Saxon's Soul (Haven, Texas 5)

“Why? You think he took my car?”

“Well, seems mighty odd to me that a thief stole your car only to return it running better than it did. And there’s only one man I know around here who could work miracles like that.”

“All right. Thank you.”

“No problem, sweetheart. Now, about that cherry pie?”

Saxon answered his phone without bothering to look at the caller ID. “Hello.”

“Hey, Saxon, Matt here.”

“Matt, how can I help you?”

“Uh, it’s about Aspen’s car? The one you had me tow and work on?”

“Yes? Did you manage to fix it?”

“Yeah, although I don’t know how much more life it’s got in it, truth be told. The tires are pretty bald as well. I’d recommend getting them upgraded asap.”

He frowned. “I’ll talk to her about it.” He knew she was going to be angry with him for his high-handedness already. “How did she react when you called her to ask for a key?”

“Um, well, I didn’t need to do that. Turns out it wasn’t locked, and we found a spare key behind the passenger’s sun visor.”

“What? She’s lucky the damn thing didn’t get stolen.”

“Surprising the amount of people who leave their cars unlocked around here. It’s a safe town, though.”

His ass it was. Plenty of bad stuff had gone down in this safe town.

He’d have words with her about that little habit. It was completely unacceptable. What if someone had climbed into her car and hidden themselves in the backseat until she was driving along that long stretch of empty road—just the thought of it made sweat break out across his brow.

“Anyway, one of my guys went to return the car to her this morning like you told us so she could drive to work, but she wasn’t there. Her mother told him she’d already left.”

What? How had she gotten to work without a car? Had someone picked her up? He ground his teeth together. That better be what happened.

Shit. He should have called her and told her what he was doing. Except he’d figured Matt had already done that and when he didn’t receive any irate phone calls from her telling him what a high-handed prick he was he’d assumed she wasn’t too pissed at him.

“He decided he would go park it back where we picked it up. But the idiot didn’t think to go tell Aspen straight away. Instead, he headed off to get some food. Then I get a visit from Duncan asking me what I know about a car being stolen.” Matt’s normally easygoing voice was heating up, and he winced. He didn’t blame him. Getting accused of stealing a car wasn’t good for business.

“I’ll clear this up.”

“That would be good. Feel bad about worrying that little girl. I assume you still want me to send you the bill?”

“Yes.”

“Because she was insisting that I send it through to her. But that wouldn’t really be right considering she didn’t ask me to work on her car, now would it?”

“No, it wouldn’t. I asked you to do the work and I will pay the bill.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured. You’ll get it soon.”

Yes, and probably with an upcharge for his trouble added on. He stood, sighing as the buzzer at the front door of the club sounded. What now? He turned to the camera monitor, not terribly surprised to see who was standing there.

How dare he? Who the hell did he think he was? She stormed along the sidewalk, anger whipping through her.

He had no righ

t to do what he had. No right at all. And she was going to tell him to butt the hell out of her life and leave her alone.