Cocky Romance by Nia Arthurs EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Authors: Nia Arthurs
- Language: English
- Genre: Black & African American Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
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A MAN’SJOB
DAWN
THE MECHANIC BAY is quieter than a grave.
My co-workers, dressed in over-alls and steel-toed boots, shuffle past
with their heads tucked to their chests and their hands in their pockets. It’s
like a funeral procession, eyes vacant and lips wired shut in thought as they
mourn the loss of something precious.
Dread’s been building ever since the news came out that Stinton Group
acquired the company and it’s all coming to a head today, with the
announcement that our manager is ‘retiring’ in a month.
Not the kind of news you want to hear in a bleak time like this. Especially
when the Big Bad Bully—Stinton Group—is known to target weaknesses.
That’s about all we’ve got to serve up here at the Cross Roads Auto Shop
thanks to steep competition with another auto brand just down the road.
New ownership means new regulations. New directions. New employees.
I just didn’t expect that they’d hit our leader first.
My fingers curl into fists and I whack the nut with my wrench a little too
stiffly.
Stinton Group.
Carnivorous. Ugly. Run by a pack of wolves who think morality is some
kind of flexi-ruler. My last run-in with their kind nearly destroyed my life.
I’m not surprised that the minute their toxic waste cloud descended on our
shop, it started tearing us up by the roots.
“Banner.” Clint gestures behind the glass pane of his office. He bends
thick, oil-stained fingers, beckoning me firmly.
I frown, set my wrench back in the toolbox and march into his office. It’s
a small, cramped space. No windows except for the glass pane that looks out
into the mechanic bay. Picture frames of his family litter the desk that’s piled
high with paperwork.
“Close the door.” Clint rubs his whiskered chin and leans against his desk
as if all the wind’s been knocked out of his body.
I slam the door shut with a bang and whirl on him. “What did they do to
you?”
“Who?”
“Stinton Group. Did they threaten your family?”
“What?” He squints at me as if I’m not speaking English.
“Did they beat you up?” My eyes dart between his. “You can tell me.
We’ll fight them together. Doesn’t matter how big Stinton Group is, we can’t
allow them to walk all over people like that. There are laws for—”
“Dawn, what on earth are you talking about?”
I’m seeing red, but when I blink and focus on Clint, I realize that he’s not
sharing in my restlessness. He watches me with concern.
Me.
As if I’m the whack job.
Clint sighs. “Stinton Group didn’t pressure me into retiring.”
“But—”
“I don’t know what those boys have been discussing,” he juts his chin at
the bay where the other mechanics are gathered in a circle—probably
whispering about who’ll be next on the chopping block, “but I came to this
decision on my own.”
“Blink twice if this room is bugged, Clint.”
He frowns at me. “Banner.”
I can’t deny that I’m a little disappointed. Stinton Group’s reputation is
currently in the toilet and the public is finally starting to see what I’ve known
all along. Now would be the perfect time to hit them with a lawsuit.
“Can we move on from the Stinton Group topic now? There’s something
I need to discuss with you.”
“Give me a second.” I wipe a hand over my face and try to calm the
justice rush that sent my adrenaline spiking. “Okay. Now I’m ready.”
“I know you’re planning on leaving the shop. I’d like to convince you to
stay… and become the manager.”
My eyebrow jumps. “Not a chance.”
“You’re the only one capable of leading this operation.”
“The day Stinton Group acquired the company was the day I could no
longer work here. Besides, half those guys barely tolerate my presence. The
other half thinks it’s ‘amusing’ that I’m a female mechanic. They barely
accept me as a colleague. Why do you think they’d accept me as their
leader?”
“You can’t argue with results.”
That’s massively untrue, but I don’t expect him to understand what it’s
like being a woman in a male-dominated industry.
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