Page 47

ACE

“ H eads up, Ace. We’ve got a walk-in.”

Hawk’s voice broke my focus. I exhaled hard into the undercarriage of Harley’s white rental SUV. I was repairing it myself, to make sure she wouldn’t get dinged at all for the damage on the rental.

It was a quiet day at the garage. We didn’t accept walk-ins, and everyone in Lakeview knew how booked we got. But Tank, who had good connections in the police force, gave me the heads-up about this last week.

I slid out from under the car and got to my feet. As I wiped my hands on the hem of my white Cole’s Garage shirt, I approached Chief Forest with a friendly smile on my face. “What can I do for you, boss?”

Forest smirked at me. “I need you to pause work for the day.”

“All right, any reason why?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.

Forest brandished a sheet of paper in my face. “We’ve got a warrant to search the place. Top to bottom.”

Sighing, I waved Forest and the rest of his lackeys into the garage. “We’ll stay out of your way, then. My office is unlocked, too.”

I turned the music off. “Take a break, guys,” I said to my employees. “Outside.” The four guys I had on shift today—not clan members, community members, all formerly incarcerated—shrugged and headed out of the garage.

I leaned against the back wall of the garage while the cops began to ransack the place. They moved through the garage like a tornado, throwing open toolboxes, opening car doors, and climbing the stairs to my office.

Hawk leaned on the wall next to me and crossed his arms over his chest. “They gonna find anything?”.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

Hawk shot me a sideways look, and I grinned.

“Good,” Hawk said. “Good. You know he’ll be looking everywhere.”

I watched Forest climb the stairs to my office, so angry it looked like steam was coming out of his ears. “Yeah, he’s still not over high school.”

“Well, we’re going to lose some money today with this bullshit going on,” Hawk muttered.

I nodded. Forest had been a scrawny nerd in high school, a year below Sean and me, and Sean had been a real dickhead to him.

Now that Sean was out of the picture, all that anger had been turned on me.

My stint in prison had only made it worse, and he’d made it his personal mission to get me back behind bars.

Even though the Lakeview clan had done nothing but support the town, Forest hated that some of the money was dirty.

I clenched my jaw as Forest and his guys ruined the careful organization of my garage.

After a certain point, they realized they weren’t going to find anything and instead focused on making my cleanup as difficult as possible.

I didn’t even want to think about the state my office would be in after all of this.

It took nearly two hours, but finally, the cops gave up on finding anything connecting me to guns or drugs. Forest marched out of my office and stomped down the stairs.

Smiling, I pushed off the wall and met Forest in the middle of the trashed garage. “Find what you’re looking for?”

“You wipe that shit-eating grin off your face,” Forest snapped. “I know you’ve got some shit going on, and once I find out where you’re keeping your stash, it’s over for you.”

“I keep telling you, Forest, it’s all clean. You can look all you want, but you’re not gonna turn up a damn thing.”

“That’s bullshit. You’ve always been a liar. A criminal. You can’t help yourself. And once your little girlfriend realizes that, she’ll leave you in the dust like she did ten years ago.”

My dragon reared up with a speed I hadn’t felt in years. Anger animated me, and before I even realized what was happening, my fangs had dropped and I’d bared them in Forest’s face. Hawk grabbed my shoulder and jerked me back before I could maul him.

Forest’s eyes were wide, and the color had drained from his face. I wasn’t the type to lash out like that, and he knew it.

But you poke the dragon enough, and it bites back.

“Even if Harley did leave me,” I said in a low, dangerous voice.

The taste of smoke burned on my tongue. “You wouldn’t have a chance with a woman of her caliber.

She likes her men to be…” I bared my fangs again.

“Men. And you don’t meet her standards. Now if you’re done wasting my time, I’ll ask you to get the hell out of my garage. ”

Forest glared at me. I held his gaze. He barely lasted two breaths before he cut his eyes to the side. “All right, guys,” he called to his lackeys. “Wrap it up. We’re heading back to the station.”

As the cops filed out of the garage, Forest narrowed his eyes. “You watch your back, Ace.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Always do.” Then I called out to the employees waiting outside. “Come on, guys! Let’s get this place cleaned up!”

The employees filed back in and started complaining and cursing at the state of the place.

“I know, I know,” I said. “We’ll get it put back together quick. And you’ll all get a round on me after work.”

Hawk came to my side and helped me right an upturned work table. “So, if there’s nothing here, then where…?”

“Nowhere with our names attached,” I said. “I’ve got the shipments moving around. And the documentation has already been destroyed.”

Hawk grinned. “Never doubted you, Ace.”

For a short-term solution, it worked. But we couldn’t keep doing this. Between Sean’s interference and Forest’s grudge, I’d slip up at some point. We’d get caught again.

I had to speed things up. I had to find Sean before something went really wrong.

I worked with Hawk and the rest of the garage guys for the rest of the afternoon, putting the space back together and reorganizing some long-ignored tool cabinets.

“All right, guys, good work today,” I said once the place was cleaned up.

“Go on down to Dane’s Place, I’ve got a tab there.

” The bar, a common watering hole for shifters and humans alike, was right off the Lakeview main strip.

I preferred to treat my employees at a business instead of the clubhouse.

“You’re not coming?” Hawk asked.

“I might swing by, but I want to run home first.”

My dragon was twitchy. Maybe it was the events of the afternoon, but something told me to get home and check on Harley and Dylan.

Hawk frowned, but he nodded. “Call me if you need anything.”

The guys went toward Lakeview proper, and I hopped on my bike and rode back toward home. When I arrived, the windows were lit with warm, gold light, and the house looked as cozy as ever. My dragon was still antsy, urging me to hurry inside.

I stepped inside. Harley was in the kitchen—her hair pulled into a bun and a slight crease between her eyebrows.

She was wearing one of my old T-shirts and kneading a ball of dough on the marble countertop.

A pan of onions were caramelizing on the stove, and she periodically paused in her kneading to stir the onions to keep them from burning.

“Let me guess, pizza night?” I asked as I walked into the kitchen.

“If I can get everything together,” Harley muttered.

I kissed her cheek. “Everything okay?”

She sighed. “It’s fine. Just a frustrating day.”

“How so?”

She nodded over at the couch. Dylan was buried in the corner, tucked under a blanket. He was so still I hadn’t even seen him when I walked in. He had his headphones in his ears, his brows pulled together as he focused on the handheld game console.

“Dylan!” Harley said.

No response.

“Dyl!”

No response.

Harley exhaled hard. “Dylan Founty, listen to me.”

Dylan ripped one earbud out and glared at Harley over the back of the couch. “What?”

“We’re eating soon. Go wash up and set the table.”

“I’m in the middle of a match.”

“Save your game and go wash up.”

“That’s not how it works.”

“Dylan,” I said, “your mom said to wash up. It’s time to put the game down.”

“No! You’re not listening to me.” Smoke filtered out of his nostrils.

Harley reared back, shocked at hearing Dylan snap like that. “If you want to keep playing that game at all this week, you better watch your tone.”

I was shocked, too—I’d heard Dylan snipe at his mom here and there, but not at me. Part of me was a little thrilled that he was comfortable enough to be angry with me. But I had a feeling it wasn’t merely hormones causing this bad mood.

“Dylan.” I stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Dylan put his game console down with a frown. “What?!”

I knelt in front of him, then pulled down Dylan’s lower lip. As I’d expected, his lower fangs were out, and his upper fangs were beginning to show as well. Dylan growled, then pulled away from my touch and batted my hand away.

“You’re shifting soon,” I told Dylan. “In the next few days.”

“Huh?” Dylan’s anger disappeared, and his eyes shot open wide with fear. “How do you know?”

“Your attitude,” I said with a grin. “You’re feeling pretty irritated and angry, right?”

He nodded.

“I remember. It’s your dragon getting ready to come forth. You’ll feel a lot more relaxed when it’s over.”

Dylan nodded again. His eyes were still wide. I took the console from his hands gently and set it aside. “Why don’t you apologize to your mom, then wash up before we eat dinner? I’ll set the table for you.”

“Okay,” Dylan said in a small voice. He climbed off the couch and skittered into the kitchen, then hugged Harley. She ran her hands through his hair and looked at me with the corners of her lips downturned.

“It’ll be okay,” I said. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

Dylan sighed, but he nodded.

“You know what?” Harley said. “Since you’re feeling so bad, you want to skip family dinner and eat in your room? Maybe watch a movie? Or play your game?”

Dylan nodded again.

Harley leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “All right, just this once, okay?”

“Thanks, Mom,” he mumbled.

Harley rolled her eyes over his head at me with a fond smile. She squeezed Dylan’s shoulder, then he turned around and looked at me, his lower lip quivering. “Thanks, Dad.”

“No worries, buddy.”