Blindsided - A Stepbrother Romance Novel (10 page)

From Monday to Wednesday she worked at the parts store during the day and she and Luke worked on the Mustang in the evening. She and Luke worked well together in the shop too and little by little she was getting to know more about him and him her. He seemed to know what questions to ask without making it seem like he was just morbidly curious about her life. Instead she felt like he was not only genuinely interested, but he told her more than once how proud he was of her for the way she’d been able to come out the other side of all of that seemingly unscathed. She wasn’t sure he’d feel that strongly about that if he could see inside of her. Her life had left her with scars she couldn’t avoid, but she had refused to be broken.

By Wednesday afternoon they had the old engine out of the Mustang and all the parts they needed for the new engine ready to go.

“Was this your first car?” Sam asked Luke as they were cleaning up the shop that day.

He smiled slightly and said, “Yeah, my Pop bought it for me.”

They never talked about what she’d said to him about his father Sunday night and Luke didn’t act like he’d held it against her, but she felt guilty about it anyways. She’d tried to assuage that guilt by telling herself he deserved to suffer just a little bit for taking that away from her but after this past week with him the part of her that looked at the man working by her side and letting her have free reign in his state of the art shop actually recognized the honest regret he felt for the past in his eyes. She was beginning to believe that if he could go back and do it all differently, he would.

“Was it new when you got it?”

Luke laughed. “This car was born a few years before your old dad.”

“Oh,” now she’d called him old. It seemed like she was destined to put her foot in her mouth at least once a day around him. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said with a smile. “I’m sure a forty-five year old man seems ancient to a nineteen year old girl.”

“You don’t seem ancient…and I’m not a girl.”

Luke put his arm around her and she automatically stiffened up. He must have felt it because he pulled his arm off right away. Once again, she felt guilty. “I’m sorry; a nineteen year old woman was what I’d meant to say.”

Sam gently socked him in the arm, trying to make up for stiffening under his touch. “That’s better. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” he said. “Let’s head up to the house and see what Aaron made for dinner.” They both got a good laugh out of that.

**

She borrowed the old pick-up from Luke again that evening and drove into town to the address that Conrad had given her. It was an apartment complex that looked like it might be slightly pricey but yet it wasn’t overly pretentious. There was no elaborate lobby or doorman and the gates stood open until dark. She wasn’t sure if there was parking inside so she parked the pick-up on the street and walked around for fifteen minutes until she found apartment number 262. She climbed the stairs and knocked on the door. It was pulled open by Casey.

“Hi Samantha, come on in.” Sam said hello and followed the little red-head inside. The living room was big for an apartment and the rest of the crew was all there, except for Conrad. Samantha found herself feeling disappointed almost at once, but she kept a smile plastered to her face as she said hello to everyone. “This is Robert,” Casey introduced a stocky blonde guy that looked really familiar. “He’s not part of the crew, he’s with me.”

“He’s here to pour the drinks,” Beau said.

“Screw you,” Robert told him, “It’s my night off.”

Beau laughed. “Where’s the boss?”

“On the phone,” Shawn said, “He’ll be out in a sec. Sam you want something to drink?”

“Nah, I’m okay.”

“You don’t drink, Sam?” Drew asked her.

“Not much,” Sam told her honestly. “I like to keep my head clear.” Another promise that she’d made to herself while she was growing up was that she would never, ever become dependent on a substance the way her mother was. She’d never even tried drugs for that reason and she was glad that at least so far she hadn’t been impressed at all with alcohol either. Her addiction was speed and if anything killed her young, that’s what it was going to be.

“She sounds like Conrad,” Stew said. He looked at Sam. “Conrad has a two-beer limit. He never goes over it.” For some reason unknown to herself it made Sam happy to find out that she and Conrad had even more in common. As she had that thought she saw the man himself appear from the hallway. His sexy eyes landed on her face and he smiled. Sam felt like she couldn’t breathe for a few seconds until he turned away and started saying hello to everyone else. He took the beer Casey offered him and then took a seat on the floor next to the chair Sam was sitting in. She noticed that there was another empty chair and an empty spot on the couch as well. It warmed her blood to think he chose to sit by her on purpose. Then he did something else that thrilled her, he bragged to his crew about her racing skills,

“Sam went to Fontana with me Sunday night.”

“Cool! Did you drive?” Stew asked her.

Sam couldn’t help smiling just at the memory. “Yeah, I drove the Charger.”

“He let you drive the Charger?” Drew asked with her eyes narrowed in Conrad’s direction. “Lucky!”

“He doesn’t even let me drive the Charger and I’m his best friend.”

Sam felt her face going hot. She knew what they were insinuating and she wished they wouldn’t go there. This was exactly why she needed to leave him alone. She wanted to be respected for her driving skills, not looked at like she was getting special favors from the crew boss.

“Well once I tell you all her time you’ll see just why she deserves to drive the Charger and none of you do,” Conrad said, smugly. Once again her heart lurched. “What was your fastest time ever out there Stew?”

“Thirteen six in the Integra.”

“Drew?”

She curled her lip. “Fourteen.”

“Shawn?”

“Twelve point eight.”

“I’ll leave Beau alone since he doesn’t seem to be in this conversation.” Sam looked at the tall thin guy sitting on the couch between Casey and Robert and Shawn. The look on his face reminded her of Aaron’s when Darren was in terror mode. She wondered what demons haunted him and how he got the scars and old bruises on his face.

“What about me?” Casey asked.

“Have you run a car at Fontana?”

“No, that’s what I mean, what about me?”

Conrad laughed. “Okay, you’re next I promise. But back to Sunday night, I went twelve point two and Samantha here finished at eleven-six.”

“No fucking way!” Shawn looked like he thought Conrad was lying. The rest of them were acting like they were bowing to her.

“Yes.” Conrad said. “All I saw was a blur of black steel.”

“Son of a bitch,” Shawn said with a grin. “Welcome to the crew, Sam.” They all congratulated her and Sam felt both embarrassed to be the center of attention and proud of the way they were looking at her now at the same time. After they settled down Conrad said,

“So who’s racing this weekend?” He took a sip of his beer and leaned his back into the chair Sam was sitting on. She got a whiff of his light aftershave and she remembered how intoxicating that smell had been when he’d picked her up at the track Sunday night. She also had an almost uncontrollable urge to reach out and run her fingers through his messy hair.

“Hector Aguirre and Macy Townsend,” Stew said in answer to his question.

“I know Macy, who is Hector?” Conrad asked.

“I saw him race down in San Diego about six months ago,” Casey said. “Remember Robert that race we went to when we were down there for your cousin’s wedding?”

“The guy in the yellow rice rocket?” Robert asked.

“Yeah, he killed it,” she said. “That car was like watching a literal rocket.”

“So what’s he doing up here with Jimmy’s crew?” Conrad asked. Before anyone answered he looked at Sam and said, “Jimmy Chavez runs another crew in town. The wagers we have going this weekend will be with them.

Sam nodded and Stew said, “Jimmy told me he had a new guy last week when I ran into him at the radiator shop.”

“What’s he driving?” Beau asked. He’d just suddenly snapped out of whatever funk he’d been in. Sam found it slightly unnerving but the rest of them didn’t seem to notice. Stew shrugged at his question and Casey said,

“That night we saw him he was driving a ’92 Civic. That was a while back though. I have no idea what he drives now.”

“I’ll take this guy,” Beau said. He sounded confident but the looks on the rest of the crew’s faces didn’t convey theirs. Samantha also noticed how Conrad sat up straighter and looked at his friend.

“Why Beau?”

Beau looked at him, pulled his eyebrows together in the center and said, “Why not? I race like the rest of you.” His tone was almost defensive like he was preparing for an argument. Sam could tell by the energy in the room that she was the only one that didn’t know what was going on here.

“Right, but usually you don’t want to race, you want to be on the sidelines tweaking the cars, and we need you there.”

“I can tweak the cars before and after I race. I haven’t been behind the wheel for a while. I’d like to take out the GSR.” He smiled then but it looked forced as he said, “I’ve transformed it man, it’s sick.”

Conrad’s tone didn’t lighten any as he said, “You haven’t tested it out and you want to race it?”

“It’s ready, I’m sure.” Beau lost his smile.

Conrad wasn’t willing to let it go. “Come on Beau, we all know how you hate the unknown. You want to know every detail about the racer and the machine before you go up against them and you want to know your own car intimately. You usually test a car ten or twelve times before you drive it in a race. I just don’t want you doing this because you’re in self-destruct mode. You were practically suicidal the last time you pulled this same shit.”

Beau looked shocked at Conrad’s choice of words. “Suicidal? Are you shitting me?”

“I’m not and you know it. Your father had lost his job and he was on you like a fly on shit day in and day out. You were even talking about offing yourself and then you got into that El Camino…”

Beau had a look in his eyes that said he felt like his friend was betraying him just by saying that out loud. He interrupted him with, “You’re my fucking therapist all of a sudden? Shit, if you were you’d at least keep your mouth shut about my personal business.”

“I’m your friend and I’m in charge of this crew. I’m not letting any of you go out on the street with your head full of crap that will jeopardize your safety.”

“My head is always full of crap.” Beau had raised his voice now. Casey put her hand on his arm but he shook her off and said, “I know how to organize the crap or compartmentalize or whatever the fuck the shrinks call it. The car is ready. This isn’t about my personal shit that I’d appreciate you not talking about in front of everyone.” He looked at Shawn then and said, “Tell him the GSR is ready Shawn, you saw it.”

“I saw it this afternoon,” Shawn said. He looked reluctant to be dragged into the conversation but he said, “He’s right, the transformations are sick.” Beau started to smile again and Shawn looked at him and said, “You did say you were still trying to figure out why it was throwing oil though, did you figure it out?”

“I worked that out,” Beau said quickly.

“How?” Conrad asked.

“I worked it out,” he said again. “Listen, in the past two weeks I replaced the engine with a granite black motor. I enlarged the headers and now with the turbo chargers affixed to the front of it I can get ten times the output. I can beat whatever this guy is driving and that’s all I’m looking to do here, trust me.”

Conrad was ready to say something else when he was interrupted by the doorbell. Casey got the door and came back with three pizza boxes. She sat them down on the table and suddenly everyone was reaching across everyone else and grabbing a slice. Sam actually felt relieved. The tension in the room had been becoming uncomfortable. She watched as Conrad reached over and took two pieces of pizza. He laid one on a napkin and handed it to her. “Thanks.” He winked at her. In the past she’d completely blow a guy off for winking at her. When Conrad did it though, it set her insides on fire.

When they all had their mouths full except for him Conrad said in an even tone, “Listen Beau, we don’t talk about the shit you’re going through at home but…”

“That’s right, because it has nothing to do with here and now.”

“I have a bad feeling it has everything to do with it. You’re pissed at the old man and you have every right to be, but running a car that isn’t ready…”

Beau sat up straight and tossed the piece of pizza he was holding onto the coffee table. “What the fuck makes you think it’s not ready? When have I ever run a car that wasn’t ready?”

“Like I said, the last time you volunteered to race a newbie was when the old man put that scar on your head,” Conrad said softly. It was like he knew it needed to be said, but he really didn’t want to.

Beau stood up and knocked his pizza and beer to the floor as he did. “Fuck you, man!”

Shawn reached up and put his hand on Beau’s arm. Beau knocked it off. “Fuck you too!” he said to Shawn, “You saw that engine and you know it’s fucking ready. You’re just too far up Conrad’s ass to admit it.” He headed for the door and Conrad called after him. He didn’t stop. Conrad stood up and Shawn said,