Wilder (The Wild Ones 3)

“Don’t let my sister take you anywhere,” I tell her as I turn and head back to my Jeep.

“O…kay. Be…safe. Have fun,” she calls back, though I hear her mutter something else too low for me to hear.

When I turn around to ask her what else she’s said, it’s too late, because she’s already shutting the door and cranking her car.

“What’d she say?” I ask everyone else as she starts driving away.

“She said you’re an idiot,” Hunter states with zero hesitation and borderline sarcasm.

When I just glare at him for a minute, he shrugs.

“That’s what I’d say if I was her, so call it an educated guess,” he adds.

When I take a step toward the grinning bastard, George steps between us, eyes rolling. “Slug it out when we get there. You and Hale have already made us late. Let’s go have our epic five day journey!”

I snort at that.

He forgets from year to year how much he hates this trip by the fifth day when he’s ready to kill us all.

Liam only pales that much more when George shoots him an evil grin.

I don’t bother telling Liam that he’s safe. George is more scared of his daughter than I am of my Ma.

Wild Ones Tip #232

When our minds go on vacation, our mouths work overtime.

Chapter 12

KAI

*******

“If I have to tell you two to stop fighting one more time, I’m going to shoot you!” George threatens once again.

“It’s just an empty threat if you never follow through,” Hale points out as George’s face turns thirty shades of red fury.

Five days is too much. We say this every year.

“It’s his fault we all ran out of gas! He siphoned it to make that explosion and set off that avalanche on purpose!” Hunter shouts before he tackles Shade.

I sidestep them as they roll around, arguing about whose fault it really was.

“You did the math wrong, and you helped me siphon the gas, you hypocritical son of a bitch!”

I can’t be too mad, even if it is delaying my reunion with Piper and finding out if she missed me or not, because it was my idea to initiate Liam with a good scare. Obviously I didn’t know they’d take it so far as to start an avalanche.

Once we all survived, it was funny as shit though.

“Fuck’s sake, we have two miles left to Tomahawk! Can you two stow it for that long?!” George snaps, temper shot all to hell by this point.

We all ran out of gas five miles outside of Tomahawk. Fortunately, they’ve plowed the roads at last.

Carrying my gun across my shoulders, I set a fast pace that Liam manages to keep up with, even though he still looks slightly traumatized.

I didn’t realize he was quite that soft.

I’m not sure how he’s a good fit for Kylie if five days is all it took to send him into a stupor like this one.

“I’ve never seen an avalanche in real life,” Liam states in that zombie-like tone he’s had ever since yesterday when he fainted and I had to carry him back to the cabin. “It was so fast. So much faster than it looks in the movies. And louder. So much louder. I’ll never forget that sound. It was like being stuck in the heavens during a hardcore thunderstorm,” he drones on.

I groan, mostly because it wasn’t even that big of an avalanche. I’d call it a baby.

“Stop fighting!” I hear George shouting from way behind me.

Cue four gunshots.

As if that’s going to make them stop. Just shooting into the ground doesn’t do much for this bunch anymore.

Normally I’d join in, but I’m in a hurry.

Hale catches up when I finally leave Liam behind, his footsteps growing sluggish as he continues to stare absently ahead. Kylie’s going to kill someone.

It isn’t until Hale passes me, holding his phone up above his head like he’s searching for something, do I realize that he wasn’t trying to keep up with me.

“What the hell?” I ask him when I see him jumping up and down, still staring at his phone.

“Trying to get signal so I can call Reese and get her to meet me. I haven’t been able to get signal this whole fucking time. I never knew we didn’t get signal out there,” he gripes.

I learned it pretty early on. I’ve never wanted a phone, but I tried using everyone’s these past five days. No. Signal.

None.

Not once.

Not even a little bit.

She better have fucking missed me.

“You just met the fucking girl and you’re acting like an embarrassment to all mankind,” Killian dryly points out, shaking his head as he falls into stride beside me.

“Some of us don’t give a shit if we look pathetic,” Hale quips, flipping off his brother. “At least I’m not pretending to be a badass while secretly hoping the girl comes to me.”