Free Dirty Looks (Dirt Track Dogs: The Second Lap Book 1) by P. Jameson

they drink the bar down.”
    She nodded looking at the door of Red Cap as it swung open and a burly man stumbled out. She squinted, peering inside.
    “You’re right. I think I see Sally twerking on the pool table.”
    “Don’t want her doing anything she’d regret.”
    Lexington reached for the handle, a smirk playing at her lips. “Oh, she doesn’t have regrets. They’re a waste of time, she says.”
    She stepped out and the door shut with a heavy click. But she turned back to talk to him through the open window. She took a breath, but then didn’t say anything. Glanced at the bar and then back, meeting his eyes.
    “Why are you helping me?” she whispered, as if she didn’t even want the stars to hear her.
    His gut told him only honesty would do for his fox, so that’s what he gave her.
    “Because it feels good. And because I like you.”
    Her pretty eyes fluttered away and a tiny secret smile twisted her lips. And aw damn, that was it. He was done for. His heart pounded loud enough to wake the dead as he wondered how he could make her do that again and again.
    “Alright, cowboy. Six days.” She turned to walk away. “See ya around,” she tossed over her shoulder.
    He watched until she was safe inside Red Cap. As he threw his truck in reverse, his phone buzzed in his pocket with a text. Digging for it, he opened the screen and read.
    You took off again, asshole .
    It was Rider. Damn, he’d have more explaining to do. At this point, maybe his friends would never forgive him. Maybe he’d spend the rest of his days groveling, but whatever. He’d do it. He had a lot to atone for.
    Another text buzzed. Still Rider.
    Key’s under the mat. Help yourself. I won’t be home tonight .
    A slow smile crept up Aaron’s face. His friends might be mad at him, but they were glad he was back.
    And for the first time since pulling in to town, he felt good about being home. He felt more right than wrong. Life was going to change for him. For the better.
    Starting now.
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Five hours into his day and Aaron already had a job. Sure, it paid shit, but it came with room and board until he could get a place of his own. Starting over was supposed to suck, but right now he only felt… liberated.
    Rider had an opening for an extra mechanic in his shop, and the gig was right up Aaron’s alley. His specialty was cars of course, but he knew his way around a bike too. And since Rider spent so little time in his apartment above the shop, he’d offered to let Aaron crash there, even hinting that Waldo might have extra work for him around the track.
    He’d kept busy all morning, but it wasn’t enough to keep his mind off of Lexington and her crew of vixens. The urge to help them rode Aaron as hard as his revenge had. Maybe he’d only switched vices. Instead of being obsessed with killing the Junkyard Dogs in Memphis, he was now obsessed with saving a fox at home.
    He fumbled his wrench and bent to retrieve it from the oil stained concrete.
    It was more than that though. More than just switching gears. Whatever had happened last night between him and Lexington was… weighty. It felt heavy even though it made him lighter.
    “Nothing even happened,” he muttered to himself.
    Not true. She’d confided in him, a perfect stranger. About her fox and her people’s ways, and believed he would help her. And he’d… well, he’d just been himself. She’d seen his fight with Drake, she knew his history as a shifter hunter, and she’d been witness to all those rough-around-the-edges moments, yet she hadn’t flinched at his dirty looks. She didn’t shy away from his harsh tone.
    Barky, the blond one had called him. The potty girl.
    So, yeah. He was going to help them. And maybe this was the first step to atoning for the wrongs he’d done. For blindly following the hunters. For allowing Mina to get hurt. And for his part in the war between him and the man who’d hurt her. Because there was no denying his part