Page 21 of Outcast
“Craving grease, huh?” Allison teased. “I can live with it. I don’t know if my clogged arteries can, but what the heck? Life is short, anyway.”
I grinned. “That’s right. You could be hit by a bus tomorrow.”
“A bus made of trans fats and grease,” she joked.
“Exactly.” I rounded the desk, accidentally knocking the third file folder off the desk, the one I hadn’t looked at yet. Papers spilled out over the floor. “Shit.”
“Here, I’ll help,” Allison said, crouching down.
We gathered the papers up together. Allison paused, eyes scanning over a page with a frown.
“Oh, you shouldn’t read that.” I held out a hand. “Privacy issues.”
“Sorry.” She handed it over. “It’s just that the name caught my eye. I didn’t know the Forresters were in financial trouble.”
“What?” I looked down, and sure enough, right there in black and white, I saw Forrester & Sons Auto, followed by a deadline to pay off the debt.
Fifty thousand dollars, and only three weeks to pay it before we collected on the collateral. Shit.
“Emory?” Allison touched my shoulder. “You okay, babe?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “I really liked him. Gray, I mean.”
“Well, yeah, I know. But why are you saying that past tense?”
Carefully, I slid the files back into the folder and placed it on my desk. I blew out a breath and shook my head. “Do you really think he’s going to want the guy who’s going to take away his family business?”
Her eyes widened. “Is that what’s going to happen?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I can’t imagine it’ll end well.”
I’d thought delivering bad news to friends and neighbors was difficult. But giving it to the guy who’d rescued me and given me the best kiss of my life?
That was so much worse.
CHAPTERFIVE
Gray
“This toolbox is a disaster.”I sorted wrenches, separating out the nuts and bolts that had meandered into every compartment, metal clinking and rattling.
“I know exactly where everything is,” Bailey called from across the garage. “Don’t fuck with my system!”
I pulled an empty Red Bull can from the chaos. “Are you shitting me with this?”
Bailey stomped over and snatched the can from my hand. “I don’t know how that got in there.”
Holden spoke from the open doorway of his office. “Because you’re a slob, Bailey. I’ve been telling you to clean your shit up.”
Bailey whirled on him. “You’re going to takehisside?”
“There are no sides,” Holden said. “We’re brothers.”
Axel stepped through the open garage door, Sugar and a little Chihuahua trotting along at his heels. “Someone forgot to tellGraythat.”
I sighed. “Tough crowd.”
Axel ignored me and looked at Holden. “You got any swanky banquets tonight?”
