His inner voice had a point. Not that he could kill terrorists and get away with it, either. Not anymore.
“Tool box is in the back. Check for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
“What am I, your errand boy? You stole my wrench;youget it.”
And then Ronnie made his biggest mistake to date. He put his hand on Logan.
With what was presumably meant to be a powerful move, the other man’s grip tightened as he shoved Logan away from his truck. Stepping back, Logan let the asshole move him, but only because he knew they had an audience now.
Don’t ever throw the first punch.
Words to live by, and the only advice his piece shit dad ever gave that was worth a damn.
“You’re going to want to back off now, Ronnie.”
Ronnie didn’t back off. In fact, the five-feet-seven tough guy wannabe put himself even deeper into Logan’s personal space.
“Or what? I’m not scared of you, ya know. And I don’t give a fuck that you used to some big, bad NavySEAL.”
That last part was spat out as if it were a curse word. Something to be taken as an insult, rather than the greatest achievement of Logan’s entire thirty-six years.
And it pissed him the hell off.
“I didn’t take your wrench. I’ve offered to let you check for yourself, and now I’m done. Either get out of the way or man the fuck up, because I don’t have time for some entitled asshole suffering from Little Man Syndrome.” Because the short, skinny bastard was sure as hell acting as if he were about ten feet tall.
He also took Logan’s baited words hook, line, and…
Logan didn’t even try to dodge Ronnie’s balled fist. He just stood there as the blow struck, letting his head turn with the hit that didn’t so much as hurt.
Here we go.
Logan struck hard and fast, his knuckles slamming into the other man’s jaw just below the chin. The powerful uppercut sent Ronnie flying backward.
“Oh, shit!” This came from someone watching from the sidelines.
“Dayumbrother!” Another shared his admiration loudly. “You knocked his ass outcold!”
He glanced down at the man lying flat on his back in the gravel. Eyes closed, splayed limbs limp and unmoving.
“Hayes!”
Fuck. “Yeah, Boss?” He turned to face the man who’d hired him nearly two years earlier.
Fuming, the silver-haired foreman stormed Logan’s way, his fiery gaze bouncing between Logan and the still-unconscious troublemaker. “What the hell is going on here?”
“What, this?” He spared Ronnie a glance and shrugged. “Oh, this is nothing. Just a simple misunderstanding.”
Technicallyit was the truth. And while he couldn’t stand the mouthy asshole, Logan just wanted to put the drama behind him and go home.
“A misunderstanding, huh?” The intelligent man in charge of the building sight narrowed his gaze as he looked back down. “Looks like it was a little more than that. Now how ’bout you tell me what really happened?”
Logan sighed. Bill had been damn good to him since he’d taken the construction job shortly after moving to Seattle. The fifty-five-year-old ran a tight ship and treated his guys well. And he didn’t deserve to be lied to.
“Ronnie thought I stole his wrench and didn’t like it when I told him I didn’t.”
“It’s true, Bill.” One of the workers who’d been standing close by approached them. “We saw the whole thing. Logan tried to tell Beechman he didn’t have his tool.”
“Dumbass got in Logan’s face and wouldn’t let it go. Then he hauled off and punched Logan in the face.” A second witness confirmed.