Unbearable (the TORQUED trilogy Book 2) (25 page)

I’M DRAGGING ASS Monday morning. It’s all I can do to actually make it downstairs by eight.

Red hands me a repair order for a Dodge Durango in my stall as I’m stirring my cup of coffee. “What’s wrong with you?”

Drawing in a deep breath, I set the repair order on my toolbox. “Rough night.”
I hate being hungover. I welcome the numbness, but the hangovers, I can go without. So it surprises me that I’ve been drinking so much lately.

Truth is, after I left the bar with them, I finished off a bottle of whiskey on Sunday. In my head, it was better to be drunk than deal with my own shit.

He shrugs and makes his way toward Lenny, hip checking her and handing her a repair order of her own. She laughs and takes it from him.

The morning starts off slow. I spend most of my time doing an alignment on the Durango and then timing chain on a van.

Nova stops by with Mia at lunch time. I guess she had a field trip this morning and worked her way out of not going back to school for the rest of the day. Red’s definitely going to have his hands full with her. She’s only in kindergarten and already looking for ways to get out of going every day.

“Uncle Ty!” She runs up to me immediately hugging my legs.

I look down and smile as I lift her up and set her on my tool box. “Hey princess. How was your—”

“I’m not here to talk about stupid school.” She points to the van in my stall. “What are you working on?”

“Timing chain.”

She leans to the side to peek around me at the van, her brow scrunched in concentration and then hands me a torque wrench next to her. “Here. This should fix it.”

Her face is beaming and I can see that she believes she’s solved my problem. So proud of herself for helping.

I laugh and when she joins me, it’s the sound of her laughter that sends a punch to my chest, so potent I almost hear the shards of it clatter against my ribs. I stop and look at her and I see so much of both Red and Nevaeh in this little girl.

This
is what I struggle with. This right here is why I push Raven away. I will
never
have this moment. Standing at work, laughing with my son or daughter while I look at their laughing face and see my eyes and Raven’s smile.

How can I ask her for forever when I can’t even give her something as simple as having our own child visit me at work?

BY LUNCH TIME, I’m eating a burger on a crate and staring at my cell phone. The bay doors are open to the crisp afternoon and it’s actually nice out. The sun’s shining, it’s beautiful but the wind is cool. I want to kick the leaves blowing inside the shop away because it makes me think of Raven and her brown eyes.

Scrolling through Facebook, I check her page to see if she’s posted anything this weekend. I stalk her on social media when I don’t have the balls to send her a message. She hasn’t posted anything since last week and even then, it was just her complaining about needing caffeine before her class. I even scroll through the comments from her friends at school to see if any are guys. None seem to be but you can never tell these days. I eye the one from Taylor Hunt. He seems harmless but I don’t like his comment of:
Help me study and I’ll bring you some.

It’s followed by a wink.

What a fucking loser.

I don’t bother clicking on his profile because I know it’s going to piss me off.

Setting my phone aside on my toolbox, Daniel sits next to me, an energy drink in his hand. He gives a nod to Red, who’s in the parking lot talking to Amber, the chick with the Lexus who thinks Red’s her own personal mechanic and will drop everything when she shows up. When he first took over ownership of the shop, he used to cater to customers, but he’s been holding back lately and making them actually schedule appointments.

This naturally pisses Amber off because who wouldn’t give her everything she wants? Her husband owns half the goddamn town.

“What I wouldn’t give to get a hold of her carburetor,” Daniel says, pointing to the lady standing next to Amber with the skin-tight jeans on. She looks like she’s fucking forty years old.

I shake my head, kinda disgusted with him. “I bet.” I don’t even know why I’m surprised by his comment either. Daniel pops off with some of the most random shit.

Daniel eyes me seriously. “No really. Her car runs like shit.”

I let out a laugh knowing he’s lying. “Dude, she’s like forty. You’re twenty. You don’t find that weird at all?”

I know where he’s going with his next comment before he makes it. “Raven’s six years younger than you.”

He leaves his remark at that. Stupid move on his part.

Standing, I toss my burger in the garbage and knock his drink out of his hand. It goes flying right into Rawley who’s lying on the ground for God knows what reason.

Whoops
.

Rawley grabs the side of his head. “You fuckin’ asshole, knock it off.”

“Shut up,” I grumble, walking away toward the bathrooms. It’s then I see Red walking back into the shop, heading for Lenny, who’s face is red with either anger or embarrassment.

“You need to fix this, Red,” Amber yells after him, following him inside the shop. “My check engine light is on.”

Red ignores her, his gaze on Lenny as he whispers in her ear something only she can hear. She seems relieved by it, but still, something is bothering her.

I stop and wait, wondering if she needs anything. She won’t look at me and pushes past me inside the bathroom, looking like she’s going to burst into tears.

“Find someone else,” he barks over his shoulder, slamming his hip into the drawer to close it. “We’re not doing it.”

Amber places her hands on her hips. She’s used to getting what she wants by this move right here, guaranteed. “So you’re not going to fix what your little bitch over there broke?”

Whoa
. I can’t believe she said that to him.

“Nope.” Red shakes his head. “You
never
treat my employees like that. She left a fucking vacuum hose loose. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Take it up to Portland where you should be taking this car and they’ll fix it. I’ll refund your money for the valve cover gasket.” Red glares, a sweeping glance right past her as he points outside. “Get the fuck out.”

Amber doesn’t stop there and stands her ground, heaving in a heavy breath. “Okay, so because you’re sleeping with her you’re going to let this place go to shit? You do
realize
who my husband is, right? I can have this entire shop shutdown. You’re actually willing to lose it all for her?”

Lenny’s returned from the bathroom, just behind me when Red takes the hammer on the top of his toolbox, he picks it up and tosses it at the wall. Amber jumps, as does Lenny when it crashes to the ground. “I’d burn this motherfucking place to the ground for
her.
So yeah, go tell your fucking husband what a no good piece of shit I am because I refuse to work on your car after you called my girlfriend a bitch to her face and accused her of breaking your car because she’s jealous she’d never be able to afford it!”

I’m actually shocked myself Amber said that to Lenny. But then again, I’m not. Turning around, I look at Lenny and I can tell right then it’s not what Amber said, it’s the fact she fucked up on a car. It doesn’t happen often but it happens to even the best mechanics. We’ve all done it. Only Lenny’s way harder on herself then any man would be because she thinks she has to prove herself constantly.

“You okay?” Red asks Lenny when Amber leaves, the tires of her Lexus squealing through the parking lot.

He’s pulling her in his arms, trying to wrap his arms around her when she stops him. “I’m fine, Red. You should have let me fix that. All I had to do was tighten the vacuum hose.”

He takes a step back and then picks up the hammer he threw, tossing it on top of his toolbox. “She wasn’t going to let you fix it. She just came back here to treat you like shit because I won’t fuck her.” He gives a careless shrug, seeming unbothered by it. “So don’t worry about it.”

“She’s never going to come back here. Why would you do that?”

Red moves toward her again and takes her face in his hands. “I want loyal customers not ones who are looking to break this place apart.”

I know what he means and I hope Lenny does too. This place was Lyric’s. To understand him, all you had to do was step foot inside those bay doors and know him. His blood, sweat and tears went into running Walker Automotive and it was built on principals and good business. He did things right and never let customers walk all over him. If he didn’t want to work on your car because you were a shady piece of shit, he didn’t.

Red didn’t always see it that way. He looked at it as a business and one he needed to keep afloat. So he took anything people came by with, even if they were only showing up for him. Like in Amber’s case.

Since he was shot, his outlook on life and the way he runs Walker Automotive is slowly becoming more of Lyric’s way of doing business. Can’t say I don’t appreciate it because I absolutely loved working for Lyric, and enjoy working for Red too, now that he’s not giving me all the shit jobs.

THE ATMOSPHERE IN the shop calms down since everyone’s gone home for the night. It’s not unusual for me to work late and close up the shop for Red. Mostly because I live upstairs and it’s easy for me to do it. I also get more done at night than I do with Daniel working right beside me. I’m sure you can understand why.

I’m still working on a van, a beer in one hand as I ask the engine why it’s leaking oil. I have a tendency to talk to vehicles. If only they answered me. It’d make my job a lot easier.

As I’m having a conversation with the van, I hear gravel crunching and dust rising up from the parking lot.

It’s Berkley. She’s been texting me for a goddamn week and apparently ignoring her texts isn’t working. She’s another one like Amber, and I’m sure in some way they must be related. Either that or they’re taking pointers from one another.

First thing she does when she walks over to me is touch my tools on my tool cart. I do not like anyone touching my tools. It’s just one of those things. I have them where I want them and I don’t need someone fucking with them.

“Don’t touch that.” I rip the screwdriver in her hand away and toss it back on the tool cart.

“Geez, you’re testy today.”

“What are you even doing here? We’re closed.”

Berkley shrugs. “Saw the doors open and you were here. Thought I could catch you alone.”

Downing the rest of my beer, I point to the van. “I’m not alone. There’s a van here needing my attention.”

“Can you just fix my brakes, please?” She gives a flip of her hand over her shoulder at her Honda Civic parked in front of my open bay door. “I don’t have anyone else to work on my car.”

Tossing my empty beer away, I consider it only because maybe she’ll stop showing up if I do. Maybe I can finally get her out of my life. Not likely but I can at least try. “I’ll do it this one time but stop coming by here. You need to find a new mechanic.”

She gives me pouty lips that never work. “You’ve always worked on my car.”

“I can’t do it anymore. This is the last time.” Letting the van down from the lift, I give a nod. “Move your car so I can pull this one out.” I still haven’t found the leak but she won’t leave so it’s better I get this out of the way.