Page 25 of Wild Card
“Well, I don’t know about a hard-ass,” she said. “More like an overprotective big brother. But as a woman in this job, I have to tell you, Harvey, that’s the last thing I need. People already wantto assume I’m timid or weak. So whatever happened with Shane, you need to put it away and let me do my job.”
If only it were that easy. I’d told the sheriff when he hired me that I needed to ride alone. I didn’t want the stress or worry of a partner ever again. I also didn’t want to take out my guilt and regret on another officer.
But I was doing it right now with Chloe, who got enough shit for being a woman. I wasn’t hung up on her gender or her size, though. Because Shane had been a big dude. A tough dude. I was stuck on how dang young she was. How much potential she had, the life she could live—or lose.
Just like Shane.
“You can ride with Lawson tomorrow,” I murmured. “He won’t be so overprotective.”
She frowned. “I can’t decide if you think that’s a good thing or not.”
I sighed. “Neither can I.”
CHAPTER 7
Axel
I perchedon the corner of Holden’s desk in Forrester Bros Auto Shop, joining Holden, Bailey, and Matteo for lunch. Sugar and Loki took up prime begging spots by my feet.
“So, where’s Gray?” I asked, watching as Matteo unloaded Zacos from a greasy bag.
Holden snagged one and started unwrapping it. “He’s having lunch in town with Emory.”
“Oh, is Em working at the bank today?”
“Yeah.” Bailey snickered from the flimsy folding chair he’d claimed. “Gray couldn’t even go a few hours without seeing him.”
Until a few weeks ago, Emory was the vice president of Gold Community Bank, a family business where his dad, grandpa, and cousin also worked. He’d recently gone down to part-time so he could apprentice with Fox at the tattoo parlor, which was much more suited to his artistic skills.
“Probably just an excuse to eat at Jerkers,” Matteo said. “Those milkshakes are addictive.”
“Well, their loss,” I said. “I’ll take Zacos any day.”
“Same here.” Matteo grabbed two paper-wrapped Zacos with a bigVscribbled on the outside to label them as veggie.
I unwrapped one marked with anSand bit into a mouthful of greasy sausage, cheese, and peppers. Matteo didn’t know what he was missing.
“You have any trouble while you were out on that tow job?” Holden asked him.
Since hiring Matteo, I’d had to make a lot fewer runs, which was nice. When it got slow enough at the shop, he even came by the junkyard and helped me strip and catalog parts.
“No, it was pretty straightforward.” Matteo took a seat beside Bailey. “They wanted to use the shop in town for repairs, though. I tried to sell them on coming here, but…”
“It happens,” Bailey said.
Holden sighed. “It happens too damn much.”
I snagged a Zaco, unease shivering through me. “Are things slowing down too much?”
There was a single car in the shop awaiting final repairs. Last week, Bailey had at least two jobs. Gray had one bike come in. Was that really all? Matteo had joined me out at the junkyard on Wednesday and Friday, but I hadn’t considered that it might be because there wasn’t enough work to go around.
Holden shrugged. “It’s par for the course. It takes time to rebuild our reputation.”
I winced. Shit. Getting tossed into jail a couple of months ago for that bar fight probably hadn’t helped. And before that, our dad’s drunken spiral and disorderly arrests had done us no favors.
Holden had renamed the business to Forrester Bros to remove an association with our foster dad. We’d decided the Forrester name was too well-known to ditch, but maybe we’d have been better off starting over from scratch.
Too late now. The new sign was already painted.
