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omegas, like William. “How’s the plumbing in the bathroom?” he asked, leaving William’s confession behind him as he walked further down the hallway.
“Water’s cold.”
Sage didn’t even ask William to elaborate. He knew he had to see this for himself. Somehow he knew the bathroom wasn’t going to be shining and clean, but a guy could hope for a fucking miracle around here.
The door squeaked as he pushed it open with the palm of his hand.
He grimaced, waiting to see a dump site just beyond the door. He was shocked to see how clean it truly was. There wasn’t a shower curtain and the room could use a scrub and a wipe down, but it was in pretty good shape.
“I cleaned it when I first got here. I hate nasty bathrooms,”
William said as he poked his head past Sage. “I didn’t have the proper cleaning supplies, but I did my best.”
Sage nodded. He could tell. There wasn’t anything broken in there, and the cobwebs weren’t decorating the room. “This is probably the cleanest room in the house.”
Sage walked downstairs, carefully, and headed into the kitchen next.
“Nice.”
William stared at him strangely as Sage took in the dilapidated floorboards, the missing cabinet doors, the missing oven door, broken windows, missing refrigerator, rust stains and mold in the sink, and outlet covers that hung from the wall, just waiting to start a fire as soon as the electricity was cut on.
“Are we looking at the same room?” William asked as he pushed past Sage and walked into the kitchen with Terror on his heels. He reached for the handle on the back door and pulled it clean off.
“The door needs a new handle,” he said as he held the proof up to show Sage.
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If only that were the only thing needing to be replaced. Sage glanced around the kitchen and wondered if he had a big enough truck to haul just the bare essentials that he needed to get his projects started.
“I’ll be back, slim. Guard the…” Sage looked around the saddened state of his new home. “Never mind.”
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William drew closer to Terror as night fell and Sage wasn’t back yet. He was usually locked away in the upstairs room by now. He didn’t like being downstairs. It was creepy.
Temptation was trying to make his feet carry him upstairs where he could lock himself away, but William stupidly stayed right where he was. If Sage got back and needed his help, William needed to be downstairs. Not upstairs hiding under his raggedy blanket.
“Does he always take this long doing things?” William asked Terror as he peeked out of the broken front window. He slammed his eyes closed and fell down onto his butt, pushing his back into the wall when he saw movement close to town.
Many a night he lay upstairs, hearing strange noises, but William was never brave enough to see who, or what, was making them. And from a long-ago memory, he didn’t want to find out.
He wasn’t brave enough now either. “You gonna protect me, girl?”
Terror quickly ran over to William, tucking her head into his arm as she curled in his lap. Okay, a guard dog she was not.
Figures
. He was left with someone that was a bigger chicken than he was.
When he heard tires crunching and an engine cutting, William swallowed hard, his heart racing like a thoroughbred on a racetrack as he clutched Terror closer. He was afraid to look out of the window and see who it was.
Did ghosts drive?
He screamed and Terror whined and barked as the front door flew open. William was on the verge of passing out when he saw Sage
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standing there as tall as an ancient oak tree staring down at him like William had lost his damn mind.
Sage’s brows pulled together as he stared from William to Terror.
“Mind helping me get some of this stuff from the back of the truck?”
Damn, damn, and double damn.
William couldn’t take all of this excitement. He wasn’t built Ford tough. He was more like a damn family station wagon.
Old-school style.
“Mind telling me what all the screaming was about?” Sage asked as he let the tailgate down. William looked at the piled-high supplies almost falling out of the bed. The guy sure knew how to shop.
He’d rather not tell Sage about his less-than-manly scream. It was embarrassing enough that the guy had heard him. William concentrated on the truck, pulling the first small items out that he could find, suppressing the urge to look behind him at the deserted town. “Stubbed my toe.”
The large man had a look like he didn’t believe one word William was trying to spin. Well, he would have to. There was no way he was confessing that he nearly peed his pants and passed out. Someone like Sage wouldn’t understand cowards like William.
It was an exclusive club that one was born into.
William thought it was bad enough that everything around him seemed like a bad sci-fi flick. He wasn’t going to share his chicken heart with Sage. The man looked as though he could take down the world.
He even had a cool-ass scar on his face to prove it.
The guy probably escaped from prison or had it out with some sort of mob boss and killed the entire mafia. He wouldn’t understand William’s dilemma. Guys like Sage never did. He set the boxes to the right, just inside the door, and went back for more.
His eyes grew wide when he saw Sage carrying large pieces of plywood over his head, as if they were a sack of potatoes. The guy wasn’t even straining.
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William envied that as he went for more of the smaller, lighter supplies. He carried in a broom, dustpan, and mop, setting them with the rest of the stuff. Sage didn’t complain that William wasn’t carrying the heavier stuff, and he was grateful for that.
Once they got the truck emptied, Sage doing most of the unloading, the man closed the tailgate and walked inside.
“Could you grab Terror’s food from the front seat? I forgot to leave it here when I left.”
William hurried around the truck, refusing to look past the front yard as he made quick work of retrieving the food and doggie bowls.
He slammed the truck door and hightailed it back into the house, slamming the door closed behind him.
Sage’s head whirled around, a grimace once again on his face.
“Don’t do that.”
William opened the front door and then closed it gently.
Sage grinned and gave a jerk of his chin toward the pile of supplies stacked up in the front hallway. “Grab the small white pails and take them into the kitchen for me, slim.”
Sage wanted him to walk through a dark house into a creepy-ass kitchen…by himself? Was the guy nuts?
Scratch that
. William didn’t want an answer to that question.
He glanced down the desolate hallway that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles. William wasn’t so sure about Sage’s big plan to have him go it alone. William grabbed a bucket in each hand and looked down at Terror, who was standing by his side wagging her tail.
“Come on, girl. You can help me die slowly and painfully.”
“What was that?” Sage asked as he grabbed two five-gallon buckets and headed into the living room.
“I said I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time.”
Like that was going to happen. William walked down the spine-chilling hallway, drawing closer to the kitchen. He could barely see, but made out the outline of the kitchen entrance. He quickly let go of
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the one-gallon buckets and spun around, walking briskly back toward Sage.
When a creaky noise sounded close by, William bolted, Terror at his side running next to him and barking her head off.
Sage appeared at the beginning of the hallway, his figure looming as he glanced past William. “What is it?”
William skidded to a halt in front of Sage, shaking his head as he tried desperately to get his heart back under control. “Nothing. I just wanted to grab two more buckets.”
This was going to be one long-ass night.
* * * *
William yawned, cuddling closer to the heat radiating at his side.
He snuggled close, wrapping the blanket tighter around his body. He was still floating somewhere between dreamland and awareness, more on the dream side right now.
He stilled when he felt something warm, hard, and large curled around him. William cracked one eye open and bit back his gasp.
Sage’s large frame was nearly wrapped around William as the man slept.
Moving as quietly as he could, William moved away until he was free and then spun around, pushing to his knees.
That had been close. If Sage had woken up and saw William buried in his side, he probably would have snapped him in half like a twig. Guys like Sage didn’t mess around when it came to their masculinity, and William had just tested it by using Sage as a blanket.
Thank god Sage didn’t know that.
He pulled the entwined blanket from off of his body and covered the sleeping man as he stood and stretched. Terror was up in seconds, wagging her tail and looking at William to get on with it and take her out.
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He crept quietly out of the room, making sure he closed the door once the dog cleared the doorway. “You’ll have to wait one second while I use the bathroom first.”
Terror yelped, heading for the steps, telling William that she’d meet him downstairs by the way she turned and looked at him before bouncing down the steps.
After William dried his hands of the cold water, he headed downstairs to let Terror out to tend to her business. It was a cool fall morning, and William soaked it in. He loved the fall. It wasn’t too hot or bitter cold. The leaves hadn’t even started changing yet.
Just as he climbed off the porch to check on the dog, a shimmer of light caught his eye. He glanced toward town to see something shining in one of the deserted buildings. His skin broke out with the goose bumps as William hurried around the side of the house and then around back, searching for Terror.
Sage would kill him if he lost the man’s dog. The guy seemed extremely attached to the Chihuahua. It was a strange contrast between Sage’s large, skyscraper size and Terror’s tiny body, but the guy made it known how much he loved the dog.
William gave a low whistle, not wanting to draw attention to himself. He wasn’t sure who was in that building, and a low profile seemed smart as hell right now. He gazed over the backyard but didn’t see any sign of Sage’s dog.
Ah, hell.
The man was going to string him up by his balls if he didn’t find Terror. William looked around overgrown shrubs and behind a few trees that stood off by themselves, separate from the forest in the backyard.
Where the hell did she go?
He heard rustling behind a cluster of bushes further away from the house. William stepped closer, his eyes snapping around wildly as he approached the bushes. His heart was beating out of control at the eerie quiet around him.
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This was such a Stephen King moment that William was half tempted to turn around and haul ass in the other direction. The only thing stopping him was the image of Sage getting the twine out and looping it around his nuts.
“Damn it. Where the hell are you, Terror?” he whispered as he pushed the branches aside.
William let out the most unmasculine scream known to mankind when a small object leapt right at his face. He fell on his back, holding his arms up to his face for some small measure of protection when he felt a wet tongue lapping at his arm.
“Holy hell, Terror. You scared ten damn years off of my life!”
The dog yelped and then ran around in a circle, chasing her tail.
William’s head spun around when he heard deep laughter coming from behind him. He glanced around the yard and then looked up, seeing Sage standing in the bedroom with the missing wall, looking down at him with a wide grin on his face.
“She did that to me the first time I let her out of the truck to use the bathroom on our trip here. Apparently she has a fondness for hide-and-seek.”
William didn’t feel so bad now for his fear, but he did for the scream he had let out. He pushed himself off of the ground and dusted his clothes off. Not that that would help. They not only needed to be washed again, but burning the damn things wouldn’t hurt either.
They were the only clothes he had, so he washed them daily in the cold water of the house. He didn’t think they got that clean in cold water, but it was better than wearing dirty clothes. If he hadn’t washed them religiously, they would be standing on their own now, walking right next to him.
“Come on up. We have a lot of work to get done today,” Sage called and then turned around and walked away. William bent at the waist and snatched Terror from the ground, heading toward the house.
Once inside, William filled her dog bowl with food and headed into the kitchen to get some water. He tripped over the buckets he had
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just dumped precariously in the doorway last night. William pushed them aside and walked over to the sink.
When he turned the tap on, nothing but brown water spilled out.
“Yuck.”
He spun around, heading back toward the living room. Maybe there was some bottled water stored in the front seat of the truck.
William walked outside, glancing toward the building that had held the shining light earlier, but saw nothing.
He quickly checked the cab of the truck to see only empty bottles littering the floor. William went back inside, grabbed one of the cups from the plastic sleeve sitting on top of the cooler, and then opened the cooler.
He scooped the water from the melting ice and poured it into Terror’s other bowl and then took it to her. Once she was fed and watered, William walked upstairs. Just as he got to the end of the hallway, the bathroom door swung open.
William quickly averted his eyes when Sage walked out with a pair of boots on and a towel wrapped around his toned waist…and nothing else covering his tanned skin.