Skid Row Kings Complete Series

by Winter Travers

  “No running, Scarlett. You agreed to go out with me tonight, and I can’t help but think that you’re here because you want to get to know me better.”

  “I think you should be thinking about the race and not me.”

  “Hmm, I guess I’ll accept that for now. After the race is a whole different story.” He let go of my arm, opened his door and hoisted himself out of the car. He ducked back in, a smirk on his face. “I’m just happy you decided to come out with me tonight.”

  “You and Frankie actually didn’t leave me much choice.”

  Mitch shrugged his shoulders, “You had a choice, Sparky. I’m just glad you made the right decision.” He stood up, slammed his door and I had no idea what to do.

  I was completely lost. I liked Mitch, I really did if I let myself admit it, but I just couldn’t let go. I was terrified that the hell I had just escaped was going to come back and haunt me. I knew Manny had no idea where I was going when we left, but the nagging feeling I had just wouldn’t go away. Mitch knocked on the window, and I had no other choice but to get out of the car.

  “I thought you might have changed your mind.” Mitch opened the door and held out his hand. I grabbed onto it because I didn’t think I would be able to haul my butt up without his help.

  “You need a pulley system to get out of that car,” I huffed.

  “Or I’ll just be here to give you a helping hand.” He pulled me up into his arms and rested a hand on my hip.

  “I’ve come to find that’s your MO.”

  “Only when it comes to you, Sparky.”

  “Every fiber in my being is telling me to run, Mitch.” I felt like a deer stuck in the headlights. Mitch was saying all the right things, trying to make me feel comfortable, but I couldn’t let go, not yet.

  “Do you want to go home?”

  “Um…” That was not the question I expected him to ask.

  “I don’t want to force you to do anything. You wanna leave, go get pizza, play mini golf or go home to Levi, I’ll take you.” He reached up, cupping my face and stroked my cheek with his thumb.

  “What about your race?”

  “Making sure you’re comfortable is more important than the race. I can always catch the next one.”

  “And you have again completely blown me away.” I leaned into his hand, a brick falling from the wall that I had built around Levi and I. “I wanna stay although mini golf sounds like fun.”

  “Tomorrow. We’ll bring Levi along and get pizza.”

  “I hesitantly say yes.”

  “Hesitate all you want. I’m not going anywhere.” He leaned in, kissing me on the cheek and his hand trailed down my neck and arm and he laced his fingers through mine. “Let’s find Violet. You two can be clueless about cars together.”

  Mitch tugged on my hand, and we started walking into the crowd. “Violet is Luke’s girlfriend, right?” Mitch nodded his head. “She doesn’t know anything about cars either?”

  “Violet is more clueless than you are. She’s learned a bit from being with Luke, but cars just aren’t her thing.”

  “But I’m assuming Luke is her thing so she’s trying to learn.”

  The crowd parted, and we came to three cars that were parked in the middle of the road. There was a sleek black one that was so close to the ground it looked like it was touching it, a bright green one that had a paint job similar to the Hulk and the last car was bright yellow like Bumblebee that Levi went on and on about. “It goes both ways with those two, Luke will listen to Violet drone on about books only because he gets to hear her talk.”

  I looked up at Mitch. “That’s sweet.”

  He shrugged his shoulders but didn’t say anything else.

  “Are these the guys you’re racing?” Each guy was leaned up against their car as people milled in between the cars oohing and ahhing over them. They were each impressive in their own right, but I still like Mitch’s midnight blue car.

  “That’s Guy, Crank, and Kurt.” Mitch pointed at each car, but I couldn’t help but notice how pissed off the guy leaning against the yellow car looked.

  “Wait, you are racing against Kurt.”

  “Yeah, and that’s the asshole right there.” Mitch nodded at Kurt. You could tell behind Kurt’s sunglasses that he was looking at us, but he didn’t nod back at Mitch.

  “Um, is there a reason why your brother looks like he’d like to murder you right now?”

  “Because I’m sure he would,” Mitch mumbled. “There’s Violet and Leelee. I’ll take you over there and then I need to get my car lined up.”

  Mitch led us over to Violet and Leelee who were sitting on the tailgate of a white truck and Luke was standing to the side talking to a group of guys.

  “I see he didn’t take no for an answer,” Leelee smirked.

  “Um, I actually said yes. Levi was so happy to see Frankie, and he had been a bear all day, so it’s probably for the best that we have a break from each other.”

  “You didn’t tell me Levi was giving you a hard time.” Mitch looked at me like I had run over his puppy.

  “Um, I didn’t think you’d want to hear me complain how Levi was a butt all day.” Mitch shook his head and turned to talk to Luke.

  I winced, not knowing what I had just done but wished I hadn’t done it. “Whoops.”

  “Eh, don’t mind him. I’ve come to find these Jensen boys have their own way of thinking. Luke hated me for a couple of weeks before he finally came around.” Violet swung her legs back and forth as she smiled at me. “Although he made me cry before he came around.”

  “It was a misunderstanding,” Luke called.

  Violet rolled her eyes and shook her head. “A massive misunderstanding.”

  “You excited to see Mitch race?” Leelee asked.

  “Um. I guess so. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve watched racing on TV, so I don’t really know what to expect.”

  “Well, I’m sure it’s NASCAR you saw on TV, and this is nothing like that. NASCAR is all left turns. This is left, right, and any which way.”

  “I’m just glad Luke doesn’t do this. Watching him drag race was torture enough. I can at least breathe easy knowing he’s right by my side.” Luke leaned over, placed a kiss on the side of Violet’s head and whispered in her ear. She blushed bright red and buried her face in Luke’s neck.

  “I swear to Christ those two need to get a room and not come out for a week,” Leelee reached behind her and dragged a cooler in between her and Violet, “Want a drink? I was going to get tacos, but the damn truck hasn’t shown up yet.”

  I peeked in the cooler and saw it was filled with beer, wine coolers, and a couple bottles of water. “Um, can I have a beer?”

  “Sure thing.” Leelee reached in, pulled out a Corona and handed it to me. “I didn’t know anyone else would drink them. I would have brought some limes.”

  “You would bring limes to a street race?” Violet laughed.

  “Wouldn’t be the first time,” Leelee winked.

  I tried twisting the cap off, but it wouldn’t budge. “That’s not a twist off, Sparky.” Mitch grabbed the bottle out of my hand, pulled his keys out of his pocket and pried the cap off with a bottle opener. Could you tell how long it had been since I drank?

  “Thanks,” I whispered as he handed it back to me. I took a hesitant sip hoping that I remembered right and that I did like Corona. Thankfully it went down smoothly, and I took a long drink.

  “Thirsty?” Mitch smirked.

  “I forgot how good beer tasted,” I giggled. “I think the last time I had one when was before Levi was born. My bottle of Boone’s the other night was a long time coming. I woke up with a raging headache the next morning.”

  “Well, I’ll make sure you don’t wake up with a headache tomorrow.” I just shook my head because there was no way that Mitch could guarantee I wouldn’t wake up with a pounding head tomorrow.

  “You ready to go?” Leelee asked Mitch.

  “As
ready as I’m going to be. Kurt is the only one I’m worried about.” I looked to the left and saw him still sulking by his car. “Fucker won’t even come stand by us,” Mitch growled.

  “Leelee told me what happened after Vi and I left. I honestly don’t know what the hell crawled up his ass. These past two months have been hell with him around the shop. I hate to say it, but something is going to have to change, or he’s going to find his ass on the street looking for a new job.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Violet said, looking over her shoulder at Luke.

  “I mean it just as much when I say I love you, Vi. Kurt needs to fucking shape up or ship out. I don’t have time to deal with his dumb ass and run the garage.” Luke crossed his arms over his chest and followed everyone's glance to look at Kurt. I had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound good for Kurt.

  “I gotta get in the car, Sparky. You good with staying here?” Mitch looked down at me, a small smile on his lips.

  “Um, yeah. But where is the finish line? Shouldn’t I wait for you there?” I figured there had to be a different place I needed to be.

  “Just stay right here. I’ll take off from here and finish here.”

  Oh, well that was convenient. “I guess that works,” I laughed.

  “Yo, you need to get your car lined up, Mitch,” Luke said nudging him.

  Mitch looked at me like he was torn between racing and staying here. “Are you sure you’ll be OK while I’m gone?”

  “Um, as long as Leelee and Violet don’t ditch me I’ll be good. Go race.” Mitch opened his mouth to talk, but nothing came out. “Seriously, Mitch. I am more than OK hanging with Violet. I’m twenty-five, not five.”

  “OK,” he said reluctantly. He leaned in, pressing a kiss to my cheek and whispered, “Wait for me,” in my ear. Talk about swoon worthy.

  He backed away, Luke following him and they both disappeared into the crowd. “Fucking sweet. Sickening,” Leelee said, putting her finger down her throat. “I could handle Luke and Violet, but now I gotta watch you and Mitch get all cutesy? Not fair. I want my own Jensen brother.”

  “Well, there is one left.” Violet hitched her thumb over her shoulder at Kurt and Leelee busted out laughing.

  “Ha! Please, it’ll be a cold day in hell when Kurt and I get together.” Leelee shook her head and grabbed a beer out of the cooler. “Which really is a shame, because he has to be the best looking Jensen brother too.”

  Violet scrunched up her nose and looked at me. “I’m pretty sure Scarlett and I have differing opinions on that.”

  I just shrugged my shoulders. Although I did agree with Violet, I wasn’t ready to say out loud that Mitch was good looking. Or hot. Smoking hot. Oh lord. I had never been one to think bald guys were hot, but it seemed to work on Mitch. Throw in his sculpted body, massive arms, and his drop dead gorgeous smile and it was hard to deny that Mitch was hot.

  “Hey, earth to Scarlett,” Leelee said, waving her hand in my face. “You wanna sit on the tailgate with us or stand.”

  “You’re probably going to end up standing on the bed of the truck,” Luke said, coming back over to stand by Violet.

  Mitch’s car slowly rolled by us, making a wide turn and pulled up next to Kurt’s car. I tried to see in the windows, but they were so heavily tinted that you couldn’t see in. “Is Mitch good?” I suddenly became very nervous and was worried that Mitch was going to lose.

  “He’s one of the best out here,” Leelee said standing up. She held her hand out to me, “Haul your ass up here and you’ll get a better view of the race, and I’ll give you a crash course lesson about street racing.”

  That sounded like an offer I shouldn’t refuse so I grabbed her hand and hoisted my ass up into the truck. Luke hopped up on the tailgate, throwing his arm over Violet and pulled her onto his lap. I could see where Leelee said those two couldn’t keep their hands off of each other, although I really did think it was cute and sweet.

  “OK, let’s start from the beginning.” I nodded my head unsure of what to say. I really was in the dark when it came to racing. I was thankful Leelee was a walking encyclopedia of information. “Luke drag races, and Mitch and Kurt street race. Street racing came about back in the 1960’s in Detroit where three car companies, one being Ford, always held drags and races on Woodward Avenue, or wherever they could. Street racing can either be spontaneous or planned. Nine times out of ten around here, you see two or three cars going fast, you know they’re racing.”

  “But this one was planned, right?” I mean, there was a ton of people here. I doubt they just knew to show up without being told.

  “Yes and no. Everyone knows there is a race every Friday, but they’re never in the same spot. The police suck on this side of town, but we still try to switch up the roads just so they don’t get a hair up their ass and decide to sniff around.”

  “Are the cops going to show up?” I felt that since this was my first time going out in over four years, I should probably try to avoid being arrested.

  “No, don’t worry. And if they do, just stick with me.”

  “You planning on flashing the cops to get out of a ticket?” Luke asked, laughing.

  Leelee flipped him off and stuck her tongue out. “No, these babies are only meant for tacos.”

  “Um…” I had no idea how we went from talking about racing to Leelee flashing her boobs to get tacos.

  “Ignore him,” she said, waving off Luke.

  “You gotta be kidding me.” Luke hopped off the back of the truck, crossing his arms over his chest and watched a bright orange car drive by slowly, circling around to join the four other cars.

  “Fucking ballsy,” Leelee said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe he would even think about showing his face here.”

  “And wouldn’t you know it that he brought my favorite person with him,” Violet mumbled. The passenger side door of the orange car opened, and a blonde girl popped out, smoothing down the short skirt she was wearing. I’m sure she had to have flashed the crowd when she got out. Hell, if a slight breeze came she was going to flash everyone.

  “I’m gonna punch her lights out, this time, Vi. She shouldn’t have gotten away with what she said to you before.

  “What?” Luke asked, looking between Violet and Leelee.

  “Shit,” Leelee cursed under her breath. Violet buried her face in her hands and shook her head. “I sooo should not have opened my mouth.” Leelee winced.

  “What did she say to you, Violet?” Luke demanded.

  “It was nothing, Luke. Just Ginny being Ginny. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before.”

  “Except this time she talked shit about Luke, too,” Leelee said out of the side of her mouth.

  I watched Ginny as she stepped away from the crowd and her eyes zoned in on us in the back of the truck. A sick and twisted smile spread across her lips, and I could tell that girl was nothing but trouble.

  The three other guys started their engines, a low rumbling going through the crowd. “We’ll finish this conversation later,” Luke said, looking at Violet and Leelee. I had to admit that I was glad that I wasn’t included in that order. Luke had a rather intimidating way about him that I was thankful that Mitch was nothing like that. He was one of the most laid back people I had ever met. It seemed as if nothing could rile him up.

  Leelee saluted Luke, irritating him even more. I couldn’t help but giggle at the outraged look on his face. “Who’s Ginny?” I whispered to Leelee.

  “Ginny is Violet’s high school nemesis and the town bicycle.” I tilted my head, not knowing what she meant. “Everyone’s had a ride.”

  “Ah, gotcha.”

  “So, Ginny said some stupid shit to Vi, then she told us she was dating AZ.” I felt completely lost, but I was trying to keep up as best as I could. “So, Luke raced AZ and won. AZ got pissed and challenged Luke to race for pinks.” I at least knew what that meant. I had to give credit to all the movies I watched growing up. “AZ
lost again, but that time he didn’t take it so well. He’s the one who totaled Luke’s car and then just left. Luke got his smashed car, too, but that’s not how it’s supposed to go. So as of right now, AZ still owes Mitch a car.” Wow.

  “So what is he doing here tonight?”

  “Not a clue, but I’m sure Mitch, Luke, and Kurt are going to find out.” Leelee turned her eyes back to the cars and crossed her arms over her chest.

  I wanted to ask more questions, but I could tell that now was not the right time. AZ showing up had completely changed the vibe of the night. Things were tense, and it didn’t look like that was going to change.

  A tall blonde clad in a short skirt and a tight, white tank top walked in between the cars and stood in front of them. She pulled a white handkerchief out of her bra, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. That explained why her boobs looked so big, she had them stuffed with handkerchiefs and apparently had one to spare. She raised her hand over her head, the cloth blowing in the light breeze and looked at each car, nodding her head.

  “She’s checking to make sure they’re all ready,” Leelee said absently. I could tell she wanted to concentrate on the race, but it was nice of her to throw me a bone and tell me what was going on.

  “How long does a race usually take?” Before I could get the last word out, she dropped her arm, and all five cars took off, AZ taking the lead.

  “Asswipe,” Leelee muttered. “He’s got the fastest reaction time, but that doesn’t mean shit.”

  “Reaction time?” I asked.

  “He was the first off the line. That only matters in drags, what Luke does,” Leelee explained.

  “Except my reaction time is a hell of a lot faster than his. That’s why I whipped his ass twice.” Luke turned around and headed into the crowd.

  “Where the hell is he going?” Leelee asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m gonna follow him. I’ll be back,” Violet called as she faded into the crowd.

  “So, now what?” I was all amped up for the race, but now with Mitch gone, well, racing, what the hell were we supposed to do now?

  “Now we wait.” Leelee put her arm around my shoulders, a wonky smile on her face. “And you can tell me how good of a kisser Mitch is.”