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As I fell asleep in his arms, I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said. Had he really meant it when he’d said he loved me, or was he just saying it to get Beau off his case? I hadn’t yet found the nerve to say it back, but I wanted to.
My alarm buzzed as usual a few hours later. I turned it off and considered ignoring it like Dax had told me to, but the shop needed either Beau or me there, and he’d been out as late as I had. I’d worked on barely any sleep plenty of times. It wouldn’t kill me.
I slipped quietly from the bed. Dax stirred, but I kissed his neck and rubbed his back, encouraging him to fall back asleep. When he did, I grabbed a protein bar, quickly slipped into a clean pair of coveralls, and headed downstairs.
Beau was there, so I was damn glad I hadn’t slacked off in bed. Sure, the whole incident had been his fault, but I didn’t want him thinking I wasn’t tough enough to deal with it and show up to work on time.
“Good morning,” Beau called when I entered the garage. Sam and Joey were also there, so all I did was return his greeting. I wasn’t about to bring up what had happened last night in front of anyone else.
An hour or so later, Beau brought me a cup of coffee that was as sweet and creamy as I liked it and set it on the bench behind me. “I was an idiot.”
“Yeah, you were. How’d you find out about us?”
In all the insanity of the night before, I hadn’t asked. I assumed Corbin let something slip, whether intentionally or not. It was always hard to tell with him.
“I overheard Corbin and Lance talking about the two of you. When I demanded they tell me what they meant, Corbin explained that the two of you had been together for days, and I lost it. I couldn’t stand the thought of you being hurt again.”
“You really think Dax would do that?”
“Not on purpose.”
“Did you even stop to think about what I wanted?”
“Fuck, Travis. I’m so used to taking care of you. Now that things are cleared up between us, I feel even more protective.”
I sighed. “At least that’s a hell of a lot better than you not caring.”
“I always cared. Always.” We hugged, only pulling apart when we heard someone enter the garage. It was probably Leland coming to finish up one of the projects he’d started the day before.
Beau let me go. “Get to work,” he said as he walked away. He wouldn’t be my brother if he weren’t bossy.
“Is he on your ass again already?” Leland asked.
“When is he not?” If only he knew the whole story.
“Yeah, what else is new?”
We both focused on our jobs, and I hardly noticed the time passing, but it must’ve been a few hours. My back was aching, and I really needed a break. I decided to head to the front to get a bottle of water and maybe also another cup of coffee.
The trash was full, so I pulled the bag out. Beau had a rule that once the bin started to get full, we should take it out and not wait until the end of the day. I circled around to the back of the building to toss it into the dumpster.
That was when I saw him.
I didn’t know his name, but he had been with Jean-Charles the first time he’d come to threaten Rob. The man aimed a gun at me, and I threw the bag of trash at him, hitting him square in the chest and knocking him over.
The gun flew from his hand, and I managed to kick it out of the way before he got on his feet again. He came at me, but I was ready. I didn’t care that he was a good six inches taller than me and probably weighed nearly as much as Dax. I fought harder than I ever had in my life, harder than I’d ever considered fighting with any of the pieces of shit who had mistreated me, because now I truly had something to fight for. I had the possibility of a future, a real future with a good man, a man I loved and who loved me. I wasn’t going to fuck that up. I just managed to slam my knee into the guy’s balls when Leland ran out with Sam not far behind him.
They were both yelling, and Sam fired a shot into the air. The man broke free of my hold, and he took off running toward the front gate. Sam leveled her gun at him, but she couldn’t risk a shot. There were customers here—and valuable cars. I wanted to chase the man, but I knew the best thing for now was to let him go. There were too many innocent people around.
