Page 31 of Shielding Lexi (Temptation)

He smiles calmly, and I give him credit. I’d have knocked me out already.

“Man, you’ve got it bad, huh?” he asks again.

My eyes narrow. “What the hell are you talking about? She’s twenty-four years old. I have no business messing around with a girl that young. Either do you.”

“I’m not messing around with her, Reap, I think I’m in love.”

I try to hold back the laughter, but it raggedly spills from my throat disguised as a cough. “You’re in love?”

He nods. “I don’t believe it either, but fuck if she isn’t the most perfect woman I’ve ever met. I mean she’s sweet, she gives a damn about the world, she keep—”

“She’s super-hot. She’s young. She’s in distress. You really have a hero complex, don’t you?”

“Probably,” he laughs. “Really though, I know Hawk is feeling the same way. I just don’t know how she feels yet. I mean, she’s said she likes us both, but I don’t know how deep it runs.”

Fucking hell, these guys are having big emotional revelations with this girl. What the hell? Am I that in the dark?

My gaze darts to him, “And that’s not fucking with your head? That you both want the same woman? She’s playing you both.”

He looks down at the cement floor and kicks one boot against the other as he thinks. “I think what I really want, more than anything, is for Lexi to be happy. And by the sounds, Lexi is okay with having us both… equally.” He smiles a dumb ass grin that tells me just how sucked into this he already is.

I wave him off and sit back on my swivel chair, grabbing my wrench to loosen a bolt for the new fitting. “Well, you two can fight that one out. I’ll be worrying about the real shit like the drug lord that’s about to tear us to shreds.”

“So you think Brick knows we have her?”

I glance toward Kane, then back at the bike again, still turning the wrench as I shake my head. “If he doesn’t know it’s us, then he’s a fucking idiot. And you don’t get to be the biggest drug smuggler in Miami by being a moron. I made a mistake. I should’ve surprised them.”

“He’s probably already got people watching the place,” Kane says, stepping outside to look up and down the street, looking for anyone suspicious. But even if he saw them, there isn’t much we can do. The Daggers are bigger than us, they’re stronger than us, and they have some law enforcement working with them.

“We’ll figure something out,” I say, dialing back in on the bike. “Why don’t you get Hawk and Lexi together for a meeting tonight. We’ll come up with something good.”

He narrows his brows, “What? You want Lexi at the meeting?”

“Yeah, I want to know everything she does, where he lives, plays, what he eats for breakfast, everything. The more we know the better.”

“You’re sure she’s strong enough for that?” he asks, stepping back toward the interior door.

“I’m sure she’s going to have to be, because we’re nearing the breakpoint and we’re out of options.”

He nods, and slides back into the house, but I don’t turn to watch. Instead, I stay focused on sliding this oil line into the fitting. A sense of relief washes over me when the pieces match. One less fucking problem to deal with.

“Hey, Reap,” Kane says, opening the back door again.

“What?” I growl.

“Lexi needs to talk to you.”

I turn back, “Me? Why me?”

He shrugs. “Just got in and she asked to talk to you. Not sure what’s up.”

My momentary relief from bike repair is just that… momentary. My shoulders barely had time to relax. “What in the hell could possibly be going on now?”

16

Lexi

Ihear the guys start to make their way back in the house, but I can’t look away from Kane’s phone screen.

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