the wooden buildings like it was their fault Alex had been sent to Oregon to undo some of his karmic debt.
“I think you should look at it as an opportunity to do better,” Remy said. Alex fought the urge to wave a middle finger at the man and walk out of there. He didn’t like to be judged, least of all by Remy, who was supposed to be on Alex’s side. Then again, Remy hardly ever criticized Alex. He’d only ever looked disappointed in him twice in Alex’s life. Once after the cocaine incident and the second time after Alex’s DUI.
Remy’s palm landed on Alex’s shoulder, and he squeezed it, looking at Alex with a certain kind of exasperated affection. “This here might not be where you planned to be, but sometimes life leads us to where we have to be.”
“That sounds… like a lot of bullshit.”
Remy guffawed and shook his head. “My mother used to say it to me, you ingrate.” He slapped Alex on the back and pushed him toward the entrance of the building. “I hope they work you to tears in there.”
“I hope the old man makes you run errands for him from sunup ’til sundown,” Alex retorted as he started walking.
“Enjoy cleaning up shit. I hear animals aren’t familiar with the concept of toilets.”
“Are you really trying to tell me you’ve never seen a video clip of a cat on a toilet? They can even flush, man,” Alex called over his shoulder.
“Get me a clip of a moose doing that, and I’ll personally come and take you back home.”
Alex chuckled as Remy’s car door slammed shut and he sped out of the parking lot. Well, Alex guessed that was one way to get the last word.
He took one more look at the retreating car before he pulled open the door that led to the building that looked the least like it housed any critters. The inside matched the outside—obsessively clean, but definitely weathered. There was a long hallway and a whole bunch of doors on either side of it, all of them closed.
It looked like there’d be no welcoming committee. At the other end of the hallway, there was a door that, at the first glance, seemed to lead outside, and that one was actually propped open. Alex dropped his suitcase down, not caring if it got into anyone’s way, and headed toward the open doorway.
Alex stopped once he got there. It turned out to be an office. Sunlight was streaming in through an open window and created wide patches on the hallway floor. It must have been hot as balls in there, attested to by the shirtless guy sitting behind a desk. He was muttering to himself as he stared intently at the laptop propped open in front of him.
A large black cat was lying on the desk, next to a water bottle, fast asleep, but Alex hardly noticed the thing since, holy shit, that guy.
He was sinewy and, unless he had disproportionally short legs under the desk, tall. His dark brown hair was slightly too long and messy, standing up at the top of his head. He was frowning, completely fixated on his computer, and he had his pinky finger between his teeth, methodically destroying the nail.
Alex would have been happy standing there, staring at the guy for a lot longer, but just as he had propped his shoulder against the doorframe to do just that, there was an ear-splitting screech and all Alex could see was a flurry of feathers as something very angry attacked him.
“Whoa!” he managed to say as something fierce and colorful started beating at his face, shrieking and squealing loudly like a broken fire engine. Alex did his best to shield his face with his arms as that flying… thing pecked and scratched at his skin.
There was a creaking sound and a clatter, as if somebody had pushed a chair back and the thing had toppled over, but Alex was too busy protecting his eyes from getting scratched out to look. It was over as quickly as it started as the demon that had attacked Alex gave him one last smack in the face with something that felt like a feathered boxing glove as a parting shot and took off.
Alex blinked as he lowered his forearms from his face. “That is one effective alarm system,” he managed to get out. His heart was still beating wildly, adrenaline coursing through his system as he looked at his attacker.
Was that…