Burndown (Nitro Crew Book 1)

by Winter Travers

  Nitro Crew Series

  Book 1

  Winter Travers

  Copyright © 2018 Winter Travers

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduction, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) utilization of this work without written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  For questions or comments about this book, please contact the author at wintertravers84@gmail.com

  Also by Winter Travers

  Devil’s Knights Series:

  Loving Lo

  Finding Cyn

  Gravel’s Road

  Battling Troy

  Gambler’s Longshot

  Keeping Meg

  Fighting Demon

  Unraveling Fayth

  Skid Row Kings Series:

  DownShift

  PowerShift

  BangShift

  Fallen Lords MC Series

  Nickel

  Pipe

  Maniac

  Wrecker (Coming July 29th)

  Powerhouse MA Series

  Dropkick My Heart

  Love on the Mat

  Black Belt in Love

  Black Belt Knockout

  Nitro Crew Series

  Burndown

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  About the Author

  Coming Next

  1st Chapter of Loving Lo

  1st Chapter of Downshift

  1st Chapter of Nickel

  1st Chapter of Dropkick My Heart

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to everyone who believes in me. I couldn’t do this without you.

  My boys, family, Nikki Horn, my Dirty Bitches, Mayra Statham, Kelly Tucker, my BETAs, and the many people I’m forgetting. Thank you for being part of this amazing journey.

  Dedication

  Love always wins.

  Chapter 1

  Remy

  “You need to call your mother.”

  “I talked to her last week.”

  Lo cleared his throat. “We are talking about the same woman, right?”

  “The woman who treats me like I’m thirteen and not twenty-six.” I sighed and dropped the wrench on the workbench.

  “Okay, we’re talking about the same woman. So, you should know you need to call her, because if you don’t call her, then I have to deal with her, and while I love the hell out of your mother, I don’t want to deal with her like that.”

  “I’m well aware of the ways you like to handle my mother.” I shook my head, still trying to remove the image of what I had walked in on the last time I had been home. Thank God I had only seen Lo’s ass and my mom’s hand waving frantically. “You guys really shouldn’t do that on the kitchen table. People eat there.”

  “And most people knock before they walk into someone's house.”

  I ducked out the side door of the shop and leaned against the brick wall. “This is what you called to talk to me about?”

  “When did you become such an asshole?”

  “Got that from you,” I mumbled.

  “Humph. You might wanna tone that down when you’re talking to me. I could kick your ass.”

  “I always do enjoy these talks, Lo.” He was an ass half of the time, but he was a good guy. Plus, he kept my mom happy, so I couldn’t really find any fault with him.

  His deep chuckle traveled through the phone. “Just call your mom when you get the chance. And by that, I mean call her today.”

  He disconnected the call before I could say any more. That was his way. He said what he needed to, and that was it.

  “Don’t you think you should be working on the car instead of gabbing on the phone?”

  I shoved my phone into my pocket and twisted around to see Roc walking across the parking lot with a cup of coffee in his hand. From talking to one asshole to another.

  “Just talking to Lo.”

  “Should I care who Lo is?” He stood in front of me with his hand in his pocket, looking like the asshole he was—ripped and tattered jeans, black boots, and a tight shirt stretched across his chest. I don’t think I have ever seen him in anything other than what he was wearing today other than the color of the shirt varying. Today, he had on the same blue as the main sponsor for the Brooks Cummings Racing Team. Also known as the race team I was finally part of.

  I shook my head. “Probably not. Just my mom’s husband.”

  “Well, you can chit-chat on your own time. Right now, I need that new engine dropped into the car before five. We have time at the track tomorrow afternoon to see if it’ll run well enough for the first race of the season.” Roc nodded to the shop. “Once the engine is dropped, you can help with the clutch.”

  Roc wandered off around the building, leaving me stewing.

  This was my dream job, but I fucking hated it because it wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined my dream job. I was working for a top five NHRA team, but all I did was assist the clutch and driveline specialist. That was the job I really wanted. A specialist.

  I needed to be grateful for the job I had since I was one of the youngest pit crew guys out there, but damn if I didn’t want more. I could do the job. I just needed to put in my time and prove that I was here to stay.

  “Get to work, Grain,” Roc called.

  Son of a bitch. That guy was on me like white on rice. I looked around but didn’t even see Roc. How the hell did he know I was still standing here if I couldn’t even see him?

  “You need me to talk to him? Ask him to go easy on you?”

  Fucking Frankie. “Still think you showed him your tits to get on his good side.”

  She stuck her head out the side door and laughed. “He’s too old for me. I’m more into guys who couldn’t pass for being my dad.”

  “That picky attitude is what’s keeping you from finding a guy, Frank.”

  She shook her head. “Probably has to do with the fact people call me Frank, and I always have grease under my nails.”

  I grabbed the rag out of my back pocket and tossed it at her. “That’ll help.”

  She rolled her eyes. “A dirty shop towel sure is going to fix all of my problems.” She held open the door. “You helping me get the computer hooked up would actually help me more.”

&nbs
p; “You really think they are going to let me help you? Roc thinks the only thing I’m good for is standing over Ronald and handing him a wrench now and then.” I hadn’t been as lucky as Frankie. We had both gone through High Performance Engine Building in school, along with ten other courses that had prepared us to be on the Cummings Racing Team, but Frankie had stood out with her natural ability with computers and her eye for detail.

  “If Roc wants to get out of here before nine, he won’t mind you helping me.”

  I rolled my eyes and slid past her into the shop. “You can argue with him over me helping you.” My eyes fell on Ronald, who was bent over the engine. “I’m sure ol’ Ronald is almost done, anyway. He even thinks it’s dumb for me to watch him.”

  Frankie clapped me on the shoulder. “Ronald is old. Ronald will not be doing this job two years from now. When Ronald races off into the sunset, you and I both know this job is as good as yours.”

  “Two years, Frank? I don’t wanna have to wait that long to do a job I can do right now.”

  We watched Ronald slowly stand up from the engine with his hand on his back. “I’m thinking you might just have to wait one season.” She laughed and headed to the other side of the garage.

  “Grain, you wanna come over here? I want you to make sure I got those nuts on tight enough,” Roland called.

  I sighed and hung my head. This is what I was getting paid for—tightening nuts. Not like I was making some grand salary, but I had hoped to be doing more than this.

  Patience.

  The only problem with being patient was, I wasn’t.

  *

  Chapter 2

  Remy

  “We’re going to shoot some pool tonight. You in?” Jay asked.

  I was laid back in my bed, my hands behind my head with a rerun of Fast N’ Loud playing on the TV. This was one of our last night’s actually sleeping in our own beds before we left for Vegas on Wednesday. We didn’t need to be there until Thursday to start setting up, but since every race we drove in a huge caravan of semis and trucks, we needed to head out early.

  “It’s Sunday night. Where the hell are you going in this small-ass town?” Cummings Racing was set up in the tiny podunk town of Leeds Square that had a whopping nine-hundred-and-seventeen people. The only reason I knew that number was because I drove past the damn sign touting the abysmal number every morning. They had two gas stations—one on each side of town—a drive-in movie theater, and four bars. Four bars, mind you, that were not open on Sunday nights.

  “Hilltop.”

  He was going to drive a half an hour to go shoot pool? “How the hell are you planning on getting home after drinking in Hilltop?”

  A smug smile spread across his lips. “It’s your turn to DD. Hurry your ass up. Frankie and I are ready.” He ducked the pillow I tossed at him and pointed his finger at me. “Five minutes, asswipe.” He managed to pull the door shut right before I threw another pillow at him. It thunked against the door and fell to the ground.

  Son of a bitch. I really didn’t feel like going out tonight. I was enjoying being in my bed since the next few weeks, I didn’t know where I was going to be sleeping. From the rumors I had heard about the Cummings Racing Team, they weren’t fans of staying in hotels. Sleeping in trailers on sleeping bags was more their style. But even that hadn’t been enough to deter me from joining the team. This was the shot I had been wanting, and nothing was going to take it away from me.

  After I searched for clean clothes from the basket of laundry at the foot of my bed, I showered quickly and grabbed my keys off the dresser. The one good thing about being the DD tonight was I got to drive my fucking awesome car.

  “About time. Around you guys, I forget I’m a girl. You two take twice as long to get ready than I do.” Frankie grabbed her wallet off the kitchen counter and tucked it under her arm. “You sure you ladies don’t need your purses?”

  Jay nudged his way past her to the door. “I think we can add another reason to why you don’t have a boyfriend. You terrify the hell out of people.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m a fucking ray of sunshine, thank you very much.”

  “Suuure,” Jay and I said in unison.

  “If I wanted this shit, I would live at home with my brothers. They at least keep the fridge and cupboards stocked.” She followed Jay, pushing him out the door.

  “Hey, we give you money for groceries every week,” Jay insisted.

  “You do know fifty bucks from each of you does nothing, right? You guys eat like you’re the starting line of the Packers. More than half of my paycheck goes to feeding you two,” she grumbled under her breath. I pulled the front door shut behind me and walked down the short sidewalk to the driveway.

  Jay stood next to my Challenger and rubbed his stomach. “I’m a growing boy, Frank. What do you expect?”

  She flicked her hand at him to move to the side. “I expect your waist to grow by five inches if you keep eating two whole pizzas every day.”

  He stepped to the side and opened the door for her. “Not gonna happen since Cummings is too cheap to ever turn the air on at the shop. I sweat my ass off every damn day.”

  Frankie crawled into the backseat, and I rounded the front of the car. “Sticking her in the backseat again?” I laughed.

  Jay shrugged. “Good place for her.” He chuckled and ducked into the car.

  My hand lightly glided over deep, dark blue paint on the hood. This was my baby. The car I dreamed of while working fifty-hour weeks for three years at the shop the Devil’s Knights owned. Every day, I drove my 2017 Challenger like a badge of honor.

  I pulled open the door and slid into the lush dark-gray seat.

  “You think you’ll ever get in your car without caressing it like it’s your damn girlfriend?” Jay asked.

  I flipped him off and stuck the key in the ignition. “You always gotta be a fucking hater when it comes to Indigo?” Yes, I had also named her.

  “Last I checked, I’m sitting in a damn car, not your girlfriend.”

  “Ew,” Frank groaned from the backseat. “I really don’t need to think about you sitting in Remy’s girlfriend.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “You two must be picturing nothing since Remy doesn’t have a fucking girlfriend.” Jay reached out his hand behind him to Frank.

  “I ain’t high-fiving. Lord knows where that hand has been,” she scoffed.

  I cranked up the car and shifted into reverse. “You think you two can lay off each other at least until we get to the damn bar?”

  Jay folded his arms over his chest. “Don’t know what the hell your problem is,” he mumbled about Frank.

  “The only problem I have right now is I don’t have a rum and Coke in my hand. Drive this hunk of metal, Rem. Mama needs a drink.”

  Jay turned in his seat to face Frankie. “You referring to yourself as mama has wrecked any sexual innuendo that word has ever had over me.”

  “Figures. I knew you would be one of those daddy/papi guys,” Frankie snickered.

  “Not anymore,” he mumbled.

  We managed to make it to Hilltop and parked in front of The Waterhole without Frankie and Jay bickering the whole time.

  I looked at the neon light sign in front of us. “The Waterhole?”

  “Beggars can’t be choosers, Remy. Frankie needs a rum and Coke in her hand, and I need to check out the chicks.”

  I pushed open my door. “You know there are chicks back in Leeds Square, right?” I slid out of the car and stood by the hood waiting.

  “Would it kill you to help me out of the damn backseat?” Frankie mumbled as she struggled to reach for the lever to flip the back of the seat up.

  Jay took a step back from the door and crossed his arms over his chest. “See, this is where your attitude gets you into trouble. You actually need help now, but I’m not going to help you.”

  All I could see of Frankie was her hand she was now using to flip Jay off. “Flip the damn lever, and I won’t
kick your ass when I get out of here.”

  Jay swiveled his head to look at me. “What do you think?”

  “I think I didn’t drive half an hour for you two to bicker like five-year-olds in a parking lot. Let her out.”

  “No fucking fun,” he mumbled under his breath. He crouched down, flipped the lever, and jumped back. Frankie pushed the seat forward and catapulted herself out of the backseat. “You said you weren’t going to kick my ass.”

  Frankie slammed the door and lunged at Jay. “I’m not. I’m gonna kick you in the balls.”

  Jay dodged her grasp and sprinted to the front door. “This is another reason why you don’t have a boyfriend,” he called as he yanked open the door and slid inside.

  Frankie glared at the closed door. “I knew I should have just stayed home and watched Yukon Gold.”

  I beeped the locks on the Challenger and followed Frankie into the bar. “Is that your latest reality show binge?”

  I spotted Jay at the far side of the bar and grabbed Frankie’s arm.

  “Yeah. If this pit crew thing doesn’t work out, I figure I can always head north and try to hit pay dirt.”

  “Pay dirt?” I chuckled.

  Frankie sat down next to Jay. “You laugh now, but I bet you won’t be when I haul my cookies north and come back rich as shit.”

  Jay set a drink down in front of her and handed me mine. “What the hell did I miss?” he asked.

  “Frankie is quitting the team and heading to Canada to mine for gold,” I explained. I took a sip of my Coke and set it on the bar.

  Jay ran his fingers through his hair and leaned an arm against the bar. “Uh, okay?”

  “How did you manage to get our drinks so quick?”

  Jay smirked and looked around the bar. “You guys didn’t happen to notice there are only a handful of people here besides us?”

  Frankie swiveled around. “Jesus. You sure you didn’t just drive around for half an hour and end back up in Leeds Square?”