Page 69 of The Ones We Fight For

“And if I don’t?” Rubio looked over at Roscoe.

“Don’t look at me.” Roscoe held up his hands and tipped his head toward Walker. “I’m just here to protect you from him.”

“If you don’t fix this, then I will make your life a living hell.” Walker massaged his knuckles menacingly, which earned him a disapproving look from Roscoe. “In a legal way, of course. I’m quite certain I can get you fired and bring a lawyer in to find out how many other vehicles you’ve botched. It would be in your best interest to look back through the vehicles you’ve touched recently and to fix them. While we’re at it, I’m also going to escort you to the receptionist at the front of the store so you can apologize for being a lying, cheating scum of the earth.”

The mechanic stared back at Walker for a moment before his eyes darted toward the door. His next move was clearly making a run for it like a common criminal, so Walker stepped toward the exit, strategically blocking it off with his body. Rubio’s eyes dropped to the floor, and he wrung his hands nervously.

“Fine. I might have rushed through a few inspections or signed off on some I hadn’t checked,” Rubio murmured, still averting his gaze.

“You better hope that no one gets hurt.” Walker scowled and gestured toward the door they had entered through. “After you.”

Rubio stiffly led the way back to the front desk, uncomfortably looking over his shoulder at Walker and Roscoe every few seconds. Walker forged a path directly behind the guy to purposefully make him anxious. He had no intention to make this easy on Rubio. In his opinion, the idiot should be fired on the spot, but he'd rather have something to blackmail the guy with so he'd fix Talia’s car faster. Rubio was lucky Walker didn’t pummel him into a fine dust. Considering his recent lack of self-control, Roscoe’s presence was definitely for the best.

The receptionist grinned when the three of them made their way over to her, but completely ignored Rubio when he approached the counter, turning only toward Walker and Roscoe.

Good for her, Walker thought.

“How can I help you?”

“Mr. Rubio would like his records for the last…?” Walker tipped his head toward the mechanic, waiting for him to chime in with the length of his negligence.

“Eight months,” Rubio offered up quietly. Walker balked at the number. Maybe after the guy actually fixed Talia’s car for good, he should make sure the owners knew about Rubio’s misconduct.

“Perfect, I’ll print those off. And would you like to schedule an appointment for your wife, sir?” she asked Walker, back to ignoring the mechanic.

“Yes, today would be great. Her address—I mean, our address is correct on the document. The car needs to be towed,” Walker stated, hoping the woman didn’t catch his slip-up.

“I’ll arrange for it to be picked up.”

“And one more thing,” Walker elbowed Rubio harder than was necessary and cleared his throat, eyebrows raised expectantly. Rubio’s face turned a deep shade of red, as if having to apologize was the most embarrassing thing he’d ever endured.

“So, Saanvi,” the guy looked at his ex-girlfriend for a split second before dropping his eyes to his clean hands. “I apologize for the way things ended between us.”

Walker scoffed. Way to really sell the apology, dickwad. Shouldn’t your hands be covered in grease or dirt from all the work you’re supposedly doing?

“No harm, no foul.” Saanvi tilted her head to look at Rubio with a bored expression. “Really, you just saved me from more mediocre sex and,” her eyes flicked up and down his figure impassively, “an unimpressive everything else.”

Walker let out a puff of laughter at Rubio’s expense that he didn't even attempt to hold back. Roscoe didn’t laugh, but Walker watched his friend curl his lips over his teeth to keep his composure. If someone had ever declared Walker to be a bad lover and implied he had small equipment, he probably would have dissolved on the spot. No one had ever said that about him, however.

And no one ever would, thank you very much.

The mechanic looked pissed. With Walker’s hand placed firmly on Dr. Too-Little's shoulder, though, Rubio was very aware that he’d be making no moves to argue or insult Saanvi without retribution. Roscoe was of the same mind, carefully watching Rubio to determine if his aggression would stray past facial expressions. Saanvi was back to sweeping her mouse over the pad on her desk and clicking with a flourish of enthusiasm, not giving her ex the time of day.

“The tow truck should be at your house in thirty minutes,” she said cheerfully and looked up from her computer.

“Thanks so much for your help, Saanvi.” Walker grinned. “Can I give you my number in case you come across any trouble in the future?” He fixed the mechanic with a hard glare and squeezed his shoulder hard before releasing his grip to make sure it was clear that by “trouble,” he meant Rubio would be keeping his hands and eyes to himself on top of actually doing the damn job he was hired to do.

“Sure thing!” Saanvi chirped, slapping a sticky note and a pen atop the counter.

After scrawling out his name and contact info, Walker pointed off toward the hallway that led to the mechanic’s quarters and made eye contact with the seething man. “Feel free to go back to your hole now. I look forward to hearing about your new work ethic.”

The tail end of Walker’s dismissal was interrupted by the vibrating of his phone in his pocket. He assumed it was something work-related—earlier in the week he had submitted a final draft for the novel he was working on—but it wasn’t. Talia’s contact stared up at him, and his heart did a flip in his chest. Fumbling and almost dropping his phone, he answered the call.

“Tal? Hey, are you oka—”

“Sorry to bug you,” Talia cut him off quickly. “But I figured you needed to know. Harden keeps texting Piper, and apparently, he invited her to another party. I told her I wouldn’t tell you, but she let me read some of his texts the other night, and—”

“What did they say?” Walker interjected, feeling his blood run cold.

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