Page 34

Kenna

The size difference between Puck and I was never more obvious than when I had to shimmy from beneath him to climb from the bed. He didn’t so much as grunt as I nudged his shoulder enough to roll from beneath the half of his body that was sprawled atop me.

At least I’d slept warm.

The bright morning light from the large, undressed windows didn’t seem to bother him at all. If he hadn’t been here, I’d have taped blankets in the window and tried for a few more hours of sleep.

Instead, I needed to move, to do something. So much had happened the past few days that I couldn’t cut my brain off, not even for a second. There was a single-cup coffee maker, with little pods in the tray beside it, on the counter in the small kitchenette.

I made a cup, scavenged for some powdered creamer and sugar, and sat at the eat in bar, scrolling through my phone. I was deliciously sore from sex, a fact that made me grin…until I saw the message from Ghost on my phone.

I need to see you, it’s important.

The easiest thing to do was ignore him. Pretty sure Puck wouldn’t want his new girlfriend—if that’s what this really was—running off to meet with her ex.

I left Ghost on read and checked the weather.

Dry. For the next few weeks, then the promise of rain.

I snorted at that. The town’s name was Dry Valley for a reason.

Pickles. Please.

His dad had been a mean drunk when he was around, and my mom an addict and abuser. Growing up as neighbors meant, a lot of time, we only had each other. Pickles was his code word when shit went south.

I fired back a quick text of my own, because I couldn’t ignore that, even after all the shit he’d put me through. At the end of the day, a large part of me would forever be that little girl with no one to cling to.

Tunnels. Noon.

“You’re up early.” Puck’s powerful arms wrapped around me as I placed the phone on the counter. He kissed my hair before going to the coffee pot himself.

“The sun…can’t get any sleep with it. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“You didn’t, I set an alarm.”

I’d been so caught up in Ghost’s messages I hadn’t heard it.

Wearing only his boxers, Puck’s body was on full display. I swiped at the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand as I watched all those sexy muscles move with the mundane task.

I could go again, right then. All he’d have to do was pick me up and bend me over something, anything.

When he turned and caught me watching, I hid behind a deep sip of my coffee.

“I’ll go down to the hardware store and get some blinds made, it’ll be a few days before they come in.”

“No biggie, I can hang up a blanket in the one by the door and be fine.”

He eyed me over the rim of his mug as he leaned against the counter. Puck always had this way of studying people, like he was drawing them in his mind. The quiet intensity often made people squirm, me for an entirely different reason.

“I’ve got some MC shit today. Want me to hang up those blankets so you can get some rest?”

“Sure. I’ve got some errands to run, but I’m not working tonight, so rest sounds like a good plan.”

Coffee in hand, he crossed the kitchen to me, dropped a kiss to my lips, and did exactly as he’d offered. I watched, unsure of how to handle myself. The idea of dating Puck, of it being more than casual sex—not that there had been anything casual about that—was a lot to process.

I could probably get used to it.

If I could shake the drama with Ghost.

***

There were large concrete drainpipes that led into the Dry Valley River from the Bends.

The white trash neighborhood butted up against some of the mountains that surrounded us.

When it did rain, there was nothing there to soak up the water, and it ran here, filling up the riverbed and twisting around through the system of pipes until it reached an actual river.

There hadn’t been a good rain in so long, though, that scraggly bushes were growing in the river and dust filled the big tunnels.

When we were young, Ghost—or Zach as he’d been then—and I would hide from the bad shit here.

We played here. Dreamed here. The tunnels weren’t very long usually, though one set ran under the highway, near where the frat boys had been found.

In combat boots, cut offs, and a Desert Kings tank, I scurried through the desert and into the tunnels until I saw him.

Ghost sat inside one of the shorter ones, leaned against one curved wall, legs up on the other, a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

I didn’t see his bike, so he’d probably walked from wherever Jerry Wayne or Wanda had him holed up.

Half his face was swollen, his eye black, and his bottom lip busted and crusty.

“Jesus, what happened to you?” I sat opposite him, my knees bent to my chest, since my legs wouldn’t reach the other side. My voice echoed a tiny bit, which brought back the nostalgia for this place.

A tiny scorpion ran out from the sand near his hip and took off toward the daylight and away from us. I must have disturbed him.

“Your boyfriend.” Ghost took a swig, laughing without humor.

That smacked me right in the gut. Puck hadn’t said anything about running into Ghost, much less beating the shit out of him. “I’m sorry.” But was I? “Was it over JoJo’s shit at the Fall Fest?”

“Yeah.” He cringed. “I’m sorry about that. It really had nothing to do with us at all. Jerry Wayne was just looking for a way to needle Puck about the kid. You happened to be there and made it easy picking.”

It was never his fault, something I’d learned a long time ago.

No use in arguing with him.

“That why you’re here now, to apologize for getting your own ass kicked?” I hadn’t seen a scratch on Puck that I hadn’t thought came from the brawl with JoJo’s boys. Ghost was scrappy, but not like that. Puck was something else, entirely. I’d seen him in action—battling monsters.

“I used you as part of my in story with the peckerwoods. I am sorry for that. I should have come up with something better, but I was thinking on the fly. I’m only there because I’m the MC’s mole.

” That was shit he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, a reminder that one time we’d told each other everything.

He finally looked at me, squinting his good eye.

“You’re okay, though? I heard David gave you the boot. ”

“More Nadine than David, but yeah. I’m fine. Got a place to stay, working shit out.” I ignored the bomb he'd just dropped on me. MC business wasn't my business. Telling me was the very reason he'd make a horrible spy. He never knew when to keep his mouth shut.

In Dry Valley, knowing too much could get you killed.

“Still at the strip club?” He didn’t say it with any sort of derision, just asked without judgment.

Talking like this reminded me of when we were kids, and when we were friends, before he’d started looking at me as just a tool to get what he wanted.

That little boy he'd been was the only reason dread coiled in my gut.

This was a bad idea. I was closer to Puck now, but I'd already outed Ghost to the MC once.

I didn't have the heart to do it again. The MC would keep him safe, I had to believe in that. The table wouldn't just throw Ghost to the wolves and leave him there to be torn apart.

“Yeah.”

“I bet the tips are insane, even for a server.”

“Yup.” I laughed.

He smiled over at me, sort of sad and lost. “When you get enough, get the fuck out of here. You’re too good for this place.”

I thought of Puck and Eli, about my friends, and how close I’d come to doing just that. But I wouldn’t have been happy, not truly, leaving all of them behind.

“I don’t think I want to. I think I’ve finally found somewhere I belong.”

“Good.” He took a long swallow straight from the bottle. “But I’d feel a lot better if you weren’t in Hayes County for a while. Shit’s about to go sideways.”

“What do you mean?” My question was spoken low enough there was no echo. But that fear in my belly exploded now, shooting cold prickles all over my skin. "Maybe you should clear out yourself."

"I can't do that. I'll get my patch, even if it kills me." The ominous tone in his voice made me tremble. Puck had said he had club business to handle. This left me wondering exactly how bad things were going to get. “I just wanted you to know I didn’t set that shit up so that you’d get hurt. Despite what you think or shit I’ve done…” He choked a little, took another swig, and his phone dinged.

“I’ve got to go, just…take care of yourself.

” He stopped at the end of the tunnels, ducked down so I could see his face.

“And keep an eye on Puck’s kid. I don’t have anything concrete to take to Jester, but I don’t like how interested Jerry Wayne is in Eli.

” A shadow passed over his face, a dark reminder of the life he’d lived before the desert kids.

If Ghost was worried about Eli, then I was, too.

“Hey…” I scrambled over toward his end, stepped out, and hugged him tight. “For what it’s worth, I really did love you.”

“Yeah, me too.”

I don’t know how long I stayed in the tunnel after he left, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was too deep in something he had no way out of. And that in some strange way, it was my fault.