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When his eyes flicked back over to me, I smiled without meaning to. I stiffened when I saw something flare in them.
“Lucas, no.”
“No what?” I could tell that had been the wrong thing, too. “I haven’t said anything yet.”
“I know you well enough now to see when something is going on in your head. And I just want to make it clear I’m not tolerating that any more. If you try to bully me into doing something I’m not completely on board with, I will not hesitate to tell someone what you’re doing. Maybe the police if that’s what it takes.”
“Why do you think they’re going to believe you?” Lucas said, but it was a weak challenge from him. I stared at him, and he actually ducked his head a little.
Of course, he was quickly thinking again, and I let him have a go at it this time.
“Steven’s got sport this afternoon,” said Lucas, “so he’s already out of here. And I wouldn’t trust anyone else in my group enough to get in a car with them. They’re not exactly a careful driver like you are.”
Moving straight into scamming a lift with flattery sounded exactly like the Lucas I had come to know. “You like to be the one who has control over how much you smash yourself up, huh?”
“Here’s what I was going to suggest.” Lucas wasn’t doing as good a job of pretending he hadn’t heard what I’d said as was usually his standard, but I could still practically feel the power radiating off him. “Your car needs some work done. It’s arguably my fault. So I figured I would just come with you to that guy you like seeing, and pay for whatever work needs to be done. Short-circuit the whole insurance process, because you know they’ll start giving you hell if you have to keep making claims.”
“I’m surprised you’re going to have any money to spare after the number you did on your own car, again,” I commented. I was also surprised he was so willing to acknowledge he’d been at fault, when the connection was sketchy even to my mind.
Lucas tried to shrug, then winced. “Callie, the amount of money we’re talking about here… you still don’t get it. It’s going to be, like, a few thousand max. I could do that every week and be fine.”
“Well, I suppose it’s good to know how often I should expect you to smash up my car,” I said. “I wish you’d been willing to offer something like this before I had my old one dragged away and probably crushed into a little cube.”
“Your old car wasn’t good for anything but being a little cube,” said Lucas. “Now I said I could drop a few thousand each week, but here’s the thing: I don’t spend my money on bullshit. If I’m going to use that few thousand, I’ve got to think it’s worth it.”
Something changed in his eyes even as he was staring at me. I couldn’t understand it, but I almost reeled. “So are we going to go?”
I’d started to underestimate him again. “Don’t try anything,” I warned, but now I was the one who sounded weak.
Lucas shot me a wink that must have hurt a little as he turned towards my car. “When have I ever tried something I didn’t think I could get away with?”
Chapter Sixteen
“Jesus,” said Rob. “What is this girly car?”
Well it certainly proved my point to Lucas, but I almost wished we’d gone somewhere else where I wouldn’t have to front up to a guy who already knew me so well. “As you know, my insurance wouldn’t cover the damage to my old one, and…”
Rob’s eyes shifted over to Lucas. “I take it the policy payout didn’t exactly cover this baby.”
“I imagine they would have been a little reluctant.”
I tried to slow my breathing as Rob turned his attention back to the car. I didn’t really know why I was so nervous about what Rob thought of me. Realistically he seemed to have respect for me I didn’t get from a lot of men his age, but I doubted he was thinking about me at all when I wasn’t putting a car in front of him to work on.
Rob’s fingers were tapping on the crude penis drawing. “Put your signature on it then, did you?”
“Callie can tell you it’s not mine,” Lucas said.
I wanted to start digging a hole to bury myself, but Rob didn’t even blink.
“Now,” he said, “this denting here should buff right out with the help of a scouring cloth, and I’ve just had someone pull out of bringing their car in today, so I can get one of my boys to spend some time on it if you’re able to leave it with me until six.”
I glanced at Lucas. “I think I can waste a couple hours with you at the shops,” he said.
“Very good,” Rob said, “I’ll make sure we have it ready for you by six o’clock.” He looked Lucas’s injured parts up and down again as he got to his feet. “I’m fairly certain once I make it clear to Mitch he’ll lose the ability to do much of anything if he disappoints you, he’ll be done with five minutes to spare.”
It wasn’t Rob’s fault I was sensitive about that particular joke at the moment, so I managed to restrain myself from strangling him. I didn’t want him to think I was unappreciative of him getting one of his people to look at it so quickly.
I was becoming really unexpectedly nasty these days. It had to be the stress of the past few weeks… but also, I realised I was very nervous about having to spend a couple of hours with Lucas when, for
