Page 9 of Big Daddy Sheriff

And she felt safe.

Absolutely safe.

CHAPTER FIVE

Forty minutes later, Quinn and Alyssa were standing in a hot garage.

The smell of motor oil and rubber was heavy. Tool chests lined the walls on one side. Neatly stacked tires occupied the other.

A man with broad shoulders and thick dark hair stood looking at Alyssa’s car, shaking his head, saying, “It’s given you a lot of miles.”

“Not really,” Alyssa countered with a grim sigh. “I bought it from my, eh, old boss. She… ran a car lot. Among other things.”

She didn’t elaborate on what else Lana did. It was best not to go into all that. She didn’t want the men to think she’d taken any part in that junk.

She certainly had not.

“You just got this thing?” the mechanic asked, his tone doubtful. The sewn-on name tag readClydein cursive script.

“Yeah. About six months ago.”

“Does it have any kind of warranty?”

She shook her head. “Lana runs a crappy used car lot. Warranties aren’t really her thing.”

Hiding drugs in the cars, selling them to other dealers, and then using the lot as a way to wash money is her thing.

Once again, she kept that to herself.

“Is it going to be expensive?” she asked.

“Well, I’m not sure what’s wrong with it, but we’ll see how cheap we can bring ‘er in. Don’t go worrying about it. Might be that I have some spare parts around here and I can just replace whatever’s busted. Heck, maybe it’s as simple as the thermostat is sticking. That would be an easy, cheap fix. I’ll know more this afternoon.”

Alyssa smiled. She liked the man. There was something about him that put her at ease. It was the same quality she’d recognized in Quinn.

Before she could say anything else, someone asked, “Daddy, when are you going to stop for lunch?”

Alyssa nearly fell to the floor in shock. Had she actually heard what she thought she heard?

The sound of the voice made it clear this was an adult woman who’d asked the question. That was proven true a moment later when a curvy woman of about forty stepped out from the office attached to the garage. She wore a babydoll-style dress that didn’t quite cover her panties. Those panties were ruffled, and they bulged a bit, making Alyssa wonder if she was wearing a diaper beneath them.

The woman gasped in shock and scurried quickly back into the office. The metal door slammed shut behind her.

Clyde chuckled. “Don’t mind her, ma’am. That’s just my wife, Belinda. She didn’t realize an outsider was here in the shop.”

“An outsider?” Alyssa questioned.

The look on Clyde’s face revealed that he felt as if he’d said too much. It was the exact same look Quinn had worn earlier when he’d referenced Theo being Grace’s Daddy.

When Alyssa looked at Quinn, he just smiled and said, “Small town. We don’t get many folks passing through around these parts.”

She had a strong feeling there was more to it than that, but she didn’t press.

“I’ll get going on this,” Clyde said. “Do you have a place to go? It’s too hot to be outdoors for long periods of time. You’re more than welcome to hang out in the office.” He cast a quick glance over his shoulder and said, “We can get Belinda to open that door.”

“Thank you, but I was going to look for a motel,” Alyssa said.

“Well, about that,” Quinn piped up, “we don’t have one. A couple of folks around here put up their places on those vacation rental apps, but that’s about it.”

---