by Dallas Cole
“Someone looks like she’s in a good mood.” Jagger plops against the next car over and watches me work.
“Do I?” I gesture to the wrecked GTO. “You must not be seeing well. Maybe you shouldn’t wear those stupid shades inside.”
“Aw, come on, babe, don’t crimp my style.” Jagger grins. “So what’s all this about you wanting to drive now?”
He asks it casually, but there’s an edge lurking behind it. Jagger was surprised and maybe even a little hurt that I wanted to drive. I guess I can’t blame him for feeling threatened, but I’m sure as shit not looking to take his spot. Hell, it’ll probably be a long time before I’m able to make any sort of times that put me in the competitive league. I just want to feel in control.
“I’ve watched you guys long enough,” I say. “I think I can handle it.” I waggle my eyebrows at him. “Unless you think girls can’t race.”
Jagger laughs. “Never where you could hear it. Especially when you’re carrying power tools.”
I whir the drill currently in my hands toward his general direction and grin.
“Just seems like you’re going through a lot, doesn’t it, Ellie?” He shrugs. “Dumping Nash, building your own car . . . I don’t know what’s prompted it, is all.”
“Yeah, well.” I punch through the crumpled up pipes to drain them. “Nothing stays the same forever. Even when you think it will.”
“Amen to that,” Jagger says.
“I mean, look at our family. We’ve gone through big changes like this before. Been abandoned. Had big fights.”
Cyrus frowns. “But we’re always here for you, girl. I hope you know that.”
“Yeah, sure.” I flip down my goggles, effectively blocking them out, and get back to work.
I keep working late into the night, long after the boys head out for god knows what. The longer I work, the more my annoyance builds. I hate having to keep secrets, but I hate even more the reason I’m keeping them. Because the crew can’t get over their hatred of Lennox. Won’t listen to his side, won’t forgive him, when they’re all guilty as well. How can I make them understand that he’s not the villain they want him to be? The sooner I find a way, the sooner things can get back to the way they belong.
A knock on the garage’s side door draws my attention. I close my hand around my heaviest wrench. I can’t say why, but this sick feeling washes through me that maybe the McManuses have come to make our crew pay for what Nash did to Lennox. If Rory McManus knows who I am, and ties me to Lennox . . .
But as soon as I approach, I spot Lennox’s face, waving at me through the window pane. I toss the wrench aside and bound toward the door to let him inside.
“Oh, my god.” I laugh and fling myself into his arms. “So much for sneaking around, huh?” I press my face against his chest. “The guys are off on a job, luckily for you.”
“Please, you think I wasn’t careful?” He loops his arms in mine. “I’ve been waiting. Watched them leave. But I remember how those jobs work. We have at least a few hours to ourselves.”
His face is tanner than usual, like he’s been driving in the sun all day, but his smile is warm and open. He looks more at ease than I think I’ve seen him ever since he came back from prison. I wish I could store that happy look on his face forever.
“I just couldn’t stay away,” Lennox continues. “As long as I’m not getting you in trouble . . .” His lips soften as he kisses my forehead. He smells freshly showered, warm and spicy and all the scents I associate with him. I just want to wrap myself up in him like a cozy blanket. “I had to see my girl.”
I glance down the road, nervousness tight in my stomach, but he’s right. Their jobs sometimes take them all night. I should relax and enjoy the moment. “What a coincidence. I need to see you.”
I kiss him, gently at first, but as he deepens the kiss, I tug away, sucking his lower lip between my teeth. Lennox hisses. Against my thigh, I can feel his dick starting to stir. Good.
“I need to feel you.”
I trace my hand along the length of his shaft through his jeans. Lennox groans, louder this time, as I press his back against the shop’s wall. A dark, wicked idea comes over me, and I decide how very badly I want him here. In my uncle’s shop. I want to claim him as mine, no matter what the crew would say, while we have this time. Because Lennox deserves better. He deserves everything.
“I need to taste you,” I murmur. And slide one hand down the waistband of his jeans.
Lennox tips his head back with a throaty laugh against the wall and squeezes my hips hard. “Elena. You don’t have to—”
“But I want to.” I work his jeans open and grip his shaft in one hand while I sink to my knees. He’s just the right size—big but not painfully so, and so responsive to my touch. I gust a hot breath against the head of his cock and Lennox groans. His hands sink into my hair to hold it out of my face.
“You’re so filthy,” he murmurs. “It turns me on so fucking bad.”
“Good.” I grin up at him, then flick my tongue against his shaft. “I love to make you squirm.”
“Oh, I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than squirm.”
In response, I wrap my mouth all the way around his cock, letting my tongue twist against him. Lennox shudders and gasps for air; his fingers grab my hair tight. Slowly, I slide my mouth off of him, applying pressure all the way.
“Holy shit. I’m not going to last long if you keep that up,” Lennox says.
I arch one eyebrow up at him. “Is that a challenge?”
I take him fully into my mouth again, intending to draw this out as long as I can. I want him begging me for mercy. “Elena,” he breathes, as I start to suck him off. “Elena.”
Then he goes very still. “Elena.”
Something in his tone jerks me to attention. I pull away from him and glance over my shoulder with a creeping sense of dread.
And for good reason.
Because my uncle is standing in the doorway between the office and the garage, wearing a murderous scowl.
Chapter Seventeen
Elena
Uncle Drazic is shaking with rage. I hurry back to my feet as Lennox fumbles to button up his jeans, but we’re too late. We’re far too late. I catch myself starting to inventory the shop. Drazic keeps a handgun locked in one of his desk drawers. My wrenches are just out of reach, on the other side of the wrecked GTO. I’m defenseless. Not that I think Uncle D would hurt me.
But Lennox might be another matter.
Drazic takes one tentative step toward us, his entire body so rigid it looks ready to snap. “Elena Drazic.” His voice is thin as a wire. “What. The fuck. Are you doing?” His lip curls back as he turns toward Lennox. “With him?”
I position myself in front of Lennox. I don’t know what Drazic might do to him, nor do I want to find out, but I at least know he’d never hurt me. No matter how badly I’ve fucked up. “Look, Drazic. Lennox is a good guy. Not at all what you think.”
Drazic laughs, cold, as he continues to move toward us. “You’re so naïve, djevojka. He’s got you fooled just like he fooled us.”
“Please. He’s no worse than you, or the rest of the crew. It’s bullshit, the way you’ve all acted toward him. He’s learned from his mistakes—he’s a better man now. We’re trying to make a real life together, out of the shadow of the past. Why can’t you forgive him?”
“Because he doesn’t get to walk away.”
The voice isn’t Drazic’s. It’s Nash’s, coming out of the same door as Uncle D. And he’s gripping a length of metal pipe.
“I will never, ever forgive you,” Nash snarls.
Lennox scrambles away from me. My pulse roars as loud as an engine in my ears as Nash stalks toward Lennox, brandishing the pipe. “Please,” Lennox shouts at him, throwing his arms up to shield his head. “Think of Elena for once. Instead of yourselves. Think of what she wants.”
“You want me to think of other people?” Nash pats the pipe in his open palm.
“What about people like Troy, huh? The kindest, biggest heart I ever saw.” Nash’s face is burning bright red; his eyes water. I search for something to arm myself with, but I’m frozen in place. “He was my hero,” Nash says. “And you took him from me.”
“Nash, you don’t understand—”
Nash swings the pipe right at Lennox’s torso. Lennox jumps aside, just barely making it out of Nash’s reach. A scream escapes me. My throat feels shredded up and raw. Everything is raw. I want to claw my own skin off. But Drazic’s right here, Nash is right here, and now, Jagger and Cyrus are, too. There’s nowhere for us to go.
“You don’t know everything.” Lennox deflects Nash’s blow once more. “And you never will.”
“Stop!” I scream. “Nash, please, leave him alone!”
Jagger rushes to block Lennox’s escape route. “Sorry, fucker. You’ve had this coming for too long.”
“Nashville, drop the pipe right now,” Drazic bellows. “Before you fuck up your standing in this crew even worse than you already have.”
“But Drazic—”
“No one is killing anyone in my shop.”
Cyrus wraps his arms around Nash’s from behind to hold him back. The pipe clatters to the ground. Jagger props against the exit door and folds his arms, glowering at Lennox. Slowly, Drazic makes his way toward Lennox. They stare at one another, Lennox’s face proud but not defiant; Drazic, on the other hand, is bristling with barely contained rage.
Then Drazic rears back and socks Lennox right in the eye.
“Yes!” Jagger cries, as I scream. I rush toward Lennox, but Uncle D throws out a hand to stop me. Lennox is crumpled on the shop floor, but he pulls himself up.
“It’s okay, Elena,” Lennox says. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not! What the fuck is wrong with all of you? You’re fucking monsters!”
Uncle Drazic steps right up to Lennox and his rapidly swelling eye. “You betrayed my crew.” His voice is terrifyingly calm. It makes my blood run cold. “You killed one of our own. I was willing to write you off after that—treat you as if you were dead, too. But you just didn’t want to play the part.”
Lennox swallows. “Sir—”
“But you can’t stop fucking with us, can you?” Drazic asks. “You just can’t keep away. And now you’ve come to ruin the life of the most precious thing in the world to me—my niece.”
“She’s her own person, you know,” Lennox says. “She can make her own choices.”
“She’s just a kid. She doesn’t know when she’s being taken advantage of.”
“Fuck you!” I scream. “I’m not a kid anymore! Why does everyone treat me like one?” I realize that being on the verge of tears probably isn’t helping me state my case, so I take a deep breath. “I appreciate your concern, Uncle D, but this is my life. I’m tired of riding shotgun in someone else’s. Let me choose for myself.”
“Shut up, Elena. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nash lunges toward me, though Cyrus jerks him back. “He’s a murderer and a liar. And you had better stay away from him.”
“No. No, Nash. You don’t get to do that to me. Not anymore.” Tears sting at my eyes. I whirl toward Drazic. “And you—you’re not my fucking parents. You can’t make me do anything. I’m my own goddamned person now.”
Drazic rears back as if I’d slapped him. “Elena—”
But Nash has broken free of Cyrus’s grip and charges toward Lennox once more. “I’ll kill you, man. I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Nashville Graham,” Drazic bellows. “Stand the fuck down.”
Nash snarls and charges toward Drazic instead. Now’s my chance. I snatch the car keys for the Camaro off of the ring where I’d left them and beckon to Lennox. “Come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here.” I survey the faces of the crew. The people who are supposed to be my family. “Maybe we can both be dead to them.”
“Elena,” Cyrus says, sounding more wounded than angry. I lock eyes with him for a moment, then spin away.
Lennox touches my arm, softly, his face twisted with worry. “Are you sure that’s what you want, El?”
“I’m positive. I don’t need a crew.” I glower at Drazic before turning back to Lennox. “All I need is you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lennox
Grams welcomes Elena into the house with open arms and a homemade pie that she seems to pull out of thin air. They’d met before, but it’s been a long time; Grams makes no effort to hide her delight at the woman Elena’s grown up to be.
“I like her so much better than the blonde one,” Grams tells me one evening, as Elena helps her clean up after dinner. “Can you keep this one?”
My face flushes with heat. Not that I can blame anyone for preferring Elena to Amber. I prefer Elena to the rest of the whole world. “I’ll do my best.”
It’s amazing, watching how quickly Elena takes to life in our cramped little split-level. She helps me take care of Grams, even though I can handle it myself; she helps with cleaning up, and even manages to fix an electrical outlet that’s been busted for years. It’s the wholest my family has felt ever since the days when Troy was alive and Drazic’s crew was my family beyond Grams. Hell, in a lot of ways, this feels even better.
But I can’t shake the sense of dread I feel the more time I spend with Elena; I can’t get rid of the shadow cast over us when I leave in the middle of the night to make another run for the McManuses. If they find out about Elena, I don’t want to think how they might try to use her against me. I’ve got to find a way to pay my debts to them and get my life together again—get a real job.
But without the Cartwrights’ help, I’m stuck. And I can never become the man I promised Elena I’d become.
*
Mama McManus summons me to the upper level of the pub again. There’s a strained atmosphere among her cadre of assistants, and one of the women shoots me a darkened look as I step inside, Rory behind me. Like they know something about me that I don’t. It pulls my stomach into a knot. The last time I felt this way was the time I went to the showers in the pen only to get jumped by all the guys I’d pissed off when I saved Sean McManus’s life. That fight landed me in the prison med ward for several weeks while they patched my jaw back together from the metal pipe. I’m hoping whatever’s about to happen here won’t turn out similarly.
Mama sends her underlings away, leaving me with her and Rory and the guards outside the door. She’s never been one for heavy makeup, but today she’s not wearing any; it exposes the blue web of veins beneath her eyes. She searches me for a long minute while she lights her cigar and doesn’t say a word.
Okay. So that’s how she wants to play it. I’m supposed to guess why she’s summoned me. I go for the most obvious choice.
“I’m very sorry about the Mustang.” I cross my hands in front of me and bow my head, trying to look the picture of contrition. In prison, it was amazing what a sincere-looking apology could do. Most of the guys in there are just looking for a scrap of respect. I wonder if Mama’s the same way.
Mama exhales a mouthful of smoke. “Go on.”
“I had no idea Nash Graham was that determined to take me out. I should’ve seen it coming. But I’ll make it right. I’ll find a way to pay you back for the car.”
“No.” She shakes her head, the tail of her braid slipping from one shoulder. “That’s not your business.”
I raise my head back up. “It isn’t?”
“Nuh-uh.” She takes another drag of the cigar and leans back in her chair. “Far as I’m concerned, that’s Nash’s debt to pay. He’s the one who owes me. Both for the car, and for daring to attack one of my boys.”
So I’m considered one of her “boys” now. I know I’m supposed to be flattered, but all I feel is sick. Her words sit in my stomach like tar. Just another debt I’ll have to dig myself out of.
“But that’s the problem with Drazic’s crew, isn’t it? They’ve got no discipline. No sense of self-preservation.
Always putting themselves in harm’s way, aren’t they?”
Oh, god. That’s not a threat to Elena, is it? My pulse spikes as I try to figure out the real meaning behind her words. But no—if she meant to threaten Elena, I think I’d know it. There’s a chance she still doesn’t know about her. I ease my shoulders back. Okay. As long as Elena’s safe, I can do whatever I have to do for these dirtbags and get my life back on track.
“The Drazic crew . . . they can’t keep a secret. Can’t keep their goddamned tempers in check. Not a one of them—Nash, Cyrus, Jagger, even Drazic himself—has got a goddamned lick of sense. Not like you.” Mama smiles, thin and vicious. “You know how to keep secrets.”
“I’m loyal to your crew,” I tell her. I glance at Rory, but he’s donned his usual mask—the psychopathic grin that chills me to the bone. “I hope I’ve proved that to you by now.”
“Loyal? Mm, not quite yet. Loyalty takes longer than that to build.”
My mind spins over her previous words. She didn’t list Elena as part of the crew. As much as Elena hates it, her invisibility is working to her favor right now. If Mama doesn’t know about her, then she’s safe.
Oh, god, I hope Elena’s safe from these monsters.
Mama slides her feet off of the desk and spins away from us. Apparently we’re done here. But I can’t imagine this is the only reason she summoned me. I glance toward Rory, confused.
“Come here, Lennox. Let’s you and I talk.”
Rory’s the last person on the planet I’d talk to for fun. All the weird little things he says when he’s escorting me on our runs . . . the way he treats every woman he comes across like his personal property. And that fucking temper of his. But it does make me terrified enough not to want to find out the cost of telling him no. I let him sling his arm over my shoulder and steer me to the couch.
“I got a new job for you,” Rory says, as we sit down.
I sigh. Of course he does. “Another shuttle run to Taos? No problem.”
“Nuh-uh,” Rory says. “We’re going to be doing something a little different this time.”