Page 26 of Eagle

Chapter 11

Leona

I entered the house and tossed my purse onto the sofa. I’d put a stew into the crockpot that morning before heading off to work, and the aroma drew me to the kitchen to check on it. The spoon next to the crockpot revealed that Ron had stirred it throughout the day. I was pleasantly surprised that he’d thought of it. He’d spent the week at home recuperating, while I’d started working at Mac’s garage.

It was going to be a good deal for me. The boys left me alone in the office, coming in only to refill their coffee cups or to get the lunch they’d stowed in the small fridge. When I’d first arrived on Monday, Mac had wasted no time in telling his crew that I was there to work, and he didn’t want to see anyone lingering around the office flirting with me. Then, to my surprise, he’d swept an arm across the small, messy office and told me to own it.

I still laughed thinking about that comment. He’d been serious, and I knew that he’d basically been giving me permission to do whatever I wanted with the office. It had taken me the whole week to organize everything into a mess that I could work with. I’d started with the desk, and by the time I was done I’d had a sizable stack of invoices to deal with. It was the beginning of my weekend, though, and I would tackle them on Monday.

Having Saturday and Sunday off had been another pleasant surprise, because the garage remained open seven days a week. I would have thought that the weekends would be the busiest, but then Mac had informed me that while they worked seven days a week, the garage was closed to the public during the weekends, and any calls would go directly to the mailbox.

“Hey, you’re home!”

I gave my brother a tolerant smile. “No. I’m a figment of your imagination.” I shook my head and replaced the lid on the crockpot. “Thanks for watching this for me.”

“Is it done? I’m starved.”

I raised a brow of disbelief. “Do you really expect me to believe that you haven’t already had a bowl?” I knew Ron.

He slowly shook his head, grinning mischievously. “Yeah. It’s really good.”

“Of course. I made it.” Our mom was a great cook, and I’d learned from her. I went to the cupboard and reached for a wine glass. “Do you think you’ll be able to go back to work Monday?” I opened the fridge for the half bottle of Stella Rosa I had in there.

“I think I’d better. My ribs still hurt, but I’ll wear a binder beneath my clothes to give me support.”

“You’re lucky they believed your story about being in a car accident.” I poured myself a generous portion of wine.

He chuckled. “They had to once I sent them the pictures.”

“Yeah, I hope that doesn’t happen again.” I prayed that he’d learned his lesson.

Something troubling crossed Ron’s features so quickly that I wasn’t sure if it were real or if I’d imagined it.

“Yeah,” he said after a minute. I tilted my head and gave him a long look. “What?”

I shrugged. “Is there something I should know?”

Ron responded with a quick shake of his head and looked away, worrying me even more. I knew my brother. I knew his tells. I had a hunch that there was something he wanted to tell me, but that he was undecided. I also knew he’d tell me when he was ready.

He changed the subject. “How’s the new job going?”

I leaned against the counter. “I like it. I have the office to myself, and the guys leave me alone.”

“Can’t believe you’re working for the Soldiers.”

“You know, they’re not bad guys. They—”

He held up his hand to stop me. “Eagle already gave me a lecture on how lucky I was that they beat me to a pulp and didn’t kill me.”

“They hardly beat you to a pulp.” I doubted that was how Eagle had explained it to Ron, and I was kind of surprised by the bitterness in his tone, especially after how subdued and introspective he’d seemed after the incident, as if he’d had time to think about the decision he’d made on the road and had realized the error of his ways. It had seemed as if he’d accepted that his punishment had been warranted. Now that he wasn’t hurting as much and was no longer at the mercy of the MC, it appeared that he was beginning to feel differently.

“Are you defending them?” His brows furrowed in a scowl between his narrowed eyes.

I took a sip of my wine to give myself time to develop an answer. How had we managed to get through the whole week without bringing this up? “I’m not defending anyone, Ron. I was scared after you took off and just left me there.”

He flinched at the reminder.

“But I tried to protect you through it all. I didn’t give them your name. Not even after it was pointed out to me that if the police had gotten involved it would have been a lot worse for you. I’m sure Eagle told you as much.”

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