protect my brothers. My pain didn’t need to be theirs.
“We need him,” Holden said bluntly. “Unless you know how to clone yourself and do double the work?”
“We get by,” Axel argued, “and it’s not like we can’t hire more help. We’ve got Jose.”
“Jose’s about two years from croaking over the open hood of a rusty-ass Ford.”
“I heard that!” a raspy voice called with a chuckle. “I ain’t dead yet!” A white-haired, wrinkled version of the part-time mechanic I remembered from my teenage years came to the opening of the garage. “Although I might starve to death. Where’s that lunch I was promised?”
“Right here,” Axel said, lifting the bag in his right hand.
I’d barely noticed it with all my attention onSugar, and I wasn’t paying a lot of attention now either—not when my youngest brother had just stepped up beside Jose.
Bailey was only eight when I left. His dark hair still held a hint of curl and a stubborn cowlick that stuck up in the back, but that was about all that was the same. He was pushing six feet, with broad shoulders and a jawline covered in light stubble. He’d be eighteen now—older than I was when I’d run off.
My heart twisted. Of all my regrets, missing so much of Bailey’s life was the strongest.
“Bailey, man, you’ve grown up!”
“Yep.” His hazel eyes surveyed me coolly. “That’s what kids do.”
I stepped toward him, but Bailey turned his gaze toward Axel. “Let’s eat. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Oh, suddenly, you’ve got work discipline?” Jose asked with a chuckle. “Boy’s been texting so much he’s barely touched an engine block.”
Bailey scowled, looking like the kid I knew. “Whatever. It’s lunchtime!”
Axel crossed close enough to the garage to shove the bag into Holden’s arms. “There’re enough sandwiches you can even feed the asshole. But count me out.”
“Axel—” Holden started.
He got flipped the bird for his trouble. Axel gave a sharp whistle, and Sugar trotted after him like the tamest little monster ever. I hoped her bark was worse than her bite, though, because judging by Axel’s attitude, he’d love to let her loose on me.
Holden turned to me with a sigh. “Come on. Let’s go inside. We’ve got plenty to catch up on.”
“Where’s Axel going?” I asked. “To the house?”
“Nah. He spends most of his time at the junkyard with his strays.”
“He’s got more of those beasts?”
Holden chuckled. “He has a real way with them. They’re not all scary rottweilers, though. He’s got a little terrier too. Whatever folks dump out this way.”
I grimaced. I’d forgotten how often folks treated country roads like a good place to abandon their pets. Mom had insisted the old man take them to the nearest shelter. Once she died, he’d just ignored the problem. I guess Axel had come up with his own solution.
Gotta say, it was a hell of a lot more compassionate, but how many dogs could he set on me if he got pissed enough?
Holden led the way into the garage. The scent of oil and gasoline took me back to the last time I’d been here. I’d been tuning up a Yamaha bike when Dallas came by to pick up his dad’s pickup.
