Wilder (The Wild Ones 3)

“I’ll have it fixed within two days,” Kai calls back, giving me a direction to go.

I end up turning into a room that has a sharp chill to it, and spot Kai as he and one of the Nickels work on taping a large piece of cardboard over it.

“Guess it’s good he started saving all his cardboard for things like this,” the guy is saying as Kai starts cutting off some plastic.

His eyes bounce to mine, and he shoots me a lopsided grin that does all sorts of very crazy things to too many parts on my body.

Then…my eyes widen on the very large knives stabbing a mutilated dart board.

“Don’t worry. I’ll buy you a new dart board,” Kai shouts down after Benson apparently says something.

Holy crap, those knives are huge.

And scary.

And did I mention huge?

“Are you always so destructive?” I ask, eyes wide as Kai turns to start taping plastic over the cardboard they’ve already taped on.

“Not intentionally,” Kai says through his distraction.

“So you’re in town for a while?” Tate—I think that’s his name—asks me.

“For at least another month,” I answer.

Reese keeps adding more and more days to our trip. Not that I’ve objected. I don’t want to think about why I’m going along with extending our trip so easily.

He cuts his eyes to Kai, who has turned his head to glance back at me.

“See? All you had to do was ask,” he tells Kai as though he’s won some sort of argument.

“Tell George I won’t be there this trip. I’m gonna stay in town,” Kai tells him instead of commenting on the other.

I smile to myself, idly wondering if Kai’s a little shier than I realized.

“Ha. I’m not telling him shit. I don’t even get invited on the Malone hunting trips anymore.”

“Because you shot George in the ass,” Kai immediately fires back, causing my eyes to bulge.

“One time. And it was birdshot.”

“Twice,” Kai volleys, holding up two fingers and giving him a dubious stare.

Tate starts to argue but stops. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that second time. Yeah…now I remember.” He grins like the memory is a fond one.

I’m slightly horrified by the careless confession.

“They were both accidents,” Kai says as though that’s going to wash the horror from my face.

“Yeah,” Tate says, chuckling as his eyes remain distant, presumably lost to the nostalgia brought about by the memory. “They were,” he says like he’s agreeing, his smile only growing.

The doorbell rings, and Kai glances out of the window that isn’t broken. He quickly lifts the window and pokes his head out.

“Is that brownies?” he calls down.

There’s a loud squeal, and something clangs somewhere. In the next instant, I hear a car door slam, an engine crank, and tires skidding out.

“Hey! Someone left brownies on the porch and Deacon didn’t even have to shoot them down,” Hale shouts from downstairs.

Cue a lot of crashing, cursing, and death threats for said brownies.

“Wild Ones got a thing for home cooked desserts. We’re an active bunch,” Tate informs me with a firm nod.

Kai shuts the window, and I frown. “Why did she just abandon the brownies like she was scared of you?” I ask him.

He flashes me a dark grin that has my vagina perked up and very interested now.

“Why don’t you bake me some brownies and find out?” he fires back.

I don’t know what to say to that.

Tate snorts.

“That’s not as cool of a thing to say as you think it is. It’s the sort of thing a guy says before he crashes and burns. Give her my number when you fuck it up, would you?”

Kai’s fist abruptly catches the guy in the gut, and as he doubles over to heave out a coughed-up breath, Kai pats him on the back, still grinning at me. I stumble back in surprise. This group is really violent, and they like to laugh at someone getting hurt.

“Ready to bail on this place?” he asks me. “I’ll pick up some brownie mix if you think you’re brave enough to handle the consequences.”

“Don’t do it,” Tate wheezes.

Kai slaps him on the back of the head so hard that Tate crashes to the ground, laughter spilling from his lips the entire time.

“I don’t bake. I can cook, but baking is an entirely different skillset I seem to lack the exactitude for,” I state distractedly, wondering if the guy is going to be okay or not.

Kai comes to grab my hand, and those flutters of excitement crash against the walls of my stomach again. Sheesh.

He guides me down the stairs, effortlessly dodging Nila as she once again tackles Krysta to the ground to keep her from following Deacon around like a lost puppy.

“You’re a romantic rival! You’re just trying to stop me from getting him before you figure out how to talk to guys you find attractive!” Krysta shouts at Nila as they wrestle around on the ground.