Page 1 of Wild Card
CHAPTER 1
Axel
Banshee trotted soclose to my side her thick white fur rubbed against my black jeans. As I neared the junkyard gate, she whined in protest.
“I know, baby.” I crouched down, looking into her sad eyes as I scratched behind her ears. The tail curled over her butt gave a little wag. “But I’ve got to go out, and you’ve got to learn to handle some separation, huh? Because people leave.”
I should know. I’d been watching people leave since I was a kid. My parents left me not once, but three times before child services took me away for good. But they were gone even when they were there, so high they barely noticed me, so it wasn’t any great loss.
But try telling that to my four-, six-, and ten-year-old self. I’d thought it was a pretty terrible loss each time. I’d been a clingy little fuck, just like Banshee, when I’d come to my foster home here in Riverton.
“You should go eat your dinner with the others,” I murmured, “so I can sneak on out of here.”
My motley crew of dogs were chowing down near the old RV that I called home. I’d rescued them all from the side of the road after their owners dumped them because it was more convenient than driving to the animal shelter—or maybe just because they didn’t want their friends and neighbors to see them abandoning their pets. Whatever the reason, they were assholes.
Banshee had joined us two weeks ago. I’d seen that meth head Rusty Waters and his girlfriend, Candy, push her out of their old-ass Pontiac Firebird. What the hell they were doing with an expensive breed like a Samoyed, I didn’t know.
Poor Banshee had been a timid, trembling mess—and she was still anxious every time I was out of sight. Which was why it was so damned hard to leave her. But I didn’t have a choice tonight. Jett and Sully weren’t gonna let me bail.
“Sorry, girl.” I straightened up and turned for the gate.
Banshee skittered up against me again, high-pitched whines of distress escaping her. Shit. No way I could just leave her like this.
“All right, sweetie, come on.” I opened the gate wide and let her run out with me. I didn’t have to leash her; she stuck close to my side as I walked the few hundred yards to the old farmhouse my brothers shared on the property.
I’d lived there once too, but I’d realized that staying with my brothers made me too much like Banshee. I’d clung to them, turning them into my source of security. But when my big brother Gray left town without a word, the illusion had shattered.
He’d come back a few months ago, and he’d promised he’d never take off again, but the truth remained: I could lose them too. I probablywouldlose them all, eventually.
I had to distance myself—for my own good.
Banshee hadn’t learned that lesson yet. Now that she was with me, she wouldn’t have to. I’d never leave her—or any of my animals—the way I’d been left. I knew how much it hurt.
I let us in, the old screen door slapping shut behind Banshee, and followed my brothers’ voices to the kitchen, where a debate was underway.
“No, I don’t want to pose for photos,” Gray protested. “That’s ridiculous.”
“He made me do it for prom,” my youngest brother, Bailey, said.
Gray and his boyfriend, Emory, leaned against the kitchen counter, dressed in Riverton High colors—Emory in a baseball jersey and Gray in a hoodie with the Cornjerker logo on it, which was…wait for it…a dancing cob of corn.
I laughed. “Oh, shit. What is this, Gray? Are you one of the jocks now?”
“Shut up,” he grumbled. “I just wanted to blend into the crowd.”
“You can see why I wanted photos,” Holden said from his spot at the table. “I need photo evidence of this shit.”
“No way,” Gray insisted.
Emory looked mildly amused. “You can wear your leather jacket if you would be more comfortable.”
“Nah,” Gray said. “It’s a football game. The way I’m dressed is fine.” He leveled a glare at Holden, then pointedly looked at each of us, warning us silently to keep our traps shut. “Let’s go.”
“Okay.” Emory smiled. “Maybe we can get photos tomorrow when we go to the reunion banquet? Gray is going to be his usual badass hottie self, and I can’t wait to show him off.”
My brother rolled his eyes, but a smile tugged at his lips. He was totally whipped for Emory. The two of them were sickeningly sweet together.
I resented his happiness a little. He leaves for all that time, and when he finally comes back, he’s rewarded with love? Fuck that.
