No Good Mitchell - Riley Hart Page 0,24

He had this cocky expression on his face as he rushed the coon…who charged him.

“Holy fucking shit!” he called, backing up to the wall beside Isaac. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

I couldn’t blame him, since that thing looked like it was about to tear him the fuck apart.

I got a quick idea, so I pulled my keys out of my pocket. Removing my mini-flashlight, I turned it on and flashed it about, catching the critter’s attention. I headed to a nearby window and popped it open.

“Come on, cutie,” I said as it climbed a few boxes to get closer to my light.

I stepped back as it got close, then chucked the flashlight out the window. It hurried after it, giving me time to pull the window closed.

“Aw, our hero,” Isaac said.

I could tell by Walker’s tight jaw and squared shoulders that he was annoyed about me getting credited as hero of the night.

“All that fuss was over a raccoon?” I asked.

“No, not just a raccoon,” Cohen said, slightly defensive. “That thing… You should have seen the way it was howling at us. I didn’t realize raccoons even made sounds, let alone like fucking banshees.”

“It could have had rabies,” Isaac said. “I could have gotten rabies, and then I would have had to bite Cohen.”

“You think rabies turns you into a zombie?” I teased.

“That thing was crawling all over me, and I could have sworn it bit me.” Isaac kept checking for a spot.

“Where?” I challenged.

“I don’t have a bite mark, but it could have bitten me.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “So everyone’s fine?” As soon as I said that, I noticed red on Cohen’s arm.

He followed my look. “Oh, fuck. I think that must’ve been from when that thing jumped out of the box I was holding. There were some loose boards in there. Looks like one got me.”

“Come on. Let’s get you patched up.”

Walker helped Isaac clean up the mess from the coon scare while Cohen and I headed to the kitchen. I found an old first-aid kit under the sink and got to helping him bandage it up as he relayed the rest of his great raccoon tale to me.

“I was going through boxes to find…hell, I don’t know. Anything about my family. And that’s when it jumped out. Isaac had been getting me to take some new app pics for him earlier in the day, so he was loading them when that thing decided to hold us hostage. Once Isaac dropped his phone, it got distracted, and we scared it and it scared us, and it became this standoff.”

I couldn’t stop chuckling.

“You’re getting a real kick out of this, but I saw the way Walker freaked out with that thing too. It’s not just city boys that thing can scare.”

“Fair point. It definitely looked rattled. Just be glad it wasn’t a snake.”

“Snake? In the attic?”

“Yeah, welcome to Buckridge, where snakes are…well, everywhere.” I finished wrapping the gauze around his arm. “All set. Now I think that calls for another drink.”

“Of the rival’s stash?”

“Nah. I think I have some of the actual good stuff in Walker’s truck. I’ll be right back.” I hurried to the car, grabbed a bottle, and returned to his kitchen. I was pretty excited about sharing some of my family’s namesake with him.

“By the way,” I said. “I should probably tell you that I’ll have to be back tomorrow to fix your door.”

“Fix my door?”

“It was locked, and when we heard screaming…”

“That was the raccoon screaming.”

“If you say so. I would have probably believed you more if you’d said Isaac.” I winked, and he shook his head before grabbing glasses from a cabinet.

“So you guys just throw your weight around to get what you need around here?” Cohen asked as he set the glasses down.

“Eh…when you grow up with as many siblings as I did, you get used to breaking down doors…and fixing them. Although, that deadbolt might have nearly knocked Walker’s shoulder out of its socket.”

He enjoyed a laugh but eyed me uncertainly, clearly unsure how serious I was being. It seemed we both had a hard time reading each other. I wondered if that was part of what was so intriguing.

We stood at the counter, where I finished pouring our drinks and handed him one. “Here. Best remedy for your flesh wound.”

We clinked glasses and took a drink.

“Mmm.” His eyes filled with a certain knowing that reminded me of that look he got when he’d tasted his family’s brand.

“Ha. So you admit you like a