“Fuck me,” he said as he pulled the truck to a stop and climbed out. He was afraid to walk inside the home for fear that it would collapse in on him. Now he knew why the town was called Mystery.
It was a goddamn mystery how the town was still standing.
Sage stepped up onto the first stair, and his foot went right through the wood. “Fuck,” he shouted as he pulled his foot free. He was either the bravest man on the planet, or the stupidest, because Sage walked up the remaining steps—carefully—and pushed the front door open.
He groaned. The place was a hot mess.
Was he expecting anything less?
There was broken furniture lying in pieces everywhere, a few holes in the floor, and broken windows. Not to mention the thousand and one cobwebs on everything. He kicked a few pieces of wood aside and heard a noise coming from upstairs a second later.
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Lynn Hagen
Sage frowned.
No one should be here
. This town was deserted as far as he knew. From the sad shape of the town, no one who was sane should be living here. The sign did say
population zero
.
He gripped the banister, placing a foot on the bottom step, and prayed he didn’t fall through. Sage took a deep breath and held it as he ascended the creaking stairs. They protested his weight the whole way up, but held.
He listened closely, but the noise didn’t repeat itself. Maybe it was the house. The damn thing was old enough to be settling in quite a few different places or ready to fall down at any second. He prayed it wasn’t the latter.
Just as he reached the top of the steps, he heard a scuffling noise from down the hallway. Sage growled low, ready to defend his piece of property, his town, against whoever was here without his permission.
He pushed the bedroom door open, the first one he had come to, and looked inside. He tilted his head as he stared at the smallest man he’d ever seen. “Who are you?”
The man clutched a filthy blanket to his chest as he pushed hard into the wall, as if it would reach out and protect him. Sage quickly masked his anger as he walked into the room. “I asked you a question.”
“William, my name is William,” the small man quickly answered.
“Are you homeless, too?”
Sage gazed over at the tiny man as he shook his head. “I own this town.”
William’s eyes grew wide as he scrambled to his feet, grabbing a tattered bag from the floor. “I’ll get out of your town quickly.”
Sage held a hand up as William ran toward the door, stopping the man in his tracks. “One, I could use the company and the help.
Two”—Sage looked around the bedroom, wincing at all the work that needed to be done to make the place livable—“I wouldn’t be running in this place. It looks like it could collapse at any minute.”
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13
William grinned up at Sage, gifting him with a dazzling smile. “It hasn’t fallen around me yet.”
Sage snorted as he waved a hand at William’s body. “That’s because you weigh ninety pounds soaking wet with boulders in your pockets.”
William giggled as he clutched his bag to his chest. “Ninety-one.”
That was what Sage thought. The guy could use a few good meals and some clean clothes. “Come on. I have some food down in the cooler.”
William’s eyes widened once again as he licked his lips. “Thank you.”
Sage chuckled as he waved toward the steps. “Let’s go. I could use a bite myself.” He winced when William tore down the steps.
Didn’t the guy know the house was unstable? Sage shook his head as he gazed at the man’s body frame. William didn’t weigh enough to make the dust move, let alone put any weight on the steps. Sage, on the other hand, did. He glanced down at the staircase before descending, praying it held him once more.
As he reached the bottom, William was standing there waiting on him. “I told you the house was fine,” he said as he walked outside with Sage.
“We’ll see once I’m done inspecting the place.” Sage grabbed the cooler from the back of his truck, yanking it over the tailgate and carrying it to the porch. He set it down and then sat on the top step.
“It’s all cold. I don’t have anything in here that needs to be heated,” he said as he popped the top to the cooler and began digging inside. He pushed the ice aside as he spotted some sandwiches.
William leaned forward, peering inside. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll eat whatever you give me.”
Sage handed him a deli sandwich and a cold container of milk.
“How long have you been here?” he asked as he grabbed two sandwiches and another milk from the cooler. He unwrapped the plastic and bit into his food. He was hungrier than he thought. Sage
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Lynn Hagen
polished off his first sandwich before William had even made a dent in his.
“A few months,” William said as he chewed his food. “It’s a really nice place, but kind of quiet.”
Sage stopped chewing to look over at William. Maybe the guy didn’t have it all there. Or maybe he’d been alone in this town for too long. “It’s quiet because it’s a ghost town,” he reminded the small man.
“It’s not a ghost town, although there are strange noises at night. I haven’t figured out yet where they’re coming from on account of my chicken blood,” William said as he bit into his sandwich, smiling up at Sage.
Sage drank his milk, glancing down at William and then looking out to see the town a mile away.
What could be making a noise in a
deserted town? The wind blowing around the buildings, maybe?
He sat his container of milk down and then looked back at his new home. “I guess I need to get in there and see what needs to be done.”
William wrapped his sandwich up and set it back in the cooler as he jumped to his feet. “I’ll help you.”
Sage looked William over, seeing how thin he really was. “Go ahead and finish eating. It can wait.” He had a feeling William wouldn’t finish his food unless Sage sat right there with him. The man was a little too eager to please.
William sat back down, grabbing his sandwich once again. “I usually try not to eat all of my food at once. I never know when I’ll be eating again,” he confessed as he took a bite.
“No worries. I have plenty of food for the both of us.”
William’s eyes widened, and then he looked into the cooler. He frowned and then looked back at Sage. “There’s not much there. Are you sure?”
Sage grinned. “I’m going to take a look at the electrical work.
There’s a contractor coming out tomorrow to set the house up with
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15
electricity. We can get a refrigerator and fill it once the electricity is on.”
William lowered his hand as he gaped at Sage. “You said
we
.”
Sage was about to answer him when he heard barking coming from his truck. “Looks like Terror is awake.” He jumped up to go to his truck when Sage heard wood smacking. He looked over his shoulder to see William standing inside the house behind the screen door.
“I’m afraid of dogs,” William called out.
Sage turned, his brows pulling down in a frown as he waved a hand at William. “Then why are you standing behind a door with no screen in it?”
William shrugged. “It makes me feel safer.”
“Stop slamming things before the house falls down around us,”
Sage said as William saluted him. He shook his head as he walked over to the truck and opened the door. Terror jumped out, peeing on the dirt, and then ran in circles.
“
That’s
Terror?”
Sage looked down at his dog. “Yeah, so?” What the hell was wrong with his dog?
William pushed the screen door that was missing the screen open as he walked out onto the porch, laughing. “When you said Terror, I thought a three-hundred-pound dog was going to come barreling out of your truck.”
“What’s wrong with my dog?” he asked indignantly. Terror was a hell of a dog. Sage didn’t like anyone poking fun at Terror or anything that belonged to him. Sage had enough of prejudiced people to last him a lifetime.
William held up a hand as he waved it back and forth. “Nothing. I like Chihuahuas. Come here, boy.” William clucked his tongue, bending at the waist and snapping his fingers.
“Girl,” he corrected William. “I found her on the side of the road, tossed out like garbage. She’s been my riding buddy since.”
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Lynn Hagen
“Oh,” William said as Terror ran right to him. “Sorry.”
“Traitor,” Sage mumbled at the dog as he walked back over to the porch. His eyes grew large when Terror squatted and peed on William’s shoe.
“Hey!” William shouted and jumped around, lifting his foot from the ground. “Now I’ll have to go wash them.”
Sage grabbed his chest as if he were having a heart attack.
“There’s actually running water here?”
William nodded and then toed his shoe off. “Yeah, but it’s cold.
So get used to your balls climbing up inside of you when you bathe.”
“It’ll be heated soon. At least you know Terror likes you. She marked you. I guess you belong to her now.” Sage hooted as he fell to his side laughing.
“I like her, too,” William said as he bent at the waist and scratched under her chin. Terror was eating the attention up. She yapped and ran around William when he took his hand away.
“I guess I better go inspect the house. Is there a hardware store around here?” Sage asked as he stored everything back into the cooler and took it into the house.
He shoved the cooler inside the living room as he glanced around at all the work he had cut out for him. He prayed he could get the house ready before winter set in. It was already fall, the nights getting just a bit chillier outside.
“There’s a town about fifteen miles south of here. They have a large lumberyard with a hardware store attached.”
“Good. Once I get the inspection done, you can ride with me to get the supplies we’ll need.”
A veil fell over William’s eyes as his eyes darted down to Sage’s dog. “I think I’ll stay here with Terror and guard the house.”
Sage looked over his shoulder, glancing at the ghost town behind him. Not even a breeze was blowing through Mystery. He looked back over at William, a brow raised. “And what are you guarding the house against?”
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17
William licked his lips as he looked to the south. “You never know, we could get invaded by mice or something. You got to watch out or they’ll chew through everything.”
Sage wasn’t sure what was going on with the man, but he wasn’t going to force William to go with him. “Okay, you and Terror can guard the place. Come on. Let’s go see what needs to be done.”
“It’s a really nice place. Once it’s fixed up, she’ll be a beaut.”
William walked in behind Sage, leaving his sneaker out on the porch.
Sage looked around the living room, checked the closets, and then ran his hands over the wall.
“I know how to fix her up, but you’ll have to do the decorating.”
William’s eyebrows rose high into his hairline as he looked at Sage. “Dude, I can’t even color coordinate my clothes. I’ll try, but it just might look like a blind man was let loose in here when I’m done.”
A deep chuckle rumbled in Sage’s chest as he looked over at William. The guy was growing on him. “Same here. I guess it doesn’t matter what it’s decorated with. It’ll be home.”
There was hesitancy in William’s eyes, and a little hope. Sage looked away as he glanced at the walls. “I need to check upstairs, see what needs repaired or replaced.” He climbed the steps slowly and then walked down the hallway.
Sage walked past the first room where he had discovered William and walked to the second one. He pushed the door open, finding the same kind of mess as downstairs. There was broken furniture littering the floor and large holes in the walls.
He wondered why the furniture looked as though someone smashed it to smithereens. It wasn’t just one room, but the entire house that held the broken furniture as if in memory of what had taken place here.
Sage walked into the next room, his brows rising high when he noticed an entire wall missing.
Aw, now, wait a damn minute…
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Lynn Hagen
“What the hell?” Sage could understand rotted floorboards, broken windows, and even bad plumbing. The place hadn’t been used or maintained for years, but a missing wall?
He was staring into his backyard with nothing obstructing his view. It was a beautiful sight to see the forest lining the backyard, but he’d rather have an unobstructed view from the back porch, not a damn second-floor bedroom.
Sage walked closer and then glanced down, seeing the roof of the back porch staring up at him. He scratched his stubbled jaw and wondered how in the hell he was going to replace an entire wall.
Tarp. One big-ass piece of tarp—for now. Sage prayed the rest of the house wasn’t missing any external structure. He just might be better off bulldozing this damn place and starting over from scratch.
He kicked a small piece of wood with the toe of his boot, watching it take a nosedive off of the second floor and crash-land on the porch roof below. “That would hurt.”
“Wow!”
Sage glanced over his shoulder to see William and Terror standing in the doorway. “I’ve never been in this room. No wonder why I heard the wind so loudly at night.”
Sage grabbed Terror as she trotted over to the edge. He could handle a fall. It would hurt like a bitch, but he’d survive. He wasn’t so sure about his pocket-size pet. Sage sighed and walked out of the bedroom, William trailing behind him.
“How have you been here for a few months and not explored the whole house?” Sage asked as he closed the bedroom door and then set Terror down.
William glanced down at the dog and then looked everywhere but at Sage. “I’m a chicken. What can I say? I mostly stayed in the bedroom you found me, and the bathroom, unless I went out to find food. This place is creepy, especially at night.”
Sage knew that there were plenty of men out there that weren’t fighters. Not everyone was born an alpha, but some men weren’t even
Sage’s Mystery