Free Under Locke by Mariana Zapata Page A

“Yeah, it's kind of creepy.” Mom and I had the same black hair. We had the same normal nose, the same small mouth and slightly fuller bottom lip. Our build was the same too from what I could remember. Mom had been long and lean, and while I wasn’t as long as she was, at five-seven I wasn’t exactly short either.
     
    I was my mother’s daughter. The looks, the impulsiveness, the temper, almost everything. My brother, like Sonny, was a mirror image of our dad, where I was our mom’s doppelganger.
     
    Sonny slid out from beneath my car, wiping his hands on the rag I’d thrown back at him. He reached over and patted the top of my running shoe, his eyes warm. “It’s a good thing. I take more after my mom, too.” He closed his eyes and let out a long breath. “Thank fucking God.”
     
    That was a blatant lie. He looked just like our dad but I wasn't about to ruin the mood by stating what seemed so obvious to me.
     
    “You do have those girlish features,” I told him with a grin, wanting to pull away from the talk of my mom.
     
    Sonny snickered and sat up. “Stupid.“ With a shake of his head, something behind me caught his attention making his eyes narrow. And because I’m nosey, I turned around to see what he was looking at.
     
    Dex.
     
    Walking onto the lot, his short black hair went in ten different directions. Wrinkled jeans and an equally wrinkled blue t-shirt finished off his obviously bedhead ensemble. But what caught my attention, and what might have also caught Sonny’s, was the blonde woman he was walking beside. A blonde woman in a very wrinkled dress that screamed she wasn't opposed to public fondling. And it wasn't the same woman I'd seen him with two weeks ago.
     
    Dex stopped just a few feet shy of a Hyundai parked in front of the office. It was a magnetic pull that kept me watching him drop a quick kiss on her mouth before slapping her ass as she crossed the distance toward her car and got in.
     
    Pig.
     
    “That motherfucker,” Sonny murmured, shaking his head in a disbelieving fashion.
     
    My eyes went from my brother to my boss, who stood with his back to his lady friend, completely disinterested. Sonny didn’t look mad, but he looked annoyed and that alarmed me. “Please tell me that wasn't your girlfriend."
     
    His light brown eyes met mine, wide with amusement. “Hell no. I don’t even think Becky knows how to spell the word girlfriend, Ris.” Sonny looked past me again. “But that motherfucker’s always talking shit about how he wouldn’t fu—do her because she's been with half the club.”
     
    “Oh.” He didn't strike me as the picky type, but then again, I guess he really wasn't if he couldn't hold his own word.
     
    I looked back over my shoulder to see that the Hyundai was gone and surprise! Dex was walking over in the direction of the open bay we were in. Obviously. It was the only one open. I ignored the weird feeling in my chest I got from seeing him taking those lengthy strides toward us. “Well, you know I don’t know how to kick anyone’s ass but I’d try my best if she was being a cheatin’ ho-bag .”
     
    Sonny threw his head back and snorted. “It’s the thought that counts.”
     
    I grinned at him, extending my legs out in front of me again to kick his shoe.
     
    He chuckled again but this time kept his gaze on Dex’s approaching figure. “Well if it isn’t my favorite hypocrite,” Sonny greeted my boss.
     
    “Fuck off,” Dex snapped from feet away.
     
    "Becky?" Sonny shook his head. "Outta all the pu—" he eyed me, "—women at the bar, you took fucking Becky upstairs?"
     
    I was surprised my boss didn't give him the middle finger, instead he settled for a look that could only be described as withering and absolutely not amused. "I can't remember shit from last night," Dex explained in a voice that somehow managed to be both gruff and scratchy.
     
    An attractive man that drank so much he slept with people he didn't like, and then