Page 135 of Reckless Skye

The man scanned the parking lot like a snake homing in on something small and afraid.

Up ahead, the kid’s black sweatshirt flashed as he ducked between two trailers.

The man was off immediately.

Matthew sighed.

He’d recognized the kid instantly when he’d seen him standing outside the trailer. They all looked the same. In many ways, he’d been that kid. Angry. Afraid. Lost. Hopping from one foster home to the next, never trusting the adults he landed with, never relaxing for long enough to risk growing attached.

He figured he didn’t have to be a genius to know that the kid was in trouble – or, in the very least, asking for it. So, he flexed his shoulders, rolled his neck – and stepped into the fray.

He found them between the two trailers, the man holding the kid by the neck as he pinned him against the steel siding. ‘Do you know what you could have cost me if you’d killed her?’ The man spat in the kid’s face.

‘You said to scare her,’ the kid pleaded. ‘I didn’t know it’d go bad.’ He started to struggle as his air supply was slowly, methodically cut off. ‘Please,’ he gurgled. ‘I’ve done everything you asked.’

Matthew took a long moment to cool his rage. If riding broncs had taught him anything, it was that timing mattered.

‘The next time you screw up, I’m going to make sure the police pick you up and throw you back into the hole I pulled you out of. You hear me?’

The kid nodded as much as he could against the hands at his throat.

‘Given that you’re seventeen, I’ll make sure you’re tried as an adult.’ The man smiled, taking pleasure from the kid’s white-eyed fear. ‘Do you know what happens to little boys in men’s prisons?’

‘Yes,’ the kid whispered.

Matthew might not have made it to an adult penitentiary, but he knew what happened in juvenile hall, so could only imagine how much worse the men were. Bile slicked his throat. But he cleared it – loudly.

The man dropped the kid, who crumpled at his feet on the floor. He shifted, going from raging sociopath to calm, collected citizen in the space of a breath. ‘This boy tried to pick my pocket.’

‘And here I thought you were punishing him because he took your instructions a little too far.’ Matthew stepped into the space between the two trailers. He was a wolf, ready – desperate – to attack. But he forced himself to relax.

The man’s face fell. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ He looked down at the kid on the floor, asked, ‘Do you?’

The kid shook his head. But he didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge Matthew in any way.

‘Let me tell you how this is going to play out,’ Matthew drawled. He cracked his knuckles for good measure. ‘The kid’s coming with me. If you try to reach out to him again, if you contact him, you will deal with me. And it will only happen once before you realize that I am your worst nightmare come to life.’ He grinned maniacally, showing the man how desperate he was to have a go. ‘If the police come for him at any time, I will be the first person going up against you. And I’m just going on a whim here, but I’m guessing TJ and Skye will probably join me.’

Matthew moved to stand in front of the kid, forcing the man to take a good five steps back. A subtle flash of fear zipped through his eyes.

Matthew relished it. ‘I wonder what the combined weight of everything we’d have to say would do to a man like you?’

‘You’ve got nothing! A juvenile delinquent, a lying bitch, and her crippled lover.’

‘Oh, but what is a reputation when put up against even a whisper of doubt?’ Matthew asked calmly.

The man froze up. He turned and walked away, but Matthew had the pleasure of knowing that the asshole tucked tail and ran because he couldn’t see a better way out.

Matthew waited until he had gone, then looked down at the kid. The boy had managed to sit up against the trailer’s wheel. He glared up at Matthew, spat, ‘I had it under control, man!’

‘Yeah, I could tell,’ Matthew drawled.

The boy got up, dusted off his sweats. He took one step past Matthew but didn’t get further than that. Matthew snagged him by the hood of his sweatshirt. ‘Oh no. You’re coming with me.’

‘Fuck you!’ The kid tried to struggle, but he couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred and thirty pounds.

When he spun around and took a wild swing, Matthew grabbed his fist and slowly pushed it back, forcing the boy to his knees easily.

The kid looked up at him from his position on the floor, but his fight was gone, and in its place was only defeat. It was a feeling that Matthew knew too. ‘What do you want from me?’ he asked.