Behind the Wheel (Hearts & Horsepower Book 2)

by A. K. Evans

  I might run right back into his arms.

  You were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.

  What was I going to do?

  I’d just experienced the best kiss of my life with a woman who drove me wild. Unfortunately, she hated me.

  Rightfully so.

  I deserved every bit of her anger.

  I deserved every name she called me.

  And yet, I didn’t regret kissing her. Not for one second.

  The way she’d gone from being tense and unyielding to soft and open for just those few moments is something I’ll never forget. It’s also something I had no doubt I wanted to feel again and again and again.

  Of course, now she didn’t want me to ever speak to her again because I’d done that. Though, I wasn’t certain she liked me very much beforehand either.

  So, I was stuck.

  Because I knew now that regardless of what happened before tonight, I wanted Avery. And I was convinced I was in a much worse position with her now than I’d been in even just this morning. That was saying something considering we weren’t on very good terms this morning either.

  As much as I wanted to focus on the very little good that I had with her, I couldn’t. There was a much bigger problem.

  Something happened tonight. Something happened that put those tears in her eyes and made them run down her cheeks. And I had this overwhelming urge to figure out what.

  Never did I think I’d be affected by seeing Avery upset, but I should have known better. Everything about her affected me in one way or another.

  While my assumptions about her reasons for applying for this job were bad right from the start, I couldn’t deny that things had changed tonight. Seeing her here on a Friday night, working hard, determined to get herself back behind the wheel again, gave me that final push I needed to see that maybe I’d been wrong about her. In fact, it was at some point earlier in the week when I felt myself softening just a bit toward her, even if I never outwardly indicated that I had.

  That was my biggest regret now. Not doing what I should have done. Not being a man and apologizing to her immediately for the things I knew she heard me say about her. Not giving her the chance to prove me wrong.

  And that’s when it hit me.

  Maybe I was the reason she’d been crying. Was that even possible?

  I couldn’t imagine that a woman as strong and determined as Avery would be crying over somebody like me, especially when I’d treated her just like she said… garbage.

  I winced recalling her words.

  Who had I become? Why?

  Was I so convinced that Avery was this evil woman on a mission—a mission she was on with her boyfriend or former lover or whatever Ricky was to her—to destroy everything LT Motorsports was that I couldn’t see how hard she’d been trying? Sure, it could have all been fake. She could have been a great actress. But why?

  And if I really looked at things, I would have realized just how ridiculous it was for me to believe the worst.

  Because even if I thought Ricky was capable and had it in him to try to tarnish our name, I didn’t think he was that stupid. No man, especially not a smart man in this industry, would have a woman like Avery in his bed and be okay with using her as bait in a convoluted scheme like I’d imagined.

  Shit.

  Fuck.

  I had some serious groveling to do.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t even begin to try and figure out how I was going to fix this situation with her. I still had a car I needed to finish fabrication work on. And with a few hours left in it, I couldn’t do what I really wanted to do, which was to look up Avery’s address and go to her.

  So, I let out a frustrated sigh, gave her car one last glance, and got back to work.

  But it was tough. Because even though I was doing everything I could to focus on the work I needed to get done, I couldn’t help but recall the things she said about herself.

  The stupid girl picked up some tools and tried to do a man’s job.

  Why had she said that?

  It was very clear to me, and everyone else who worked here, that Avery was just as capable as the next guy when it came to working on a car. Sure, maybe she couldn’t do everything, but none of us could. And the truth was that she knew a lot more than quite a few men in the industry.

  She was far from stupid.

  I hated to think that she thought I looked at her as someone who didn’t belong here simply because she was a woman. If she hadn’t been affiliated with Ricky and Altered Atmosphere, I had no doubt we wouldn’t have had any of the problems that we did.

  But my distrust for Ricky and his motives ran too deep, and it blinded me to the good that might have been in Avery.

  Suffice it to say that the project I’d been working on took substantially longer than it should have to complete because I was far too distracted by Avery and what had just happened between us. Eventually, though, I got it done.

  Hours later, well after I’d finished the project and was finally home in bed, the events of earlier that evening came back to haunt me.

  On one hand I couldn’t stop replaying that kiss with Avery over and over in my mind while simultaneously remembering her telling me never to speak to her again.

  I didn’t know how I was going to fix this. But I knew I needed to proceed with caution. If nothing else, Avery deserved at least that much from me.

  You were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.

  It was on that thought, I somehow managed to successfully drift.

  My eyes were dry, itchy, and puffy.

  Unfortunately, this had nothing to do with allergies. I didn’t even have allergies.

  Nope.

  What I had was a horrible night, a night when I barely managed to get a couple hours of sleep. A night filled with more questions than I thought was reasonable for a human being to process all at one time.

  Despite all the hours I didn’t spend sleeping, I wasn’t sure I’d come up with answers to any of my questions. I was just as confused, just as hurt, as I had been when I crawled into bed last night.

  Last night.

  I sighed just thinking about how awful it was. How awful and incredible it was. The incredible, so very short-lived and by my own choosing, was what consumed my thoughts most of the night.

  What the hell had Knox been thinking? He hated me. Hated. Why would he have ever kissed me?

  I couldn’t stop reliving that moment he caught me and tugged me toward him. I couldn’t stop thinking about how wonderful it felt to have my face framed in his big, strong hands. I couldn’t stop wishing I hadn’t run out of there.

  And now that I had, I was terrified of facing him again. Where was I supposed to go from here? How would he react around me? How would he treat me?

  With all the questions I had swirling in my mind about Knox, I wasn’t sure what to do now.

  It was early Saturday morning, and I was technically off from work. My typical work week was Monday through Friday, giving me the weekends off. Unless, of course, it was a race or testing weekend. But with this weekend not being a race or testing weekend, I was free to decide how to spend it.

  Earlier in the day yesterday, I’d had it all figured out. I was going to work last night on getting as much done as I could on pulling the engine and transmission out of the car. Then, I was going to go back in today and finish it all up.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t even get a quarter of the way through the project last night before everything went to shit.

  So, the obvious choice for what to do today was to be at the shop first thing to be certain I’d have enough time to get everything finished. I was looking at anywhere from six to eight hours of work. I’d have a fighting chance to finish before the guys left only if I was there, ready to go, as soon as someone arrived.

  But I was questioning whether it was a smart thing to do.

  What if Knox was there?

  I didn’t think I could handle another encounter with him like I had
last night. I still hadn’t quite figured out what to do with any of what happened between us. Of course, I had told him to never speak to me again. Maybe he would honor my request and then I wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. Then again, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that either. Especially after that kiss.

  I took in a deep breath.

  You get up and you keep going.

  I had to do it.

  I was going to have to face the music at some point anyway. If Knox was there and he approached me again, at least I could deal with it when I wasn’t trying to deal with work at the same time.

  And the truth of the matter was, when I took a second to really think about it, I didn’t need to hide. I had nothing to be embarrassed about. I didn’t do anything wrong. I mean, I yelled and didn’t let him speak much, but I wasn’t mean to someone for an entire week only to show a shred of humanity when I saw them sitting on the floor crying. Knox was the one who needed to be sitting at home worried about how he was going to handle this situation. Not me.

  Convinced I was making the right decision and knowing I had a lot to get done, I threw the cover back and got out of bed. I made quick work of getting myself dressed in clothes suitable for tearing apart my car and dashed down the stairs to the kitchen.

  I popped a bagel in the toaster and filled up my reusable water bottle. Waking up to face my days was never difficult for me to do, so coffee wasn’t something I’d ever become accustomed to drinking. I didn’t need it. Not even in the most difficult times of my life. So, when I was motivated to get something done, all I needed was food and water to keep me fueled.

  Once my bagel was ready, I grabbed my keys, locked up, and left.

  When I arrived at the shop, I let out a huge sigh of relief. I pulled into the lot and saw no evidence of Knox. What I did see were Nash’s and Ryker’s vehicles.

  Perfect. I could get started right away and not have to worry about anything else.

  As soon as I walked in, I saw both guys standing together talking over by the sand rail car, which was now over by where Ryker typically worked.

  Evidently, unlike me, Knox wasn’t too hung up on what had happened between us last night and had managed to get his work done on time as he’d promised.

  “Morning, Avery,” Nash called across the shop.

  “Morning, guys,” I returned with a wave.

  “What’s up?” Ryker said, his typical greeting no matter the time of day.

  With that, they returned to their conversation, and I got to work on cleaning up a bit of the mess I’d left last night. I figured it would be best for me to start fresh. I’d gotten nearly everything cleaned up when I heard a deep voice behind me.

  “You left early yesterday,” Nash said.

  My body went solid. How did he know? Did Knox call him and tell him?

  I turned around and answered, “Yeah. How did you know?”

  His eyes went to my car and back to my face before he explained, “Well, when I left yesterday you already had most of the front suspension apart. You had said you were going to pull the engine and trans out. Considering not much has been done in the way of that, I took a lucky guess.”

  My body sagged with relief.

  “Yeah, I… well, I was upset and had to get out of here,” I offered.

  Visibly concerned, Nash sighed. “He’s not an asshole, Avery. Honestly, I don’t know why he’s being like this, but Knox really is a good dude. All of us wish he’d lighten up because the way he’s been acting, the way he’s been treating you, is not who he is. I’m really sorry, we all are, that he’s being like this.”

  Shit.

  Nash thought I was upset about Knox.

  I mean, I was. But I wasn’t interested in telling him about what happened. Hell, it happened to me and I didn’t even want to know about it. All it did was complicate things.

  “Oh, no, Nash. You misunderstood me,” I started. “I was upset because I realized what happened.”

  “What? What do you mean?” he wondered.

  I didn’t know if I could even repeat it. I figured I’d show him. That was much easier. Smarter. And it held far less chance of me breaking down.

  I turned around, stepped back slightly so he’d have a better view, and tossed my hand out to the side in the direction of the engine bay. “Take a look,” I urged.

  Nash’s face was curious as he took a few steps toward the car and looked in the engine bay. It took him a few seconds, but he twisted his neck and looked up at me. “Did you start any of the disassembly here?” he wondered.

  Throwing him a frustrated look, I shook my head.

  “So, why…” He trailed off, clearly deep in thought, and finally asked, “Did someone else have access to your car at the race before the final round?”

  I nodded.

  “Ricky?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Could be him or one of the other guys from the shop,” I suggested.

  Nash’s eyes narrowed as he stood up and yelled, “Hey, Ryker!”

  “What?” Ryker called back from across the shop.

  “Come here.”

  A minute later, Ryker walked up and asked, “What’s going on? Why do you look like that?”

  Nash pointed in my engine bay and ordered, “Look in there and tell me if you see anything that doesn’t seem right.”

  It took Ryker far less time than it did Nash, and when he caught it, he stated, “I’m going to go with the coolant hose being the problem.”

  “Yep,” Nash said. “And you like the location of it?”

  “Not exactly, considering it’s being routed from the overflow tank right to the front tire,” Ryker answered.

  The minute Ryker said the words, it sunk in. His eyes flew to mine.

  “They did this to you, didn’t they?” he asked.

  “It would seem so,” I murmured.

  Anger like I’ve never seen before washed over his face. It surpassed the rage I saw all over Nash’s face, which was already borderline scary.

  “You could have been really injured,” Ryker clipped. “Are they fucking serious pulling some shit like that?”

  “I don’t understand why they would do that,” I told him. “Ricky had tuned the car. They’d done a bunch of the fabrication work on it. If I won that event, it would have been great marketing for them.”

  “Now it makes sense why your car was dead consistent all weekend and you suddenly lost control on the final pass,” Nash stated.

  “Yeah. At least now I know I made the right decision by leaving there,” I began. “I stayed far longer than I should have.”

  Just then, the sound of the steel door leading from the office to the shop closing had all of us looking in that direction.

  Fuck.

  It was Knox. His eyes fell on the three of us. I quickly looked away and returned my attention to Ryker and Nash. They still looked murderous.

  “You okay?” Ryker asked when he returned his attention to me.

  Being there with them, seeing their anger on my behalf, and knowing I had some truly decent people in my corner, I had to admit I was okay. Yes, there was a situation with Knox, but I couldn’t allow that to cloud the good that I’d found in the rest of the guys at the shop.

  For that reason, I shared, “It was really upsetting when I realized it last night, but I’m okay now. Besides, what else can I do at this point? For me, the best revenge is going to be rebuilding and getting back behind the wheel. When I do, I’ll do it with a killer team behind me.”

  “You planning to pull this out today?” Nash asked.

  “Well, I’m trying to get as close as I can to pulling it,” I replied. “I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time.”

  “I’ve got something I need to take care of for a customer today, but when I’m finished, I’ll come over and help you out. We’ll get it done today,” he promised.

  I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh; I didn’t want to cry again.

  When I looked at Nash again, I rasped,
“I really appreciate that.”

  “It’s no problem,” he insisted. “You get started, and I’ll be over shortly.”

  “Okay.”

  At that, Nash and Ryker turned and walked back to their respective spots so they could get back to work. I did the same.

  And while I worked, I could have sworn I felt Knox’s gaze on me nearly the entire time.

  Damn.

  From the moment I pulled into the lot and saw Avery’s truck, I knew I should have turned around and gone home. I should have given her today. It was the least I could have done considering what happened last night.

  But I didn’t.

  I tried to justify not leaving by reminding myself that I’d gotten a bit behind over the course of the last week and was still playing catch up.

  But that wasn’t the real reason I stayed.

  I stayed because I was selfish. I wanted to see her. I wanted to know that she was okay after yesterday.

  I also had to admit that I stayed because I was secretly hoping she’d give me that opening I needed to talk to her.

  And the second I walked from the office into the shop, I knew I wasn’t going to get that chance. I saw her standing there with Nash and Ryker, I saw the looks on their faces, and I knew she’d told them. I knew they were pissed at me for what I’d done. There was no question in my mind that they’d give me a bunch of shit about it later, too.

  I didn’t care.

  I didn’t owe them any explanation.

  This was between Avery and me. So, if she had questions or wanted answers, she was going to have to talk to me about it.

  Doing my best to ignore the fact that she was there and what I knew would come later from at least one of the guys, I did what I had to do to try and get caught up on my work.

  Hours later, I was struggling not to lose my mind. Nash had gone over to help Avery with pulling the engine and transmission on her car. Hearing the occasional laugh from her, I could no longer take it. I threw down the tools I’d been holding and walked out of the shop.

  The minute I walked into the break room, I saw Ryker standing there waiting for the microwave. When he saw me enter, he gave me a disappointed look and shook his head.