A Restored Man

by Jaime Reese

  Ty's laugh rumbled against Cole's torso. "I like your hair," he said in a trance, running his fingers repeatedly through Cole's hair. "I don't think I've ever seen hair this dark before."

  "Dark like charcoal," Cole said, nuzzling Ty. "We should get up."

  Ty sighed. "I know. Besides, I owe you a conversation."

  "Thanks for not trying to ignore the elephant in the room."

  Ty reached for Cole's hand and entwined their fingers. "I know I'm stubborn, probably more than Aidan."

  "Uh huh."

  Ty half smiled. "But I'll promise to try. If you ever feel as if I'm shutting you out again, call me on it please. Even if I get mad. I don't care. I just don't want to risk losing you. I can deal with all the other stuff going on if I know you're around. You make me forget about all the other crap."

  "I'm happy to provide the entertainment in your life. I offer discounted shows on Tuesday and Thursday. Meals included on Saturdays."

  Ty chuckled. "And morning specials."

  Cole leaned in and kissed Ty. "That's a 24/7 special. You can have that anytime you want," he said, licking the shell of Ty's ear. "C'mon, let's get up and get this talk over with. I'm not thrilled about having a discussion regarding Mr. Asshole knowing that fucker makes you stutter." He extended his hand to Ty.

  Ty took his hand and stood.

  Cole pulled up his pants and grabbed the T-shirt from the floor and handed it to Ty. "You might want to burn that," Cole said. "I don't think it can be salvaged."

  Ty smiled and took the T-shirt, folding it carefully as if it were a delicate material. "I'm not burning it."

  Cole grinned. "I love that you're twisted. I don't even want to know what you're going to do with that."

  Ty smiled and retreated to the neighboring room. Cole straightened his clothing while he heard Ty opening and closing drawers. Ty emerged from the room a few moments later wearing his work coveralls.

  Cole walked over and unlocked the office door, trying to avoid the click of the lock movement. No need letting the guys knows the door had been locked at all. He grabbed his beanie and began combing his hair with his fingers.

  "Do you mind leaving it off for a while?" Ty asked, pointing to the beanie in Cole's hand.

  A smile tugged at his lips as he placed the knit hat on the desk and ran his fingers through his hair. He combed the front to a side part and tried to flatten the sides behind his ears as much as possible. He shoved his hands in his pockets so he'd stop messing with it and waited for Ty to take the lead.

  Ty sat in his office chair and exhaled heavily. Knowing him, he was probably overthinking.

  Cole plopped himself in the chair in front of Ty's desk. "Okay, so tell me, what's going on? Why was Mr. Asshole such a prick yesterday?"

  Ty crossed his arms on his desk and looked in Cole's direction, but his focus was clearly elsewhere. "It's complicated."

  "It's never easy. Give me the highlights," Cole said, leaning back in the chair and propping a booted foot over his knee.

  Ty sighed. "Robert used to work with my dad. He helped run the shop's day-to-day stuff for years. I guess he got a little greedy and started doing some shady business transactions."

  Cole cocked his head. "How shady?"

  "Bad parts for our service calls. I didn't even know he was doing it. I handled the restorations and custom work but I didn't really manage the service department of the shop. My dad and Robert handled the traditional inventory and tickets."

  "I'm assuming counterfeit parts. Right? How bad is the quality?" Cole asked, crossing his arms.

  Ty exhaled heavily. "Horrible. Substandard for the industry and well beyond inferior to what Calloway's reputation promises. The only saving grace is that many of our clients don't put heavy usage on their cars. Otherwise, we'd have some serious issues. Some of the parts can't even sustain the engine heat level requirements. You've seen how bad some of the parts are with the service tickets we've been working on. Turns out the battery that exploded was part of the list. I hadn't caught it because it was on a follow-up ticket, so I had it listed separately."

  "How did you find out about the parts?"

  Ty laughed. "The irony. Robert started filtering so much work through the shop, he needed an assistant to help him with things after my dad died. So he hired Stacie."

  Cole raised his eyebrows. "He hired Stacie?"

  Ty nodded. "Almost immediately, she picked up on something not being right. Rather than go to him, she came to see me at the hospital."

  Cole blew out a whistle. "I've got mad respect for her now. So then what happened?"

  "We chatted and I asked her to make sure there were copies of everything just in case Robert picked up on her figuring things out. She kept tabs on how the work was being presented with the techs and the process. Once she had all the paperwork and I was healed up enough to come in and run things, I fired Robert."

  "Were your current guys on staff at the time?" Cole asked, running his fingers through the front of his hair to brush the loose strands out of his face.

  Ty leaned forward on the desk. "I know where you're headed but there was no way to know about the parts. They either came in OEM packaging or Robert would lay out the parts for each ticket. He was real slick about it from what Stacie found out. Made it look as if he was prepping the service for the techs to move things along. The guys had no idea or they would have balked."

  "How long was this going on?" Cole asked, blowing the wayward hair out of his eye.

  Ty fidgeted with the papers on his desk. "As far as we can tell, it started a little over a year before my dad died. In total, we're guessing two years. I offered some of my clients a free inspection service visit so I could get a handle of when it started. That's how I pinpointed the window of time. I'm bringing them in and redoing the service ticket and eating the costs."

  Cole scowled. "That's expensive and going to take forever if you're doing it on your own."

  "Jeff's the only tech who knows what's going on, and he's fighting me on this because he wants to help. I need him to oversee the guys and work on the service tickets that are bringing in the money to keep the revenue coming in. I can take the financial hit with the redos, that's not the problem. I won't run the risk of one of my customers having a brake line crap out on them or something else going wrong that's going to put their life in danger," Ty said, rubbing his eyes.

  Cole gripped the armrests and frowned. Two years' worth of service tickets was a nightmare. "How many tickets are we talking about here?"

  Ty reached into a file on his desk and pulled out a few sheets. "I've got them ordered by critical part and odometer reading. I figured that would be an indicator of how heavily they use the car and the potential risk factor," he said, handing over the papers.

  Cole looked them over and flipped to the next page. He looked up at Ty with concern. "If you do one car a day from now until the end of this list without a break, it'll take you at least a year. There's no way you can do this on your own."

  Ty smiled weakly. "That's why you've been helping me. You get a fixed salary for working here as part of the program so I can move you around different projects. I can't do the same to the other techs who need the hours on certain tasks to maintain their certification."

  Cole tapped the folder on his boot. "I take it Mr. Asshole is blackmailing you. What are his terms?"

  Ty shook his head and looked off to the side. His jaw muscles flexed with whatever was crossing his mind.

  "Don't overthink, Ty. Just tell me."

  Ty's focus returned to Cole. "He wants me to sabotage the launch of a new car line."

  Cole laughed and tossed the papers back on Ty's desk. "Oh, my hot, sexy metal man, how is a mere mortal going to do that?" Cole raised his hands to quickly add, "No offense."

  Ty chuckled weakly. "None taken. It's a new exotic car line Drayton's been working on for years. He rents out part of my bays sometimes to do some testing and customization."

  Cole nodded and pursed
his lips. "Ahh. Mr. Asshole knows this and expects you to fuck up whatever you're doing with Drayton to either slow him down or screw him over."

  "Yes," Ty said.

  "And in exchange for that, he keeps quiet about the counterfeit parts."

  Ty nodded. "Yes. But even if he keeps quiet about the parts, that still leaves me with a list of clients who are at risk and I can't have that."

  Cole smiled. "Of course you can't." His Ty was always worried about taking care of everyone else. "And Drayton's a friend."

  "Exactly."

  Cole gripped his boot and tapped the sole with his thumb. "What does he have against Drayton?"

  "Robert has been working with a development team and a group of investors to launch a new line of exotics."

  Cole frowned and continued to tap his boot. "Exotics are always appealing. Two can come into the market without issue. What's the big deal?"

  "Drayton's is electric. Apparently the type of battery he's using for the engine is what makes it different and allows for a full charge within ten minutes that lasts a range of about two hundred miles. I don't know the technology he's using, but I do know it's a three-second car."

  Cole blew out a whistle. "That's impressive. New tech electric with those stats will overshadow a no-name traditional gasoline exotic every time. What's the timetable?"

  "Robert's line will be ready in a year. Drayton hasn't made an announcement but his line will be ready in about eight months maybe sooner. The prototype should be finished and ready to showcase in four months or less," Ty said.

  "Does Mr. Asshole know that?"

  Ty shook his head. "No one knows that it's moving along quicker than anticipated. And since it's such a specialized market and Drayton's got an established reputation in the exotic and high-end import markets, he doesn't have to work up the months of hype before launch. He's released enough information to tease the market to anticipate something big. He believes two months should suffice. He's already got a few people lined up to buy the car and they don't even have the specs I just gave you."

  Cole chuckled. "Money to burn. Gotta love that." He quickly sorted the situation in his mind, prioritizing the details and itemizing what needed to be done. "Okay, so we need to get all these service issues out of the way before the prototype is ready so Mr. Asshole doesn't have you by the balls anymore. Does that sound right?"

  Ty nodded.

  Cole planted both feet on the floor deliberately fighting off the slew of 'balls' jokes that ran rampant in his head or the comment on the tip of his tongue about wanting to be the only one who had Ty by the balls. He needed to focus on the situation. "Let me help you with that."

  Ty shrugged. "You're already helping me by doing some of the tickets with me."

  Cole shook his head. "That's not enough. I need you to trust me."

  "I do."

  "I know you like being in control—"

  "So do you," Ty said with a knowing smile.

  Cole grinned. "True. But this, I need your complete trust. We've worked together for almost two months. I know how important this shop is to you and I'm not going to let Mr. Asshole take that away but I'm going to need you to give me a few liberties."

  Ty leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk, clasping his hands together. "I have two questions for you."

  "Shoot."

  "Is it legal and is this important to you?"

  Cole's laughter echoed in the office. It seemed Ty remembered every one of their conversations. "Yes, it's legal. You're still buying the parts from your reputable distributors." He paused, wondering how much he should say or could say without screwing things up. "And yes, you're important to me."

  A wealth of emotions flowed across Ty's face, then a glimmer of something Cole hadn't ever seen made an appearance in that brown-eyed stare. He felt something pass between them, as if long tentacles carefully wrapped their hold around Cole's heart and held it protectively. His throat tightened with the swell of emotions rising in his chest.

  "Whatever you need, it's yours."

  Cole felt a current travel his body with the offer. This was a big step for Ty. Cole needed to focus and not let his mind wander. Ty needed him and had just given him control over the situation, and essentially, his shop—whether he knew it or not. No one had ever had such blind faith in him. He grabbed the list from Ty's desk again, his eyes quickly glancing over the pages and his lips moving as he counted off entries on the list. "Do you have any custom projects on the schedule for the next two months?"

  Ty shook his head. "I've got the body kit ticket wrapping up and I'm not taking any custom paint work until Sawyer's back on his regular schedule. I've got a few inquiries but I haven't committed to anything yet. Why?"

  Cole's focus returned to the papers. He flipped the page over, then back again. "We need to get the body kit wrapped up today if possible. I'm going to need the paint, sanding, custom, and restoration bays to all be empty. I need you to schedule out any custom work after two months. Not before. And I need you to move the Yenko out of the bay. It's too tempting," he said, still concentrating intently on the pages.

  "Tempting for what?"

  Cole looked up. "Just trust me. I need you to move it. It'll spark too much conversation and I need laser focus not distractions. Ideally, I want you to find a way to close off the service bays as well and lock the showroom access. Also too tempting and I don't want the techs snooping around on what's going on."

  Ty narrowed his eyes. "What is going on?" he asked. "I can literally see the wheels turning in your head."

  Cole smiled warmly. He grabbed a pencil from the desk and began marking the pages with expert ease, occasionally pushing the hair out of his face so he could focus on the pages. He handed back the papers to Ty and pointed to the marked lines on the pages. "I need you to ask Stacie to get these scheduled out."

  "When?" Ty asked, looking through Cole's notes.

  "For Monday."

  Ty looked up. "All eight of them."

  "Yes," Cole said, tapping the pencil on his boot. Cole stood and walked over to Ty's side of the desk. "Now get out and let me use your office. I need to make a few phone calls and I can't make them from my cell." He nudged Ty out of his seat when he hesitated. "One more thing."

  "Yeah?"

  "Stop torturing Aidan. Get together with him this weekend and catch up."

  "So I take it you guys were conspiring," Ty said, crossing his arms. "I'm trying, but it's tough. He treats me as if I'm fragile or something, like I can't handle things on my own." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

  Cole scowled and planted both hands on his waist. "Then tell him that. Your brother's an ass but even I can see he acts that way because he's afraid of losing you. You guys lost your parents. He almost lost his brother once. He lost his best friend to WITSEC to keep him safe. I think he's the one who's going to break if he loses someone else. Out of the two of you, I'd say you've got fewer issues."

  Ty grabbed the beanie off the desk and walked back over to Cole. "I didn't think of it that way. It's been tough lately. It's as if I don't even know what to talk about with him."

  Cole reached out and rubbed his thumb along Ty's cheek. "He's your brother. You guys'll figure it out. If you get stuck and don't know what to talk about, ask him about Jessie."

  Ty cocked his head. "Who's Jessie?"

  "Jessie's awesome and someone your brother's interested in."

  "Why do you know about her and I don't?" Ty asked with a scowl. "It's sort of Aidan's unspoken rule. His private life is off limits."

  Aidan was going to kill him. He'd let the cat out of the bag about Jessie, but there was no way in hell he was going to push Aidan out of the closet if he was hiding. "Um, just ask him. It'll give you guys something to talk about." Cole leaned in and gave Ty a chaste kiss. "Now, go and let me make some phone calls."

  Ty looked at him with an odd expression but didn't push the topic further. He ran his fingers through the thick black hair and put the
beanie on Cole's head.

  Cole smiled. "I think you have a hair fetish."

  Ty's cheeks heated. He turned and walked toward the door, pausing as he held the door knob in his hand. "I think I have a Cole fetish," he said before exiting his own office.

  Well, damn. Maybe his Ty was a little twisted after all. He took a deep breath to focus his thoughts. Ty was relying on him and there was no way his focus was going to shift to anything other than taking care of what had to be done so Ty had his shop back. Cole smiled as he picked up the receiver of the office phone and began making his calls.

  Cole paced Ty's office Monday morning and looked up at the wall clock for the hundredth time.

  "Would you stop it already," Ty said, grabbing Cole's wrists to still him.

  Cole sighed. "I'm sorry," he said, shifting his weight on the balls of his feet. He hadn't seen his crew since he went inside, and he was…anxious. He'd contacted them on Friday and all were enthusiastic about helping him with his special project. Not a single one of them hesitated when he asked them for a huge favor—two months of doing legit repair work for free. Cole had refused to snitch out his crew for a lesser sentence and they all showed their gratitude with an instant 'yes' when he called. They claimed two months of free labor still wasn't enough to repay Cole for his sacrifice of two years inside while they continued on with their lives.

  But still, he was nervous.

  Ty leaned against his desk with his arms crossed. "What the heck are you so worried about? You said you already spoke to all of them on the phone."

  Cole shrugged, not really knowing how to explain what he was feeling or what he was worried about.

  "Cole, just talk to me. You're too quiet and that's worrying me more than having a half dozen people here who are experts at jacking and stripping cars."

  "I don't want you to hate me," Cole said quietly, chewing on his lip.

  Ty reached out and pulled Cole by the waist. "How could I possibly hate you? You're doing everything you can to save my ass here."