Dax (The Theriot Family 4)

“I don’t—” His phone rang.

I tilted my head toward it. “Go ahead and answer it. I’ll wait.”

Travis answered the call. Within seconds, the color drained from his face. He didn’t say anything, but a few moments later his frightened expression turn to anger. “Leave me alone.”

He ended the call and shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Who was that?”

Travis shook his head. “Wrong number.”

“Travis, do you really think I’m that stupid?”

“It’s nothing, Dax. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“I worry about everything that concerns you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re… Because I promised to protect you. You were scared by whatever the person said.”

“When Beau was in jail, I was scared every day. I’m used to it.”

“Let me help you. Let all of us help you.”

“What’s going on?” Beau called. I turned to see Corbin right behind him. He’d probably been trying to stop Beau from coming out to the garage.

“Travis just got a call that shook him up,” I said, knowing Beau would want details as much as I did.

“Who was it?” Beau demanded.

Travis rolled his eyes. “Does anyone around here understand privacy?”

“Nope,” Corbin said. “There are a lot of good things about my family, but that is one of the downsides.”

“It was some guy claiming to work for LePlatt, telling me they wanted to see me.”

This was not good. “They’ve probably traced the phone by now.”

Corbin’s expression hardened. “How long did the call last?”

I held out my hand. “Let me see your phone.”

Travis glared at me. “I can look it up myself.”

There was no point in arguing. He was right. “I’m calling Remington. I want to be sure we’re fully prepared.”

“You don’t need to do that. It was just a threat. It’s not like this is the first time they’ve called me.”

Anger burned through me. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me they’d contacted you before? How long has it been since you’ve heard from them?”

Travis shrugged. “I don’t know. A month or so.”

“Jesus.” Beau ran a hand over his hair. “I can’t believe you kept this from me.”

“I didn’t. I told you they wanted revenge.”

“You didn’t say they’d already tried to come for you.”

“They haven’t. They just make threats. Nothing has come of it.”

Beau’s face was red. He looked ready to explode, and I was fighting just as hard to stay calm. I’d known Travis was in danger, but now I was ready to tear everyone in LePlatt’s organization apart.

“That will change now that they know you’re here,” I said. “Once they realize you’re in a position to spill information to the Theriots, they aren’t going to leave you alone.”

“I told you I should just leave. I didn’t want to involve any of you in this.”

“Too bad,” Beau snarled. “We’re involved, and that’s exactly where we want to be.”

No one came after Travis or any of us that day or during the next few weeks. I spent a lot of time at Beau’s shop. I often caught Travis watching me. More than once, he dropped tools or forgot what he was saying midsentence whenever I was close by. I hoped I wasn’t as obvious, but Travis was distracting as fuck.

I was thrilled when Beau and Corbin moved to a new house and offered Travis the apartment over the shop. I had much better control over the security there than I did at his other apartment. When Sam, Beau’s manager, needed to take some time off for a family emergency, I said I would fill in for her. Beau was skeptical because Sam was a fucking genius mechanic, and I was barely adequate, but he agreed to it, knowing I would probably hang around anyway, and my presence would help keep his brother safe.

After several full days at Beau’s shop and long nights doing other family business, I was exhausted. Keeping hold of my self-control around Travis grew more and more difficult. To make things even worse, my cousin Lancelot had jumped on the fall-in-love-with-someone-completely-unsuited-for-you bandwagon like his brothers.

Every day I considered whether I could get away with pulling Travis into the bathroom or the supply closet or if the only way I could pin him against a wall to take what I wanted was if I waited until he was heading up to his apartment for the night. How much longer would I last before I either made a wrong fucking move or spontaneously combusted?

8

Travis

Lance and his new boyfriend, Julian, stopped by at closing time on Saturday to thank Beau for the work he’d done on Julian’s Corvette. I liked Julian, and I enjoyed chatting with them, but I kept being distracted by Dax. Whenever he was close by, I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. As Lance and Julian drove away, I gave into my urge and let myself look my fill while Dax talked to Beau. When Dax glanced over and noticed me, heat filled my face. I spun around and began walking to the garage, wishing I could make myself invisible.