Unsteady (The Torqued Trilogy Book 1) (16 page)

He looks at me and knows I’m lying. He stares at me, and I wonder, when our eyes meet if he knows the reason I’m out here, sleeping in a parking lot and showering at a truck stop with a butch woman. “You’ve been in this parking lot for two nights.”

I don’t say anything. I probably shouldn’t lie to the police. The last thing I need is trouble here.

“You’re working for Red, right?”

More like I’m a prisoner to him. Believe me, the thought of being tied to a bed for him is real. Especially after seeing him with his daughter.

I swallow back the dryness in my mouth, wishing I had a bottle of water in here. “Yeah, just started there about a week ago. How did you know?”

“It’s a small town, honey. People talk.”

My eyes go wide. If people are talking, what does that mean? I know they’re curious about me. I get a constant stare wherever I go.

“Listen, if you need a place to stay, my wife and I have an extra room above our garage… or I’m sure the church could set you up with something.”

Living with the police? Nope. Not a good idea.

I reach forward and put my keys in the ignition, waving him off with my other hand. “Thank you, but that’s all right. I really do have a place to stay.”

I breathe a sigh of relief when he leaves, his patrol car passing by as he nods to me. It’s then I realize I’m running late this morning, and I know Red will have my ass if I’m late.

I’d gladly give him my ass.

Oh, stop.

And then I think of Red, all manly beastly smoking hot Red, and I want to punch myself for thinking of my boss like that. He hasn’t been nice to me once since I started at Walker Automotive. The most civilized conversation I had was with his daughter.

I didn’t quit my job, surprisingly. I went back to work and made it an entire week there and hadn’t been fired yet. I tend to think it’s only because he wants someone to do all the jobs he don’t want to do.

I wonder why I don’t quit, and then I’m quickly reminded that I
need
money. I also have no place to live, and the last thing I want is to go back to Oklahoma.

There’s no way that I want Red to see me as some chick trying to hang with the boys. I want him to see me as something more. Strangely, I want him to know me and not the person I pretend to be. The person I am deep down. The person no one but Tyler has ever seen.

As I pull into work, about twenty minutes late, Red’s in the parking lot talking to a customer. He doesn’t even look my way.

When I’m inside the shop, Daniel, the lube tech, nods to me. For the past week, he’s been awfully flirty. If I didn’t know any better, he was looking for a one-night stand. He’s not bad looking, but he’s got this greasy hair that just looks gross. And he’s shorter than me, and that’s a no go in my book.

“How’d you get the name Lennon?” he asks, sipping what I think is coffee from a stainless steel mug.

“Mom was a stripper,” I tell him, shrugging and keeping one eye on Red in the parking lot. I’m teasing him because my mom gave me up. I don’t know a damn thing about her, other than she’s dead. “Apparently she couldn’t come up with anything better… like Danielle.”

Daniel’s face goes blank, as though he’s trying to decide what I meant by that remark.

“Why are you late?” Red asks the moment he enters the shop. He’s wearing a black shirt today, and I don’t like it when he wears the black one because it makes his eyes look even darker.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“I didn’t ask for an apology. I asked why.”

I inhale a deep breath, trying to summon the courage to deal with him today. “I’m just late.” I want to sound indignant and hostile, but my voice cracks, and I have to clear my throat to regain my composure around him. It’s none of his business that I had to fight for the shower with the butch lady again and kick her out twice.

His brown eyes search mine intently. “Why?” he presses.

“I’m
just
late,” I say again.

He reaches into his pocket, digs out a piece of paper and hands it to me.

Glancing down, I look at it, and it’s a donut and coffee order. “What’s this?”

“What does it look like?”

“It looks like a food order.”

Turning his head in my direction, he eyes me up and down. “Congratulation, you can read, so I suggest you go get it.”

“So now I run errands?”

“You do when you show up late.”

I stare at the order and my determination begins to wilt under his quick dismissal. “Where’s this place at?”

He flips his hand at the door. “Down the street about a mile. Turn left at the stop light. It’s on your right.”

Easy enough.

Not exactly. After two wrong turns, I finally find it and hand the girl at the window my list. I’m not sure, but maybe she can tell by the writing when she smiles at me.

“You work for Red? I’m Jessie. You must be the new girl, right?”

Is there nothing else to talk about in this town besides the new girl in town?

“I guess I must. I’m Lenny.”

She gets this dreamy look about her. I’ve seen it before. Usually in teenage girls which this girl probably isn’t far from. “How do you like working for Red?”

“Yeah.” I snort. “It’s great if you like working for an asshole.” And then my eyes snap to hers, and I realize what I just did. I called him an asshole out loud.

“I would take working for that asshole anytime.”

“He’s not bad to look at, but believe me. That’s where it ends.”

“If you’ve ever seen him with Nova, you’d understand. He knows how to work the single father thing.” She makes a clicking sound with her tongue. “Sexy.”

What is with this chick? “Yeah, well, I’m not really interested in that. His personal life is none of my business.”

“Sure, Lenny.” And then she rolls her damn eyes at me.

“IT’S ABOUT time.” That’s how I’m greeted after going to get him coffee and donuts. You’d think he’d be nicer considering it’s a very real possibility that I’ve spit in his cup. I’ve thought about it. I even thought about licking the lid. I may, or may not have done that last part.

“Sorry it took so long… I met one of your admirers.”

Red doesn’t look at me, he only squints and keeps his attention on the coffee I hand him that says Red on the cup with a heart. “Jessie?”

“Yeah. The chick that decorated your cup so pretty.”

Don’t worry, I licked the lid. She didn’t.

“She’s a nice kid.”

I point to the parking lot and the lady with the Lexus pulling in, leaning against his toolbox. “You know, you’re a popular guy in this town. You have quite the harem, don’t you?”

He laughs cynically and crosses his arms across his broad chest. “You don’t know a damn thing about me.” And then he walks outside to meet the lady, coffee in hand.

I still have five more coffees on my tray, and I set mine on Red’s toolbox because I don’t have a toolbox and nowhere to put anything. Hell, my keys are tucked inside my bra.

I give the coffee marked C-man to Colt, assuming that’s him, and he immediately takes the lid off and pours whatever it is in his flask, into the coffee. “Thanks, sweetheart. I needed a good mixer.”

Shaking my head, I smile at him and keep walking down to the other end of the shop

Balancing the cardboard tray of coffee, I hand Tyler his coffee. “Hey.” He smiles, taking it from me. “Why were you late?”

“I had a battle with the butch lady at the truck stop for the shower. She already has my panties. Greedy bitch.”

He stares at me, and then shakes his head. “Are you living in your bronco?”

“I know I said I had a place to stay… but I don’t.”

“Lenny,” he sighs. “Damn it. Where have you been staying?”

“In my car.”

He shakes his head and dips his brows in concern. “That’s not okay. You’re staying with me from now on.”

“Do you have a washing machine?”

“Yeah….”

I pat his shoulder. “Good, because I gave my panties to a hobo the other night and I’m running out of clean clothes.”

His smile turns up a notch. “You fit in perfectly around here.”

“IT’S RUNNING LIKE shit, and I can’t find anything wrong with it.” I’m standing beside Red, my skin heated from being this close as he and Tyler contemplate why a Chevy Blazer was brought in for an oil change yesterday and then came back today.

Red stares at the car, twisting a wrench around in his hand like it’s a nervous habit he has. “And you checked the oil?”

Tyler shakes his head. “No, I will.”

Everyone comes to Red with questions, and he doesn’t seem to get much of anything done during the day. As Tyler stands in his stall, the two of them going over a car neither can figure out, Daniel walks up to him and tells him a customer is waiting.

“He’s just going to have to wait,” he snarls back, never even making eye contact with him as he tosses a crowbar in his tool cart.

“It’s
over-filled
with oil,” Tyler tells him a minute later, looking over his shoulder at Daniel.

Red shoots his glare at Daniel, who had originally changed the oil. More than likely he didn’t drain the oil and just filled it with more.

“Fuck, man.” Red groans. “Pay attention.”

Daniel raises his hands. “Sorry!”

I don’t think Red likes people apologizing. In fact, it seems to only make him angry. And let’s face it, that’s not entirely hard to do.

I’m just getting to know the dynamics of the shop, but you can already tell who does what, and who Red likes and doesn’t.

Guess what? I’m his least favorite person.

Red walks up to me, his eyes on a repair order.

I raise an eyebrow, thoroughly annoyed now. We went from rattles to oil changes today. “An oil change? Really?”

“Well, Daniel doesn’t seem to be able to handle them today, and Rawley seems to think his shift starts at noon. Someones gotta do them.”

“But an oil change?” I don’t even know why I’m making a big deal out of it, probably because I want the jobs where I can show him I know what I’m doing, not this basic shit.

“You know…” Red lets a wrench slide out of his hand, slowly, and I watch intently as it happens, my stare fixated on the motion. “I thought a lube job would be easy for you, princess.”

There he goes with the fucking princess shit again.

I take the wrench from his hand. “I don’t know. I’d say I’m better at checking the bore and stroke of an engine.”

Red smirks at my comment, which makes me want to punch him in the face. Especially when he winks at me and lets the wrench slide slowly out of his right hand to his left.

I take the wrench from his hand and slide it in the back pocket of my jeans and turn to walk away. Leaning over the car in my stall, I remove the dipstick and check the oil when Red comes up behind me. His left hand rests on the car, his chest pressed to my back as he slowly brings his right hand to cup my ass. My breathing stops immediately. I’m pretty sure my heart did too as he reaches in my back pocket for the wrench, long, strong fingers caressing as he pulls. “I believe this belongs to me.”