Page 33 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it taken care of.

” Luke just nodded and slapped me on the shoulder.

He was out last night, drinking with us guys, and I knew Jules would take issue with him staying out after work for a second night in a row.

Although it did cross my mind that maybe that was what he was looking for.

I made a mental note to check in with him at a later time.

He glanced toward the building and raised his brows.

“You think he’s involved?”

I followed his gaze, looking back at the shop. “I don’t know. My gut is saying no, but I’m not ruling it out either.”

“I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Inside, Jackson was leaning up against the workbench with his arms crossed, like he had something to be pissed about.

I could feel my anger bubbling up beneath the surface.

This mess wasn’t necessarily Jackson’s fault, but I would be damned if I didn’t at least question him about it.

This space had never been so much as spray-painted on in all of my years here.

I brought him in, helped the kid out, tried to get him to see his potential, and within a few weeks, everything I’d worked for had been destroyed. On the one night I left him in charge.

“Stand up, uncross your arms,” I gritted at him. “What do you know about this?” My tone betrayed my fury, even as I tried to tamp it down.

He must have understood that this wasn’t the time to test his boundaries because he stood up tall and put his hands up in front of him. “Nothing. I swear.”

“Did you lock up before you left?”

“Yeah. I checked all the bays, made sure they were locked, and locked the front door on my way out.”

“What time was that at?”

“About quarter to five.” I could hear a phone vibrating. It must be Jackson’s because I knew it wasn’t mine. He made no attempt to check it while he stood before me. Good.

“We close at five,” I told him. Not sure why that was what I was focused on at this moment.

It wasn’t like it was going to matter anyway.

I was just so enraged, any and everything had the potential to set me off.

Hell, I felt that way before I even showed up to the catastrophe that was my garage. Now, it was simply compounded anger.

“I know. I didn’t think it was a big deal. And you were gone for the day. I shouldn’t have left early. Sorry. But I had nothing to do with this ,” he said, gesturing to the space around us.

I turned around to survey the damage for the millionth time. It got worse every time I looked at it. “Who’s your friend that hangs out here sometimes? The one that drops you off and picks you up?”

My back was to Jackson, still looking out at the immense amount of cleaning up I had to do, but I could tell there was something about that question that he didn’t like.

I thought for a second he wasn’t going to tell me.

I was already planning on getting Wes over here to get the information out of him.

Wes was a scary bastard when he wanted to be, and he didn’t have to worry about upsetting Maeve in the process.

After a beat, Jackson quietly responded, supplying me with a name that just made the top of my list.

“Today, it was Sam.”

“But usually?” I prompted.

“Trey. Trey Myers.”

“Same prick who was harassing the girl?” I nodded to his side where he had been nursing his ribs.

“Yeah,” he admitted quietly.

“Grab gloves. There’s a lot of broken glass. Small stuff goes in the barrels. Large stuff, we’ll just throw out the door in a pile until I can get a dumpster here. Get to cleaning. I have to call the insurance company.”

I shot a quick text off to Wes to give him a new name to work with in his investigation while I made my way into the upturned office.

Whoever did this went through everything.

I wasn’t sure what, if anything, was missing or if the point was to just dump everything onto the floor for shits and giggles.

Digging through the mess, I found a notepad and a pen.

The insurance company kept me on hold for thirty-seven minutes before I could get through to someone.

They spent a whole five minutes getting the details, relaying that they would be opening a case and someone would be getting in touch with me.

I kept my eye on Jackson as I called each of the owners whose vehicles had been damaged while in my custody.

Everyone was equally appalled and understanding.

I made sure they knew that I would make it right, somehow.

All of my tools were either stolen or broken, so there wasn’t anything I could do right now.

I called around to the other garages in neighboring towns to see if they had the space to take on some of the work.

Obviously, I would be paying for all repairs.

I just hoped that the insurance money wouldn’t get held up anywhere.

Back in the garage space, I tried to stand up one of the fifty-five-gallon drums that was pushed over. When full, the beast weighed about five hundred pounds. I figured since half of the fluid was now on the floor, I would be able to haul it upright again.

When I caught sight of Jackson talking on the phone instead of cleaning, I nearly lost my mind.

Raising my voice to get his attention, I shouted, “Jackson, a hand, please?” I didn’t want him to give his buddy a heads-up that I had him in mind as a suspect.

“Who are you on the phone with? Are they more important than getting this shit cleared up?” I asked, maybe a little aggressively.

When he told me that he was talking to his sister, my heart rate sped up as my mood darkened even further. She would take his call, but she wouldn’t take mine. Or at least call me back. After everything that happened yesterday between us, I thought I deserved a callback, no?

I had no idea what was going through her mind.

I thought I did; while we were in the middle of enjoying each other’s bodies, I thought I had her all figured out.

What made her gasp, what made her moan. I wanted to spend all night learning her every curve.

But then she basically shut me out. I still didn’t understand it. But I knew I didn’t like it.