Page 48 of Wild Card
“No record of selling the rims with the tires?”
“No.” He glanced up with a frown. “Why?”
“Just checking.”
“Axel, we talked about you keeping better records. If you don’t know what we have or where to find it, then you’re costing us sales.”
“I know,” I said. “I just wanted to confirm they hadn’t sold before I went searching.”
“Ax—”
“I’llfindthem, all right? Jesus. Just save the lecture for when I actually fuck up.”
“You’re costing yourself a lot of extra time by not staying more organized.”
I stood up. “Yeah, message received. I’d listen to more of your wisdom, but I have rims to find, and Dalton is picking me up for my mandatory animal shelter visit in an hour, so…”
I started toward the door, and Banshee reluctantly left Holden’s side to follow.
“Axel,” Holden called. “Take Matteo with you. He can help.”
I half turned, glaring at my brother. “I can handle my shit.”
“You’re in a time crunch,” he said. “Just take him.”
With a clipped nod, I strode out of the office. Bailey and Matteo were watching, looking as if they’d heard most of our conversation.
“Sorry, Bailey. I’ll have him back as soon as I can.”
“It’s fine,” Bailey said. “I can handle this.”
Matteo joined me on my trek back to the junkyard, the two dogs running up ahead of us. Banshee investigated every weed along the way, while Taz marked his territory everywhere he could. For a little guy, he had big dick energy.
“So, misplaced a part?” Matteo asked as we made our way there.
“Yeah. I have an idea of where they might be. I just didn’t want to waste my time searching if we’d sold them.”
He nodded. “Sure. Makes sense. So…how do you keep track of everything, anyway?”
I gave him the rundown of the inventory and sales system that Holden and I had devised. The old man used to run everything through the auto shop—without much in the way of records—but we’d upgraded to computerized logs.
When I punched in the code to unlock the gate, a round of barks greeted us. The whole pack celebrated like we were heroes returning from a great battle.
Sugar admonished me for sneaking off with a soft woof.
“Sorry, girl. You snooze, you lose,” I said as I patted her head.
Matteo lavished Oreo and Loki with loving, only laughing when Loki jumped up and made him stagger a couple of steps. “How do you get any work done with these guys around?” he asked with a grin.
“They’ll get bored and wander off.” I watched him tug Loki’s ears. “It helps if you don’t indulge them.”
Matteo dropped his hands. “Sorry. I love dogs, and my dad would never let me have one growing up. You’re lucky you have so much freedom out here.”
That was one way to see it. When I’d started working at the junkyard, it hadn’t been by choice. The old man stuck me there because he didn’t like my smart-ass mouth. His words, not mine. But they were fairly accurate. When Gray left and the old man refused to say why, something inside me ripped open.
A wound that had barely scabbed over in the first place.
I’d lost the trust I’d built with my family. The old man had always been a little hard to love, but my brothers? They’d been everything to me. I’d come to rely on them, to trust in them. The Bro Code we wrote as kids had given me some much-needed reassurance.
