Free A Wild Ride (Thompson & Sons Book 4) by Vivian Arend

“You swear I don’t need to kill him.”
    “No. I swear.”
    “If I find out later you’re lying, I will find him and bury him. Alive.” Announced as if he were telling her about the latest fishing trip he’d taken.
    “I swear, Troy. He was a jerk for not stopping the first time I asked him to, but I might have overreacted, walking away,” Nicole answered quietly. “Please don’t do something foolish.”
    Define foolish
. Troy pulled the tow truck to a stop, reaching behind him for a bottle of water.
    “Stay in the cab,” he ordered before dropping to the ground and pacing the narrow dirt road to where the fellow leaned against the bumper, hood raised, as if he’d known what to check for.
    The guy was somewhat familiar, but not anyone Troy had spent a lot of time with. Joshua? Jordan? That.
    Nic’s date smiled as he came to his feet, apparently not aware he was seconds away from pain. “Good timing. I thought I’d be out here for hours.”
    Troy walked past him and leaned over the engine. “What happened?”
    “Oh, she just died.” Jordan paused. “I parked her, and when I went to restart, the engine wouldn’t turn over.”
    “Strange place to park.” Even. Calm.
    Jordan laughed. “It seemed like a nice quiet spot, only my date wasn’t as eager as I hoped.”
    Troy waited, but nothing more was offered. No comment from Jordan regarding the location of his missing date. No concern about her walking away, nothing.
    Final score—zero. Troy ripped out the cables connecting the spark plugs and stepped back, closing the hood with one hand. “You got a cell phone?”
    Jordan nodded. “Shitty reception out here, though. It took ages to reach your shop.”
    Troy pulled a pen from his pocket and wrote a number on the label of the water bottle before tossing it to the other man.
    “Thanks, but what’s this for?”
    “Number for the garage in Drayton Valley.” Troy pointed to the ridge about a mile down the road, farther out of town. “You might have better luck getting reception from up there.”
    Then he turned and walked back toward the tow truck.
    “Hey. What the hell are you doing?” Jordan pounded after him, grabbing hold of his arm. “You can’t just leave—”
    Troy whirled on him, catching hold of the man by the throat. “Be thankful I’m leaving you breathing.”
    He tossed Jordan aside, the other man scrambling away as he stared wide-eyed at Troy. “You’re insane.”
    Troy climbed up into the tow truck and put it in gear, ignoring the shouting and the rude hand signal Jordan held in the air as Troy spun tires and left the other man in a cloud of dust.
     

     
    Eerie silence hung in the cab.
    Nicole wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t about to say a word until she had to. Which meant during the twenty-minute trip back to the garage, neither of them spoke.
    He parked in the back, coming around and meeting her before she could escape. For the first time she noticed his clothes were caked with mud, a dark smear of it along one of his cheekbones.
    “Will you be in trouble for not bringing him in?” she asked quietly.
    “No law says we have to take a job if we don’t want it.” He caught her by the arm and tugged her toward the back fence. “We need to talk.”
    She walked with him through the gate to where they had a little more privacy. A tall fence separated them from the garage work area, and to the west was the open field connected to Katy and Gage’s yard.
    “Where did you find that winner?”
    The words ground out as if he was still clenching his teeth, and she sighed. “He works with my brother-in-law in the environment offices.”
    “Does Dale know he’s an asshole?”
    The last thing she wanted to do was defend the jerk, but Troy’s coldness broke through and made her snap. “No, it seems to be a recent development.”
    “Bullshit.” Troy stepped into her personal space. “Assholes don’t bloom overnight, babe. They’re always there, waiting to be