Unsteady (The Torqued Trilogy Book 1)

by Shey Stahl

  “Uh, yeah. Don’t judge someone just because they sin differently than you.”

  “I’m not the one showing up late for work every morning. He is. What does this have to do with me?”

  “What are we going to do?” Colt asks, tipping his beer back as if his sinning church comment was never made. It’s the middle of the goddamn day, and he’s drinking, which is no surprise to anyone. Pushing fifty, Colt’s set in his ways and he claims having a beer midday helps take the edge off the work day. I also tend to think it’s the only way he can go home at night. Half shitfaced to deal with his crazy-ass wife.

  Colt rubs the side of his head. “There’s no way we can keep this place running if things keep going like they’re going. Without Lyric around, this place is going to shit.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk, man,” I grumble, tossing the repair order on my toolbox.

  Colt’s been working here for as long as the shop’s been open since the early 90s, so I listen to what he’s saying, even when I don’t want to. If anything, he knows what’s best for it too. And my dad trusted him.

  There’s some truth to what Colt is saying, but I also know my dad had faith we would keep the shop running. Since I was just a kid, about Nova’s age, this shop has been the only repair shop in Lebanon. I’ll be damn sure it’s kept that way.

  As I’m standing near the doors scanning the parking lot for a white Camry, Tyler walks up to stand beside me, waiting for me to talk to him. It’s his simple way of knowing when I need to vent, and I do a lot of it these days. I never thought I’d be put in this position. Though I did know if something ever happened to my dad, his intentions were to leave this all to me because I was the oldest and showed the most interest in the shop.

  Also, with Rawley and Raven only being nineteen, they just weren’t ready for something like this. Hell, I didn’t even think I was ready but I’m the only one with his shit together.

  “I think it’s time I hire someone to help us out. We’re drowning,” I tell Tyler. Walker Automotive would be here long after my father’s presence in this world was gone. I would make sure of it; even if I didn’t know how that was going to happen. I gesture toward a Ford truck parked in my dad’s bay, the last thing he worked on. “We need to get the fuel pump in Dan’s truck. He knows what happened, but I don’t want him waiting any longer.”

  “I know someone,” Tyler says, leaning against his lift beside us, his tattooed arms crossed over his chest. “A mechanic that is.”

  Tyler’s been my best friend since we were smart-ass kids racing cars through the streets and getting thrown in jail when we landed one in the sheriff’s front yard. He’s two years younger than me and I wouldn’t be lying if I said I’m probably the one who corrupted him and his need for speed.

  I think for a moment, but then I know he wouldn’t steer me wrong on this one.

  “Yeah? Who?”

  “Lennon Reeves. Been working at a shop in Oklahoma for the last few years.”

  Lennon? I’d never heard him mention that guy before. Like I said, Tyler and I have known each other a long time, and we mostly know the same people.

  “Any good?”

  “Really good. Fuck, man, better than me even.” He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “Grew up working on cars. Dad was a mechanic too.”

  “Okay, well, send ‘em by Monday. If he’s as good as you say, he has the job already. I don’t have time to interview anyone.”

  Tyler’s brow pulls together, and he looks over his shoulder at the office, smiling. “Yeah, will do.”

  I want to ask him why the hell he’s smiling, but the truth is I don’t give a shit. I assume he’s probably waiting on Daniel, our lube guy, to come back with the parts for the race car in his stall. “What do you have going on over there?”

  Tyler groans and shakes his head. “Fuckin’ Daniel smashed the shit out of that thing over the weekend. Gotta replace the rear axle and then it’ll be out of here.” And then he smiles. “Help me out tonight?”

  “Sure.” Walker Automotive has been sponsoring Daniel’s car for about a year. We do all the work on the car in exchange for free advertising. I’m starting to think Daniel has the better end of the deal considering how he drives his fucking car like it’s a pinball bouncing off walls and shit.

  “Red!” Mom yells out the door from the office. “I need you for a sec, honey.”

  “Yeah, Ma! Give me a minute.” I turn to Tyler, only he’s gone, heading toward the race car.

  Mom smiles the moment I’m in the office with her and Raven. My whole family works for Walker Automotive. It’s been a family effort since day one. It’s the same next door at my Uncle Hendrix’s body shop where my cousins work the business with their father. If you didn’t like family, you had no choice here. It was a good thing we liked each other most days.

  “Hey, Red,” Raven says, standing with a pile of papers and then tosses them at me. “Tell Tyler I’m looking for him. He didn’t call that customer with the blazer back, and he wants to know where his damn car is.”

  I wave her off as usual and knock her stapler off the counter. “You go tell him. He’s in there.”

  She pushes against my chest, her nose scrunching just like she does when she’s about to tell me off. But first, she picks the stapler up and puts it back in the exact spot it was, even adjusts it a few times to be sure. She’s fucking OCD as hell. Everything has a place, and she’s insistent it stay this way.

  “Not my job. You’re the boss man.” She smacks my arm. “You tell him.”

  She’s impossible.

  I nod and look toward my mother when Raven’s out the door. “What am I doing wrong here? How did Dad do all this?”

  Mom shakes her head, tenderly smiling and moves the stapler about an inch, just to fuck with Raven too. “It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong. It’s just that your dad was a business man. He knew how to run a business. You’re still learning.”

  I cross my arms over my chest. “So if I were Lyric Walker… what would I do?”

  Her cheeks warm as if hearing his name sends her heart racing. I know the feeling. “Before he passed, he talked about hiring another mechanic. Maybe it’s time we do that?”

  “Yeah, Tyler and I were just talking about that. He said he was gonna send somebody by and see if they might work out.”

  Mom nods and hands me an application she dug out of the cabinet. “Tell him to give this to him and have it filled out before he comes by.”

  I take the application from her. “Always prepared.”

  My mom smiles then winks at me. “It’s why I run the books, son.” She then hands me my phone. I must have left it in here earlier when I was grabbing a cup of coffee. “Elle called. Nova apparently punched a kid. She wants you to go pick her up.” My mouth gapes open, though I’m not at all surprised she hit someone. My little scrapper is notorious for landing some mean right hooks. I’ve been behind a few. “Want me to go get her?”

  Drawing in a heavy breath, I shake my head. “No, I’ll go. I’ve apparently lost a Camry anyway.”

  “Oh.” She holds up a receipt. “That car left this morning. Colt finished it.”

  That bastard. I specifically asked him where it was.

  Outside the office, I push Colt and throw the repair order from the Camry at him. “Finish the paperwork.”

  He laughs. “Whoops. There’s that car.”

  Grabbing my keys from my toolbox, I pass by Tyler’s stall. Clasping my hand over his back, he smiles, knowing what I’m about to say as I hand him the application. “Give this to Lennon. And... my sister is pissed at you, so bad news for you.”

  Tyler gives me a blank stare as he takes the application, his eyes wandering around the shop looking for my sister, and then landing on mine. “You leavin’?”

  “Gotta go get Nova. I’ll be back in an hour.”

  NOVA TURNED FIVE in March, so she wasn’t ready for school just yet, but I just enrolled her to start in September. I
can honestly say I’m not prepared for her to start kindergarten. I have enough troubles trying to keep her in daycare. It seems every other day I’m getting called to come get her early or for fighting and her foul language.

  That’s my fault. I’m a bad influence and fuck flies out of my mouth more than civilized conversation does. She’s also been raised around a bunch of mechanics. Kid has a mouth on her for sure.

  “Hey, darlin’,” I say when she’s walking toward the car. She doesn’t wait for me to come inside Elle’s house. Instead, she’s on the front steps with her arms crossed over her chest, scowling at the driveway. “How was your day?”

  I don’t like that she’s waiting outside either with no adult supervision. I mean, Christ, she could have run off. Just as I’m about to say something, Elle’s waving at me through the front window. At least she’d been watching her.

  Nova climbs into the car, jumping over the seat and into the back. “Not awesome,” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest again as she gestures to the straps on her car seat. “And Dad, I’m five. Can I please get out of this thing?”

  “No. You can’t.” Twisting around in my seat, I buckle her in and then turn back to look out the windshield. “Why did you hit Kale?”

  “I didn’t hit him.”

  Our eyes meet in the review mirror. “Don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not.” Her eyes meet mine, her little brow scrunching.

  “Then why did Elle call and have me come pick you up?”

  Nova keeps her eyes trained straight ahead as if she knows she can’t look at me now. “She must have seen me punch him.”

  “You said you didn’t hit him.”

  “I didn’t. I punched him,” she clarifies. “There’s a difference.”

  I lay my arm over the front seat and look at her. “In what world, Nova?”

  “In most worlds, Red.” Her eyes never break contact with mine.

  “So now I’m Red?”

  “When you’re mean to me, you are.”

  “I can’t wait for you to be a teenager,” I say with sarcasm.

  “Me too. Maybe then I can get out of this stupid car seat!”

  “Maybe.”

  It’s only around three, but I know Nova is going to be hungry so I should probably feed her before I take her back to the shop. We’re halfway to McDonald’s because I know that’s the only thing she ever wants to eat when Nova asks, “Can I have ice cream?”

  “Tell me why you punched Kale and then I’ll decide.”

  “He kissed me.”

  That little fucking brat. How dare he?

  “Yep. You can have all the ice cream you want.”

  Nova looks around when we’re at a stoplight, seeing we’re heading the opposite way from our house. “Where are we going after McDonald’s?”

  “I gotta head back to work for a little bit.” I’m actually not sure why she asked. It’s not like this is much different from any other night. Poor kid has spent most of her time inside a shop keeping herself busy while her daddy works all night. It’s certainly no life for a little girl, but then again, I was raised that way and so were Raven and Rawley. Let’s just hope she doesn’t turn out like them.

  Nova’s eyes light up, and she leans forward a little in her chair, her hands on the back of my seat. Our eyes meet in the mirror again, her smile damn near radiating through me. It’s nice to see her this happy, considering when I picked her up moments ago she was ready to punch even me. “Can I play cards with Uncle Colt tonight?”

  “Colt is not your uncle.” I don’t even know how that term got started with him but knowing Colt, he probably taught her it.

  “He might as well be.”

  “No.”

  I chuckle, rolling down my window as we approach the drive-thru to McDonald’s. “Daddy?”

  “Yes, darlin’?”

  “When are you going to date? Auntie said you need to get a girl in your life.”

  This conversation has been coming up monthly for the past year. My sister is hell-bent on finding me a date, and now she’s using my own daughter against me. Next thing you know my mom’s gonna jump on board too. “I have a girl. You.”

  “Oh, right.” She looks at the McDonald’s menu out the window. “I want a toy. See if they have a My Little Pony.”

  “You can’t choose the toy. You get what they have.”

  Groaning, she face palms her forehead when she sees the menu. “I don’t even like Barbie.”

  “Welcome to McDonald’s, would you like to try our new Carmel Frappuccino?”

  “Yes!” Nova yells from the backseat. “With whip cream!”

  “No, we wouldn’t,” I say, waving my hand for Nova to be quiet.

  Nova crosses her arms over her chest, curls falling on her face. “Fine. Get me nuggets.”

  Our eyes meet and I glare at her.

  “Please get me nuggets,” she revises.

  After we get her chicken nuggets, Nova and I head back to the shop. The sun is now peeking over the tips of the trees, just about swallowed by the night. We sit in the car for a moment, Nova crunching down on her nuggets and me watching the parking lot as I eat a hamburger I know is probably shit for me.

  “Ready?” I ask when I’m finished with my burger.

  Nova’s out of her seat immediately and reaching for her root beer next to her. “Yep.”

  “Nova!” Colt yells the moment she walks into the shop. “I’ve been waitin’ on you, princess.”

  Naturally, she runs to the crazy bastard. I’ll never understand why she likes that man so much. Then again, he may seem perfectly normal to her.

  Tyler’s over in the corner of the shop, arguing with Daniel. “Bring it here. I don’t give a fuck.” Their voice carries through the shop as I walk toward them. I turn to watch Nova for a second, making sure she doesn’t trip over anything, her white sandals clicking against the concrete floor.

  “Uncle Colt!” she squeals, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  I’m screwed at trying to get her to stop calling him uncle.

  The image sends a quick pain to my chest. She used to run to my dad’s arms like that. Nova’s the only grandchild and the only child that’s ever in this shop. Naturally, since I work so much, she’s always here and holds a special bond with everyone who works here.

  Except for Daniel. She doesn’t seem to like him much. Probably because she’s smarter than him.

  As I reach Tyler, he and Daniel must finish whatever discussion they were having because Daniel is walking toward the office and Tyler starts to gather what we need to replace the rear axle in Daniel’s modified. I just hope he stays in the office for a while. I’ll never understand why my dad hired that little greasy-haired shit.

  I help Tyler get started on replacing the axle, only Daniel’s constantly trying to help us in the process. The kid knows how to drive a car but working on them, not so much.

  “You heard from Berkley lately?” I ask Tyler as we work. They broke up a few months back after dating for nearly two years. After she’d had a miscarriage, she’d called him up one morning and broke up with him. By the time he got home from work, she had his things packed and told him to get out. Since then, he’s been living above the office in the apartment my dad had built there for grandpa when he retired.

  “Haven’t heard from her in a while.” Tyler digs through his tool cart looking for the right socket he needs. “Saw her at the bar the other night hanging on your brother though.”

  I look over at him. “Figures.” I’m not at all surprised she’s messing around with Rawley. Or that Rawley would even consider her. Fucker has no morals anymore.

  He shakes his head. “I don’t know what her fucking deal is, but I’m not gonna keep putting up with it.”

  “She ever give you a reason?”

  “Not one I understood.” He takes an impact gun in his hand and lets it hang at his side. “Said something about needing to find herself after losing the baby.”

 
“Wasn’t she only like a month along?” Don’t get me wrong, a loss is a loss, but she literally missed her period, found out and miscarried like two weeks later.

  Tyler laughs, just once. “Exactly my point. I mean, I get it, she was upset by it, but to throw away two years with me over it seems a bit drastic.”

  Daniel leans over me and points at the brake. “Do you think that’s the right way?”

  Daniel’s all for giving advice, but I’m not entirely sure what he’s referring to because it’s not like there’s more than one way to replace an axle. I don’t pay any attention to him. That is until he grabs the brake from me. Or tries to.

  “Fuck, man,” I bark, dropping the brake caliper on the concrete. “Shut up.”

  His head snaps up at my harshness, clearly offended. “I’m only trying to help.”

  “Well, you’re not. You drive and change the oil. Leave the rest to us.”

  I’ve got five cars I need to be working on right now. But I also know my dad had a soft spot for Daniel and would want us to help him. Still pisses me off, though.

  Ten minutes later, we’re examining the old axle. Tyler and I are discussing it when Daniel feels the need to try to help again.

  Tyler and I work well together. Daniel and I don’t.

  There’s just some people you don’t get along with, and everything they do seems to set you off. I suppose that’s Daniel for me. I try. I do, but it’s not easy.

  Nights like tonight where I’m already struggling with working late seem to be the ones when he gets in my face. It’s like he can tell I’m on the edge and his mission is to just push me over it.

  “What if you do it this way?” he suggests, and then proceeds to do it the wrong way.

  Tyler steps back, smiling, as if to say, I can’t wait to see where this goes.

  I look at Tyler, no doubt my face turning a little red as my blood rushes in anger. “Fuck, Daniel, you come here so we can fix your car. Why don’t you shut up and let us do it?”

  “Hell, Red,”—he wisely backs up a step—“I’m only trying to help.”

  “You’re not.” I point to the left rear quarter panel that’s been pushed in. “What happened here?”