Wrecker (Wolves of Iron Valor MC #3)

Chapter 1

Parker

My life had somehow turned into a colossal shitshow, starring my twin.

“You’re not even listening, Parker.” He beat a track through my living room, all the way from the front window to the edge of my coffee table and back again. His boots trailed dirt across my new rug, but I gritted my teeth and didn’t say anything. “I’m trying to explain how bad it is.”

“You said they’ll kill you.” I clicked my tongue and let my gaze slide from Axel’s pointy jaw to the barely touched cup of coffee in his hand. “You’ve said it ten times tonight.”

He huffed and set the mug down too hard. Liquid slopped over the rim, spattering the tabletop with oily crescents. I twitched, but didn’t bother cleaning it up. “You’re being a bitch. You know that?”

I did. I was. I reached down and picked up the tiny bundle of fur that was resting on top of my feet. My little rescued doggie with a face only a mother could love. His tongue hung slightly beyond his under-bite, those blue eyes begging for the bowl of cereal I’d abandoned on the same coffee table.

“What do you think, Rocket? Am I being a bitch?” One ear flopped up.

“Rocket disagrees. He wants to know how I’m the asshole when you got me into this mess with the Greenbriar freak-show?”

He spun around, arms out. “I can’t believe you got a fucking dog, Parker!

Now? You have people who might actually come after you!

They said—fuck, Parker, I don’t know what they said, I was drunk—just that they needed someone with skills.

Like hacker skills or something. I told ‘em I knew someone, okay? That’s all. ”

A pause, heavy with the implication that “knew someone” was something I should be proud of.

I scratched behind Rocket’s ears and waited. Axel could never outlast silence; I’d weaponized it since we were kids.

Finally: “I’m dead if you don’t do this. You know Silas. He’ll make it hurt.”

“Cry me a river.” My voice came out flat, but inside, something hot and sour burned holes through my guts.

“You act like I’m not dead if I do. Anyway, I found this little guy lying next to a dumpster, Axel.

Just because nobody gives two shits about me doesn’t mean I should treat other living things the same way! Besides, he fucking makes me happy!”

Axel collapsed into the armchair like someone had unplugged him. He pressed his palm to his forehead and sat there, quiet for once, soaking in my bright house with all the resentment of a man allergic to nice things.

He started up again after a minute. “You don’t get it. You think you’re so fucking smart, with your fancy computer job, but you don’t get the world at all. Everything is a trade. You just pay up with numbers and code instead of cash or blood.”

There it was, the old twin spite. I shook my head. “That’s bullshit. I fucking work for what I get.” I was getting agitated, causing Rocket to squirm.

“It’s okay, buddy. He’s just jealous.”

He leaned forward. “Really? You think I’m jealous of you? You really think Iron Valor would give a shit if you died? You were always the tag-along. Only reason they ever acknowledged you was out of pity after Mom and Dad croaked.”

That one hit. Maybe it was true. At least I was still living my life. It might be a small life, but it was on my terms. At least, it had been until now.

I looked down, running my fingers through fur.

The first time I’d ever been caught hacking I was seventeen, cocky, wanting to get a boy to notice me.

I’d hacked into our high school’s grading system and changed his AP history grade.

Wrecker had been called in for IT support, and he found me in the back corner of the library where I was still at it.

I wanted to see what other parts of the server I could get into.

I’ll never forget seeing his shadow fall over me as I sat in the carrel in the corner.

He was impressed with my work, and that’s what saved me.

He just told my parents I needed some direction. They died the following week.

I never told Axel about that. He’d just have been pissed I’d gotten away with it.

He still sat there, waiting. I gave him nothing.

Axel’s next words crawled up my spine like centipedes. “Just do the job. You’re almost done, right?”

“Almost.” I let the lie hang between us, let it thicken the air.

In truth, I’d finished two days ago. I’d written the exploit, siphoned off the funds, cracked Iron Valor’s accounts wide open and left them bleeding credits into an offshore shell that would take even Silas’s best forensics team months to follow.

And then, because I had no sense of self-preservation, I’d written a backdoor that let Iron Valor trace it all back to me and from me to Greenbriar.

Iron Valor was my pack, even if they’d never forgive me for this betrayal.

He ran his hands through his hair, and for a moment, the desperation on his face made him look twelve years old again. “You said you’d help me, Parker.”

“You’re my brother.” I shrugged. “That’s what family does. Even if the family sucks.”

He snorted. “You always did think you were the only good one.”

I stood, holding Rocket closer to my chest.

“I’ve spent every hour of the last week crawling through code laced with traps designed by Iron Valor’s enforcer.

You think they won’t trace it back to me?

You think Wrecker won’t burn this whole place down with you inside if he figures out what I’m doing?

You want me to move faster?” I said, voice sharp.

“Fine. But don’t pretend I’m doing this for you.

I’m doing it so I don’t have to watch them carve you up and feed you to their dogs while you scream my name. ”

Rocket sneezed.

I looked down at his absurdly cute face. “You’re right. That was dramatic.”

“This isn’t a joke, Parker.”

“No. But you are.”

He opened his mouth, but the look in my eyes must have been enough. He shut it again.

I walked him to the door, the whole way thinking how easy it would be to shove him down the steps and make it look like an accident. But I didn’t. I just held the door open pointedly and waited.

He hovered at the threshold. “They’re gonna know, you know. Iron Valor. They’ll know it was you.”

I stopped. “You sound like you’re hoping they take me out. You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

He hesitated, looked like he might try to say something soft, brotherly, a last-ditch appeal to our shared blood.

But I didn’t give him the chance. I slammed the door so hard it rattled in its frame.

I felt the impact all the way through my bones.

I knew that no matter what, I’d still save his ass when it came right down to it.

The silence after Axel left was deafening. It sat on my chest, dense as smog, and I almost welcomed it.

I put Rocket in his little bed next to the couch.

For three seconds, I imagined myself as a cartoon of a happy person: queen of her own place, no one to answer to, no idiotic brother in tow.

The illusion held for exactly as long as it took to cross to the kitchen and pour a finger of whiskey into a Waterford highball glass.

Me in a pair of yoga pants, and a hoodie with the words ‘FUN GIRLS READ SMUT’ in hot pink emblazoned on the front, my short brunette hair with a riot of wild pink highlights slightly shaved over my left ear; I was nothing if not classy.

I knocked back the alcohol and shivered as the fire burned its way down. Outside, the sky was a sickly navy of early winter. The neighbors’ Christmas lights twinkled in the distance. I should have gotten a tree and pretended I had a reason to celebrate the season.

I didn’t want to think about Greenbriar, or Axel, or what the hell I was going to do when Iron Valor found out about the hack. But I did think about the other thing. The thing from the other night. The man in the mask.

I picked Rocket up and slowly slipped onto the couch, this time with a large glass of wine in my other hand. “Hey little guy, you’ve got a Class-A nut job for a mom, you know that?” He answered by licking my face. He was so cute.

I replayed every detail in my mind.

“Let me tell you why,” I murmured, scratching behind the floppy ears of my little wheels-off rescue sprawled across my lap.

His tail thumped twice against the couch cushion.

“So there I was, coming home late from Amarillo—coding disaster, brain fried, you know the vibe. And immediately, I smell…” I paused as he twisted to gnaw on my thumb, inkblot paws batting the air.

“Oak. Citrus. Like fancy cologne, but… wilder. Like if a Christmas tree punched a tiger.”

Rocket sneezed, shook his head, and stared up at me with clear blue eyes.

“Yeah, exactly. Weird, right?” I kept my voice breezy, though my fingers tightened in his fur.

“I did the usual checks—closet, couch, bathroom—nada. Security panel green. But something just felt off, you know? Of course, you don’t know.

You were living next to a dumpster a couple of days ago.

Just, trust me on this..” His nose bumped my wrist, demanding pets.

“So I started checking things. Sock under the bed, check; dresser neat and undisturbed, check!”

I scooped him closer, burying my face in his puppy-smell of grass and kibble.

“Checked everything after; jewelry, safe, fridge. I think he even checked out the family pic magnet.” Rocket nibbled my sleeve.

“He had to have seen the stalker romance book on the table, too. How’s that for irony?

I was about to give up. Everything looked… normal. So I thought, backyard.”