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“Oh, Summer, thank God. I am in so much trouble.” He sounded frantic.

“Yeah, no shit,” she exclaimed. “Didn’t you get my messages? Men broke into my house looking for you! What the hell is going on? Where are you?”

His voice dropped. “I’m hiding out. A job went bad.”

“What did you do now?”

She sighed, meeting Lex’s serious blue eyes. They were filled with so much support, genuine concern that made her heart clench, and that gave her the strength she needed to deal with Scott. Lex reached over and squeezed her knee. The look he gave her said “you’ve got this.”

And she fucking did.

“It wasn’t my fault. You’ve gotta believe me, baby.”

The endearment made a muscle twitch on Lex’s face and caused fury to boil her blood. “I’m not your baby,” she corrected tartly. “I am your ex-wife, and yet again you’re laying your shit at my door.”

“I didn’t want to, Summer.” He hesitated. “I thought the job would be easy.”

She rolled her eyes. Same story, different day. Why couldn’t she seem to get away from this loser? It’s like the Universe was punishing her for past-life mistakes or some bullshit.

“Did you steal the container?” she asked, completely blunt. She was done playing games with him and didn’t want to hear his lame excuses.

“No!” he denied emphatically. “All I had to do was deliver it. Just move the damn thing from point A to point B. Halfway there, I got hijacked by a couple of rough-looking guys with prison tats. All in black with seriously big machine guns. There’s nothing I could’ve done to stop them.”

Prison tats. That snagged her attention. “What kind of tats? What did they look like?”

“What? I don’t know. Just a bunch of black ink. Letters, symbols…a scorpion.”

She and Lex exchanged a look. Scorpion and Ace—the same men who had broken into her place and chased them all over Vegas—stole the container? It had to be them. But did Dougherty know? And if his men had stolen it, why was Ace still hanging out at Mack’s shop? Something wasn’t adding up.

“They even shot at me,” Scott whined. “I ran, barely escaped, and ended up with a bullet graze on my goddamn arm!”

Was she supposed to feel sorry for him? Did he want her sympathy?

Fuck. That.

“You deserved it,” she said, voice stone-cold. “You never learn your lesson.”

“Hey, I don’t need a lecture.” He was starting to get snippy, and it seriously pissed her off. “I need your help. You always make me out to be the bad guy, Summer.”

She moved the phone away, hot embarrassment creeping over her skin. Did Scott really need to throw a tantrum in front of Lex? God, she couldn’t believe she’d spent three years of her life married to such a man-child. A complete jerk who only cared about himself. She could only imagine what Lex must be thinking. Was he judging her for marrying Scott? Wondering how her “picker” could be so terrible? Questioning how she could’ve stayed with a man who behaved that way?

“I’m trying to tell you this isn’t my fault, and you’re not listening to me,” he continued to whine. “Maybe if you gave me the benefit of the doubt, maybe if for once in your life you listened to my side of things and didn’t immediately start judging me like you always do—”

Lex held his hand out, nodding to the phone. “May I?” he asked in a low voice.

Upon hearing Lex, Scott abruptly shut up. Sweet silence never sounded so good. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. “Who’s that? Is someone with you?”

Without a word, she handed her phone to Lex, unable to miss the hard set of his jaw or the storm brewing in his blue eyes. “Listen to me, you worthless asshole.” He enunciated each word slowly, his voice deep and lethal.

Uh oh. She swallowed hard as Lex laid into her ex. At the same time, it felt really damn good knowing Lex was on her side. He wasn’t judging her or sitting back to let her deal with Scott. He’d waded into the bullshit with her, without a care for his own safety, and promised to help her get through it. And he was doubling down on that promise, dealing with a situation he could have easily washed his hands of now that Scott had made contact with her.

“Summer owes you nothing. Not her help, not her time, and certainly not the benefit of the doubt.”

“Um—”

“I’m not finished,” Lex interrupted, utterly ice cold. “This is what’s going to happen, so pay attention. First, fuck you for dragging Summer into your bullshit again and again and again. That’s not going to happen anymore. Got it? You’re done hurting her. As far as she’s concerned, you no longer exist. Because I’m here now.”

Okay, she melted a little bit. No one had ever stood up for her like Lex was doing. Sure, he was being a big, bossy, alpha male, but… Well…she liked it. And for the first time, Scott wasn’t speaking. He was listening.