Page 45 of Junkyard Dog

Anotherthunk. Another curse. “Impounded. I’ll text you when I’m getting close, probably Tuesday.”

“Why not drive down with Ryan?” he asked, caught between relief knowing his brothers were closing in and a strange pressure in his chest at the thought of what that meant for Charlotte.

“I’m not spending hours locked in a vehicle with him. I’ll kill him.” Bo laughed. “Holy shit, Lex. He just doesn’t fucking ease up, does he? See you on the flip, numbnuts.”

A cold emptiness settled into his limbs despite the intense heat of the desert night. He took a deep breath as the line went dead and rose to his feet, slipping back into the trailer and checking on Charlotte before he turned his phone off and slid into bed beside her.

Bo.

Charlotte.

Even without Ryan’s presence, Bo’s arrival would put a definitive stop to everything he wanted to have with her.

At max, he had thirty-six hours left.

Knowing sleep would evade him, he rolled onto his side, wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her tight against him while he still could.

Chapter Sixteen

Charlotte schooled herface as she marched into Tom’s Tavern, her phone in hand. She spotted Alex immediately in the crowded lounge, his hulking form towering over the crowd as he made his way back to the bar. Setting her cell on the counter, she pushed it toward him and crossed her arms. “And what exactly is this?”

He smirked, glancing down at the open messages that had whizzed through her phone once she had hit the highway after work. “That would be me providing you with the details necessary for you to make an informed decision regarding your calling of the shots.”

“This,” she said, leaning forward to give him a view of her cleavage, “is borderline pornographic.”

“That,” he countered, his eyes drifting toward her intended target, “is all I’ve been able to concentrate on all day.”

She pulled up a stool and sat, slipping her phone into her back pocket. “You made a few valid points. How long until you’re off?”

“Forty-five minutes.”

She glanced around the full bar. “If you start the caffeine drip on me, I’ll wait for you.”

He poured her a coffee, lifting her hand to his lips before he turned his attention to the customers swarming the bar. She pulled out her phone and began absently flipping through celebrity gossip until a hand tapped her back.

“This seat taken?”

“Nope,” she replied, eyes on her cell and coffee in her fist. “Go ahead.”

The guy pulled up uncomfortably tight to her, his leg resting against her bare thigh. She glanced at the offending appendage for a moment before she angled her body farther away and tucked her skirt tighter underneath her.

“Could I buy you a drink?”

Keeping her phone in her hand, she gave the guy a tight smile. “No thanks.” She lifted her mug in his direction. “I’m on the caffeine tonight.”

The man tipped his beer bottle at her. “A shot then. Your choice.”

Realizing she wasn’t going to easily shake him, she crossed her legs away from the guy and hunched forward. “I’m good, but no thanks. I’m waiting for someone.”

“One of your little girlfriends?”

An arm draped across her back, sending a cold chill through her. She shrugged it off roughly, her polite smile replaced by a look of pure annoyance. “The bartender.” She turned her back to him completely, scanning the crowded room for Alex and running her best angles of takedown should the guy push her further.

The man stayed beside her for a few moments, taking a long swig of his beer before he rose to his feet and strode in front of her, his chest puffed up and face contorted. “Just going to ignore me, bitch?” he snarled. “Fucking slu—”

His feet left the ground before he could finish his insult, Alex’s long arms yanking the guy back from her and pinning him against the counter. The guy sputtered, cursing in enraged surprise.

Alex’s face was stoic as he bent the man’s arms behind his back and marched him toward the exit. “Next time you walk in here, I’ll remove both kneecaps with a bat. We clear?” Several patrons cleared a path, one young guy holding the door open for Alex as he hefted the man out into the parking lot. With a quick roll of his shoulders, he scooped up the man’s discarded beer bottle and stalked back to the bar, his stoicism morphing into concern. “You okay?”

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