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When the hell had people in this town decided he was larger than life and no other man was going to compare?
“Nathan had a lot of friends.” She shrugged, her fingers picking at the edge of the accounting book, her expression tight.
“Friends that let his widow suffer,” he reminded her. “What happened, Sabella? Who finally told you the garage was going to hell? According to Rory, you hid in that house on the hill and wouldn’t even answer the door some days. How did you figure out the Malones were trying to destroy you?”
Her lips tightened.
“Yeah, old Nate, he was well loved.” He sneered. “So well that his widow was deserted and nearly lost her ass while she was grieving. What the hell happened with that one, Sabella?”
“Again, none of your business.” But her voice was tighter, the edge of hurt flaying his guts.
He knew what had happened. His family had turned against her. Mike Conrad, it was rumored, had offered to help her out if she would be so kind as to let him fuck her. Noah had to force the violence down. And once the Malones and the bank had turned against her, then finding anyone willing to help hadn’t been easy. Only the fact that Nathan Malone had indeed had friends who were still willing to use the garage had saved her. Friends who didn’t have power, and there were too many of them for Grant Malone, or Mike Conrad, to be able to strike out at effectively.
He knew what Mike Conrad had wanted. The garage was the perfect setup for laundering money and was centrally located for the militia members to congregate. With the apartment upstairs, the reputation of the garage, and Nathan Malone’s good name to fall back on, it would have worked.
The sheriff and his wife had stood by her, though it was rumored the friends Mike Conrad had in the local government were pressuring the sheriff to choose sides. Mike’s or Sabella’s. Noah knew Rick Grayson, if he wasn’t part of the BCM, was at least a suspect. Hopefully, the program Noah had slipped into Mike’s laptop would give them the proof they needed to bring that bastard down. Him and his friends.
The mayor, one of Grant Malone’s boyhood friends, had taken the city’s contract from the garage, illegally. Rory was checking with a lawyer in Odessa about suing for that one. What they had done to Sabella was unconscionable and wouldn’t be tolerated any longer.
The gossip and rumors that filled small-town life were there for anyone willing to listen. And Noah listened each time a customer got nosy enough to question him regarding the talk now circulating that he was taking the place of the man they had nicknamed “Irish.” He listened, picked through the gossip to find the truth, and the truth only managed to piss him off more.
“I’m making it my business,” he finally warned her.
The battle he faced would have been amusing if it were anyone else. He was going to have to steal his wife’s heart back from his own memory. Hell of a position for him to find himself in.
He watched as her gaze lifted, just her eyes, and she stared up at him, and he could have sworn he felt his balls twitch in warning. He had only seen that look one time in the two years they had been together.
Her lips parted as the door from the convenience store opened and Rory stepped in.
Noah’s gaze sliced to him, his demand to leave clear. Rory grinned back then his gaze moved to her neck. She was getting sick of that. The surprise, the look of shock that a man had marked her neck. What, did everyone suddenly think she really wasn’t woman enough to draw a man’s passion?
She curled her lip angrily before getting to her feet, moving around the desk, and jerking open the door to the garage. She stepped into the garage bay and slammed the door closed behind her.
“Asshole,” Rory muttered as Noah stared at the door she had gone through.
Noah turned to look at him. “Take care of that firing you’ve been putting off today. Your new mechanic is showing up tomorrow.”
Rory grimaced. “Yeah, just get her all pissed off at me now.”
“Do it,” he growled, before rising to his feet and making for the door to the garage. “And stay the hell out of my way for the next little bit.”
He pushed through the door and found Sabella standing next to the mechanics’ counter, going over the roster. She was frowning, then she glanced in the direction of the mechanic Rory was about to fire.
Before she could say anything he surprised her, and everyone else, by pulling the clipboard from her hand, slapping it to the table, and pulling her back to the office.
“Have you lost your mind!” she yelled as the door closed behind them. “Why isn’t Timmy’s name on the roster? He’s standing out there twiddling his damned thumbs on my time and I want to know why.”
“Rory took him off.” He took the easy way out. “He’s firing him.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did Rory know he was doing this before you told him to?” Sweet Southern rage brewed in her voice.
Noah crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at her.
“Rory agreed he’s not doing his job and made the decision.” Sort of.
“The hell he did.” She was in his face, her gray eyes dark and thunderous, her face flushed, her little fists clenched at her side. “My garage. My employees. My decisions.”
Her jaw was so tight he was afraid it was going to crack. Her lips tightened, moved, he could see the fury burning hot and wild inside her. Fury and arousal. It burned in him too. It set a spark to the darkness he tried to keep under control, to the hunger he fought not to reveal to her too quickly.
