Under Locke

by Zapata, Mariana

  “Fuck that and fuck you guys!”

  Blue and I glanced at each other again and shrugged.

  “Fuck this place! You fucking thieves. Your shit ain’t that good.”

  We just stared at him.

  “You short little shit.” He pointed at Blue.

  Blue blinked like she didn't give half a crap what he thought, but I did.

  "Hey, that's unnecessary," I snapped back. Why did people have to be so rude?

  And then the pissed off man moved his finger in my direction, ignoring my outburst. “And you, you—“

  “Get the fuck out, man.”

  Blue and I both whipped our heads over our shoulders to see Dex come prowling down the hallway from his office.

  Oh snap!

  With the mood he'd been in all day, I'd been relieved when he'd locked himself in his office as soon as we'd gotten to the shop. That morning he'd come out of his bedroom with his lips pursed, jaw locked, angry at the friggin' world. He'd snapped at me for just asking if he'd heard from Sonny. Sheesh. I wasn't sure what had gotten him so ripe but even I knew better than to ask.

  So when the man yelling looked relieved, I didn’t understand why. Obviously, he’d never spoken to Dex before because if he had, he would have known the look on his face was the opposite of anything that could resemble salvation or relief of any kind.

  “Bro, your two drones here are trying to charge me an arm and fucking leg for my piece!” Pissed Off Guy said with that same relieved smirk on his face. “Can’t I get a hook-up for being a new customer?”

  Dex had closed the distance between his office and my desk by the time the guy finished talking. At that point, he was standing right next to me, seven inches of space between us. If I moved my arm, it would touch the muscular tattooed thigh he’d shown me days before. The muscular thigh then made me wonder, for all of a microsecond what kind of piercing Dex had on his penis before I snapped myself out of it. Somehow I'd gone from a relatively content virgin to a woman who was constantly thinking about pierced genitals and nipples.

  “No, bro, I won’t, and if I did, I wouldn’t give it to someone who comes into my fuckin’ shop, hollerin’ and callin’ my employees little shits and whatever the fuck you were gonna call Ritz,” he ground out with a slight grumble to his voice.

  Pissed Off Guy sagged, shaking his head in a way that told me he didn’t think this conversation with Dex was over. “Aww, c’mon, bro.”

  “Get the fuck out before I throw your ass outta here, bro,” The Dick warned.

  Ooh, wheee. I somehow caught Blue’s gaze and we each made our eyes wide.

  Dex inhaled a long, deep breath through his nose. “You got five seconds to get the hell out.”

  There was no room for interpretation. I would have left and taken my carbon footprints with me. Dex was pretty scary when he was pissed off—though Dex on a daily basis was pretty scary. I used to think it was all that ink on his arms but it totally wasn't. Since he usually wore t-shirts, his tats were always visible. All that black and gray on tanned skin was the first thing your eyes went to when speaking to Dex. Now, the more I got to know him, the more I realized that it wasn’t just the tattoos that made him intimidating.

  Dex was a scary asshole period. He just radiated this pure “I-don’t-give-a-fuck” attitude, and that was scary. You couldn’t control or anticipate a person who didn’t care. They were wildcards. Add that in with his Dyna and his tattoos, and yeah—intimidating on the outside.

  When the Pissed Off Guy held his arms out in a what-the-hell gesture, Dex shook his head.

  “Five,” he started counting. “Four, three—“

  “God. Fuck you guys and fuck this fuckin’ overpriced bullshit!” Pissed Off Guy’s voice had taken a slightly shrieking edge to it.

  “Two—“

  With all the class in the world, the guy shot us a one-finger salute and got the hell out.

  Well.

  Long, warm fingers wrapped around the back of my neck as Dex dropped down to his haunches, eye level with me. “You all right, Ritz?” His bright blue eyes were on mine, all traces of annoyance gone from his features.

  “Yeah,” I told him. “He was just pretty dumb and rude.”

  The smile he gave me in return was so soft it was hard to understand how his mood went from one side of the linear line to the other in seconds. It also reminded me of exactly what I’d told him on the ride back from Houston. The kindest, grumpy ass man in all of Texas.

  “Yeah, he was,” he agreed. Dex’s fingers gave my neck a squeeze. The action made my throat close up momentarily. “C’mon, I’ll buy you a Coke.”

  Like I was going to tell him no.

  “You want a pop?” he asked Blue as he turned around.

  She scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “I’m good.”

  I followed after him, waiting patiently while he put in the dollar bills to get our drinks. He popped the lid for me, handing over the drink with a frustrated smile.

  "I can't stand assholes like that," he grunted. "What I wanna do is go beat his fuckin' ass."

  Both my eyebrows went up. "Calm your horses. It's not worth you getting into trouble," I reminded him of what Shane had hinted at back in Houston. “Or messing up your hands, dumb-bum.”

  “Dumb-bum?” He blinked.

  I shrugged. “Yeah. What would you do if you broke a couple fingers?”

  “Babe, you only break fingers if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  Blinking slowly, I opened my mouth and closed it. “I know you’re not kidding and yet…”

  The corner of Dex's mouth tilted up, but it wasn't a smile of amusement exactly, it was more of a knowing smirk. "Babe."

  “I’m being serious. You have to take care of yourself. Keep that rage under control.”

  “I’m good.”

  The look I gave him was half disbelieving, half resigned. Then the opportunity hit me, and I stopped caring. “You weren’t good this morning.”

  He scowled. I hit the battleship!

  “What happened?”

  “Nothin’ important. Don’t worry about it.”

  What was it about that saying that grated on my nerves? I should shut up. I should mind my own business. The only thing was, I didn’t want to. “Did a bird poop on your bedroom window?”

  Dex’s cheek ticked up in agitation. “Smart ass.” He blew out a long breath from between his lips. “My pa called my sis askin’ for money to buy new shoes.”

  “Okay…”

  Then he burst out unexpectedly, “And the dumbass gave it to him!” He squeezed his eyes shut, thumb and index finger pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t get what the hell is wrong with ‘em. I can sleep at night knowin’ he’s runnin’ around with holes in his shoes.”

  Well, what could I say? Don’t be mad? Please. No way. If he disliked his dad half as much as I disliked mine, then...yeah. That didn’t mean I had to let him wallow in his frustrations even if it seemed to have passed. “There’s nothing you can do about it now though, is there?”

  When his cheek ticked up again, I lifted both of my shoulders and wiggled my fingers. “Just let it go, your highness. Just let it all go.”

  The look he gave me could have seared the flesh off of my muscles and made me break into hives if I hadn’t recognized that little gleam in his eye that assured me he would never physically hurt me. Yell at me? Sure. Call me names I’d use on my future dog? Yeah. But hurt me? Nah.

  “Babe?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Get your ass back up front.”

  Oh.

  ~ * ~ *

  “I like having you around,” Slim told me while we were seated on the couch, waiting for Blue and Dex to finish up whatever they were doing for closing.

  “Why?” I asked him carefully, smiling a little.

  “Because Dex is hilarious when he’s pissed off.”

  I gave him my best bug eyes. “You like seeing him mad like that?”

  H
e nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Trust me, you know Dex a few years like we do, him getting pissed is like an early Christmas present. He never gets riled up enough to lose it at Pins. Mayhem is another story but here? Never.”

  I’d thought about that after I’d finished off my soda with him in the back. His mood had switched to laid-back Dex in the blink of an eye. He’d asked me about what my life had been like back in Florida, and if I’d ever dealt with so many insolent people before at any of my other jobs. The answer to that last question had been a blatant “no” that made us both laugh.

  Despite the fact that I had no doubts Dex would have kicked that guy’s ass if he hadn’t left and that it was kind of scary that someone could get so angry, I had to say, it was kind of hot.

  Pretty hot.

  All right, it was plain hot.

  But I didn’t know what to do with it and knew I shouldn’t do anything with that thought.

  Dex was my boss. My boss who’d been a dick to me in the past, but still was a dick to other people. On the other hand, this was still the same man who had opened up to me about things that were undoubtedly difficult for him. And the same one who knew things I hadn’t told anyone. The caring grump.

  “How’s your piercing?” Slim asked.

  Not wanting to pull up my shirt while I was sitting—my pants were really tight and that was the excuse I’d use for the little roll hanging over the waist band— I stood as I told him. “Good, I think.”

  I pulled up my shirt, just over the belly button. “It’s only sore if I touch it, but that’s normal, right?”

  Slim nodded, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees to look at the green gem in the middle. “Yeah, that’s normal. It looks good.”

  I pushed the ring up and down like he’d told me to, to keep the skin from healing around the metal. “I like it.”

  The alarm beeped from the hallway, followed by the sound of motorcycle boots on the tile floor as Slim reached up to poke at my rib cage with his index finger. “One day, you have to let me do something here. I think it’d look pretty wicked, Ris.”

  I snorted at the same time that familiar figure came into my peripheral vision. “Let me think about it.”

  Dex stopped and eyed our placement critically through narrowed eyes before I yanked my shirt back down and shot him an innocent smile.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  He nodded his reply.

  I called out a goodbye to Blue and Slim when we were out of the shop. All of us except Dex were used to walking toward the lot together each night. Dex always parked in front of the shop. Every single time. It was like the universe and all of its inhabitants knew that spot in front of Pins was his and only his.

  Dex had barely gotten on his bike, having passed me the helmet when he said, “I got somewhere to go tonight. I'm taking you to your car, and you can drive back to my place from there.”

  I pretty much knew how to get to his house, and while I wasn’t crazy about the idea of staying there alone when he lived in the middle of nowhere, I couldn’t really argue or be a baby about it. “Okay,” came out of my mouth but it was reluctant.

  He parked in front of the driveway again when we stopped at Sonny’s place. It was eerie how quiet the house seemed. Usually by the time I came home from work, Sonny had already turned on the porch light, and another light inside of the house would be on as a welcoming beacon for me. But there were no lights anymore, his SUV was gone, and his bike, along with Trip’s, were under the carport. It hit me how mad the sight of it made me.

  All because of our dad.

  I’d barely taken the helmet off when I frowned at Dex. I asked him the same question he'd snapped at me for earlier. “Still nothing from Sonny?”

  His head shake was grim. “Not yet, but it ain't a big deal. Knowin' them, they're drivin’ nonstop, babe.”

  I let out a deep breath and nodded. There was no way I could realistically expect Sonny to keep tabs with me, and especially not with Dex. I couldn't imagine a man in his thirties calling his little half-sister to tell her every single time they stopped for gas. “Okay. Well, I guess I’ll get going.”

  He extended his hand out to wrap around my wrist. “Text me when you get there.” His heavy eyes stayed on me the entire time. “There’s a spare key under the garden gnome in the front yard.”

  Ahh, that would explain the garden gnome’s existence. He’d seemed so out of place in the plants that hadn’t been tended to in way too long.

  “Will do.” Taking a few steps back toward my car, I wiggled my fingers at him. “Be safe.”

  ~ * ~ *

  I tried to tell myself that there was nothing to be mad at.

  I did.

  I shouldn’t have been worried that Dex hadn't come home that night, that he never texted me after I messaged him that I made it to his house. He was a big boy. He could do whatever he wanted.

  I swear, I really tried not to be mad, but I was.

  Falling asleep on the couch was nothing new. Being paranoid that someone would break into the house that was in the middle of nowhere—without a friggin’ alarm!— was too much. I kept envisioning those men who had taken Sonny showing up. When that disaster ended, I'd start thinking of serial killers with masks on breaking a window and killing me, and then flaying my skin off to mount on their wall. Dramatic? Maybe a little.

  So maybe my lack of sleep was part of the reason why I was so annoyed—not mad—that Dex hadn’t made it back. Or texted me.

  I'd sent him another message that he didn’t respond to.

  Feeling weird being at his house by myself and not wanting to deal with it any longer, I left a note on top of his dining room table telling him that I was going to run some errands. First, I stopped at the YMCA and swam as many laps as I could push through. Then I ended up going to the mall and bought new pants and a couple of shirts so that I wouldn’t be walking around worrying about clean cardigans that covered what my tank tops didn't. After that, I watched another movie and went to work.

  Almost immediately, I regretted making it in.

  I'd been in the middle of trying to look up videos on how to fix the thermo fax when a little hussy—I say little but she easily had three or four inches on me while I probably had about five pounds on her—appeared. She came in wearing a mini-skirt that looked like something made for someone my height—or a ten year old’s—and thick red hair that made me a little jealous. And she was carrying a vest that looked familiar.

  Her thin, pretty face pinched into a scowl when she stopped in front of my desk, looking at me through the dark tint of her huge sunglasses. “I need to drop this off for Dex.”

  “All right,” I told her, already extending my arms out to take it as my annoyance factor went up about twenty degrees.

  “He left this at my house last night,” she added. Why she mentioned that I had no idea.

  Why I felt a twitch at my eye, I had no idea either.

  I just blinked at her, taking the vest from her hands before I stood up, my stomach fluttering. “All right.”

  “All right,” she repeated in a low voice. “Later.”

  And just like that she was gone.

  Then, just like that I got even more annoyed.

  I’d sat there worrying about goddamn Dex doing something stupid to help us out with the Reapers, while in the meantime he was off at some woman’s house? I swear even my butthole tensed up in frustration as I carried Dex’s jacket to the back and hung it up on a chair in the break room.

  I knew it wasn’t worth the effort worrying about a grown ass man like Dex. I knew it, but still, I’d lost sleep over it. Asshole.

  “Skyler bothers the fuck out of me, too.”

  I turned around to see Blake standing at the doorway to the room, hands shoved into his pockets. “You know when you meet someone and you’re immediately annoyed?”

  He laughed. “It’s her face, and maybe those windshield sized sunglasses she’s always wearing.”
>
  They really did look like tinted windshields, the visual made me grin at Blake as I ignored the fact he'd hinted that she'd been in before. “Yeah, you’re right. That’s probably it.”

  Blake's easygoing expression melted into a worried one as he crossed the room toward the vending machine. "I heard about Sonny."