Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
Sanctuary Found
Pelican Bay #2
Sloane Kennedy
Contents
Copyright
Sanctuary Found
Trademark Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Sloane Kennedy
Sanctuary Found is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Sloane Kennedy
Published in the United States by Sloane Kennedy
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Images: © Wander Aguiar
Cover Design: © Jay Aheer, Simply Defined Art
Copyediting by Courtney Bassett
ISBN-13:
978-1985387010
ISBN-10:
1985387018
Sanctuary Found
Sloane Kennedy
Trademark Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following trademarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Pixar’s Cars
He-Man
Stradivarius
Fiverr
Google
Thermos
Academy Awards Oscar
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Claudia, Kylee and Lucy for the helpful feedback and to Courtney for the thorough proofing job!
Prologue
Isaac
Snow.
So much fucking snow.
Like… everywhere.
I held my breath as the car suddenly skidded to the right.
“Are we gonna crash?”
“No, buddy, we’re not,” I said over my shoulder to my little brother. I didn’t dare look at him because I was too busy wrestling with the steering wheel. Weren’t you supposed to steer into a skid or some shit like that? Wait, that was for ice, wasn’t it? Did that even work in snow?
“Oh,” Newt said from the back seat, sounding disappointed. “Lightning McQueen would’ve crashed and still won the race.”
I smiled at that even as I felt my stomach drop out when the car chose that moment to jerk in the other direction.
“You think Lightning would like Minnsopa?”
“Minnesota,” I corrected. “I’m not sure, buddy. I think as long as he had Mater, Sally, and the rest of the gang with him, he’d like any place.”
“’Cause they’re his family?” Newt asked.
“Yep.” I let out a breath as the car stopped sliding around. Unfortunately, my attention was once again drawn to the sputtering sounds the engine was making. The heat hadn’t even bothered to kick in when I’d gotten the car started back at the Grainger place. I had a feeling it was the car’s way of telling me to just let her go already so she could cross over to the other side.
The idea of a bunch of old cars frolicking in heaven had me snorting. I doubted Pixar would be making a movie about that anytime soon.
“What?” Newt asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Where’s our family?”
All my humor died at the question.
Good question, buddy. But of course, I didn’t say that.
“We’re each other’s family, Newt.”
“Just us?” my brother asked. “Shouldn’t we have a big family like Lightning?”
Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve, I thought with a sigh. “Families come in all sizes, buddy. Just ’cause it’s just us doesn’t mean we aren’t as cool as Lightning’s family, right?”
He was silent for a moment before he said, “Lightning doesn’t have a mommy and daddy, either.”
I felt my heart drop into my stomach at his words. I was saved from having to say anything when Newt flopped his head back against the seat and groaned, “Are we there yet?”
“Almost,” I said. “Look, there’s the sign Mrs. Grainger was telling us about.” Newt whipped his head around, but his height and all the junk in the back seat made it impossible for him to see. “Lake Hills County Wildlife Rescue and Sanctuary,” I read out loud so he wouldn’t feel like he’d missed it.
“You think they’ll have elephants? And lions? Can you ask if I can ride one of the elephants?”
I laughed. “I don’t know if they have elephants, but even if they do, how are you going to get up there?” I asked.
I made the turn onto the road that appeared to be the sanctuary’s driveway as Newt began coming up with ideas.
“A ladder?” he asked.
“Hmmm, maybe.”
“Your shoulders?”
“Don’t think I’m tall enough.”
“Maybe you could tell the elephant to lie down so I could get on?”
“I don’t speak elephant,” I reminded him. He giggled. His laughter always did funny things to me and I selfishly wanted more of it, so I began coming up with outrageous ways for him to get up on the fictional elephant’s back. “Parachute? Rocket? Tidal wave?”
The car slogged through the deepening snow, but fortunately didn’t do much more than groan and sputter as we made our way along, foot by agonizingly slow foot. After several minutes I was certain the driveway led to nowhere, when the trees cleared a bit. I noticed a couple of people standing by a pickup truck near a nondescript building that didn’t look like much of anything. My nerves started to get the better of me as I remembered why we were here.
God, Nolan Grainger was going to fucking hate me.
And that was assuming he didn’t try to throw my ass in jail the second he realized who I was.
I needed to make this quick. Get in and get out.
“Buddy, I need you to stay in the car,” I said as I pulled in beside the pickup truck. There were two guys next to it and I instantly recognized one of them as Nolan. I’d seen his picture often enough to know him anywhere. Guilt went through me as I realized I was a big reason Nolan was out here in the middle of nowhere in the dead
of winter, instead of back in San Francisco or off in some exotic city showing the world how incredibly talented he was.
“But I wanna see the elephants,” Newt complained.
My eyes shifted from the two men next to my car to the guy who was closer to the front of it. My belly dropped out at the sight of him.
God, he was a fucking tank.
A tank that looked ready to spit nails.
“No, stay in the car,” I murmured to Newt as my eyes met the man’s through the windshield.
Okay, I’d definitely need to steer clear of him. Big guys and I just didn’t mix. The gay ones only saw me as an easy lay and the straight ones figured why not kill two birds with one stone and beat the shit out of the fag who also looked like a freak. And the not-so-straight ones–they were the worst because they had a tendency to think that the makeup and nail polish I liked to wear meant that there was something besides a dick behind my zipper or that fucking a “girly” guy made them less of a homo.
I resisted the urge to turn the car around and get us out of there. I’d envisioned a quick, harmless encounter with Nolan. I hadn’t been expecting He-Man to be at the party. I shifted my gaze from the brick wall to Nolan and the man leaning heavily against him. He looked like a slightly smaller version of He-Man.
Though small wasn’t the right word.
He looked like He-Man who hadn’t discovered the joy of steroids yet.
God, either way, I was getting my ass kicked.
But I didn’t have a choice. The guilt was already crushing me–not only would my mother have been horrified by what I’d done, but how was I supposed to look Newt in the eye and tell him to always do the right thing when I couldn’t live by that motto myself?
I forced myself to open the door. My jacket was sitting on the front passenger seat, but I didn’t bother grabbing it because I wasn’t planning on being here long enough to warrant it. Of course, I’d forgotten we were in the land that the sun could no longer reach.
“Shit, it’s cold,” I muttered as the icy air blasted my skin. I tucked my hands up under my armpits and then forced a smile to my mouth. But when not one of the three men uttered even a single word of welcome, I let the smile drop off. Holy hell, did they already know who I was? Maybe Nolan’s mom had told them I was coming?
No, it was something else.
Whatever was happening, whatever tension was rife in the air, it wasn’t about me. I’d clearly interrupted something. I automatically looked to Mr. Brick Wall and saw him staring at me like I’d just stepped out of an alien spaceship.
Judgmental asshole. I wanted to tell him to get his ass out of Bumfuck, Minnesota sometime and see that the world was full of freaks who were even more out there than me. I was about to tell him as much when a flash of white caught my eye.
I know, right? White in the land of snow? But this white had four legs and scary-looking eyes that latched onto mine as it came around my car.
“Holy fuck, is that a wolf?” I asked as the animal approached me. I wasn’t particularly scared because I doubted the men would allow a dangerous animal to be roaming loose.
“Can I see?” Newt called as he opened the back door.
Damn, for a four-year-old, he had excellent hearing. Of course, that only applied when he wanted to hear something. When he didn’t, well…
“Hey, no, stay in the car,” I said to him. “It’s too cold out here for you.”
“No, it’s not,” Newt responded. The rusty door squeaked as Newt tried to push it all the way open, so I quickly grabbed and held it so it wouldn’t inadvertently swing back on him. I watched as the wolf approached my brother. Newt didn’t have a lot of fear when it came to trying new things, so I wasn’t particularly worried about him being afraid of the large animal, but I kept an eye on the pair just the same.
“What’s his name?” Newt asked.
“Loki,” Nolan answered. “What’s your name?”
Before I could say Newt’s fake name as a reminder for him not to use his real one, he announced, “Newton.”
Every time we moved to a new place, I tried to explain to Newt that he needed to remember to use the fake name I’d made up for him, but he always forgot. I knew it was a lot to ask a four-year-old, but it wasn’t like Newton was a forgettable name. And Newt and I really needed to be forgettable.
“Can we help you?” Nolan asked after watching Loki and Newt make friends. My brother began tossing snow up into the air for Loki to catch. I was glad I’d had him leave his parka and rain boots on after leaving the Grainger house.
“Um, you’re Nolan Grainger,” I said, more to buy time than anything else. I couldn’t help but glance at the brick wall again just to make sure he wasn’t within reaching distance. Not that I could actually get away from any of them if they chose to try and grab me. Even if Newt had stayed in the car, I still wouldn’t have had a chance of escaping the two bigger men. The one next to Nolan had a bandage on his throat, but I doubted it would slow him down if he wanted to detain me. But Brick Wall was my immediate concern, even though he was the farthest one from me.
Because he wouldn’t stop looking at me like… like he knew who I was or what I’d done. It was impossible, of course, but that didn’t matter to my brain. All I saw was a guy capable of inflicting a lot of pain with little effort.
“I am,” Nolan said. “Have we met?”
I shook my head. “Um, no, my name’s Blaze.”
“No, it’s not,” Newt interrupted before I could continue. “It’s Isaac.”
I sighed and said, “Newt, remember what I told you? You’re the only one who gets to call me Isaac.”
“Sorry,” my brother said, though the response was an automated one. It wasn’t often that I truly got angry at Newt, so he knew the difference between my exasperated voice and my pissed-off voice.
I returned my attention to Nolan. “Yeah, um, so Blaze is kind of a stage name. I guess you can call me Isaac.” Fortunately, we wouldn’t be sticking around long enough that it would matter if these guys knew my real name. “Anyway, I have something that belongs to you.”
I ignored the urge to hug myself with my arms to ward off the cold and the fear and stepped around Newt and the wolf to go to the trunk of my car. As soon as I pulled the violin case out of the trunk, I heard Nolan gasp and I steeled myself for what was to come.
“It’s my violin. What are you doing with it?” Nolan asked as I handed him the case.
I could feel heat tinging my cold cheeks.
Before I could respond, Nolan said, “It’s you. You’re the one the cops saw on my apartment building’s surveillance video. You stole the Stradivarius.”
Chapter One
Maddox
The kid was a fucking thief.
No surprise there, considering he looked like a hooligan. I mentally shook my head–no, goth was the word they used to describe it. The dark eyeliner, lip piercing, gauges in his ears, painted fingernails–he spelled trouble with a capital T.
I braced myself in case I’d need to grab the kid before he tried to get away. He threw me what had to be his fifth look and I barely hid my smirk.
Yeah, he knew I was onto him.
“Yes and no,” Isaac said.
“Stealing’s bad,” the little boy piped in. “Isaac says so.” He dropped down into the snow to play with Loki.
“It is,” Isaac responded. “Stand up, buddy, your pants will get wet.”
“You said I could play in the snow.”
Isaac let out a tired sigh and I felt a sliver of pity go through me. I glanced at his car again and couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with the pair. No doubt, from all the shit in the back seat, that they likely had their entire lives packed in the little yellow sedan. “I know I did, but we have to get you some snow pants first, okay?”
He’d have to do more than that. Minnesota winters were brutal. And the kid needed to find himself some decent outerwear. I took in his purple shirt with a glittery logo on it. His bla
ck jeans were so tight they looked painted on. God, the kid was practically a stick figure.
“Okay,” Newt said, but didn’t get up.
I wondered if the little boy was Isaac’s kid, but Isaac seemed way too young. I put him at late teens at best.
“Look,” Isaac began, his eyes back on my brother’s boyfriend, Nolan. “I took it, but only because Trey said you wouldn’t give it back to him. Then I saw the news about you being accused of stealing it.”
I didn’t know who Trey was or what the two younger men were talking about. My eyes drifted to my brother, Dallas. As focused on the conversation as he was, I could tell he was tired and in pain. I’d learned only this morning that he’d had surgery on his vocal cords about a week earlier.
And I hadn’t even heard it from him.
No, I’d had to hear it from a mutual friend who’d asked me to come help out at Dallas’s animal sanctuary for the day while my brother was having a follow-up visit with his doctor in Minneapolis. Our friend, Sawyer, was a vet who’d been helping Dallas and Nolan with the sanctuary. But when he’d received an emergency call as part of his on-call veterinarian duties for the state, he’d called me to see if I could come and help out for the day. I’d readily agreed, though I’d known it would piss Dallas off.