Chapter Five
CHAPTER FIVE
A biting wind howled up the mountain as Owen knelt with Sawyer to examine the damaged tire. He pulled his beanie low over his forehead. Spring weather needed to hurry the hell up.
Walker had situated his truck and the trailer in front of Keeley’s CRV and was busy readying the chains they’d need to pull it onto the flatbed.
Owen pointed to the metallic head of a screw lodged in the tread of the front passenger tire, the one that had initially gone flat.
“ That’s what put Keeley on the side of the road last night.” He tapped his finger next to puncture marks in the sidewall and pushed back on the anger that made him want to punch something. “This was done after we left. Three gouges here, two here.” He bit out the words. “That’s five, and the other tires have more than that. Ten alone on the rear passenger tire. This is more than petty vandalism.” It fucking infuriated him.
“ Agreed.” The men rose to their feet. Owen stepped back, shoving his hands in the pockets of his heavy coat to keep them from freezing while Sawyer circled the car taking photos.
“ Effort like this indicates someone was pissed. Interesting that they focused on the tires and didn’t key the paint or bust windows,” Sawyer stated. “Question is whether this was an impulsive crime, someone driving by who took the opportunity to be an asshole, or if Keeley was specifically targeted. ”
The thought of Keeley being targeted was exactly what had Owen’s temper boiling. Her car being vandalized? Truly fucked, but a price of living in the modern world.
But if she’d been specifically targeted? He’d do whatever needed to keep her safe, and God help the perpetrator when Owen found him.
“ I’ll have the door handles and the fenders around the wheels, areas where the asshole might have touched, dusted for prints. We’ll see if anything pops.” Sawyer grabbed his tablet from his sheriff’s department SUV.
Owen nodded. He’d been a cop and knew petty vandalism didn’t usually rate serious investigation. He appreciated not having to convince Sawyer that’s what needed to be done.
Walker joined them. Sawyer looked up from tapping information into the tablet, gaze skewering Owen. “You’ll keep an eye on our girl while I work this?”
“ Got that right.”
Sawyer flashed him a grin. “Have fun with that. Keels has that sunny disposition, and she’s hands down the sweetest person I know, but she’s got a backbone of solid steel along with a stubborn streak of independence. If you want to keep an eye on her, you’ll have to convince her that it’s what she wants. Otherwise, she’ll freeze you out and you won’t stand a chance.”
“ Doesn’t matter what she wants. Her safety is the highest priority, so she’ll have to listen to me.”
Walker gave a bark of laughter. “Man, you’ve got a lot to learn about women. Better get up the curve quick or you’ll have your ass handed to you.”
Owen was still thinking how he’d go about protecting Keeley when Walker backed the trailer into the parking lot at Lou’s Tires. They offloaded the CRV and helped Lou’s crew get it to a lift. He went into the office to talk with the man himself.
Lou sat behind a metal desk with a dent in the front, a torque wrench holding down a stack of papers. A space heater buzzed in a corner, and the room smelled of stale coffee and motor oil. Lou took a pull from a chipped coffee cup, studying Owen over the rim. White hair stuck out from under the fielder’s cap with “Lou’s Tires” stitched inside a big tire.
“ Hey there, boy. Bar business keepin’ you busy?”
Owen had lived in Sisters long enough to know doing business was never about just doing business. He was more inclined to get in and get out, but people liked to shoot the shit—talk about the weather, town gossip, fire danger—whatever the hell was on their minds. He’d gotten good at giving them enough that he didn’t come off like a jerk, but he also didn’t spend half the day yapping.
“ Bar business is steady for this time of year. It’ll pick up more when it warms up and then it’ll be the summer tourist season. Got a good band Friday night and your wife likes to dance. Bring Jimena by and hang out.”
“ Might just do that. You bring in little Keeley’s CRV?”
Little Keeley? That’s what you got when you lived in a small town all your life. He nodded. “She’ll need four all-weather tires.”
“ Got off the phone with her a minute ago. We worked it all out. I recommended the all-weathers but she went with a line of less expensive tires we carry. She gave me her card number and I only need to process the purchase and we’ll be all set.”
“ She needs the all-weathers.”
Lou pulled at his lower lip. “Those cheaper ones aren’t bad tires. Not what I’d recommend, but I don’t carry bad tires.”
Owen was already shaking his head. “Put on the all-weathers. I’ll pay the difference.” With her new position come fall at the local high school in Sisters, at least she wouldn’t be commuting up and down the mountain anymore, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be better off with the all-weather tires.
Lou considered him from under the bill of his cap. “Well now, that girl was mighty clear she wanted the less expensive tires.”
“ I’ll work that out with her. Like I said, I’ll pay the difference. I want her safe. ”
Lou’s face broke into a gap-toothed smile. “That the way it is? Congratulations, young man. You’ve got a winner there. We’ll get those all-weathers on for you, and your girl will be safer for it. Give me a couple hours to get her done.”
Owen didn’t bother correcting Lou’s assumption that he and Keeley were together. “Thanks, Lou.”
***
Two hours later, Owen stood in front of the bathroom mirror rubbing a towel over his hair, another tucked around his waist. Jen had opened Easy Money and he’d scheduled himself from four until close. He’d been developing his crew, had trained Jen behind the bar, then promoted her to assistant manager. Plan was for him to cut back his sixty hours a week to something that would give him time to have some semblance of a normal life and work on his house project.
That was the theory anyway. He strapped his watch to his wrist, then rubbed a hand over his beard. He needed to run the rake over it. He was reaching in the drawer for his razor when his phone buzzed.
Jen: Bad news, boss. Ariana broke her leg skiing. Won’t be able to work for months. We’re screwed.
He shoved the razor back in the drawer. He’d just about finished training Ariana, gotten her so she didn’t have her phone in her hand every damn minute. Now that investment was a waste. Sure, he was sorry for the girl, a broken leg sucked. But damn, this was shit news, seeing as it put him back at square one trying to fill out his crew for the coming summer tourist season.
Hiring and firing were the worst parts of owning his own place.
He tapped to open the text that’d come from Lou while he’d been in the shower. The tires were mounted and Keeley’d already picked up her car. Lou had said Owen’s girlfriend had picked up her car. Fuck.
A sharp rapping at his front door had him muttering another curse. He finger-combed his wet hair, pulled on briefs, then Levi’s, buttoning the fly as he crossed the room. He pulled open the door and his breath jammed in his throat.
Seeing Keeley unexpectedly when he didn’t have time to brace for impact always had the effect of making his breath back up in his lungs. There were millions of women in the world, but not one of them could stop his heart like the woman standing at his door holding a pie.
Keeley Montaigne likely had that impact on any man she came across. Some women were like that. Golden brown hair, hazel eyes that gleamed with hints of gold, green, and gray, and a smile so bright when it beamed his way, it made a guy feel like the luckiest bastard on the planet.
Not that she beamed at him a whole lot. Everyone else got the sunshine, but with him she covered that sunshine with a thick layer of fog.
His apartment was located upstairs from Easy Money, accessed from the back parking lot by an outside flight of stairs. She stood on the narrow landing, and instead of her default sunshine she was one hundred percent pissed-off female.
She held a plastic carrier by its handle. “You’re a deceitful, lying bastard.”
“ Not usually. Got a problem, princess?”
“ Yes, I’ve got a problem.”
Even as she spoke, her gaze ran over his chest. She caught her bottom lip in her teeth, the gold in her eyes glowing. It didn’t hurt his feelings that she seemed to like what she saw, but it also made him wary. Then her attention snagged and she went still, her cheeks going pale. He knew what had caught her eye: a small round circle of uneven skin the size of a bullet right where his arm met his shoulder. She raised a hand and he froze .
He knew he should back up. Get far enough away so she couldn’t touch him. But he remained standing there like an idiot as she reached a finger to lightly brush the puckered scar. The first time she’d voluntarily touched him, and he felt it like a bolt of lightning.
She raised her face, expression stricken. “You were shot. Someone shot you.”
“ Yeah. Vest caught the first one.” He thumped a fist on his chest, right side, keeping his voice even. “Right here. Almost knocked me on my ass. Second one got past the vest, messed me up some.”
“ Did it happen when you were in the military or when you were a cop?”
It figured that Abby or Bruce had shared his background.
“ Cop.”
She waited like she expected him to explain. When he didn’t, she said, “I’m so sorry you were shot. It must have been agonizing.”
She was so empathetic her eyes reflected his pain. It took every ounce of control not to take the hand resting on his chest and…do what? Something stupid like pressing his lips to her palm? Like kissing her knuckles?
Where the hell did those ideas come from? He wasn’t a romantic, and he certainly wasn’t the right man to act like one with her. He shook his head to clear it. “My partner got it worse.”
Which was more than he wanted to say. He never talked about what happened. Ever.
Because he liked her touching him too much, and was afraid his control would break and he’d do some touching of his own, he stepped back to snag the rest of his clothes from where he’d left them hanging over the back of a chair.
She seemed to take his movement away from the door as an invitation because she stepped over the threshold into his apartment, closing the door against the cold wind. Shit.
“ Look, princess, we’re short-staffed tonight and I need to get downstairs. You can be pissed at me later. ”
“ I’m not a princess, and I can be pissed at you now.” She held out the carrier in her hand. “Here’s your thank-you pie.”
“ Thanks.” He took it across the room to the kitchen counter. Good move because it put more space between them. Facing her again, he noticed her watching as he buttoned his shirt.
He wished she wouldn’t do that. Self-preservation dictated he stay away from her. But if she was attracted to him, his self-control would erode away to nothing and he’d be screwed.
“ Not-annoyed me wants to say I really do appreciate you coming to get me last night. I didn’t want to spend the night in the car. And you arranged for it to be towed to Lou’s. I know you were doing it as a favor to my mom, but thank you.”
He opened his mouth to contradict her assumption, then snapped it shut. Some things were better left unsaid. He pulled on a navy t-shirt, followed by a long-sleeved polo with the Easy Money logo. “Spit it out, Miz Montaigne. Tell me what I’ve done to annoy you so I can get to work.”
She gave him a narrow-eyed glare and turned her back on him. She wandered to the bookcase and picked up his baseball mitt from a shelf and fit her hand into the glove. He never should’ve let her in.
Now he wouldn’t be able to get the image out of his head. Her in his space, touching his things. She tilted her head to study the titles on his bookshelf, loose golden-brown hair hanging down in a shimmering curtain of color.
“ Angela’s Ashes ,” she murmured. “That one’s gut-wrenching.”
She smacked her fist in the pocket of the glove that was way too big for her. Not that she was small. She was probably medium height for a woman, and he liked her sturdy build. Waif-like women made him feel ham-handed and clumsy.
Keeley looked tough enough to take wild sex and want more. He scowled. That was not what he should be thinking about. He’d worked damn hard to keep any ideas of Keeley and sex out of his head, and it irritated him that his brain went there .
“ You gonna explain the deceitful, lying bastard comment or are we done here?”
She set the mitt back on the shelf and faced him, crossing her arms in front of her. He’d irritated her more than a few times in the past, but he didn’t think he’d ever gotten her mad enough her hazel eyes sparked green. Which was a stupid thing to notice.
“ You lied to Lou and told him we’re together.”
“ No. Lou came to that conclusion by himself. I didn’t correct him.”
“ You should have because Lou’s a gossip and he’s already spread that tidbit around. When I went to get my car, one of the guys who works there, Jimmy Drummond, acted offended I was going out with you.”
“ He must want to be the guy to go out with you.”
“ Maybe he does. We’d been chatting on this dating app, and today he accused me of being dishonest since, according to Lou, I already have a boyfriend.”
“ What the hell are you doing on a dating app?”
She held his gaze even though her cheeks were reddening. “Lots of people find good matches on dating apps. It’s not like I’m selling myself.”
“ If he found you on a dating app, he wants in your pants. You outclass him in every aspect. You should be thanking me.”
“ Maybe I want him in my pants, as you so crudely put it. Jimmy’s a nice guy, so no, I’m not thanking you.”
“ He’s not the guy for you. You’d run circles around him.”
“ You don’t know that, and you don’t know what kind of guy is for me. I’d like to find someone, but you acting like we’re together isn’t conducive to me achieving that goal.”
“ Those are some big words you’ve got there, Miz Montaigne.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t make fun of me. I’m thirty-two years old and I want to find someone to spend my life with. I’d like to get married and have a family, and suitable men aren’t exactly knocking down my door.” She glared at him. “Don’t you dare judge me.”
“ Jesus, princess. I’m not judging you.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair. He was coming perilously close to saying things he had absolutely no business saying. He needed her to leave before he did something stupid.
“ I’ll straighten Lou out if it’s important to you. That all?”
“ It is important to me, and no, that’s not all. I told Lou what tires I wanted, what tires I could afford, and you convinced him the little lady didn’t have a clue what she needed and had him put on different tires.”
“ The all-weathers are better tires.”
“ I didn’t want the all-weathers. I wanted the ones I ordered.”
“ Which weren’t the best for driving in the mountains. It fucking snowed overnight. The roads were icy this morning. Your car isn’t even all-wheel drive. The tires I ordered are safer. I told him I’d pay the difference.”
She stalked toward him, as predatory as a mountain lion. “Listen to me, mister. I chose the tires I did for a reason. I’m selling my CRV once I start my new teaching position and get my first paycheck. Then I can buy a new car better suited to mountain driving. A new-to-me car, anyway, because it’s likely to be a used car. I didn’t want to put expensive tires on the CRV given we’re almost done with winter weather and I’ll be selling it. Now I either have to go to Lou and explain that you’re not my boyfriend and have no authority to override my decision, and then get him to put on the tires I ordered, or I’ll have to pay you the difference for tires I didn’t want in the first place.”
“ Or take the third option and keep the tires and keep your money. I don’t want you to pay me back.”
“ That’s not how I operate, relying on a man to take care of me. I pay my own way, and now I owe you money when I’m without a paycheck for the next four months unless I can get seasonal work for the summer.” Briefly, she closed her eyes. “And it’s dawned on me since I drove over here, the tires Lou put on have road dirt on them. It’s not fair to him to return used tires.”
“ Keep the tires, and keep your money,” he repeated. He raised a hand and when he realized he was going to jam his fingers through his hair again, he dropped it. He hated having a tell. “Pay me back in a different way.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Exactly what are you suggesting?”
“ What do you think I’m suggesting?” He couldn’t help messing with her.
“ I don’t trade anything for sex, Owen.”
“ Get your mind out of the gutter, Miz Montaigne. Come work for me.”
“ You mean at Easy Money?”
“ Yeah. You’ve waited tables, right?”
“ Only all through college. I waited tables at a place near Sac State, and once I turned twenty-one, I worked the bar side.”
“ Good. You start tonight.”
Her eyes widened. “Tonight? I still have to unload all my things from my car, and to do that I have to move things around in the garage to make space.” She tapped her chin. “Maybe if I offer to feed him, Yousef would drive up the mountain and help me.”
“ Work for me tonight and I’ll help you unpack tomorrow.”
She cocked her head, and he could see her considering his offer. “How long will I need to work to pay off my tire debt?”
“ You’ll work for an hourly wage plus tips. Your tire debt is paid by saving me the hassle of having to look for someone and going through the interview process. I hate that shit. I need someone reliable, which you are. As you’re fussy about honesty and punctuality, I won’t have to worry about that. Added bonus, you turn that sunshine smile of yours on the customers and you’ll be raking in the tips.”
“ I’m fussy because I’m trustworthy and on time?”
He caught her look. “Maybe not fussy. Fussy’s the wrong word. I meant particular. In a good way. ”
“ You make positive character traits sound boring as heck.”
“ Not at all. They’re all good qualities in an employee.” The more he thought about hiring her, the more the idea appealed. “Added benefit? I’ll be able to keep an eye on you.”
She tossed her head back and he got the clue the ice he was skating on was getting thinner. “Keep an eye on me? What makes you think you need to do that?”
“ Some asshole stabbed your tires multiple times, princess.”
“ My car being vandalized doesn’t mean you need to keep an eye on me.”
“ Look, someone messed with your car. Could be an asshole was being an asshole. But it could also be someone who recognized that CRV as yours. I don’t like the idea of you being targeted, so I’m keeping an eye on you.”
“ Is that so?”
“ Yeah, that’s so.” He wasn’t oblivious, he recognized that snooty tone for what it was, a way of trying to freeze him out. It wasn’t going to work, but he figured talking about it any further would give her too much time to dig in her heels. “You in? You want to spend your summer serving drinks at Easy Money?”
She chewed her bottom lip, seeming to be considering all the angles. “I’m thinking about it. Not because of your silly notion I need a babysitter, but because I need income this summer.” She tapped her fingers. “I’d have to work out a schedule with Mom so someone is always with Dad.”
“ Of course. Your family is a priority.”
He waited for her answer with more anticipation than he wanted to admit.
“ Yeah, okay. But I’m holding you to your promise to help me unpack my car.”
He let out a breath he hadn’t been aware of holding. “Not a problem.” He lifted his chin in the direction of the door. “Let’s go downstairs and get the paperwork filled out.”