by Kylie Walker
“And then she married Darren,” Sam said.
“Yeah, and for a while they completely disappeared off the grid. I lost track of all of you for a few years. I finally found you again but Lacey wouldn’t let me see you.”
“All that time I thought it was you.”
“Well, technically it was. I could have filed for custody with the court at that point, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of taking you from your mother. I swear to you I didn’t know Darren was such a monster. I knew he was an asshole, but if I had suspected he was mistreating you or laying a hand on you…”
“He used Aaron as his punching bag. I never had it as hard as he did…or Mom.”
“What about that scar over your eye?”
Sam automatically reached up and pulled her long bangs down over her right eye. She kept her almost jet black hair cut in a long shaggy bob around her face with her bangs almost completely covering her right eye for that reason. She hadn’t realized she’d brushed them aside somewhere along the way from Arizona. She had a big, ugly scar that ran from the top of her forehead through her eyebrow and to the top of her eyelid. “He tried to rape me,” she said. Luke closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them he had tears in them.
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay; it’s not your fault. Mom knew that he was a monster. She should have left, or told you. Besides, I broke a glass vase over his head that day. The scar on my eyebrow is minor compared to the ones on his skull underneath his hair line.”
Luke shook his head but he looked like he was trying not to smile. “You turned out damned good for a girl who raised herself.”
“I get by,” she said. “So, are you going to help me fix my engine?”
He laughed and pulled open his door. “I just might be willing to do that. Are you going to race if I do?”
She smiled. “I’m going to race whether you do or not.”
Luke laughed again. “Let’s get this car unloaded and then we’ll see if we can wake that brother of yours up. We need to sit down and lay out some house rules.”
**
Two hours later they all sat around the dining room table. The house was big and roomy and Luke had shown both her and Aaron to their own rooms. The rooms were huge and furnished nicely. None of it was fancy, it was just warm and homey, but if you looked closely at the labels you could see that it was done with money. “Did you decorate this house yourself?” Sam asked Luke when he sat down at the table.
He smiled. “No, decorating isn’t in my repertoire. I was married and my wife had an eye for decorating. She did a great job, so I haven’t changed anything.”
“You were married? That means you’re divorced?”
“After your mother and I split up I married the woman I was cheating with. She was younger than me and it took living together for me to realize we didn’t have a lot in common. I didn’t want to have a second divorce before I was thirty though, so I tried sticking it out. She cheated on me with a co-worker who was her age. She left me for him and she was the one that filed for divorce. After that I had a lot more sympathy for your mother. I at least knew how she felt.”
“I’m sorry. So, she’s the one that decorated the house?”
“No, I was married again about four years ago. This past year she died.”
“Jeez, sorry again,” Sam said.
“Yeah, me too. She was a good woman, but haunted by something that happened to her that she just couldn’t get over. She killed herself several months ago.” Sam cringed but before she could say she was sorry again Luke looked at Aaron and said, “You awake, kid?” Aaron nodded.
“Speak!” Samantha told him.
Aaron glared at her but then he said, “Yeah, I’m awake, sir.”
“Good. I don’t know what you’re on but here are my rules. Once whatever you’re using is out of your system you won’t use anything else, again. If you need help doing that I’ll pay for rehab. If you refuse the help and continue to use, I’ll check you into rehab against your will as your guardian. I know you were dealt a really shitty hand, but that just means you have to work harder to succeed…not that you can’t. Do we understand each other?” Aaron was looking at Luke like he was having a hard time processing what he was saying. Samantha kicked him underneath the table.
He grit his teeth in his sister’s direction and then turning back to Luke he said, “Yes, we understand each other.”
Luke just casually smiled and said, “That’s good. I’m going to give you a job at the parts store nearest here for the summer. That might curb some of the temptation to hang out on the streets and get into trouble. Social services will be checking in with us every so often, we have to look like we’re making this work or they’ll send you back to Arizona.”
“Okay sir,” Aaron said. Sam saw Luke’s lips twitch.
“You don’t have to call me sir. Luke will do.”
“Yes sir.”
Samantha listened and watched to the exchange slightly amused and still slightly amazed that Luke was willing to take this on. If he wasn’t careful, she might just begin to like him. Luke ordered pizza and the trio had dinner together before Luke turned in for the night. It was almost eleven o’clock when Sam went to her room. She looked in on Aaron on her way by. He was sitting on the edge of his bed playing video games on a system that looked brand new and a 42 inch flat screen TV. He looked content, if not happy. She went through the motions of getting into bed, but an hour later she was not only still awake, but up pacing her large, new room.
She had run the entire gamut of emotions through her system the past month and she was truly exhausted. Tonight she was trying to feel the peace that she knew she was supposed to feel at this point, but it was elusive. She was sure that was only because she’d never actually had that. As a young girl it used to be what she wished for when other little girls were wishing for Barbie dolls and bicycles. She just wanted to feel peace in her heart and in her soul and most especially know it in her life. She was still grieving for her mother, but Darren was finally out of the picture and Luke had stepped up to be far beyond who and what she expected. She had a very nice roof over her head and everything else she could possibly need…yet she still stood here and wondered what was going to happen next. As wrong as that was, it was her life and she didn’t know how to change it.
**
Sam woke up the next morning to the sound of her phone ringing. She looked at the face and realized it was Troy’s friend Shawn calling her. She sat up and tried to shake off the sleep as she put the phone to her ear and said, “Hey, this is Sam.”
There was a slight chuckle and then a man’s voice. “Hi Sam, this is Shawn Linken, I’m Troy’s friend.”
“Yeah, I was going to call you today actually.”
“We have a race tonight so I thought I’d call you early and see if you wanted to come out. That way you can meet everyone at once and take a look at how we do things.”
“Yeah, I’d like that a lot, thanks. Where should I meet you?”
“I can pick you up if you want. I’ll be heading out around ten.”
“Okay…” Samantha thought Luke was okay with her racing but she wasn’t sure how he’d feel about her inviting people to come by so soon. She remembered seeing a coffee shop on the corner on their way here yesterday but she didn’t even know the name of the street they lived on, much less the one on that corner. “Can I text you the address to pick me up in just a bit?”
“Sure. I’ll see you tonight.”
Sam was wide awake and actually excited when she hung up. She looked at the time and couldn’t believe it was already after nine. She hadn’t meant to sleep in. She took a quick shower and then went out to the kitchen. It was odd being in a strange house, especially such a big one. In their old house you always knew when someone else was home. The doors and the floor boards squeaked and the walls were thin enough to hear through and the rooms were small. You could hide a small army in
this place and probably never know that they were here, she thought.
The house was silent and the kitchen was empty. There was a note on the counter for her next to a freshly brewed pot of coffee. It was from Luke.
Sam, I took Aaron by the parts store before I headed into work. Call my cell if you need anything. I’ll pick Aaron up on my way home. He signed it, ‘Dad.’ Samantha realized that what was even odder than being in a strange place was living with a father you didn’t even know. Luke’s laptop was sitting on the kitchen table and Sam did something that she’d never done before, she Googled her father. In the past she convinced herself that it didn’t matter where he was or what he was doing. He was the one that was supposed to be looking for her, not the other way around. Now, she was suddenly curious to know more about him.
Her search returned thousands of hits mostly for a company called, “Glass Engines.”
She clicked on the first one and it took her to a website that had a logo with a picture of an engine made out of glass. She read through it and awe began to take root and growing inside of her.
Glass Engines serve industries demanding precision and performance. The development of engine and propulsion systems is the company’s expertise and they have the ability to manage the development process from initial concept through detailed design, analysis, prototype manufacturing, prototype assembly, and testing. Glass’s ability to meet customer expectations is supported by a highly trained and experienced staff, and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. The manufacturing plant and company headquarters are located in Pasadena California and the founder and primary stock holder Luke Glass also owns a string of high performance parts stores all across the state. Luke began the business by designing and building high quality engines in his garage. Today after fifteen years of business, his company provides the bulk of engines, parts and tires to all of the major racing teams in California as well as many across the rest of the United States.
Samantha read that passage three times before she moved on. She had no idea that Luke was so successful…or so proficient when it came to building engines. They talked about her Mustang on the way out and she’d told him what happened to the engine. He had humbly offered to help her replace or rebuild it. She knew he owned the parts store so she was sure he knew what he was doing, but she had no idea that she was being offered help by the biggest manufacturer of racing engines in the state. Sam was filled with another new feeling then, it was one of deep respect for her father. She’d felt respect for her friends and other racers and men and women she’d only seen racing and building cars on television…but she’d never had any respect for a parent. As much as she loved her mother, Lacey had never done anything to earn her respect. Luke made himself out of nothing and apparently he has made quite an impact on the racing world. It was all so incredible and somewhat surreal that it made her head spin, but it also made her feel another new emotion…hope for what might come next.
CHAPTER 8
Stewart Turner, one of Conrad’s crew since he started it five years earlier rode out to the race site with him. The cops were cracking down hard in L.A. and the surrounding areas, but his step-father had plunked down a lot of money for a strip of private land on the outskirts of nearby San Marino. He’d even had the old road re-paved and now it’s where they hold most of their races. It’s still not strictly legal, but if nobody bothered them out here for the most part as long as they didn’t invade the affluent community nearby. As he and Stew were pulling the blue Camaro Conrad was driving tonight off the trailer Stew asked him, “Where’s Shawn tonight?”
“He should be out soon. He’s picking up some chick that moved here from Arizona. His friend Troy says this girl is one hell of a racer and just as good of a mechanic.”
“Damn, if she’s hot too maybe I’ll marry her.”
Conrad laughed. “Not with Mandy this week?” Stew and his on again, off again girlfriend Mandy had been on and off since middle school. Conrad was sure one day they’d end up married…and then divorced.
“Nah, we’re taking a break.”
“That’s why I don’t do relationships,” Conrad said, releasing the tow strap from the front end of the Camaro. “I’m on a permanent break.”
“Yeah, but the difference between you and me is that pussy doesn’t throw itself at me. I masturbate until I’m half blind and then I can’t remember a single one of Mandy’s flaws and I beg her to take me back.”
Conrad laughed again. Stew was right in the fact that sex had never been hard for Conrad to come by, but after everything that happened with his family, in part because he was more interested in getting laid than taking care of his brother, he wasn’t as interested as he used to be. He still had needs he had to satisfy, but instead of allowing it to rule his life he put that energy into his cars and racing. Over the course of the next few weeks he had interviews set up with several professional crews getting ready for the upcoming drag racing season. He didn’t need any distractions from that.
They finished taking the car off the trailer just as Beau drove up in his white Acura Integra. It was slammed low to the ground and had multi-colored rear wings. Conrad always made fun of the way it sounded like an angry bee, but the truth was that when Beau was in the mood he and that little import could blow most of the rest of these guys off the track. Conrad wasn’t into the Japanese cars. He liked the classic American muscle car the street racers drove in the old days. It was one thing him and his step-dad had bonded over and they’d spent a big part of the years his mother couldn’t stand the sight of him out in the shop, restoring them.
Beau clasped hands with Stew and then Conrad. “Brought out the big guns tonight, huh?” Beau asked, looking at the Camaro. The Charger was Conrad’s true love, but the Camaro’s engine was stroked. A few weeks before Beau had added a supercharger and it was juiced. Conrad absolutely thrived on hitting that little button that would release the nitrous oxide and send him soaring at speeds up to 160 MPH. There was nothing better, not even sex.
“Yep. It was time,” he told Beau. “There's seven grand on the table tonight.”
“Like you need the money,” Stew said, rolling his eyes.
“I don’t have any more money than the rest of you,” Conrad told him. That was technically true. The fact that his step-father was loaded and his own father did pretty well was beside the point. Conrad had been pulling his own weight since graduating high school. He spent a couple of years at USC, but racing was all he ever wanted to do and the place to learn about cars and speed was not in college, but on the street.
Casey and Drew arrived just before the first race began. The girls had been with the crew for two and three years respectively. Casey works at the bar where the crew sometimes hangs out and Drew works part-time as a waitress. Like Conrad they would both rather be racing than doing anything else. Drew was racing tonight in her sky blue Nissan 300ZX. She’d bought it stripped for five hundred bucks and she’d put every penny she’d made in tips into it over the past three years. She’d only raced it once before and although she didn’t win, she’d come damn close. Beau had made some modifications for her since then and she was practically buzzing with excitement to try it out tonight.
“Where’s Shawn?” Drew asked.
“Picking up my bride to be,” Stew said.
Conrad rolled his eyes. “He’s picking up a girl that might be racing with us soon.”
“That’ll take some of the pressure off the two of you when we’re in the mood for a crew orgy,” Beau said with a grin. Drew flipped him off and Casey said,
“I wasn’t going to say anything about that lump on your head, but I think it’s made you delusional.” Beau’s face was still bruised and his right eye was swollen. Dark stitches adorned the space underneath his left eyebrow making it look almost like he had two on one side. No one in the crew had to ask what happened to him. Most of them never even mentioned it. Casey was a different story; it pissed her off to no end that Beau wouldn’t fight bac
k. He brushed her off now and stuck his head underneath the hood of the Camaro alongside Conrad.
The first two cars, a Mitsubishi Starion and a yellow Integra pulled up to the starting line and began revving their engines. The crew fell silent and turned around to watch as they readied for take-off. A tall, heavily tattooed Vietnamese guy stood a few feet in front of them. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt and he raised both of his hands in the air and as soon as he let them drop, the cars took off with a squeal. All eyes were on them as they accelerated from zero to hauling ass in seconds; that was until Conrad caught sight of Shawn’s car out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over as it parked and then back at the race…and then he did a double take.
The passenger door opened and the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen stepped out. She wasn’t very tall, maybe five four at the most, but her legs looked like they went on forever. She had shapely hips that filled out her jeans, a small waist and the curve of firm, shapely breasts showed just above the neckline of the gray A-frame tank she was wearing. Her dark hair was cut in uneven layers that framed her gorgeous face and hung down to the center of her back. Conrad felt his mouth go dry as she and Shawn walked toward them. Suddenly racing once again had competition in his brain for top spot and most of the blood in his body had moved down south.
When they got closer Stew suddenly took notice of the curvy brunette with the ice blue eyes and leaned in close to Conrad. “Damn, my future wife is hot.” Conrad elbowed him back and he heard Stew snicker.
“Samantha Glass this is Conrad Watts,” Shawn said. Conrad took the hand that Sam offered and he wondered if she could feel what he was feeling. He wasn’t sure he could even describe it if he had to, but he’d never felt anything like it before. She wasn’t just hot; she literally made it hard for him to breathe.
“Welcome,” he said in a voice he almost didn’t recognize himself.