of “Taken by the Clan Alphas”
* * *
“Hey baby, wanna go for a ride?”
Ruby Reynolds glanced across her Uncle Dave’s auto parts store, where she worked. Sure enough, Dave was still out back calling in the week’s parts order. When she started here, approximately three weeks ago, the first thing he told her was not to go racing with any of the local boys, but how can she resist. It’s been three weeks now in this dusty small town in the middle of no-where Montana and she was so bored. This was the first offer she had been given so far that actually sounded like a little fun. Who cares if she had been pre-warned about guys like this, Ruby Reynolds was no stranger to being a bit of trouble herself now and then. It was actually kind of nice being the one who was warned to stay away instead of the other way around like it was most of the time at home.
Her uncle indisposed, she turned her attention back to Mac Crow. “I’d love to.” She leaned in on the counter, well aware this provided Mac an enhanced view of her cleavage. It wasn’t Ruby’s fault the uniform shirt couldn’t quite keep the girls contained. She wasn’t sure if it was an oversight on her uncle’s part, or a strategic business decision. She tucked a strand of jet-black hair behind her ear and gave Mac a lipstick smile.
He was good looking, for sure. Almost a little too muscular for her taste: here was a guy who spent a lot of time at the gym cultivating his physique. Light brown eyes she would almost call amber. Gorgeous coppery skin. She could see bear paw prints tattooed in black creeping up his right arm and disappearing under the sleeve of his black t-shirt. She knew he bore a full color image of a grizzly bear across his back. She had seen it before, the bear on the rocks, fishing for salmon. She also knew he had a tattoo of his car, an inky Nissan GT-R, tattooed on his right side next to his rock hard abs. He wore his long black hair pulled back in a ponytail usually.
“I get out at nine. Is that too late?”
“I’ll be just getting started. Pick you up here?”
She glanced again at Dave. Still out back. “No, I’ll meet you. The 7-11?”
Mac let his gaze roam around Ruby’s ample form. “See you then.”
Dave came out of the back as Mac was leaving, and glared at his receding form. “No good,” he said to Ruby. “Was he bothering you?”
“No sir, he was sweet as punch.”
“It’s all an act. Kid’s no good. Gonna wreck that fancy car of his, break his momma’s heart. Gonna end up killing someone around here if he doesn’t check himself soon.”
Ruby pretended like she was heeding his advice like she had a few hundred times already before she spoke. “I thought I might go out with Sandy after work tonight.”
“I’ll leave the light on for you. I’m glad you’re making friends.”
“Thanks, Uncle Dave.”
It was seriously that easy.
In May, Ruby finished up her junior year at the University of Montana in Missoula. Her parents were in the middle of a nasty divorce, so they arranged for her to come up here, to Pinewood Junction, to spend the summer with Uncle Dave and make some extra money working at his auto parts store. Ruby hadn't heard from either of them since she got there. They were probably too wrapped up in fighting each other to really care what she was up to anyway. Nothing new there, that was for sure.
For the past three weeks, Ruby hadn’t done much. She met Sandy, hung out with her and some friends a few times, but she’d been watching Mac and Travis, two local gearheads who roared around town in their fast cars. They were certainly the most interesting things Ruby had found in that town. Sandy told her the two were rivals at just about everything.
Time crawled until eight. Ruby switched the sign on the door from open to closed. She counted down the registers, tidied the aisles, swept and mopped. She finished up a little before nine, and
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