by Brei Betzold
“I never blamed him, not once.”
“I know you didn’t, you blamed yourself.”
I sighed and looked at him, “What now?”
“Well, now you finish this, go home, and start your life.”
“I’ve gotta find a place to live,” I groaned.
“Well that would be a good idea since Cas already put his place up for sale.”
I gasped, “He did?”
“Yeah, while he was up there last weekend.”
“Well that’s great, glad he told me,” I growled.
“I was going to wait until you got home before talking to you about this, but might as well tell you now.” He pulled the truck over on the side of the road and looked at me. “You know the second floor of the bike shop, where we used to keep junk from both shops? Well I had it cleaned out and had people up there turning into an apartment for you.”
I looked at him for a moment letting that penetrate.
“Why? I mean, thank you that’s amazing but why now?”
He sighed and rubbed his chin. “I saw this or something like this coming. You’ve been becoming more independent the past year that he’s been gone, and I wanted to make sure you were taken care of.”
“Thank you, Grandpa,” I whispered and leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“What have I told you about that?”
“Sorry Saul,” I smiled at him, “and thank you.”
“Good thing I made it a two bedroom, looks like that boy is coming to San Diego.”
I nodded, “Yeah, he is, he said something about working for Matt, but we’re taking things slow.”
“Uh huh, I see it in your eyes, Girl. His sister’s going to need a place to sleep.”
He pulled back out and turned us back towards town. We were quiet until he pulled back up to the garage.
“Kick their asses, Girl,” he growled.
“Yes sir, drive home safe.”
He nodded, “I’m proud of you, Scout.”
“Thank you,” I murmured. “Love you and call me when you get home.”
“All right,” he said and I hopped out of the truck and headed to Stella smiling.
Chapter 40
I was halfway back to my motel room when I remembered that I had left all the things I had bought yesterday at Thayne’s apartment. I cursed and headed towards the store, again. I made it a quick trip in and out, only grabbing the essentials, and finally made it back to my motel room. I pulled up into the parking lot and found Cas standing by the lobby, I waved at him and drove on to my room. He walked up as I was pulling my helmet off. I climbed off my bike and grabbed my bags from the saddlebags, then walked towards my door, waving him in after I unlocked it.
“Cas,” I said in way of greeting and tossed my bags on the bed, “what can I do for you?”
“We’re heading back with Saul. We were going to leave on Saturday but some things have come up.”
I nodded, “So you’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” he said looking around the room, “you can have your room back at the rental.”
I shrugged, “We’ll see.”
“How much longer do you have the room?”
“End of the week for now.”
He nodded, “And when all the people start showing up, where will you go?”
“Haven’t worked it out yet.”
He snorted, “Great plan you have here, Scout.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“Just go back to the rental, Scout.”
“If you came here to bark out orders then you can leave, Cas.”
He sighed and rubbed his head, “Sorry, it’s just habit, I guess.”
“What do you want, Cas?”
“To talk, I just want to talk to you.”
“Okay, so let’s talk.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
I just looked at him for a moment then shook my head, “How about we start at the beginning?”
“The beginning,” he mused. “All right I can do that, when you were…” he paused and looked at me and I could see the pain in his eyes then he blinked and it was gone, “hurt, I was so pissed, at you, at me, at Ace, everyone. You were so tiny, and for that first year, you just, you were so closed off that I thought we were never going to get you back. I mean, you didn’t talk, we could barely get you to eat, I didn’t think you’d survive,” he choked out. “Then you just kind of woke up, but you weren’t you anymore. You were so scared and timid; you wouldn’t look at anyone. Then you,” he stopped taking a deep breath. “You tried to well, the thing with the pills, then the hair. It was just all of it and I promised that I wouldn’t let you get hurt ever again, so I did what I thought was best. I just wanted to protect you. Holly pointed out that maybe in my need to protect you that I never let you heal. If that’s the case then I’m sorry that was never-I would never hurt you. I never meant to hurt you.”
I wiped the tears off my cheek and nodded, “I know you never meant to hurt me Cas, and I understand you want to protect me, but you can’t protect me from life. I need to learn how to take care of myself, I am going to stumble, and I am going to fall, but I’ll also get to laugh, to love, to be happy. I will get to make new memories.” I smiled remembering Thayne telling me that.
“I’ll try to back off okay, I can’t promise anything but I will try.”
“Thank you Cas, and I do love you.”
He hugged me and I hugged him back. “I love you too, baby girl.”
“So Holly and I decided to stick around San Diego for a while, not because of you, well not all because of you, I’ve been offered a job.”
“A job?”
“Yeah,” he said smiling, “at a security company. I would be working with the electronics side of it, helping them build better systems.”
“Mmhmm, you like doing that stuff.”
“Yeah, I do, and Holly wants to go back to school, she can do that in San Diego just as easily as in Tennessee.”
“I’m moving out,” I told him.
“I know, Saul already told me about the apartment. My new company is installing alarm system in the shop and apartment.”
I laughed, “If that will make you feel better about it.”
“It will.”
“Then go for it.”
“When your week is up here, go back to the rental. I am not ordering you, it’s just common sense, you already paid your share.”
I sighed, “I’ll think about it.”
He nodded, “And I’ll try and be nice to what’s his name.”
“His name is Thayne and you know that,” I griped.
“So what’s the plan with you two? I mean, he lives in Arizona and you in California. It’s going to be rough.”
“He’s moving to San Diego,” I murmured watching for Cas’s reaction, his jaw twitched. “He’s going to take a job with Matt.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he can’t work for Ace anymore. He’s quitting after the show is over then he and Nikki are moving.”
“Well that should make things easier on you.”
I nodded, “Yeah, though he will be working for my competition.”
He laughed, “Matt is no competition to you. He does old school choppers, and you are more inventive.”
“Yeah, I guess so, though his bikes are pretty.”
“They are, nothing wrong with going old school.”
“So we’re good?”
“Yeah, we’re good, except I do not blame you for what happened, and I know you fought, I know that, never doubt that. All that bullshit I said, I didn’t mean it.”
“I know, it hurt, but I know and I forgive you, Cas.”
“So you don’t hate me anymore?”
I snorted, “I could never hate you, and I’m sorry for anything I said or did that hurt you.”
He nodded and kissed me on the top of the head, “Love you baby girl.”
“Love you too, big brother, now go home to your fiancée
.”
“Do you like her?”
I nodded, “I do, and she won’t put with your shit.”
“No, she doesn’t. By the way, thanks for getting me in trouble,” he said walking towards the door.
“That was all your own fault, you need to work on the whole keeping secrets from people thing.”
“Oh I know she already laid into me about it.”
I smiled widely. “Good.”
“Why do I feel that between the two of you I will never get away with anything ever again.”
“Because you won’t,” I told him. “Call me when you get home, k.”
“K, see ya, Scout,” he said then walked out the door.
I sighed and fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I was done for the day, no more talking I decided just as my phone went off. I reached into my pocket and pulled it out then smiled when I saw it was a text from Thayne.
THAYNE: WHERE R U?
SCOUT: BED
THAYNE: HMM WANT COMPANY?
SCOUT: NOT TONIGHT
THAYNE: YOU OKAY?
SCOUT: YEAH I THINK I AM
THAYNE: SEE YOU TOMORROW
SCOUT: YEAH, NIGHT
THAYNE: SWEET DREAMS, BELLA
I forced myself to get up and shower then fell face first into the bed.
I walked into the shop the next morning listening to my MP3 player. I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked over and found Ace standing there. I sighed internally, it had been such a good morning.
“Yeah,” I asked pulling an ear bud out.
“Good luck today.”
“Uhm, thanks,” I replied a little befuddled.
“Want to get a cup of coffee with me in the break room?”
“Uhm sure,” I said looking around for the catch.
We walked into the break room and I glanced around finding Thayne standing there talking to Matt. They both looked up watching us enter. I shrugged at the question in their eyes.
When we got to the coffee pot, I fixed myself a cup watching him out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to know what this was all about.
After he got his cup, he leaned against the counter and looked at me over the rim of his cup, “So, Scout, how have you been?”
“Fine,” I told him, looking over towards Thayne who was now watching us blatantly.
He looked over towards where Matt and Thayne were, nodded, then looked back at me, “So I hear I am losing one of my staff.”
I shrugged not saying anything, if he didn’t know for sure I wasn’t going to be the one to confirm it.
“So you’re going to ruin his life like you did Tristan’s?”
The sound of that name made me cringe. I took a deep breath and looked at him, “Is that all Ace? You wanted to talk to me so you could make me feel bad? Well fuck you then, I’m done with caring what you think,” I told him then went to walk away when his hand snaked out and grabbed my arm. I looked down at his hand then back up at him glaring. “Let go of my arm before I remove it.”
He huffed out a laugh but let go, “I can talk to you anyway I want, I am your father after all.”
I shook my head, “No, you aren’t after all, you never were, not by biology or act.” I walked off towards Matt and Thayne without saying another word to him.
“You okay, Bella?” Thayne asked when I got close. I nodded as he put an arm over my shoulder dragging me to his side and kissing the top of my head.
“Sure, Seraph?”
“Yeah, he just wanted to talk.”
“Well whatever you said must have stunned him because he keeps staring at you.”
I shrugged, “Don’t care anymore.”
Thayne nodded, looking down at me, I smiled at him as he hip checked me, “So you ready to lose today?”
“Who said I was losing?”
“Well Scout, I mean, not to say anything about, well I mean…” Thayne stammered.
I looked over at Matt who started laughing softly, “What’s his deal?”
“He thinks your paint job was boring and that you’re going to lose.”
“Are they basing it off of just the paint job, or tank design as well?”
“Both,” Matt answered.
I shrugged, “Then we’re fine.”
“Uh huh, you are up to something, Seraph. I have known you since birth and I know that look of innocence is fake.”
I bat my eyelashes at him, “I am innocent,” I cooed.
He laughed outright, “No, not you, I know too much to fall for that trap.”
Thayne looked back and forth between us looking confused. “Why do I feel like I am missing something?”
I giggled and Matt gave him a look of pity, “Because you are, and we are all in trouble.”
Thayne looked down at me then back at Matt, “So what am I missing?”
“Scout is a troublemaker, always has been. The stories I could tell...”
Thayne’s eyes lit up bright, “Oh, please do.”
I glared at Matt and shook my head, “Matt,” I warned.
Matt looked at me and smiled then back up at Thayne, “Now, Seraph, he’s going to find out eventually, and he should understand what he’s in for.”
I looked down at my feet and rubbed my boots together then back up at him with wide, wet eyes, “Please Matt,” I whispered.
Thayne hugged me closer. “Ah okay, we won’t embarrass you,” he murmured. Matt though started laughing his ass off.
“Oh hell,” he said between laughs, “you are so,” laughter, “screwed, Thayne.”
Thayne looked back down at me then Matt and I saw realization dawn. “You played me,” he said incredulously looking back down at me.
“It’s the face, it’s always been that face,” Matt gasped, finally calming down and wiped his eyes. “The face and eyes, hell, I even still fall for it sometimes.”
“Okay, so now I want to know what kind of troublemaker you are,” Thayne said hip checking me again.
“She would go to the shop when she was younger and rearrange the tools. I don’t mean a simple moving things around, no, I mean she would sneak around taking tools from one department and exchanging them with another and so on. So when you needed it you couldn’t find it anywhere. There would be an entire shop of people running around looking for their tools, finding a piece in metal fab, another in engine building, some in paint, and so on. We would find her with one of the tools in her hands and she would look at us with doe eyes and whimper how she only wanted to help. Get away with it every time because the guys couldn’t help but fall for it. When she got older, she found out how to get Cas and Simon busted for something she did,” he finished ruffling my hair with a look of pride and love.
I smiled up at Matt then looked at Thayne, “Haven’t done that in years.”
“Uh huh,” he muttered, “so what do you do now?”
I shrugged and looked away, “Not much.”
Matt chuckled, “Don’t believe her.”
I glared at Matt. “Don’t give away all my secrets or he’s going to get bored with me quickly.”
Matt winked and smiled. “Talk to you two later after I beat one of you,” then he walked off.
“I don’t think I could get bored with you, especially not now because I have a feeling my life is about to become a lot more interesting.”
I shrugged and looked away. “I need to go, my guys are here.”
He nodded, “Okay, see you after?”
“Yeah.”
I walked over to where my team was standing smiling at me, “Ready to kick their asses?”
Chapter 41
This time they were bringing all three remaining teams into the judging room after the judges looked over the tanks. So we all sat around in the lounge drinking coffee waiting to be called. I was tucked between Liam and Kale giggling at the two of them bickering.
“Li, you are such a girl,” I told him.
He huffed and looked down at me, “Well, Harper Lee, one of us should be.”
I nodded, “Mmm, yes one of us should, good thing Kale doesn’t mind a little pussy.”
He feigned outrage, “Pussy, me? I could kick your ass, Harper Lee.” Kale and I burst out laughing, “What?” he whined. “I could.”
“We’ve already tried this, Li, and you lose every time.”
He smirked down at me, “But this time I have a secret weapon.”
“Oh really, what’s that?” Kale asked.
“I’ll just ask Thayne to take off his shirt, she can’t seem to think when he does that.”
Kale looked from me over to Thayne back to Liam, “Liam, neither can you.”
“Oh yeah,” he muttered then pinched my arm. “Why did you have to hook up with such a distracting hottie?”
“Uhm, just lucky, I guess?”
Kale huffed out a laugh at us. “It’s a good thing I know you love me Liam or I could be offended by that.”
Liam waved Kale’s statement off, “Oh you know you’re hot.”
I giggled, “You two are cute.” Kale winked at me and Liam glared. “What?”
“We’re cute, Kale, like puppy dogs and bunny rabbits.”
I giggled again. “Oh Liam, you are so sexy,” I cooed, “if only you weren’t already taken.”
He smirked down at me again, “you’re a shit, you know that.”
I nodded, “Yep, you’ve told me before.”
“Good,” he said then started tickling me. I squirmed away and ended up in Kale’s lap using him as a shield.
“Stop!” I screeched between giggles.
“I like you like this, Scout,” Kale whispered.
“Like what?” I asked looking up at him.
“Happy, carefree, twenty-one.”
I smiled up at him, “I like it too.”
“So how is lover boy in bed, Harper Lee?”
I looked over at Liam so quickly my neck popped, “What?”
“How is lover boy in bed?” he asked again.
I could feel my face heating up. “I am not answering that,” I muttered.
“Ooo that good, huh, yeah, he seems the type.”
I tried not to ask, I really did, but he knew me too well, “What type?”
“The bad boy type, they are always the best in bed.”