Trinkets

By Kayleigh Sky

Crows collect shiny things and trinkets. Luckily for Alex…

 

On the run with a stolen teddy bear and a couple hundred dollars in cash, Alex's life takes a strange turn when he wrecks his car in a freak accident. Stranded in the desert with no water, he is rescued by a crow that leads him to the home of Lars and Lars's five-year-old niece, Holly.

Lars is a man with secrets, and he'd just as soon Alex was on his way, but delays in the repair of Alex's car compel him to offer Alex a place to stay in exchange for babysitting services. Alex accepts the offer and soon falls head over heels for Holly and the mysterious Crow.

Over the course of several weeks, Alex finds himself embracing a life he'd only dreamed of. A life of warmth and comfort—and a passion that almost makes him forget the past he's running from. Almost.

As Lars and Alex fall in love, secrets about Lars and Holly and a dark danger pursuing Alex threaten to destroy their newfound happiness.

Alex was once rescued by the quirky crow he now lives with. Will Crow be able to save the treasure trove of a family he's collected in Alex and Lars and Holly one more time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kiss Drunk Books
• Release date: Jun 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9780990412540

Book preview

Chapter 1

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As A Crow Flies

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WINGS UNFURLED IN Alex’s headlights, a patch of dark that soared against the stars. Sucking hot air into his lungs, he wrenched the wheel to get away from the dark thing and spun off in a spiral of headlights, bracing for a crash. You’re going to die… You’re going to die. In the middle of—he didn’t even know where. Somewhere hot and desolate.

His car dipped.

This was it.

Alex held on tight and gaped as the dark thing swooped back in for another look through his windshield. His breath stalled. Minutes stretched into an empty eternity. Is this my fate? Falling and falling forever? Payback for his thievery?

The shape in the night loomed closer. Alex squeezed the steering wheel and fixed his stare on it. The thing was… winged… Fanged!

A bat? A fucking bat?

He sucked in another gasp. His car hit something solid and tipped over, and he smashed face-first into the steering wheel. Great. Just what he fucking needed. Like his nose didn’t already hurt from Timur’s fists.

God.

Did he say that out loud? Fat lotta good that’s gonna do. Please, God, come pick up my car and dump me back on the highway? Right. Like he deserved that. He was a thief and a coward. God didn’t help thieves and chickens.

And speaking of chickens….

He craned his neck to peer through his windshield, looking for that deranged bat. Stars splashed the sky. A million, trillion stars like the freckles on his face. No bat. He gripped the steering wheel, shifted into reverse and….

Click.

Damn. The engine died. He pumped the gas and turned the key. Click, click, click, click, click.

Fuck. And… Uh oh. He was stuck out here.

Now what?

His mouth went dry and he swallowed against the rasp in his throat. Only an idiot drove through a desert without water. Seriously, he was too dumb to live.

Trying not to bite his lip, because now that hurt too, he cracked open his door and got out. The minute he straightened up a sound made him whip around and almost lose his balance. Catching himself, he staggered and stared into the dark. A spot a little lighter than black wobbled. He panted, his breath pushed out by his galloping heart. The bat! The… Crow? The bird tottered a couple of steps closer and flapped its wings a few times. But it didn’t fly away. It waited, bluish gray in the starlight. A groggy worry that he was forgetting something teased Alex’s brain, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

He approached the crow.

It waddled off.

He followed it.

It toddled.

My mom used to feed you people, he said.

It didn’t respond. Well, duh. It wasn’t real. It was a cartoon crow. A fantasy created by Alex’s beat-up head. The cotton inside his skull pushed against his eyes and ears. He blinked in the blurry dark at the hazy shapes that surrounded him. Crow-shaped, but huge. His thoughts echoed. Dumb… umb… umb….

Who’s dumb?

You.

Oh.

He was following a crow. His face and his ribs and his back hurt. He wasn’t used to that, and he didn’t like it. Violence scared him. He’d taken a lot from Timur up until a couple days ago, but Alex owed him, so he didn’t complain about the way Timur called him Rosie in public and fondled him in the club like one of Timur’s teddy bears. He let Timur pinch him and slap his ass in a way that wasn’t as playful as Timur’s smile let on. Timur liked to pinch and tease, but now that he had Micah, it looked like Alex had moved up to gut punches and face slaps instead. Lucky him.

Don’t think about that. Think about something good.

He thought about his mom and the giant crowd of noisy crows that had flown into their yard every day.

What’s your name? he asked the tottering shape he followed.

Caw.

Well, that wasn’t a name. But maybe it was. His mom’s crows had known her. They’d come in a great, flapping mob for their peanuts. Crows bring good luck, she’d say and pour peanuts in his palms and give him a push to the eucalyptus tree they fed them under. Even now, though he was inhaling dust and the bitter smell of dry plants, the scents of menthol and warm, woody peanut shells filled his lungs. Crows would waddle all around him. Jump in flapping, nervous jaunts. But they weren’t good luck. They didn’t get in the way of the bus barreling down on his life. His mom had died anyway.

So why was he following this one?

Alex fished his phone out of his pocket and pointed the tiny screen at it. The dim blue light didn’t show him much of anything outside of blue dirt and the shadow of the toddling bird as it led him away from his car. It was a burner phone and not much use. Alex didn’t know if Timur could track him on his real one. He wouldn’t put it past him. The guy reeked confidence. Power suits and power watches. A guy who could have a teddy bear fetish and still be scary. And yeah, that had been a sexy package once. Alex had wanted somebody strong. Somebody he could lean on.

After the death of his mom, he’d expected to live with his dad and had moved to Syracuse to be near him, but his dad had a new family and no room for anyone else, and had set Alex up with a cousin instead. The cousin and his family had been nice enough people, but they hadn’t known Alex, and Alex hadn’t known them. He’d moved out when he turned eighteen. He could take care of himself, but it was hard, and leaning on Timur was easy. Alex didn’t need him forever, just until he had his degree.

He wanted to be a teacher like his mom. She’d taught third grade, though Alex liked the little ones and wanted to teach kindergarten. Only a dummy thought adding stripper to his resume was a good idea. Well, that was Timur’s idea. Snagging the busboy job was Alex’s. Besides his wages, he got to stuff his face with free food every workday and save himself a little extra money. He’d patted himself on the back for that job for six months. Then Timur had taken an interest in him....

Caw!

Yeah, I know, he mumbled. Dumb me.

He took a couple more steps, then his knees buckled and he sprawled facedown, palms in the dirt. Caw. The sound was quieter now. The crow circled him.

I’m a good person, he said.

The crow was silent.

He’d made it through school. Got a four-year degree in six years. But only with Timur’s help. He had to remember that.

With a grunt, he climbed back up and shuffled on. His car was… miles behind him? He’d lost track of time and distance. Lifting his head, he gazed at the sky, trying to locate the North Star. Idiot. Then what?

Caw!

Just follow the crow. He stumbled through the dust.

So graceful, said Timur. Stay and dance for me, Rosie. You can’t make it on your own. Not and have anything worth keeping. Stay and get your certificate. You want it. Maybe someday you’ll use it.

Yeah. Someday.

Someday Timur would let him go, and Alex would be free but dirt-poor, because he was never getting back the wages Timur had invested for him, even though Alex had never asked him to. But he’d let him. He hadn’t argued, and now that he thought of it, maybe he’d been scared of Timur from the beginning. As though a guy who owned a strip club and funneled money through a business that didn’t exist was a good guy and wouldn’t hurt anybody for pointing out that Plain & Simple Restaurant Supplies was plainly and simply not a real business. Something Alex had discovered when he’d gone looking for his investment statements. Who laundered money? A teddy bear collector working for drug dealers?

God, what an idiot he was.

But it didn’t matter. He’d gotten away. He’d pay back the money he took somehow. Bus tables again, or drive a delivery truck or a garbage truck. It wouldn’t matter. One day, he’d get his teaching job. Work with kids. Meet somebody and fall in love.

Caw!

He jerked his head up. Jesus. He was sitting. How had that happened? His pulse pounded in his head, and he smacked gummy lips. When was the last time he’d had any water? That morning? He’d quit buying water a few days before, relying on rest stops and drinking out of sinks when he had to, but yesterday he’d been so close to L.A. that all he’d wanted to do was get there and lose himself in the population and hadn’t stopped anywhere. And now… now he was lost.

He struggled onto his knees again and... puked. Dammit. Now his head really hurt.

Caw!

The crow flapped at him, and Alex reared back and spotted a light winking in