Pieces of Us (Missing Pieces #3) - N.R. Walker Page 0,40

Davo off laughing again, though he still had to hold his side. Didn’t stop him. “Oh God, jealous Dallas is my favourite.”

Fucker.

Justin came into my office, around to my chair, and leaned his arse against my desk. It was good to see him smile. “Jealous Dallas is my favourite too.”

I looked up at him and couldn’t help but laugh, shaking my head at myself. “Sorry. You’re not my snack. I shouldn’t have said that.”

He met my gaze. “Yes I am.”

I laughed and pulled out my wallet, giving Juss my credit card. “Speaking of snacks. Can you please put in a lunch order from the takeaway shop down the road and have it delivered? Get the fellas what they want.” I looked out the door. “Dunno why I’m feeding Davo.”

Davo just laughed from around the corner. “I take it back. Lunch-buying Dallas is my favourite.”

Juss took the card and leaned down and gave me a smiley kiss. He limped out of my office and went and sat in the breakroom, and I heard him and Sparra discussing lunch. I thought Sparra might do the ordering over the phone, but no, Juss did it. He was tired and I knew, after lunch, he’d be sleeping for a while.

Davo appeared at my door, trying to look serious. “Someone here to see you, boss.”

It was my next, and final, interview, and I was beginning to lose hope. But in walked a woman with short black hair, maybe in her 40s, and she had an easy smile. She held out her hand for me to shake and nodded to where Juss’ bike stood in the corner. “Nice. Is that a 2016 or ’17?”

She knew bikes.

“Ah, 2016. You like KTMs?”

“My two sons ride,” she said. “And my husband, but mostly the boys. Spent a lot of weekends at racetracks when they were growing up.”

I grinned at her. “Come into my office,” I said, but I already knew.

Her name was Toni and she was a straight-shooter, no-nonsense woman who knew her way around accounting programs and stocktakes like she knew which KTM she was looking at by just a glance.

I liked her, and she was a perfect fit for us.

She had no problem dealing with four guys. She lived with three: her husband and two grown sons. She knew how to catalogue and order parts. She’d worked the last six years at an auto-supply shop but left when the business sold. She had no problem whatsoever with the fact that two out of the four guys working here were gay and that we were actually a couple. She just wouldn’t pick sides if we had a fight, because her usual advice that the guy was always wrong wouldn’t do us much good.

I had to make it official with the employment agency, but I was certain we’d found our newest team member.

And if I’d felt any apprehension at all, it was gone. Now I just felt . . . relieved.

Toni left and lunch arrived, and the mood around the lunch table was relaxed and happy. Though Juss was smiling as he ate, he could barely keep his eyes open. “I think I’m done,” he said slowly, pushing his half-eaten burger away. “It’s nap o’clock for me.”

I helped him up the stairs, and again, he went to bed and not to the sofa. He was so tired, and with some warm food in his belly, he fell straight to sleep.

I put his boots by the bed, and when I slid his phone onto the bedside table, it vibrated so I naturally looked at the screen.

He’d had five missed calls and three missed messages.

I didn’t know the number or look who the messages were from or what they said. I didn’t want to intrude on his privacy like that. If he’d missed a medical call, they’d call me, so it wasn’t urgent. And if Becca couldn’t get through to him, she’d call me as well.

The only person I could think of, and the reason he hadn’t answered the calls or taken the messages, would be his mother.

So help me God, if that woman . . .

Then I remembered that my temper had contributed to Juss’ stress overload so I took a deep breath and counted to ten. I had to get a handle on that shit from now on.

I left Squish in charge of sleeping supervision and went back downstairs. We had to hook in and get our jobs finished, but the last customer left at knock-off time and we