Behind the Wheel (Hearts & Horsepower Book 2)

by A. K. Evans

I’d barely finished speaking when Knox stood, gathered the garbage in front of him, and threw it in the trash. Then he moved toward me. Without a single word or glance my way, he walked past me and out of the room.

  I hated the fact that I watched him walk away.

  Looking back at Kieran and Ryker, I saw their minds working. At the same time, they couldn’t hide the horrified looks on their faces. Seeing that gave me a little bit of comfort. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one who cringed at Knox’s indifference toward me.

  Realizing time was wasting away, I said, “Well, I should get back out there and get to work. Thanks again for allowing me to borrow the tools, Ryker.”

  “No problem,” he returned. “And if you need anything else, help yourself.”

  That was nice of him. In the short time I’d known these guys, I’d learned that Ryker was moody by nature. The difference between him and Knox was that Ryker wasn’t ever downright rude. Knox didn’t even seem to have it in him to be civil to me.

  With a final nod of appreciation, I turned and walked out of the break room and back out into the shop. After getting Ryker’s sledge hammer and pry bar, I got to work. I didn’t have much time left, but I was going to use every minute I had.

  And the best part about it was that I had the chance to work out some of my frustrations over the way Knox was treating me by swinging a hammer at some metal. I couldn’t say my car was happy by the time I was through, but I certainly felt much better.

  I had to get out of there.

  It was becoming too much.

  Avery Sullivan.

  The woman was consuming my every thought. If that wasn’t already bad enough, she was now in my face all the time. She wasn’t in my face in a way that she was being nasty. It was just that I was now in a situation where I was going to see her every day. I didn’t know how I was going to survive it. I didn’t think I could.

  I tried to ignore her. Unfortunately, there are only so many places for me to go when I’m at work. Just this morning, I walked in and found Avery had already arrived. She was sitting at the desk in the front office, and despite knowing I’d not been very welcoming of her, she still wished me good morning.

  Hearing her voice first thing in the morning. It was torture.

  Torture because it was so goddamn beautiful.

  Just like the rest of her.

  She had bright blue eyes, dark blonde hair that landed right at the base of her shoulder blades, a slender nose, and a perfect set of lips. Every feature, even her hands and her wrists, looked delicate. Soft. Like she could break easily. Yet, for some reason, I had a feeling she was just the opposite of weak.

  She never looked like she was wearing any makeup and her petite body was always covered in jeans and a T-shirt. The thing was, she didn’t need the makeup. Avery was gorgeous without it. And even though she didn’t wear clothes that flaunted the curves she had, I could see enough to know I liked it all.

  Beyond the physical beauty, Avery was everything I could have ever wanted in a woman. She knew cars like no other woman I knew. If that wasn’t a turn on, I didn’t know what would be.

  And I hated it.

  I hated everything about how attracted I was to her. I hated that I never felt more turned on by anything or anyone than I was when I heard her talking about working on her own car. I hated the fact that I couldn’t stop seeing her car crash into the wall and the way it made me feel. Most of all, I hated the fact that I didn’t think she was trustworthy.

  I didn’t know what prompted Logan to hire her. Something she said in that interview made him change his perspective. Something took him from thinking that walking in to an interview with a woman that worked for the competition would be a waste of time to giving her the job right on the spot.

  I thought he’d made a huge mistake because I didn’t think we should trust that there wasn’t some ulterior motive.

  So now that I’d walked out of the break room and into the bathroom just to give myself a chance to calm down, I wasn’t any less worked up than I’d been when I was sitting in that room listening to her talk to the rest of the guys.

  But I had to find a way to pull it together. I still had a job to do.

  After leaning into my palms on the edge of the sink for a few minutes, I took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom back to the break room to get my water.

  The minute I walked in, I found Kieran and Ryker still sitting there. And neither of them was interested in giving me a free pass. I should have known and prepared for it.

  “You know,” Ryker started. “You could save yourself, Avery, and the rest of us a lot of tension and awkwardness if you’d just admit you like her.”

  I narrowed my eyes on him and clipped, “I do not like her.”

  Ryker, the guy who barely ever cracked a smile, laughed at me before he continued, “So now you think we’re stupid?”

  “I never said that,” I returned.

  “Knox, man, you didn’t even acknowledge that she walked into the room,” Kieran said.

  “Logan wants me to keep things civil,” I told them. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

  Kieran didn’t miss a beat when he replied, “They’d be a lot more civil if you were just nice to her. She’s honestly a really sweet girl.”

  Shaking my head, feeling frustrated that they were obviously blind to who she was, I reminded them, “She used to work for Ricky. Doesn’t that strike either of you as problematic?”

  “What do you think she’s going to do?” Ryker asked.

  “I haven’t quite figured that one out yet,” I answered. “I’m just not convinced we should trust that she doesn’t have any loyalty to her boyfriend.”

  “Boyfriend?” Kieran repeated.

  I dipped my chin. “A couple of weeks ago, I saw her at the track when we were out testing,” I began. “She was standing there by her car alone, and I was about to approach her when Ricky walked up and kissed her on the cheek.”

  There was a moment of silence before Ryker questioned me. “If Avery was your girlfriend, do you think you’d ever just walk up and kiss her on the cheek?”

  Not at all.

  In fact, I was convinced I’d have a hard time keeping my hands off her if she were mine.

  But she wasn’t.

  “Ricky isn’t like me,” I declared.

  “Maybe not. But you’re treating her the same as him,” Kieran chastised me.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Do you know that nobody on that team, none of her former co-workers, even asked her if she was okay following the crash?” he shared.

  They didn’t?

  “What?” I asked because I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “We don’t know the story there, Knox, but it’s evident there’s bad blood between them,” Kieran said. “Logan told me while we were still at the track that he and Kendall had gone up to talk to her and make sure she was okay, and during their conversation, Avery shared that nobody, not even the guy you believe is her boyfriend, gave a shit that she’d just been in a high-speed crash and could have been seriously injured.”

  “And she’s trying to be nice,” Ryker noted. “You don’t even look at her, let alone say something nice in return.”

  “Has she been rude to you?” Kieran asked. “Is there something we’re missing?”

  “It seems to me that you’re pissed she was ever associated with Altered Atmosphere,” Ryker started. “Maybe if you took the time to talk to her about it, you might find she feels the same way about her affiliation with them.”

  I cocked an eyebrow and asked, “Oh? Is that what you did? Did you sit down and have a chat with her about her life choices?”

  Ryker shook his head. “I’m not the one who’s interested in getting to know her like that.”

  “I’m not either,” I lied.

  “Keep telling yourself that,” Kieran ribbed.

  “This isn’t funny,” I retorted. “I won’t stand here and lie to you. She’s gor
geous. Fuck, I’m not blind. But I’m also not going to be led around by my dick either. She’s not going to have the opportunity to pull the wool over my eyes like she’s so obviously done with the rest of you. I just hope when she finally does whatever it is she’s planning to do that the fallout isn’t something LT Motorsports can’t recover from.”

  “Knox!” Logan’s voice filled the room.

  I spun around and saw my boss standing there, and he did not look pleased. Half a second later, I heard the steel door that led into the shop close.

  “Was that her?” I asked quietly.

  Logan dipped his chin.

  Fuck. How much had she heard?

  I was rendered speechless.

  Logan looked around me to Kieran and Ryker. “Can you give us a minute?” he asked them.

  I didn’t turn around to look at them, but I heard their chairs scrape across the floor and knew they were getting up to leave.

  When Kieran and Ryker stepped out of the room a moment later, Logan closed the door behind them.

  Crossing his arms over his chest, he claimed, “I thought we talked about this, Knox. You said you were going to be cool about it. What I just heard, what Avery just heard, indicates you are no longer being cool about it. Quite frankly, I’m not sure you ever were being cool about it, though.”

  “What do you want me to say, Logan?” I returned. “We’ve all busted our asses here trying to make a name for this company. I’m not real thrilled about someone coming along and ruining that.”

  “You think I am?” he countered. “Knox, man, you don’t have to trust her, but you’ve got to trust me. And you need to respect the decision I made. If I had any doubt about Avery and her commitment to doing the job she was hired to do here, I wouldn’t have hired her. If I believed she had it in her to do something, anything, that would jeopardize the integrity of LT Motorsports, she wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “How do you know?”

  “How do I know what?” he asked.

  “How do you know she can be trusted?” I pressed.

  Logan stared at me for several long seconds before he replied, “Because I talked to her. Because I interviewed her. Because I know things that you don’t know.”

  “What things?” I wondered.

  He shook his head and answered, “That’s not for me to share. But maybe, just maybe, if you took the time to get to know her a little bit better, you might feel differently about her.”

  I didn’t see how that was possible considering I didn’t trust her now and wanted her. If she changed my mind about who she was, I didn’t see myself wanting her any less.

  When I didn’t respond, Logan went on, “Knox, I love that your biggest concern right now is this business. That’s how it should always be. And you know I think you’re a phenomenal fabricator. But we’re more than just this business. We’re human beings. Coming from someone who works the way I do and feels the way I do about this business, it should mean something to you. Avery’s not a bad person. If you don’t want to get to know her, that’s your choice. But you need to keep your negative opinion about her to yourself. We can’t have what just happened here happen again.”

  That was the last thing I wanted or needed, so he had no argument from me on that.

  “Got it,” I replied. “Sorry, Logan. I shouldn’t have lost it like that.”

  Logan uncrossed his arms and put his hand to the door knob. Stopping there, he looked back at me and said, “I get it, Knox. I do. And there’s nothing I love more than your loyalty to me and the rest of the guys here. But Avery is part of this team now and deserves to be treated as such. Beyond that, I’m telling you right now, if you choose to not get to know her, you’ll be making a big mistake.”

  Without giving me a chance to respond, Logan opened the door and walked out.

  I stood there for a long time wondering what things he could have been referring to that Avery shared in her interview. And when I came up with nothing, I realized how much time had passed. I needed to get back to work.

  Luckily, by the time I walked back out into the shop, Avery was no longer there working on her car.

  The weekend was nearly here. It was late Thursday morning, and I was a day and a half away from finishing my first full week at my new job. To be completely honest, I was feeling a mix of emotions about everything I’d experienced since I walked into this building on Monday morning.

  On one hand, I was excited today because once my lunch hour hit, I was going to be able to finish up the last little bit of work I needed to do to get the rear suspension and differential completely disassembled and inspected. Considering this was a lengthy and tedious job, I was fortunate to be this far along with it already. While I had less than an hour during my lunch break to work on it, I did find extra hours after work to put a much bigger dent in.

  On the down side, particularly with regard to the car, I wasn’t liking what I was finding. The wheel and tire on the side that took the impact into the wall were completely trashed and needed to be replaced. The axle and shock were also toast. As bad as my findings were, at least I was one step closer to figuring out everything that needed to be replaced or repaired in order to get back up and running.

  But the range of emotions I felt throughout the last several days weren’t solely related to my car. A lot of what I felt had to do with the job itself.

  I loved working at LT Motorsports. Loved it.

  I enjoyed the work I was doing in an industry that made me feel alive and challenged.

  What I wasn’t particularly thrilled about was the fact that I had to see Knox every day. I hadn’t been able to get the words I heard him say—the words he never intended for me to hear—out of my head. Ever since I was introduced to him on Monday, I was struggling to figure out why he was so irritable and moody around me.

  Now I knew why. I hadn’t intended to eavesdrop on the conversation. I’d come back into the office to ask Ryker if he’d give me a hand with something on the car when he finished with lunch and stopped dead when I heard Kieran telling Knox about the conversation I’d had with Logan and Kendall at the track after the crash.

  Knowing why Knox despised me didn’t help. It didn’t make it any easier. It hurt to hear him say what he did. It hurt to know he didn’t trust I was a genuine person. I guess part of me understood the reason for his caution and hesitation to trust me. I mean, I myself had hid the truth about my employment on my resume when I applied for the job. I did that knowing there was animosity between the two shops.

  The thing is, I didn’t regret doing it. Because once I was in that interview with Logan, I came clean. I told him the truth. I just wanted the opportunity to have that interview, something Logan had shared wouldn’t have likely happened had he known I was working for Ricky at Altered Atmosphere.

  I just wish Knox would have taken the time to get to know me before slapping a label on me.

  There wasn’t much I could do about it. In fact, I did my best to avoid having any eye contact with him. For the last two days, I had arrived at work ahead of him. So, when I saw him coming in, instead of greeting him in the morning like I’d done on Monday and Tuesday, I pretended to be jotting down some notes while on the phone with a client.

  The one thing that made me feel good about the whole situation was knowing that the other guys, even Ryker, seemed to like me enough to be kind and even stand up for me. While they didn’t come right out and say that they didn’t have any doubts about me, they at least made me feel like they were giving me a chance to prove I was someone who could be trusted.

  That was the only thing that lifted my mood after Logan entered the break room and I ran back out into the shop on Tuesday.

  Well, that and one other thing.

  Sort of.

  She’s gorgeous.

  I was never a girl who cared what a guy thought about me, especially not my looks. But for some reason I couldn’t begin to understand, I liked knowing that Knox thought that of me. I tried telling m
yself it was because I was glad he had to at least be struggling a bit with what he was feeling as much as I was—being attracted to the girl but not trusting what kind of person she was—but I knew that wasn’t it.

  I liked knowing he thought I was beautiful.

  That was it.

  That was all it was.

  And I hated that I liked it.

  I’d spent so much of my life doing what I could to prove my strength and independence. To prove that what a man thought of me didn’t matter.

  And now I was here liking the fact that he thought I was gorgeous while hating that he thought I was out to sabotage LT Motorsports.

  I was so lost in my thoughts about Knox, I hadn’t realized someone walked in until I heard, “Hey, Avery!”

  Blinking my eyes, I looked up and saw Kendall standing there. “Hi, Kendall. How’s it going?”

  She beamed at me. “Things are great. How are you? How do you like working here?” she questioned me.

  “I’m doing well. I’ve been learning all the ins and outs of how Logan operates this business this week, and I’m really enjoying it,” I told her.

  “That’s awesome,” she returned. “I still think you’re such a badass.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “It’s just driving a car. I mean, it’s faster than is allowed on public roads but still just driving.”

  “No, it’s not,” Kendall argued. “I asked Logan how things were going here now that you started. He’s loving that his workload has decreased quite a bit, at least on the administrative side of things. The fact that you’re able to handle most of the calls that come in, know what the clients are talking about, and can provide tech support too is badass. Even more than that, Logan told me you’ve been working on your car during your lunch break and after you’re done with work for the day. I don’t even know how to change my oil or a flat tire. You rock.”

  That was nice to hear. Once again, I was reminded of how much I wished I had a friend like Kendall. It was rare for me to find a woman closely connected to the performance racing industry who was so kind, endearing, and supportive.

  Then again, it was much the same when it came to the men. Typically, there were two reactions when men found out I was a racer. Either I was viewed as a stupid girl who knew nothing and was trying too hard to fit into a man’s world, or they were overly enthusiastic about me racing because I was a female.