Scarred: A New Adult Romance (The Anderson Brothers Series Book 1)

by Long, Marie

  Sometimes, love comes with a price…

  The past is always gonna try and bring you down, but you gotta fight. Fight hard for what you love. Fight to win is what twenty-two-year-old Dominick Anderson believes, but his life is a struggle. Growing up with an abusive father has made Dominick slow to love and trust, and he relies on his brother Kevin to keep him on a straight path. Dominick fights his demons every day, every night. Now a sophomore at the University of Washington and working a steady job at a mechanic’s shop, Dominick wants to create a better life and find the future his father never wanted him to have.

  Dominick suppresses his identity and feelings until he meets Denise Ramsey. Smart, stunningly gorgeous, and sharing his love for motorcycles, Denise is everything Dominick longs for in a girl but knows he can never have. When a past love threatens her life and brings out Dominick’s dark side, he must decide if she’s worth the risk.

  To all of my male friends and colleagues who let me pick your brains in helping me make this my best book ever.

  You rock!

  Chapter 1

  I can’t concentrate. Even the whirring of air wrenches and the buzzing of shop gossip is drowned out by that voice in my head again.

  His voice: “Boy, sit the fuck down now!”

  I cringe.

  “Don’t move or say a fucking word, understand?”

  I bite my lip. He sounds so close.

  Something hits me on the forehead, snapping me back to reality. I hiss and blink a few times and stare up at the underside of a car—the chassis of a sedan, to be exact. Damn, I zoned out again. Tumbled into memories I’ve been trying to bury for years.

  Fuck him. Fuck the world.

  The wheels of the hardwood dolly squeak as I roll out from under the car and stand. I toss my wrench in the open toolbox and wipe my dirty hands on a towel. Dabbing away the sweat from my forehead, I frown. That sweat certainly wasn’t from my hard work. I glance at the car next to mine and watch Samuel doing some wiring under the hood.

  He stops for a moment, rummages through our toolbox, and pulls out a set of pliers. Instead of returning to work, he furrows his eyebrows at me. “Everything all right, man?”

  I nod. “Yeah, fine. Just so damn tired today.” It’s mostly true, and I emphasize the point with a deep yawn.

  Samuel smirks. “Heh. Yeah. Glad tomorrow’s Friday. Got a date with this honey I’ve been dying to go out with. Name’s Mona. Always wears these short-shorts over that big—no, huge—round ass of hers. God bless America!”

  I roll my eyes. Tomorrow, Mona is his booty call. After that, who knows who he’ll be in the mood for? I don’t understand why the chicks he dates even give him the time of day.

  I haven’t had a date in months, much less a girlfriend. But then again, I’d stopped trying after the last girl. I was apparently cramping her style because I wanted to get to know her a bit more rather than fuck her the very same night I met her. Why the hell is that so wrong? I wanna be with a girl who knows how much she’s worth instead of how much of the goods she has to show so I’ll jump in bed with her.

  Samuel waves a hand in front of my face. “Yo, Dom!”

  I blink back to reality again.

  “What the hell, man? You look like shit.”

  Frowning, I shove Samuel’s hand away and head toward the main office. “I told you I’m fine. It’s time for me to clock out. Can you finish getting this catalytic converter installed?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Samuel shrugs. “Oh, by the way… ”

  I stop short of the office’s glass door and look back.

  “Better talk to Frank before you go. He was asking about you earlier.”

  I look through the glass door and see Frank, our boss, leaning back in his swivel chair with his feet propped up on his paper-filled desk. He’s yapping away on the phone while he plays with the tangled cord.

  I look back at Samuel. “Asking about me for what?”

  Samuel shrugs again then sticks his head back under the hood and resumes wiring. “I dunno. You were taking a piss when he came looking for you. Told me to tell you to go see him before you clock out.”

  I blink. “And you’re just telling me now?”

  “Sorry, man. I forgot.”

  Shit. A meeting with the boss is never a good sign. Then again, everything else in my life always seems to go to shit, so why not my only means of income? Sighing, I enter the office. It’s big enough to accommodate a grungy, magazine-ridden couch and a desk. The room feels nice and cool after working on cars all day.

  Waiting for the boss to hang up, I check my cell for missed calls. No one—not even my roommate, Chris—left any messages.

  Probably too busy fucking. I dream of the day when I can finally get a place of my own. But this job, especially with my college expenses, doesn’t pay enough to make Seattle rent on my own.

  Frank hangs up the phone. Without taking his feet off the desk, he folds his dirty hands over his large belly, which pokes out slightly between the buttons of his oil-smeared blue shirt. He rocks back in his chair, making it squeak, and looks at me. “Dominick. I’ll make this quick.”

  I suck in my breath and start anticipating where this little talk is headed—and how much money I have saved, which garages might be hiring …

  “There’re going to be some changes around here,” Frank says in his deep voice. “Money’s getting tight, and I’ve been receiving a few customer complaints lately.”

  I blink. Complaints? Not from my work, I hope. I know cars like the back of my hand. Been working on them since I was seven. “What—what kind of complaints?”

  “Just a few things—little things that I take very seriously. Like, one customer complained that his radio was tuned to some rock station when he got his car back after an oil change. He’s a religious man and was offended by the—and I quote—“devil music” coming from his own radio. There’s no fucking reason to be touching the radio if you’re doing an oil change.”

  “I didn’t mess with the radio, man,” I say, shaking my head. I don’t even listen to rock.

  Frank stiffens and glares. “Did I say you did? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “No. Sorry for interrupting.”

  His face relaxes. “Had another complaint two days ago that a customer’s warning lights were still on after she had her engine serviced. She thought there was still something wrong with the car, and after she brought the car back to have it re-inspected, Paul discovered that the warning lights just weren’t manually turned off. Careless shit like that is something I can’t stand. Time is money. If you’re going to work for me, then put a little pride in your fucking work, right?”

  I nod again, more stiffly this time. What’s he hinting at? There are only five employees at Frank’s Garage, but as far as I know, we all get along, work hard, and don’t cause problems.

  Frank pulls his feet off the table, straightens in his chair, and looks at me carefully. He places both hands on the desk. “Time is money, and all these kinds of complaints are bad for business—bad for my reputation. I’m letting Sam go today, so that means work’s gonna get crazy for a while with just the four of you. But I know you guys can do it.”

  Samuel? I know he’s always talking about how much he loves ass and tits, but I never thought he’d be the one to cause problems for the shop. Without Samuel, we’re going to be short-staffed, and that’s totally going to up the workload. Boy, Thursday’s really turned to shit.

  I leave the office in silence and walk around back, where my red sport bike is parked. After slipping on my helmet, ja
cket, and gloves, I kick the bike awake and zip toward the south side of Montlake as fast as I can, taking alternate routes in order to bypass the evening rush-hour traffic. When I arrive at the two-bedroom duplex at Springview Commons, I park my bike behind a tall wooden fence around the side. I pull off my helmet and pat my jeans pockets for my key. Going in through the door into the kitchen, I listen for sounds of my roommate, but hear no one. Either Chris is really gone for a change or he’s asleep. Curiosity gets the best of me, so I creep through the hallway to his bedroom door, which is cracked open slightly, revealing some of the large posters of pin-up girls and his favorite pro football players plastered on the walls. I get a whiff of sex and booze tainting the room’s stale air. Not needing to see any more to know what he’s been up to, I climb the stairs to my room and shut the door. I strip out of my work clothes and plop down in bed in my boxers. Heaving a deep sigh, I close my eyes and try to relax after a long day.

  The visions return.

  I see him again.

  “You want it? You gotta beg.”

  “But Pop—”

  “What did I fucking say?”

  I shudder and open my eyes. “What did I fucking say?” I repeat in a quivering whisper.

  Chapter 2

  Friday morning, my phone alarm goes off, blasting the song, “1st of tha Month”. I wake up at my desk with my face smushed onto the open pages of my engineering textbook. Groaning, I grope for the phone and disable the alarm. Morning light filters through the closed blinds on my window. I also hear rain. Damn. Hope the weather lets up before I leave. I drag my ass out of my room and to the half-bath to take a piss, but I find the door locked. What the fuck? I pound on the door.

  “Just a minute!” A woman yells.

  I seethe. This is ridiculous. I can’t even use my own damn bathroom when I want to! Another reason why I desperately need to get my own place.

  Two flushes later she exits, decked out in one of Chris’s oversized football jerseys. It reaches down to the middle of her thighs, the kind of thighs I like—well defined, like she works out. She’s surprisingly cute with a naturally full body that some skinny, flat-chested chicks would pay thousands for. She scans me up and down with her deep brown eyes lingering below my waist for a couple seconds too long. She smirks. “Oh, hi. You must be Dominick.”

  I nod. “Yup.” Her nipples harden beneath the shirt. Her tits are perky, and part of me wants to have some fun with her, but I know better. Despite the tightness in my boxers, I tear my gaze away from her and look beyond her to the bathroom. “You done in there?”

  “Uh, sure.” She sounds surprised as she steps aside. “You doing anything tonight?”

  I try not to laugh, because her question sounds so pathetic, so desperate. And I hate a desperate woman. My own mother was desperate, and she got hurt. Bad.

  This girl would probably love it if I got rough with her. Even more if I hurt her like the “bad boy” she probably thinks I am. But I’m better than that. I’m not some horny punk like the guys she’s probably had before me. I’m not playing that game. Not even batting an eye, I pass her by. “Dunno.” I shut the door in her face.

  Sure as hell ain’t going down that road again.

  * * *

  By the time I head out, the rain’s let up. It’s Friday, my light class-load day. Physics lab, electromagnetics, and then off to work. I’m a routine guy. Doesn’t take much to make me happy. Maybe that’s why I was never desperate for a girl, unlike most of my friends.

  After my last class, I head out of the engineering building and to the parking lot, where my bike is parked. I don my gear and rev the engine, garnering a few admiring glances from both male and female students walking by. Others scowl at me or hold their ears, but I don’t care. My pipes are pretty loud and can be heard almost a quarter of a mile away. I head downtown.

  By one thirty I arrive at Frank’s, and by the somber looks on my coworkers’ faces, I know Samuel’s already gone. There’s only four of us now—me, Paul, Larry, and Nate—and there’s a ton of shit to do on the cars we have.

  Damn, we need help.

  Some of the guys in my motorcycle club are looking for jobs. Matt, the club’s VP, got laid off from stocking shelves.

  A towel plops over my head. I tug the towel off, my nose wrinkling from the odor of oil and old gasoline.

  Larry stands in front of me with a smug look on his face. Besides Frank, Larry’s the oldest out of all of us in both age and experience, so he usually has no problem with ordering us college kids around. He’s cool, though. Pretty laid-back in most cases. Always keeps us busy with small projects and helps us when we need it. “Hey, you ready or what?” He asks.

  “Yeah, sure, man,” I say, approaching the whiteboard where our daily assignments are posted. Today I have to change brake pads on an old pickup truck, repair struts on a car, and do three scheduled oil changes. Only easy projects today, and that’s likely Larry’s doing. His present to me heading into the weekend. God, I love that man. Frank, on the other hand, doesn’t give two shits and fills our names in anywhere.

  I retrieve a spare toolbox and a dolly hanging on the wall of one of the occupied bays and go outside to where the wheelless truck sits on some blocks. The sky is overcast and a light drizzle is just enough to keep the ground damp. I fish through the toolbox for a wrench and a flashlight, lay back on the dolly, and roll myself under the front of the truck. My mind wanders while I’m under here, unscrewing bolts, and I feel at peace. There’s no one to bother me. Just me and my thoughts. Most of the time, that’s more of a curse than a blessing. If I let my mind go idle for too long, those other thoughts start to take hold.

  Thoughts I would rather forget.

  I try planning my weekend. No new movies coming out, and I damn sure don’t want to stay home with Chris. He’ll most likely have all of Seattle’s women in our apartment. Maybe I’ll ride up to the Cascades, or the Cougar Mountain trail. I need to clear my head somehow. Or maybe I can go see my uncle. But then I remember that he’s still taking care of Mama.

  A bitter taste forms in my mouth.

  She cried when I called her sometime last year. Cried over him. That son of a bitch. And I still don’t know why. He did nothing for our family. So many times I’d wished my Uncle Adam was my father instead. I’d stopped talking to Mama since then, and ignored her calls.

  I’m tired of her damn crying.

  A bolt hits me in the forehead. I curse and rub the painful spot, then start unscrewing the next bolt.

  “So careless. So careless.”

  I grit my teeth. I hate that voice.

  “Know what I do with careless little boys like you?”

  I suddenly release my grip on the wrench, which somehow still stays in place on the bolt.

  “Come here, Dominick. Let me show you.”

  “No,” I mutter softly.

  My phone vibrates, startling me, and I barely miss whacking my head on the chassis. I roll out from under the truck, and check the name on my phone before answering, “What’s up, Chris?”

  “’Sup, dude. Sorry to call you while you’re at work, but, uh … You think you can get a box of condoms on your way home?”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I only got two left. Definitely not going to last me the rest of the day.”

  “Didn’t your girlfriends come prepared?”

  “Nope. They thought they were gonna get a free ride, saying they’re on the pill and all that, but I didn’t buy it. I’ve heard the horror stories. That’s baby mama drama just waiting to happen.”

  “Why don’t you go out your own damn self and get some? Who the fuck do you think I am, your mother?”

  “Dude, I would if I could, but I can’t be leaving these chicks unattended while I run out to the store. Besides, my license is still revoked.”

  I grit my teeth. “That’s your own fault for not paying that parking ticket.”

  “No, that fucking cop was being an asshole. Look, man, I swear, I�
��ll pay you back. This is so embarrassing, but—”

  “When the hell did I become your personal errand boy?” Closing my eyes, I let out a sigh. “If you need some so bad, then use mine. There’s a box under my bed.”

  Silence. “Um … I already used those.”

  My eyes go wide. “What? That was a 12-count box!”

  “I’ve been using them since last week since I knew you weren’t.”

  That motherfucker! “You’ve been sneaking into my room without my permission?”

  “Dude, I only went to get condoms. I swear. I kept forgetting all week to go to the store after work, and now I have these two anxious chicks here, and … Damn! I need to introduce you to Melanie. She’s got amazing legs!”

  The left side of my mouth twitches. “I don’t want to know who the fuck they are. Keep them out of my room. And you stay the hell out, too.”

  “Noted. So, you gonna run by the store for me, or what?”

  I exhale and abruptly hang up. Of course I’m going to get more condoms—for me. I swear, this time I’m not going to break down like a little pansy and give him any. Sometimes I hate being the nice guy.

  My phone vibrates again. This time I get a text.

  THX MAN URE DA BEST

  He’s already on to me, damn it.

  Attempting to fight down a smile, I reply:

  Fuck u

  I stick my phone in my side pocket and slide back under the truck. Not even five minutes pass before the phone vibrates again. Grumbling, I snatch it out.

  Another text from Chris.

  O btw, got tickets 2 ur bro’s gig 2nite. Wanna go?

  Cringing, I shove the phone back into my pocket and return to my work. I never particularly care to go anywhere with Chris, because it usually means I’ll be spending my time watching him pick up every girl around. Maybe I’ll go to the club, if only to see Kevin.

  * * *

  Finished with all my work, I pick up the toolbox and dolly and return them to the shop.

  Larry, who is fixing a radiator, stops and wipes his hands on a towel. “All done?”