Junkyard Dog(52)

“You could have asked me to get up,” I mutter, steadying myself.

“I didn’t want to be rude.”

Laughing, I follow him to the front door where the motorcycles rumble in the parking lot. Hayes gets bigger next to me. Turning into an angry bear man, he’s ready to tear someone a new *. I look at the two blond bikers idling next to Hayes’s truck and think about how I’ve never been into fair-haired men.

Hayes disappears into the back office and returns carrying a shotgun.

“What the hell?” I ask as he storms to the front door.

“Stay in here.”

“No way. I got your back.”

Hayes prepares to tell me to do what he f*cking says, but I see by his expression he knows he’ll be wasting his time.

“Get behind me then.”

I grab my purse and dig around inside. “I’ll get my pepper spray.”

“I’m not messing around,” he growls.

“Neither am I.”

I show him my little pepper spray bottle. Hayes frowns at me and then looks at the waiting men.

“Don’t say anything.”

“Should you go out there when you’re sporting a woody? You tend to be overly aggressive when your dick’s hard.”

“Say nothing,” he repeats, adjusting his pants. “Not a f*cking thing or you’re fired.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Hayes gives me one final pissy look before he storms outside waving his shotgun and a hard-on. I follow after him with my pepper spray and damp panties.

“Turn them off,” Hayes orders the men.

Once the motorcycles fall silent, Hayes rests the shotgun on his shoulder.

“Why are you here?”

“We’re missing one of our people Thought you might know where to locate his shallow grave,” the man on the left asks, and I realize they’re identical twins.

“I haven’t dug any in the last few weeks. If he disappeared longer than that, my memory is sketchy.”

“Is this your latest assistant?” the other man asks. “She keeps hanging up on us when we call.”

Hayes glances back at me, and I shrug.

“They must have sounded like whiny bitches, and I won’t let you waste your time talking to those sorts.”

The twins grin but Hayes remains in angry * mode.

“Candy Girl,” one of them says, giving me a wink.

Hayes literally growls like a dog before growling actual words. “Dayton, if you keep eyeballing her, I’ll tear off your head and send it to your mother.”

“Dude, be cool. You don’t want to mess with my mom. She’s a little bit crazy.”

The non-Dayton twin rolls his eyes. “We’ve had a few people disappear recently. We figure either you grabbed them up, or the *s in Common Bend did.”

“If your people come to my town, they’re bound to disappear.”

“What if they want to go to the mall?” the non-Dayton twin asks.

“If they want to shop or eat at the fine establishments in White Horse, they’re welcome. If they’re doing business in my town, they become my problem.”

“But you didn’t make anyone your problem recently?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you here.”

The twins glance at each other. I hate how these two big men are ganging up on my big man. I wish I could grow a foot taller and maybe gain a hundred pounds of muscle. I’d kick some major ass then. I bet I’d make a sexy as hell muscle bound man too.

I’m still imagining a hot guy version of me when the twins turn on their motorcycles. Flinching at the ferocity of the sound, I even step behind Hayes like a chickenshit. The men say something over the roaring engines, but I can’t hear them. Hayes doesn’t respond to their comments, and soon they disappear down the road and around the corner.

“What was that about?” I ask as he ushers me back into the office.

“Grab your shit. We’re going to the hotel.”

“Why?”

Hayes rests his shotgun on the spare desk. “I’m tense.”

“My vagina is not a punching bag you can use whenever tense.”

Grunting at me, Hayes is a ball of irritation. He glances down at my hand holding the pepper spray and smiles.

“You would have gone after them, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course. I have your back, *.”

Hayes steps closer and cups my face. “You wanted to have fun before they got here.”

“I don’t want you taking out your frustrations on my vagina.”

“I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

“So not all that gentle then.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I walk to my desk and slide the pepper spray in my purse. “Do you think I’d make a sexy man?”

“Sure. Can we go now?”

“You’d be an ugly woman. I’m sorry if the truth hurts, but you have no feminine qualities.”

“And you have no masculine ones. Well, you do scratch your crotch sometimes like you have itchy balls. I like that.”

I stand at the doorway and sigh. “Those guys won’t cause problems, will they?”

“Not for me.”