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She grabbed Dog’s hand and held it to her chest. “You really are amazing, you know that?”
He placed his free hand on his hip, and his expression softened. “Jessie is Luke’s as far as we’re concerned. All the brothers do what they can. It’s what we do for family, and that’s what Jessie is.”
Charley squeezed the hand on her chest. Dog truly was a beautiful man, inside and out. She now understood why people kept telling her he was more than he seemed on the surface. “I see that now. And if it makes you feel better, I’ll do my best to stay away from Nate, okay?”
Dog pulled his hand free and wrapped her in his arms. “Yeah, that makes me feel better. Nothing can happen to you. Not now, not ever.”
Hugging him tightly, she suppressed a shudder. “You either. I know it’s fast, but you mean a lot to me. Please promise me you’ll be careful tonight.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Always, baby. Always.”
Chapter Eighteen
Edwards Tire and Wheel on Main Street had three bays. When Dog pulled Charley’s car into the parking lot, each one already had a vehicle in it. Two more cars sat off to the side of the shop. He shut off the Camry outside the first bay. “Looks like we may be here a while.”
“That’s okay with me,” she said with a loud sigh. “I have plenty of work to do.”
They exited the car, and the summer’s heat stripped away the comfort of the Camry’s air conditioning. He pulled open the store’s plate glass door, and a bitter smell of rubber and grease floated into the humid air. He stepped back so Charley could go through first, though he wasn’t sure how she did it without tripping, her nose was so close to her phone.
“Grab a seat,” he said, pointing to the row of chairs near a television mounted on the wall and tuned to an Asheville channel. “I got this.”
She nodded without a word and sat, still not looking up from her phone.
Dog approached a counter with three computer monitors lining it but only one man focused on the screens. Arley. Older dude. He had thinning gray hair, but his bushy beard worked overtime to make up for it. He’d been at the shop forever and had replaced the tires on Dog’s bike a while back.
Standing in front of him, Dog dropped the fob on a grease-smudged Formica top.
“Yo, Dog!” Arley said, flashing his yellow-stained teeth in a smile as he looked up. “Good to see you, man. How’s the Harley treating you?”
“Purrs like a kitten.”
“Good to hear. Listen,” Arley leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Can’t wait for the fight tonight. Tear that motherfucker’s head off, you hear?”
A smile tugged at Dog’s lips. Arley was always at his fights. Dog gave him a wink. “It’ll be my pleasure. Trust me.”
Arley’s face screwed up in a grimace. “Guy’s a prick extraordinaire. I can’t believe the shit he gets away with, all because he’s tight with the Chief of Police and the mayor. Races around town, illegally parks snarling up traffic. Came in here one time demanding to be put in first of the day. I made him wait, just because I could.”
“This I know. Got no respect for the guy, but the purse will be huge.”
Arley nodded and sat back. “Alrighty, then. What brings you in today? Can’t be your tires.”
“Not mine.” Dog gestured with a thumb over his shoulder. “Lady over there is riding on her spare. You got time to fix her up?”
Arley looked over Dog’s shoulder and then gave him a shit-eating grin. “She sure is pretty. Good for you.” Dog quirked an eyebrow at him, and Arley’s smile got bigger. “I’ll bump her ahead of the two I got waiting. Should be done in an hour, tops.”
“Thanks. We’ll just wait then.”
Dog took a seat next to Charley, but she didn’t look up. Her brows were scrunched over her nose, and she was chewing her bottom lip. About two seconds later, her phone rang. She shot up. “I have to take this.”
She pushed the shop door open and walked outside, and the store got an oven blast of heat. Her lips started moving, but Dog couldn’t hear her once the door shut. A rapid beeping signal from the television drew his gaze to the TV screen. A female anchor sat behind a news desk.
“In breaking news, an unidentified local woman reports being sexually assaulted by two men in her unit at the Asheville Downs apartment complex east of downtown on Friday night. The victim says that at about 10:30 she returned home from work to a darkened apartment and was attacked by two men who subdued her with zip ties around her wrists. For more information we turn to Asheville Police Chief, Marc Harding.”
The news report shifted to a headshot of a man dressed in a blue uniform with state and local flags on poles behind him.
“Unfortunately,” the police chief said, “the victim says she did not see her alleged attackers and that they were hiding in her apartment when she came home. She says she was approached from behind, and they stuffed a gag in her mouth and threw a pillowcase over her head. The victim doesn’t know for sure how long the assault lasted but says she called 911 as soon as the men left her apartment. That call was logged in at our Emergency Response Center at 11:27pm.”
There was another change on the TV screen. This one showed a grainy video of two men walking on a sidewalk in front of the complex, their faces turned from the camera.
