Swallowing a groan, I glanced over to where she had her head sticking out of the shop door. She worked the front a few days a week and on Saturdays when Ben was on duty. Typically, Mom babysat Finn for her most weekends so Lexa and her husband could have some alone time.
“Hey,” she greeted when I walked over to her. Her lips were pressed into a firm line. The closer I got, the more I felt her tension. Frowning, I glanced inside the shop. All I saw was the top of the head of the guy whose vehicle I’d just finished working on. We’d started making Saturdays appointment-only to give our other mechanics more time off. This was my Saturday to work, so I was the only person around other than my sister. “The Corolla done?”
“Just finished,” I assured her, catching hold of the door so I could step into the shop with her. As I did, the guy sitting in the waiting area lifted his gaze from his phone. His eyes ran disdainfully over me, and I realized this guy didn’t live in town, because I had no idea who he was. Figuring he must live in one of the surrounding small towns of Trinity County, I took a moment to memorize the guy’s face.
Short ash-brown hair that was thinning on top. Deep-set, light-colored eyes. Broad nose and a slight double chin. With him sitting down, I couldn’t tell for sure how tall he was, but I figured my nearly six-foot-tall sister would have at least a few inches on the man.
As I was watching him, he turned his eyes on Lexa, and I felt her stiffen up even more than she already was. He licked his lips as he practically undressed her with his eyes.
I knew my sister could take care of herself. Hell, she was raised by a woman who could handle a gun even better than our MC prez father. Lexa could shoot and wield a blade just as well as any man. On top of that, her husband was the freaking sheriff. But when she was working at the shop, she tried to be polite and courteous. The fact that we were the only garage in the county only had a little to do with the repeat business we continued to have. She was the beautiful, smiling face that kept customers coming back.
Stepping in front of the guy’s line of sight and blocking the creep from whatever fantasy he was having of my older sister, I walked over to the counter and pulled up the guy’s bill. “Lexa, you go on home,” I told her. “I got this.”
“I’ll wait,” she hedged, coming behind the counter with me. “Sir, if you’ll just come over so you can pay and sign a few things, you will be on your way in just a few minutes.”
He stood and walked over to us. “You still haven’t given me your number, pretty thing.”
“And I told you, I’m married,” she gritted out, her supply of polite and courteous seeming to have been all used up for the day.
“So am I,” he said with a predatory grin. With his focus completely on her, he didn’t see me ball my hands into fists, ready to clock him in the jaw if he so much as touched Lexa. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”
“Her retired marine, sheriff husband might disagree with you,” I muttered more to myself than to him, but he still heard me.
His eyes bugged out of his head, and a bead of sweat pebbled on his brow. “You’re married to Sheriff Davis?”
“That would be him,” I confirmed, forcing my hands to relax so I could get this jerkwad out the door sooner rather than later.
He gulped and produced his wallet from his back pocket. As he pulled out his credit card, I noticed his fingers shaking slightly. “Um, I… Er…” He cleared his throat while I processed his payment. “I was just kidding. Y-you don’t need to go telling your man—”
“That you basically propositioned me like I was a hooker?” she finished for him, her tone cold enough to cause frost to form on the windows. Her smile was pure evil as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. The sight of her scar didn’t bother me, but up until Ben came into Lexa’s life, it was something she’d tried to hide as much as possible. These days, she was more confident in her beauty. “Oh, I already texted him and told him all about your lewd commentary.”
I swallowed my laugh as I grabbed the receipt that had printed and handed it to the man. “Your keys are in the center cupholder. Next time, keep a better eye on your brakes. You could have killed someone.”
“It’s my wife’s car,” he tried to excuse, snatching the receipt from my hand.
“Even worse,” I snapped at him. “A real man doesn’t let his woman drive around in a car that could cause her or someone else serious harm.”
His face turned red, then purple. When he started sputtering, stumbling over words as he tried to insult me, I leaned forward. “You know who I am, you dickless motherfucker?”
“Some mouthy boy wh-who thinks—” he stuttered, obviously scared of me but still trying to put on a show.
I grinned, glad he didn’t know exactly who I was. If he did, he would have already pissed himself. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“He said he moved up this way a few months ago. To be closer to his wife’s family,” Lexa informed me.
“Ah,” I said with a laugh. “And you’ve already met Ben?”
“When I texted Ben, he said he pulled this guy over earlier in the week because of how loud the brakes were grinding. He was surprised there weren’t sparks
