by Mia Carson
She smiled and shook his hand. “Thanks, Dr. Wallace, really.”
He nodded, strode off down the hall, and picked up a clipboard from another door before knocking and entering. Iris sat in the hard, plastic chair for a few minutes longer, trying to gather her thoughts and steel her nerves. Sam didn’t know how bad it was, and she wasn’t going to let him find out. One way or another, she’d get the bills caught up and save their house, the last remembrance they had of their parents since the shop closed. She hadn’t wanted to take it over in the first place, hadn’t wanted to stay in this tiny-ass town, but life didn’t give her a choice and now she was stuck. Once the shop shut down, she felt as though she lost a part of her mom she’d never get back.
Walking past it every day to sell another family heirloom at the pawn shop didn’t help matters.
“What can you do?” she muttered to herself as she stood. “Get through it like always. What choice do we have? No one’s going to come save our asses anytime soon.”
She’d check on Sam and visit for a little longer, then she’d go see Joe at the pawn shop and see how much money he’d be willing to give her this time.
After the last box was lugged inside, Alec let the front door close, and he looked around his new, empty house, devoid of anyone except himself. “Perfect,” he muttered and picked up his bottle of Blue Moon. “Utterly alone, just the way I like it.”
He chugged the rest of the beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His twenty or so boxes were stacked haphazardly around the foyer and trailed into the living room which currently lacked any furniture. It was supposed to be delivered that morning, but there’d been an issue getting the furniture out of the house he used to occupy. Something about his mom refusing to let the ruffians inside to steal her son’s things. He’d called three times to tell her to let them do their job, and she’d finally relented, but only after giving him another lecture.
Running his hands through dark brown hair trailing almost down to his shoulders, Alec kicked off his boots and meandered to the boxes in the living room, mocking his mom, Margaret, on the way.
“My son, my eldest son, is going to move to the middle of nowhere, North Dakota,” he grumbled in a high-pitched voice, “and he’s going to run his own gun range! When he has workers for that, all over some woman.”
Not paying attention, he walked right into a stack of boxes, kicked the bottom one, and stubbed his toe. Cursing, he hopped up and down, glaring at the clearly written label on the side saying there were books in all the boxes he just ran into.
“Why are all the women in my life driving me insane?” he asked, throwing his head back as if the ceiling would give him an answer. “Honestly. What the hell did I do to deserve this?”
He wasn’t sure what type of answer he was looking for, and after the last few weeks, he wasn’t sure he wanted any. He maneuvered around the rest of the boxes, limping as his big toe continued to throb, and reached the fridge. The only thing in it was beer, and he snagged another one, popped the bottle cap off, and tossed it on the counter. He chugged half of it, wishing that he wasn’t such a big guy and that it actually did something for him. He considered getting his boots back on and taking his guns to the range for an hour to blow off steam when the doorbell rang.
Alec set his beer down on the counter, pulling out his cell to see if he’d missed a call from the moving truck. They were supposed to call once they were on their way, but when he reached the door and pulled it open, he stared.
“Well, hello to you too, brother,” his younger brother August said with a smirk, holding a duffel bag over his right shoulder.
“Where have you been?” Alec asked and yanked his brother into a bear hug, lifting him off his feet. “Why didn’t you call me, you jackass?”
“Hey, watch the name calling,” August said with a laugh followed by a groan when Alec squeezed harder. “Damn, will you stop working out so much? One of these days, you’re going to kill me with those guns of yours.”
Alec set him down and grabbed August’s duffel, carrying it into the house. “Maybe you shouldn’t have left without a word and then not called for three years,” he argued. “You could’ve been right beside me. You know I opened three new ranges this year alone? Moved out here to be with the latest one while it gets off the ground.”
“And that’s the only reason you came out to Nowhere, North Dakota, is it?” August asked.
Alec dropped his duffel on the floor with a loud thud and turned towards the kitchen. “How about a beer? I think you need a beer.”
“And you’re avoiding the issue,” August challenged, walking after him.
Alec gripped the fridge door hard as he glared intently at the beer bottles without reaching out to grab one. His brother was a lot like him. They almost looked alike, too, except for a few minor differences in their eyes, and August was leaner. When they were little, though, they always knew exactly what the other one was thinking, and Alec really hoped his brother still had the gift.
“It’s about Nikki, isn’t it?”
Alec’s head fell forward, and he shook his head. Clearly, we’re out of practice. “No, this has nothing to do with Nikki.”
“You’re so full of shit I can smell it on you,” August announced. “Come on, man. I came back—risking the wrath of Mom—to check on you, so don’t start your lying bullshit now.”
“I don’t want to talk about her, okay? Not today, not tomorrow, not for the rest of my damn life! Got it?” He slammed the fridge door, and the beer inside rattled loudly, several bottles most likely falling over. Alec’s eyes rolled upwards, praying to whomever would listen for strength.
“Can I at least get my beer if you’re going to yell at me while playing the denial game?”
“Sure, if you come clean about why you left,” Alec countered and opened the fridge carefully. A few bottles rolled, but he caught them and tossed one to August.
His brother fiddled with the cap before twisting it off and tossing it on the counter. “Yeah, about that… I’m not sure if you want to deal with that shit-storm on top of the one you’re already going through, at least not sober.”
“Whatever you’re going to tell me can’t be worse than what that stuck-up bitch did to me,” he mumbled as he raised his beer for another gulp.
August peeled at the label on his bottle and cringed. “Actually, I think it can be.”
Alec leaned back against the counter. “Well, I have no furniture yet, so this is as close to sitting as I’m going to get. Why did you leave?”
“Where is your furniture?” his brother mused, glancing around, but Alec knew he was stalling on purpose. He glared at him with narrowed eyes until August finally sighed and hopped up on the other end of the counter, staring down at his beer. “You know how Dad always treated me a little differently?”
“No,” Alec began, but August raised an eyebrow at him. “Alright, I guess so, but he didn’t treat you badly.”
“I never said badly, just differently. Well, I finally found out why. After Dad died, a letter was sent to me, from him, to be sent after his death,” he explained. “I am not his biological son. Mom had an affair with his business partner when you were five.”
Alec grinned, thinking his brother was kidding, but when August didn’t smile back, his chest tightened, and he straightened. “Mom cheated on Dad with Frank?”
“Yeah, funny, isn’t it?”
“No,” he said shaking his head. “That’s not right. She wouldn’t. She loved Dad.”
“Apparently, she got drunk one night while Dad was out of town,” Alec said and reached into his leather jacket pocket. “Frank swung by the house to grab some files, she yanked him in the door, and they… well, you know.”
Alec cringed and nodded, not wanting to imagine his mom doing anything of that sort. “Is that the letter?”
“Yep, explains everything.” He held it out, and Alec walked over to take it. “Dad made a joke one day about how much I looked like F
rank, and when Frank froze, Dad realized the truth. Mom confessed it a few days later when he kept pushing her about it.”
“And that was three years ago, wasn’t it?” Alec finished.
August sipped his beer before answering. “That was five years ago. When the letter arrived and I confronted her, Mom paid me off to leave town and not look back. Said I wasn’t part of the real family, that I wasn’t your real brother. Look, I know she’s our mom, and I’m not about to make things worse by trying to turn you against her, I just—”
Alec set his beer down and without even bothering to read the letter, dragged August off the counter into another tight hug. “You’re my brother, and you’ll always be my brother. I don’t care what anyone else tells you, got it? We grew up together, we gave each other shit for years, and now, when I need someone to talk to who’s not going to call me an idiot, you show up on my doorstep.” He set August back and leaned down, staring into his face. “You’re my brother, and don’t you ever forget it.”
August sniffed hard and nodded, wiping the sheen from his eyes. “Yeah, man, course I am.”
“Good, then I don’t need to read this,” he said and moved to the garbage disposal. “And neither do you. Not again.”
He shoved it into the drain, flipped on the water, and turned on the disposal. It whirred and gurgled as it tore up the letter that drove August to leave. Once he was sure it was destroyed, Alec flipped the switch again and turned the water off. If only he had a letter from Nikki to obliterate so damn easily, but that wasn’t the case.
“Do I get to hear about this woman now?” August asked as he stared into the sink drain.
“There's not much to say,” Alec explained roughly, and taking his beer, stalked back into the living room to sort through his meager belongings. “I really would like to have some damn furniture in here soon.” He pulled out his cell to call the moving truck again, but August’s hand reached out and took it. “Really?”
“Tell me what happened,” his little brother insisted.
Alec’s jaw shifted as he ground his teeth, his hands busying themselves with the first box he came to. “Me and Nikki, we were… uh, we’d been together for two years,” he said quietly. “I thought I loved her and swore she loved me back. Mom loved her, of course—the perfect woman, the one she always wanted to find, just like her.” Thinking over everything his brother had told him, Alec burst out laughing bitterly as August raised his brow in confusion. “Sorry, it’s only now I see they were exactly alike, down to their tendency for cheating.”
It figured that his mom would pick the one woman in the world who would take Alec’s heart and crush it in her fist like a bug, just as she had done to their dad. Nikki had destroyed him, and since he’d walked away from her, all she’d done was call him at least six times a day, begging him to come back, but he wasn’t an idiot. He couldn’t trust her, not after she slept with his best friend on the night he was going to propose to her. He tugged open the flaps on the box in front of him, waiting for August to start in with the onslaught of questions when he glanced down and saw the black box.
“Shit,” he muttered and snatched it up.
“Wait,” August said and walked over. “Is that a ring?”
Alec’s chest ached as he slowly flipped the lid open and stared at the sparkling diamond ring inside. It had cost him a pretty penny, and he’d been so excited to give it to the woman he thought he loved. “Yeah, it is,” he confirmed.
“And you kept it?”
“I didn’t really think about it,” he admitted, still holding the box. “I caught them together, packed my things, and searched for a house. The second I closed on it, I piled everything into the truck and drove here. That was this morning.”
“And you still have the ring,” August repeated. “Why the hell would you keep it?”
Alec shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t even remember tossing it in here. Never checked my things.”
“Were you living with Nikki?”
“No, thank God,” he mumbled and snapped the box shut on that part of his life, hoping it would be forever, but he knew better. He’d caught Nikki and his best friend Mark together a little over a month ago, and every day since, she’d begged him to forgive her. Margaret was no different. She wanted Alec to move on and let it go, stay with Nikki… “I can’t believe it,” he whispered and tossed the ring box to August. “That spiteful, horrible woman! And she calls herself our mom!” He paced angrily around the room before circling back to August and demanding his cell.
“What are you going to do?”
“Call Mom and demand she give me my damn furniture. She’s going to hold it hostage until I talk to Nikki because Nikki is just like her in every way,” he growled and hit his screen angrily with his thumb.
“So she did cheat on you? I’m sorry, Alec, that’s hard.”
“It’s fine, I’m over it,” he grumbled, but he caught his brother’s look at the ring in his palm. “Or trying to be over it. Mom? Yeah, where the hell is the rest of my shit?”
“Alec Wolf, is that anyway to speak to your mother?” Margaret replied with a gasp of shock and rage.
“Don’t you dare,” he snarled, anger building as all his mom’s words of getting back together with Nikki, saying it was a one-time thing, repeated themselves in his mind. “Where’s the truck?”
“They’re having problems.”
“You know what… fine, keep it. I’ll buy new shit.”
“Now hold on a moment. There’s someone here who would like to speak to you, and you haven’t even told me where you moved,” she argued hotly.
“Why would I do that? The only one who found me is the only one I wanted to find me—my brother,” he said then held up a hand and barked a harsh laugh. “Oh, wait… no, I’m sorry, my half-brother.”
Silence met his words, and August’s eyes widened as he watched his brother.
“August is there?” Margaret finally asked quietly, her voice shaking. “What did he say? Why is he back?”
“He came back because he missed me and I needed someone to talk to, someone who would not defend another damn cheater. Keep the furniture, Mom. I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up and shoved his cell in his back pocket.
“You know that won’t be the end of it,” August warned.
Alec’s hands balled on his hips, and he breathed out through his nose, trying to tamp down his temper before he took it out on his poor boxes stuffed with what remained of his life. “I know, but what can she do? She has no control over anything of mine—not my business, not my house, and not my damn money. Let her try.”
August held up the ring box. “And this? What about Nikki?”
He held out his hand, and August dropped the box in it. “I’m going to sell this right now, and Nikki will never find me.”
Chapter 2
The slight chill in the afternoon breeze told Iris winter was coming early this year, and she looked up at the sky darkening along the horizon as a storm brewed. It was barely October, and they called for snow in a few weeks. Usually, she loved the snow, loved being out in it and watching it fall silently over the open land around their tiny town. But since the accident that stole their parents, the idea of snow made her cringe and curse the sky. Iris crossed one of the four main intersections in downtown Lundy and hit the sidewalk outside a strip of a few old stores.
Her steps slowed when she reached the one in the center with cardboard behind the glass to block the view inside and a 'for sale' sign still hanging in the window. Usually, she rushed passed it, not wanting the reminder of the tough decision she’d had to make a year ago. But today, her feet came to a dead stop outside the door. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and a sudden gust blew her hair.
Her hand shaking, she reached for the door, closing her eyes and imagining herself pushing it open and striding inside to find her dad busy behind the counter or organizing the latest items he’d found at estate sales across the state. She heard
her mom’s voice call out from the backroom, and for a second, Iris was in the past, back to a day before Sam was sick and her parents were alive and well. Back when the antique store did brisk business and was the most popular one in the state. Her fingers brushed the metal door handle, and the sharp cold made her flinch and stagger backwards… right into a very firm, very large body.
“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled as the hands gripped her upper arms and set her easily back on her feet. Her face warmed with embarrassment until her eyes reached up… and up, to find the face of a bearded man staring down at her.
“You alright?” he asked, studying her face with brown eyes that reminded her of rum. “Miss?”
She nodded and tugged her purse back up her shoulder, catching the way his eyes slid to it and narrowed slightly. The embarrassment increased, and she stepped back quickly. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“Were you trying to get in there?” he asked, nodding to the closed store behind her.
“No, I was just lost in thought,” she said and cleared her throat, fully aware of how attractive this wolf of a man was and how crappy she looked today. “Sorry I bumped you, but I have to go.”
His hand reached towards her again, but he pulled it back. “Right… Well, have a good day.”
Iris nodded and moved past him quickly, ducking her head as her feet rushed her towards the pawn shop door. When she reached it, she glanced back to find the man still standing there, watching her closely. She knew everyone in town, or she thought she did. Don’t worry about the new guy. You have other business to take care of, she told herself and pushed open the door.
The bell tinkled—too happily for her liking—as it always did when she entered, and she looked around for the shop’s owner. “Joe? You in today?”
“I’m in every day,” a deep voice called out from the rear of the shop.
She couldn’t help but smile at his friendly voice and weaved her way through the overstuffed pawn shop until she reached the counter in the back. Joe Canowicakte stood behind it, his graying, long black hair hanging straight over his shoulders and his brown eyes alight with mischief, as always.