Page 86 of Lee

Rori exhaled heavily, and her eyelids fluttered closed for a moment. Lee reached out and rested his fingers on her hand. She looked down at their hands, and for a moment, he wondered if she’d pull away. But she didn’t.

“Let’s do this. Once it’s dealt with, you can relax.”

She nodded, then they got out of the car. Lee glanced around to see if Blake was there yet. He spotted his truck just as the man was getting out.

Blake joined them, greeting Lee with a squeeze of his shoulder and shaking Rori’s hand. “How do you want to handle this?”

Lee looked at Rori, letting her voice her opinion first.

“I guess I want to see what they have to say,” Rori said. “Then go from there.”

“Sounds good,” Blake replied. “It’s possible there really is work that needs to be done, but just in case there’s not… I’ll be there to point that out.”

Maybe it was a bit of overkill for him to go in with Rori too, but Lee wanted to be there for her.

The three of them crossed the street and approached the door leading to the office side of the garage. A bell over the door chimed as they walked in.

A man around Lee’s age came in from a side door, eyeing them as he wiped his hands on a rag. His gaze stayed on Rori.

“What can I do for ya?”

“I’m here about my car,” Rori said. “I brought it in for an oil change, then I got a message from someone here saying it needed other work as well.”

The guy looked at Blake and then at Lee. “And who are you?”

“Friends,” Lee said.

“Who know a little bit about vehicles,” Blake added. “Rori asked me to come along and help her understand what you’ve found.”

“Can you tell me specifically what’s wrong with my car?” Rori asked.

The man hesitated, tucking the rag he held in the back pocket of his coveralls. “Maybe you should just pay for the oil change and take your car.”

“But you said there was some serious stuff wrong with it,” Rori protested. “Why would you let me drive the car out of your garage if that’s the case?”

The man’s gaze shifted to Blake, but he didn’t respond to Rori’s question.

“Perhaps it’s because you’re unscrupulous,” Blake stated, his voice hard. “Do you know how many people end up at the garage where I work after they’ve brought their vehicles here?”

“Your garage?”

When Blake gave the name of Stan’s garage, the other man glared at him. “Was this a trap?”

“A trap? No. Rori is new to town and didn’t know that I was a mechanic, so she brought her car here because it was closest to where she worked. Strangely enough, she trusts people to do their job with integrity. If she’d brought her vehicle to me, that would have been the case. But she brought it to you, so now we’re stepping in to make sure you don’t take advantage of her.”

“Are you telling me now that there really wasn’t anything wrong with my car?” Rori asked.

The man walked over to a board behind a desk in the corner and swiped a set of keys from it. He tossed them toward their group, and since Blake was closest, he snatched them out of the air.

“How much do I owe you for the oil change?” Rori asked as she opened her purse.

The man stared at her for a long moment, then said, “Nothing. Just get out of here.”

They didn’t need to be told twice. Lee rested a hand on Rori’s back as they headed for the door, Blake leading the way.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look at your car just to make sure everything is okay,” Blake said as Rori pointed out her car in the parking lot. “Can you bring it in tomorrow morning?”

“Are you open at eight?” Rori asked.

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