Painted Lines (10 page)

Chapter
17

I
quickly pulled on a pair of pajama pants, bra, and tank top and made my way out
to the living room to see Cas.  He stood there with his arms folded across his
rather large chest waiting on me.  He was pissed, I could see it in the tick of
his jaw and the fire in his hazel eyes.

“Sit,”
he growled.

I
quickly sat down on the couch watching him, waiting.

“This
is going to stop, Scout.  You cannot go running around by yourself, do you
understand me?”

I
nodded my head fighting back the tears; I never wanted to disappoint Cas.

“You
tell someone where you are going, who you are going with, and when you will get
back,” he barked.  “You will not be going anywhere alone, not even the grocery
store, got it?”

I
nodded my head again.

“There
will be no more of this guy that I’ve been hearing about.  I don’t care if you
trust him, he works for Ace, he is friends with
him
, you cannot trust
him, Scout.”

I
nodded in agreement.  Cas knew what was best for me.

He
squatted down in front of me and gently brushed away the tears from my cheeks.
“I’ve missed you, baby girl,” he whispered then kissed me on my forehead and
wrapped his arms around me.

I
held on tightly burying my face into his neck, glad to have Cas home again.  I
let it all out in the form of tears—the months of worry, of not knowing if he
was safe, I cried it all out.  And I realized I had been selfish the past
week.  I shouldn’t have been worrying him, he had other things that he needed
to be focused on, not me.

“I
promise I won’t leave again without telling anyone,” I told him and took a deep
breath.  “And no more Thayne.”

“Good
girl,” he murmured.  “Now what are you going to make me for dinner?”

I
wiped my eyes laughing and jumped up to cook Cas a welcome home dinner.

We
spent the evening eating dinner, joking, telling stories, having a good time,
only I couldn’t get into the jovial mood.  I was ecstatic that Cas was home,
but there was a shadow over the evening.  I didn’t want to stay away from
Thayne; I did trust him.  But everyone else said I shouldn’t, that he was
unsafe.  I couldn’t see him hurting me, but I had promised Cas, so I would stay
away from him.

Everyone
called it quits early and I curled up on the couch, giving Cas my room.  I
fought sleep as long as possible.  I had been having nightmares more often
lately.  I didn’t want to have another.  Eventually though sleep did find me,
and with it came hell.

“Wake
up, little one,” then cold water was thrown on my now mostly naked skin.  I
cried out at the shock of it, only it was more of a croak at this point.  “Ah,
there are those green eyes I love, ready for more, little one?” he asked
laughing.  He reached down ripping the tape from my mouth, then pulled the
cloth from my mouth.  He tipped a bottle of cold water over my face, the water
choked me when he grabbed my jaw holding my mouth open.  I coughed and
spluttered when he finally finished, he laughed harder.  “Why,” I croaked out. 
“What was that, little one,” he asked in return.  “Why are you doing this?” I
asked him again.  He looked at me thoroughly confused, “You wanted me too,” he
told me then shoved the cloth back in my mouth and covered in fresh tape.  I
winced at the sting.  “Now time for the real fun, little one,” he told me and
slapped me hard before climbing on the bed.

I
once again woke up sitting up straight screaming.  Cas came running into the
room flipping on the light, and I shielded my eyes from it.

“Scout,
are you okay?”

“Fine,”
I mumbled, “nightmare.”

“Oh,”
Cas replied, “happening often?”

I
shrugged, “Dunno.”

“Want
to come, curl up in the bed with me?”

I
shook my head.  “No, I think I want to stay up, maybe watch TV.”

“Okay,”
he said dubiously, “if you’re sure.”

“Yeah.”

He
watched me for another minute, nodded, and went back to the room.  I spent the
rest of the night watching people trying to sell me kitchen gadgets, how to
make a million dollars in six weeks, and how to lose weight quickly.  I finally
got up made coffee, and started on breakfast.

After
breakfast, we headed into the garage to start this week’s challenge, Cas
decided to tag along and see what we had been doing.  I also think he wanted to
check out Ace & Lace’s team, and more importantly Thayne.  I just wanted to
immerse myself in work and forget everything else.

Soon
we were standing around listening to Eddie tell us about this week’s mini
challenge.  This time around I didn’t have much of a role.  Each team chose a
member, the member then had to go up and rebuild a motor’s carburetor, and we
of course, sent Kale.  We sat back cheering him on, the first one finished won,
he came in second to one of Matt’s team members, though it was close.

Then
it came to the week’s challenge Eddie once again was up front and center. “This
week each team will be given a nonworking Knucklehead Engine.  Each team will
have to tear the engine apart, make repairs, and have it able to start on a
testing stand,” he told us.

I
glanced over at Kale and couldn’t help but smile at the little boy excited look
on his face, he loved working with old engines.  We were told that the team
that won the mini challenge’s reward was to assign everyone their engines.  We
sat through their engine expert giving away what engine each team would use
then were finally allowed to start planning.  We had one hour to make a plan,
we would be allowed to start tearing down the engine tomorrow.

We
sat around our stall and listened to Kale’s plan. It was no surprise that I was
assigned to cleaning parts, cataloging parts, and being the gopher.  While I
could rebuild an engine if I had to, it wasn’t something I enjoyed doing, so I
would be taking a more hands off job with this challenge.

At
our hour’s end, we headed out.  I noticed Thayne multiple times during the day,
but he seemed to be ignoring me.  I did the same with him, hoping that my
occasional covert glances his way went unnoticed.  Once home, we went through
what had become our normal routine, I made dinner, we ate together, talking and
watching TV.  Then it was bedtime and I fought it, luckily winning this time.

I
took a shower and chugged coffee before anyone else was up.  I was debating
making breakfast when I heard footsteps; I turned and found Liam.  He looked me
over shook his head and fixed himself a cup of coffee then turned to look at
me.

“Sleep
well, Harper Lee?”

“Fine,”
I muttered focusing on my cup of coffee.

“Uh
huh,” he replied but let it go.

I
fixed myself another cup of coffee and curled up on the couch with my Kindle,
and read till it was time to go.  I had handed over the keys to Angel to Cas so
he would have something to drive while we were here since he had flown up.  So
I climbed on Stella and enjoyed the short ride to the garage.  The days were
getting hot, but the mornings were perfect.

We
arrived too quickly for my taste but headed in to spend a day with twisted
metal and grease.  After a visit to the harpies, we were told to go to our
marks and then we listened to today’s directions.  We were given four hours to
tear apart the engine, diagnose what was wrong with it, note the parts we would
need ordered, and what we would make.  I followed the guys into the stall and
went to work taking notes, and zoning out.

The
day passed quickly, with lots of coffee helping me get through it.  I noticed
Thayne watching me more than once but I ignored him.  I escaped quickly after
our time was up and headed home.  I decided to take a nap and laid down on the
couch with TV on.  I didn’t fall into a deep sleep but I felt better when I got
up an hour later.  I was treated to Cam cooking dinner, and I got to hang out
and play with Zadok.  I noticed the concerned glances but I ignored them and
focused on the baby.  He was growing so quickly, it was amazing to watch.

“Everything
okay?” asked Cas during dinner.

“Fine,”
I told him moving my food around on my plate.

“You
sure?”

“Yep,”
I replied and gave up playing with my food and went to the kitchen and began
cleaning it up.  Everyone brought their plates in and I continued to ignore the
looks.  After I had cleaned the kitchen, I went and curled up in the corner of
the couch and read until everyone finally headed off to bed.  I stayed up
reading, then eventually watched an old movie.  When the sun began to peek
through the curtains, I got up and began my day.

We
quickly finished with the beginning ceremonies and were allowed to begin
tearing the engine apart.  I was given parts to clean after Kale inspected each
and every one of them.  He would determine if they were viable or not, then
either give it to me to clean or add it to the list.  I had to take breaks
every now and then for cups of coffee, the fumes from the parts cleaner would
leave me woozy.  Finally, half way through Kale thought he figured out where
the problem lay with our engine, so Simon, Liam and Kale went into planning
mode trying to figure out what they needed to do next.  I continued to clean
parts, not paying any attention to them and what their game plan was.

We
were finished for the day and I stumbled out of the stall and straight into
someone else.  I looked up, an apology on my lips but found grey blue eyes
staring down at me.  I shook my head trying to shake off the effect he had on me.

“Sorry,”
I finally got out.

“Not
a problem,” he said still watching me. “You okay?”

“Fine,”
I replied instantly.

“Thought
we decided that word wasn’t allowed?”

“You
decided,” I told him, “when we were friends.”  Then I walked away.

I
noticed Cas had shown up at some point and was watching me with a scowl on his
face.  I sighed—great this should be fun.  I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong,
but Cas still didn’t look happy.

“Scout,”
he growled when I walked up to him.

“Cas.”

“What
were you doing talking to him?”

“Uhm,
I apologized for running into him?” I answered more as a question.

“I
just don’t like you talking to that guy,” he said watching Thayne leave the
garage.

“I’m
not talking to him, I apologized.”

He
bobbed his head once then reached out grabbing my arm and led me out of the
building—well guess he was ready to leave.

Cas
decided that he and I would go out to dinner.  So when we got home I took a
nap, then got up and got ready.  I took a long, hot shower trying to get the
smell of the cleaner I had been using off my skin, and even blow dried my hair
for a change. I got dressed in my usual clothes but I left my hair down
trailing down to the small of my back.  Then I started to reconsider that, if
we were riding it would get in my face.  I ended up putting a hair tie around
my wrist in case I needed it and went in search for Cas.

I
finally found him standing outside talking on his cell phone.  I walked towards
him and he glanced up, said something, then hung up his phone.

“Ready
to go?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

We
ended up in a small diner that hadn’t changed much since the fifties and I
instantly fell in love with it.  We were seated quickly and looking over their
menu, and Cas kept checking his phone looking nervous.

“Everything
okay?” I asked after the fourth time he looked at it.

“Yeah,
just expecting a call.”

“From
your CO?”

“No,
he’s still in the sandbox,” he replied.  I was confused, if his CO was still
overseas what was Cas doing back here with me?

“Hmm,”
I replied, “when does he come stateside?”

“End
of the month with the rest of the squad.”

“So
your commanding officer and the rest of your squad are all still overseas?”

“What?”
he asked looking up finally realizing what he had confessed.

“Why
are you back, Cas?” I asked getting worried that something happened to him he
never told me about.

“There
were extenuating circumstances so I was sent home.”

“What’s
going on, Cas?” I asked hoping he would give me a straight answer.

“Nothing
for you to worry about.”

I
didn’t believe him though.  He had been sent home before his team, was
immediately able to fly here and he won’t tell me what was going on.  It didn’t
take much to figure out that something was going on, and it more than likely
had to do with me.  I knew enough though that he wouldn’t tell me—no one ever
told me anything.

Once
the waitress came back, I ordered a burger, fries, and milkshake even though I
wasn’t in the mood to eat any longer.

“So
how is the show going?”