Chapter Fourteen
Gunner
Maddox emerged from his toolshed, a chainsaw in one hand and a crate of tools and supplies in the other. The forests were wet from the rain, and the air felt muggy. He hefted the chainsaw in the air, and his muscles rippled as he showed it to me.
“You sure you know how to work this thing?” he asked.
“Yeah, man,” I said. “I know how to work a fucking chainsaw. I told you, I’m on a demolition crew.”
Maddox rolled his eyes, clearly not impressed, and tossed the crate to the ground. “Go ahead and get this ready to use, then. It shouldn’t take us more than hour or two to clear that branch, but it was a big one. We need this sharpened up and running smoothly.”
I sighed, then reached out and took the old chainsaw from him, the weight of it pulling heavily on my shoulder. Poking around in the box, it looked like I had everything I needed. With Maddox staring at me, though, I needed a second to clear my head. Pulling a cigarette out of my pocket and popping it between my lips, I stepped back from the machine to light up.
“You do this often?” Maddox asked.
“What? Smoke cigarettes or work a chainsaw?”
“Break into stranger’s houses to impress cuties like Malcolm.”
I took a drag off my smoke, taking my time to answer him. Maddox seemed to get off on bossing me around and putting me in my place. After all my experience with the demolition crew, I could handle guys like him. But the second he laid his eyes on Malcolm, I got defensive and protective.
I could make Malcolm tremble and whimper with a glance, and when we really got down to business, he came undone in my hands so fast I could hardly handle it. But then here came Maddox, stronger and tougher, like an older and improved version of me. The more he bossed me around, the more I worried Malcolm was going to stop buying my act and see me the same way every other guy saw me.
Fuck. I should have picked a different house.
“I’ve done it a few times before,” I answered, exaggerating a bit for his benefit. “Malcolm and I just met, but he’s really into me.”
“How’d you meet him?”
I scoffed. “What, you want to hear a love story now?”
“Humor me,” he said, leaning against the tool shed. “If you’re going to make me stand here and watch you smoke a cigarette, tell me a story to pass the time.”
After he said it, he stretched his arms over his head, and his T-shirt rose up to reveal the hard, rippling muscles of his abs.
This would all be a lot easier if he weren’t so fucking hot.
I shrugged. “He was looking for an apartment, and I was looking for a job. Not much more to the story than that.” I dropped the cigarette to the ground, stubbing it out with my boot. When Maddox glared at me, I bent down and shoved the butt into my pocket before returning to the chainsaw.
“I thought you already had a job, demolition man.”
I pulled out the file to start sharpening the chainsaw, occasionally stopping to rub some dirty oil or blockage off the teeth. “I do have a job, and I’m looking for another one. I’ve been doing demolition since I turned eighteen. With a fancy house like this, you probably don’t know what it’s like to work, but I’m ready for a damn change.”
“Why are you sure I didn’t earn this house myself?”
I looked up, catching a half-grin on his face. “Oh yeah? What did you do for work, then? Because riding your motorcycle across the country can’t pay the bills.”
He shrugged. “Not much. Bank robbing, extortion, that kind of thing.”
“Whatever,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes and returning to the task. “I’ll keep an eye on the FBI most wanted posters when I get back to the city. Maybe I’ll catch your mugshot.”
Maddox squatted down so that he was on my level. “Okay, so maybe I didn’t rob any banks. I did sometimes break into places I shouldn’t be, though.”
I finished sharpening the blades and used the rag to wipe my hands off. “Oh, yeah?”
“Trying to impress Declan,” he said. “That was my boyfriend when I was your age and a little bit younger. We never went for vacation homes, but there was a mansion in Seattle we used to break into.”
I pulled out the air filter, blowing on it a few times to clear it. I felt caught off-guard by Maddox admitting so plainly that he was gay. I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising for him to do that, considering he’d caught me burying my face in Malcolm’s hole. But hearing him say that made the whole thing we were doing feel very different.
