Unsteady (The Torqued Trilogy Book 1) (10 page)

With long black hair, she seems to always have perfectly curled, Elle is an attractive woman. I’ll give her that much, but she screams clinger. I know if I were ever to take her up on her countless attempts to get me in her bed, it’d be a disaster.

Smiling at her politely, she pushes out her chest, attempting to draw my stare there. I don’t budge and cross my arms over my chest, nodding to Nova in the corner, now laying on the ground talking to Elle’s son who’s crawled over to her. Another fun fact, Elle’s married. I’ve never met her husband, and I don’t think he’s home all that much, considering how she’s been trying to get on my dick for the last year.

“What happened yesterday with Nova and Kale?” I ask her, still watching my daughter play.

“Oh, that.” I can’t tell, but I think she was hoping I came over to her to just say hello. “Well, apparently Kale stole a pony from her, and Nova decked him.”

I want to laugh, but I don’t. It’s probably not wise to support this behavior, but I love that Nova defends herself. What father wouldn’t?

“Listen, Red.” Elle gets closer, like right in my face. “Nova’s a bit of a bully around here.”

Bully? Nova? No way. Okay, well maybe a little but wouldn’t I rather she stand up for herself?

Yes! I don't want to raise a daughter who’s gonna take shit from anyone.

“I’ll work on it,” I tell her. Maybe she forgot the fact that this kid took something from her.

I leave Elle and walk toward Nova, kneeling next to her. “Hey, South Paw,” she won’t look at me, so I have to physically turn her around so she’s staring at me. “Control yourself today.”

She rolls her eyes and turns away from me. Ruffling her hair, I kiss the top of her head and then leave. I already have two text messages on my phone from Tyler asking if I’ll be in soon.

“I’ll be back around six if that’s okay?” I ask, passing by Elle.

“Yeah, no problem at all.”

Leaving my little hoodlum in prison as she calls it, I head to the shop. The drive from Elle’s to Walker Automotive is fairly short, and thankfully in the small town of Lebanon, Oregon, there’s not much traffic, so I make it to work well before we open.

MOST OF THE guys are already at the shop, standing around outside either smoking cigarettes or drinking their morning coffee.

I take a deep breath and give myself a little internal pep talk about how today is gonna be a good day. The new guy Tyler recommended is starting today, and I can’t help but put a lot of faith that the addition of a new mechanic is exactly what we need to keep our heads above the shit storm that seems to be a constant since my dad died.

“Let me guess, there’s more Kahlua than coffee in that?” I ask, gesturing toward Colt’s stainless steel mug he’s holding as I approach the open shop doors.

He grumbles something at me, staring off into the parking lot as he leans into the metal siding of the building, but I don’t know exactly what he said. You need Colt Code to decipher most of what he says unless of course you understand grumbles and cursing.

When I walk inside, there’s a woman standing in front of a car; her head’s under the hood. She’s wearing cut-off shorts and a loose black tank top with a black bra that leaves little to the imagination. All I saw was a hot-as-hell tight ass that leads to two long, tan legs that I want wrapped around my waist instantly.

With her back to me, I find amusement in her shirt that reads Get Off My Dick on the back of it. Classy and my kind of girl.

My first thought is how to get rid of the instant hard-on without anyone noticing. Directly followed by who the fuck is she?

The coffee girl did nothing for me this morning but
this
woman, Jesus Christ. My dick twitches again at the sight of her tanned, smooth skin, remembering how fucking long it’s been. My first instinct is to tell everyone to go the fuck home so that I can run my hands up her legs and then throw her on the hood of that car.

Jesus, I really do need to get some.

She stops whatever it is she was doing and turns as I walk toward her, her perky breasts drawing my stare as she nods to Tyler who had brought this car in last night because a check engine light kept coming on.

Shit, I didn’t even see him there.

“Looks to me like it’s the sensor and not the circuit,” she tells him, taking a step back.

As I discretely adjust myself, I wonder why the hell she’s in here talking to Tyler and messing with that car. The guys, especially Tyler, know my policy on allowing customers in the shop. The only one who doesn’t listen is Rawley. Not surprising since he thinks he doesn’t have to listen to anyone.

I glance over my shoulder when I hear the guys laughing as they enter the shop. Everyone is heading to their stalls to get the day started and when I turn back to the mystery woman, I notice Tyler is gone. I walk toward his stall to find out what the hell is going on.

“What are you doing in here?” I ask once I’m close enough and come to a stop next to her. She’s slender with blonde hair cascading down the middle of her back that she sweeps over her shoulder when she turns. The smell of her sweet but light perfume invades my senses with the motion.

She looks at me like I’m some sort of devil, brushing her hair from her face with the swipe of her hand. “What the fuck does it look like?” While her tone is confident, her body language says something else entirely. Her eyes are guarded, her gaze on my feet.

Is she serious?
She shifts her gaze to my face, drawing my reluctant eyes to hers. Yep. She’s serious.

“It looks to me like you’re messing with shit you don’t know anything about,” I deadpan, glaring at her. “Shouldn’t you be in the waiting area?”

She points the wrench in my face, her fiery stare on mine. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

A slow, derisive smile spreads across my face. “I’m the goddamn owner of this place,” I bark at her, crossing my arms over my chest. “Who are you?”

Her eyes widen, maybe shocked, maybe appalled, or both. “Lennon.”

I’m confused. Lennon… why do I know that name? Wait… she’s Lennon? Like the mechanic Tyler was bragging about?

My mouth falls open. Christ, Lennon is supposed to be a fucking dude. Goddamn you Tyler!

My eyes snap from hers and scan the shop for Tyler, wherever that motherfucker went. Suddenly he’s nowhere to be found. Fucking figures.

The two of us stand there staring at one another, and it’s pretty fucking evident she’s not one to back down, which I appreciate, but I’m not happy that I was led to believe Lennon was a man.

When I look at her—really look at her—my head spins. Shit, she’s… well, beautiful and I know it’s a bad idea for her to be working here. I don’t like how in just five minutes she has me thinking of all the ways I want to make her moan my name. No, this is definitely not a good idea.

She’s wearing very little makeup. She has a natural beauty and doesn’t need to. Her clothes are wrinkled like she’s been sleeping in them for days. Freckles dot her nose and cheeks giving her an almost innocent look, but I can tell by the glare I’m receiving, this girl is far from innocent. I bet she talks dirty too.

Fuck. The idea of her talking dirty does nothing but make the tightness in my jeans more apparent.

Nope. This is a recipe for disaster, and I need to find Tyler so he can get her out of here. I frown because this is not what I needed right now.

“What are you looking at?” she asks, placing her right hand on her hip in annoyance, yet her eyes darting around the shop nervously shows her bravado.

“I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Lennon purses her lips and shakes her head, her mouth curling into a disdainful smile. I know then there’s a tough side to this girl. She can probably dish out as much shit as she gets for being a woman in a man’s world. “Oh yeah? And why is that?”

“I’m just wondering what the hell you’re doing in here. Tyler told me he had some guy who was a great mechanic. Said he grew up working on cars.”

Her face flushes with anger at my implication, her shoulders rise and fall with her labored breaths. “I
am
a great mechanic.”

“Doubtful. You’re a chick,” I state smugly without apology.

Ah, yes, I’ve hit a nerve. Her reactions when mad make me want to piss her off all the time. I’d gladly do so if she’ll keep looking at me like this.

She takes a small step back, and her eyes go wide in surprise. My comment takes her off guard, but she quickly recovers, twisting her mouth to one side and raising a cynical brow. “So what, you don’t have women mechanics around here?”

“Not in this shop.” The corners of my mouth raise. “We’re a bunch of assholes.”

”I’m assuming you’re the king of the assholes around here,” she says with a sardonic laugh

Jesus Christ, she’s beautiful.

Before I can say anything else to her, Tyler claps me on the shoulder. “Oh, hey, great, you two met.”

My distaste for him returns. I point at Lennon when she reaches for the hood of the car. “Don’t touch that. As a matter of fact, don’t touch anything. Let me have a word with Tyler.” I grab Tyler by the arm, pushing him aside forcefully in front of my toolbox. “The fuck, Tyler! Explain yourself.”

“Whoa, dude. Listen, she needed a job,” he says immediately, raising his hands up.

I want to punch him in the fucking throat for misleading me. He knew exactly what he was doing when he conveniently left out the fact that Lennon was a smoking-hot piece of ass. Bringing her here was a huge mistake on his part. There is no way I am going to be able to focus on what has to be done if she’s here. And it’s not just me that I’m worried about. I wasn’t joking when I said that we’re a bunch of assholes here and the thought of one of these guys feeling the way I do about her only makes me more pissed off.

I exhale a resigning breath. “You purposely mislead me, asshole.”

“Not exactly.” He snorts a little chuckle. “I never said Lennon was a man.”

He’s right. He didn’t. But still….

“What the fuck? I trusted you. Shit, man, you know what we are dealing with right now. I don’t have time to fuck around with some girl wanna-be mechanic. We are sinking, and I need someone in here that can handle their shit. Fuck! I don’t know what the hell you were thinking!”

He shifts his feet and twists his head slightly looking up at me. “Listen, Red, I know I should have told you from the start Lenny was a chick, but I wanted you to give her a chance and if I would have said she was a woman, you wouldn’t have hired her. I know you. She knows what she’s doing. She’s been working on cars her whole life, and Wes, her foster dad was a wrencher.” He looks defeated, like he’s struggling with something more than this right now. “Just… man… she really needs this, and we need a mechanic. Give her a chance to show you what she’s got.”

I wasn’t budging. No, I was fucking thinking about her legs even now. I’d love to see what she’s got under those tiny shorts too. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of her and the shorts, well, damn. They’re short enough I don't have to do much imagining. Fuck… stop.

“Come on, Red, you know me. I’d never lead you in the wrong direction. You and this shop mean everything to me and I wouldn’t jeopardize that.”

He has a point. I’ve known Ty for years, and I know he would never do that to me. “She better be as good as you say Tyler or it’s your ass I’m gonna beat,” I snarl, pushing past him and heading for the office. I pass by Lennon as I walk, but I don’t make eye contact. That’s the last thing I need to do right now.

All I keep thinking about is there’s no way this is going to work. Taking a look around, I look at the guys, and I can’t figure out how this can possibly go over well. There’s Daniel in the corner, opening an oil filter and watching Lennon out of the corner of his eye as she stands near the door with her arms defiantly crossed over her chest.

Then there’s Colt, who’s flat out staring, along with Rawley, who’s doing the same. No sense in hiding it, guys. Jesus.

Drawing in a deep breath, I look back over my shoulder toward Tyler. “Don’t make me regret this.”

I don’t look at anyone as I make my way to the office. I can’t because if I look up, I know my eyes are going to find her and drag slowly up those long legs.

“Hey, baby, how’s your morning going?” Mom asks the moment I’m inside the office. She doesn’t look up as she hands me a hand written sticky note with a phone number on it. “Harry wants you to call him. He’s got the billboard done for Willamette Speedway. Wants you to approve it.”