Unsteady (The Torqued Trilogy Book 1)

by Shey Stahl

  Yeah, me too.

  As all this is happening, Colt continues to spray Daniel’s ass with the soap and water mixture we use to find holes in tires until he finally turns around and realizes he’s soaked.

  Daniel brushes off his pants. “You fucking asshole, knock it off.”

  Colt raises his palms, dropping the water bottle to the floor. “Ain’t nobody doin’ nothin’.”

  I’m not sure if I’m crazy, or just looking for some more verbal abuse, but I go into the parts room. Crazy, huh?

  “It doesn’t hurt to have a little fun every once in a while,” I say to him, pretending to look for parts I don’t need, and then think maybe that wasn’t the smartest of ideas. I should have stayed out of here. I think back to the ride in the car and the way he kinda sorta smiled at me. That’s my only reasoning for stepping foot in here.

  Red looks up, anger flashing in his eyes. Yep. Horrible idea. “And that means?”

  “It means relax. Don’t take everything so seriously.” I want to scowl at him, but I don’t because he’s already in a bad mood and I don’t want to be the errands bitch again. I also don’t because he raises his hand to reach for a box on the shelf and his T-shirt rides up. With one glance at his stomach, all thoughts leave my head. I can’t see much, but what I can see is just like I pictured it would be. Tan and hard.

  I bet there is more of his body that is tan and hard.

  Dammit, Lenny. Grow the fuck up!

  What is this man doing to me?

  Red turns to face me, his hands raised in the air. “Relax, huh? Well, Lenny, you see I can’t relax. You want to know why? Because less than two months ago my father died leaving me to run his business. A business he busted his ass to build. A business that people rely on day in and day out. On top of that, I have a five-year-old daughter who I am raising alone. Every day I have to leave her in daycare knowing all she wants is to be with me. And it fucking kills me to leave her, but I have to do it.” He raises an eyebrow, and my breathing falters, coming out in a quick breath at his proximity. He’s close enough his eyes shift from mine, to my lips, and then back up again. What I wouldn’t give to grab him by the shirt right now, slam him against the wall and kiss the shit out of him. “Why do I have to do it, Lenny? Well, I have to do it so that you can have a paycheck and so that the people of this town know that even though my dad is gone, his legacy is still alive.” I stare, dumbfounded at him and a little pissed at myself for making the situation worse. But he continues, steps back and reaches for a bottle of brake cleaner on the top shelf. “I’ve got five guys in the shop. One’s an idiot. One can’t drag his ass in here before noon on most days, and one is drunk from the moment he clocks into the moment he leaves. That leaves me with one mechanic who knows what he’s doing and you.” Red raises his arms in the air spread out wide. “So you tell me, Lenny. When do I have time to relax?”

  I’ll help you relax all right.

  “Wait.” I swallow over my nerves. “What do you mean me?”

  “Fuck if I know….” And then he walks away leaving me to think about that.

  I should have stayed outside.

  With a deep sigh, I step out of the parts room and into the shop. The next hour is completely silent in the shop, and you can detect hostility in the air.

  At the end of the day, Red’s standing at his toolbox staring at some paperwork. I don’t want to bother him because I can tell he’s had a long week, but I say, “Thanks for giving me a chance.”

  He doesn’t look at me. “Yeah… uh, see you Monday.”

  Just as I’m heading to Raven’s car, Colt is outside smoking a cigarette and says, “It’s a pretty cool place to work, huh?”

  I laugh, walking backwards in the parking lot to look at him. “Entertaining to say the least.”

  He snorts, tossing his cigarette on the ground and putting it out with his boot. “Honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  I don’t doubt for one second there’s some truth to that.

  IT’S BEEN A while since I left Ben and though I haven’t thought about him once, the next morning, I do. Some people are just mean. They don’t have good in them.

  Then there are the people who become jaded over time because of the things done to them.

  I’ve been over this, but Ben is just mean. There’s no reason for it; he’s just that way. His parents are nice people, and he didn’t suffer through some awful experience that would leave him jaded and angry. But something isn’t right with Ben. There’s a meanness buried deep within him. And though I saw it from the beginning, I didn’t realize how bad it was. I let it go for the sake that I was away from Wes. Why I thought one bad situation was better than the last, I might never know. Sometimes it’s like I’m just living my life through a series of mistakes and hoping not to make the same one twice.

  The thing with Ben is he had a way of making you think you meant the world to him, as do all con artists. They’ll toss bullshit at you all day long to get you to believe them.

  I need a drink. A really strong drink. And you know, I wouldn’t mind if I passed out with the bottle in hand.

  I haven’t let myself take the time to obsess over everything that went down. I know the reason for it is Red. That man has the ability to make me forget anything else exists at any given moment. The problem is he also has the ability to piss me off more than any other person I’ve ever met. Strangely enough, both of these traits only make me want him more.

  “Morning,” Tyler says, coming out of his room with no shirt and just a pair of basketball shorts on.

  I sit up, placing my pillow over my lap and smile at him. “Morning.”

  Moving around the kitchen, he reaches in the cupboard and draws a bag of coffee out to start a pot.

  “You ready for the river?”

  I yawn. “Yeah, as long as I can have a cup of that first.”

  Tyler laughs and digs out two cups. “Sure. I think Raven’s on her way over. I’d go get ready if I were you.”

  I hop up and head for the shower. I need to shave my legs and other bits because God knows I haven’t all week and the bathing suit I picked out yesterday is a little revealing.

  THERE’S ONE THING I’m aware of when we arrive at the river. This is where the party is at on Saturdays. I drove us considering Tyler and Raven both wanted to ride in my Bronco with the top off. As soon as we’re at the lake, Tyler leaves right away, never lingering by us for very long. I can tell they’re desperately trying to keep whatever this is between them a secret.

  Breathing in deeply, I enjoy the smells and sounds of the river. Back in Oklahoma, they didn’t have places like this. And if they did, I didn’t know about it. Most of my time was spent at the shop I worked at or with Ben doing what Ben wanted to do.

  “Jesus girl,” Raven remarks once I take off my shorts and tank top. “I wish I had your body.”

  I look over at her as she peels her sundress off. She certainly has nothing to complain about if you ask me. Sure, she’s a tad bigger than me but hey, curves are sexy.

  She cups her large breasts with both hands. “I took the whole Freshman 15 to a new level when I went away to college,” she teases with a laugh, reaching for her sunscreen beside her.

  “You look great.” I take the bottle from her when she offers it to me. “So you’re in college?”

  “Yeah, just home for summer break. I attend Oregon State. Trying to get a degree in accounting. Numbers are my thing.”

  With commotion around the river, girls half-naked, guys running around shirtless and drinking, I people watch for a few minutes.

  Raven takes the bottle I hand back to her, then places it inside her bag and angles the bag so it’s nice and neat. “I love your tattoos,” she then says, noticing the one I have down my left side that goes from my ribcage under my breast down to my upper thigh. “When did you get them?”

  “Oh, uh, couple of years ago. I knew a tattoo artist back in Oklahoma.” It was more like I fucked a tattoo artist for six
months while he used my body as a canvas. Again, I’ve never made good decisions.

  “Wow, that’s cool. I really want a tattoo, but I haven’t gotten one yet. I think between Rawley and Red they have enough.”

  I nod, but I don’t say anything more. I love my tattoos, but I also regret a few.

  “It’s been a week and I don’t even know where you came from. Tyler said you’re his cousin?” And then she thinks for a second and quirks an eyebrow at me. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  “I guess in a sense I was am his cousin. I grew up in foster care and the lady that was taking care of me was Tyler’s Aunt.”

  “His Aunt Maggie?”

  “Yeah. Tyler spent the summers up at their apartment complex in Kennewick. I got to know him that way.”

  “Oh, right. I really liked her. I met her on spring break once. I think she gave me twenty bucks to clean bugs out of their pool.”

  I laugh. That sounds like Maggie. I made a lot of money from cleaning out the pool at the apartments we lived at, which Maggie and Wes managed. Funny I never met Raven then, or maybe I had seen her and never knew it.

  Squinting at the sun, I look over at Raven applying sunscreen to her skin. She’s staring at Rawley standing with a group of guys not too far from us. They all look a little similar in a sense, same height, same build as Rawley, who’s next to them. Must be related.

  One of the guys, the tallest one of the bunch that kinda reminds me of Red, turns and raises his hands at Raven. “Hey, Raven! Aren’t you going to introduce us to your new friend?”

  Raven flips him off. “Mind your business, Jude.” And then she whispers to me, “He’s inappropriate, sorry.”

  He throws his head back taking a drink of his beer in hand. “Aw, come on now. Don’t be like that.” He elbows Rawley. “We were always raised to share.”

  I look at Raven dumbfounded. She shakes her head. “Those guys are my asshole cousins, Jude and Eldon. You’ll get used to seeing them at the shop. They work next door at my Uncle Hendrix’s body shop.”

  Our conversations drift, mostly just random things as she tells me about the people gathered around the river. I’m not sure what I’m thinking, but I ask, “So what’s with the feud between Rawley and Red?”

  “They’ve always been at each other’s throats. I’m not even sure why.” Raven sighs. “Red’s just been especially,” she pauses trying to think of the right word, “angry for two years. He was married before. To Nevaeh… Nova’s mother. She died two years ago. Murdered by her ex-boyfriend and Red found her in the kitchen with Nova in her room screaming.” Her words are rushed, pained, as though she doesn’t want to tell me this so she’s saying it as fast as she can.

  “Oh my God!” I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand. My heart pounds painfully in my chest. “Jesus… does Nova remember it?”

  “Not that we can tell. She never talks about it, and if she does, she just says remember Mommy laying on the floor or that she remembers daddy holding Mommy. It’s all just… so sad.”

  Well, fuck, no wonder the guy is so mean!

  “So the guy… did they find him?”

  “Viktor… he was gone by the time Red got home from work. Apparently, she and Viktor had just broke up a week earlier when she got together with Red. I think she and Red were like a one-night thing after a concert, and she wound up pregnant. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine Viktor wanted her back maybe.”

  My heart’s in my throat. “So what happened after that?”

  “They found Viktor a few days later. Shot himself in the head. Dude was mentally unstable. Red went into depression, like locked himself in his room for a week, didn’t eat, didn’t talk, nothing. He came out one day and started going through the motions for Nova’s sake.”

  I look up at the sky. Jesus, even with all the shit that’s gone on in my life, I could never imagine the shock of finding your wife, or husband, dead. And how horrendous of a situation for Nova to be in having lost her mother so young. My mother abandoned me when I was young and I don’t have all that many memories of her. I always chalked it up to you can’t miss what you never had, but Nova, Nova had her mother for three years and to lose her so suddenly and brutally, my heart breaks for her and Red.

  We’re laying out in the sun for an hour, my skin a little crispy, when a shirtless Rawley heads over, sits down beside me and rests his arms on top of his bent knees. “What are you doing later?”

  I look to Raven. “What am I doing later?”

  “You playing tonight?” Raven asks, sitting up to reach for her water bottle.

  “Yeah.”

  Raven shrugs. “We’ll come.”

  Rawley stands and winks at me. “See you tonight.”

  “Where are we going?” I ask, watching Rawley walk back over to his cousins again.

  “Murphy’s. Rawley plays there about three times a week. Our Grandpa Carson was in a band, and Rawley really took to music.”

  “Does Red play?”

  There I go with my curiosity into him again.

  “No, he’s never had the interest that I know of.”

  “Why does Rawley work at the shop then?”

  “Well, he didn’t at first. He had a scholarship for engineering. Believe it or not, he’s like a super genius or something. Anyway, he turned it down and started working at the shop. When Dad died, Red took over as the owner because Dad left everything to him knowing he’d take care of it. Rawley’s more focused on his music, which is why he turned down the scholarship. He wants to be a rock star.”

  “So we’re going to watch him tonight, right?”

  “Yep.”

  Okay, so a bar tonight. That can’t be all bad, right?

  And then I remember, Raven’s nineteen. “How can you get into a bar? You’re nineteen.”

  “Eh, we know the owner.” Raven stands and reaches for her bag. “And I’ll be twenty in two weeks. We should get going if we’re gonna head out tonight.”

  My nerves jump as I reach for my own bag. “I don’t really have anything to wear to a club.”

  Raven just waves her hand in the air. “No worries. I think I have some things that will fit you.” She turns to walk away and yells over her shoulder. “I’m gonna catch a ride with Jude back to my house. Go home and shower then meet me there in like an hour.”

  “Okay,” I reply, even though she doesn’t wait for a reply.

  What am I getting myself into? The idea of having friends like this is different.

  AN HOUR LATER, I pull up to the modest white home with gray trim. I notice immediately Red’s Nova parked in the driveway.

  Fuck! He’s here? Why? Damn it. This sucks.

  I’m sitting in the driveway, my hands shaking and I’m half tempted to just leave. I’m not sure I can be around him today without wanting to hug him after knowing his wife died.

  Raven hangs out the door and yells, “Get your skinny ass in here!”

  Rolling my eyes, I open the door to my Bronco and slide out. As soon as I get to the porch, Nova pushes the door open. “Lenny!” she screams and all but jumps into my arms. “Auntie says we’re doing a make-over on you. I’m spending the night with Grandma tonight, and I get to help.”

  I glare at Raven. “She did, did she?”

  Raven grabs my hand and pulls me inside, kicking the door closed behind her and I’m standing in the entry way of the Walker family home. “You spend ten hours a day covered in grease. It’s time to embrace your hot feminine side.”

  In the kitchen, Red steps around the corner, his arms crossed over his chest as he looks curiously at Raven, and then me. He doesn’t say anything as our eyes meet. He doesn’t look mad that I’m here… just confused maybe.

  But then he looks at my shorts and then turns to walk away.

  He’s so strange with these shorts.

  As I’m being pulled along, Nova bouncing around beside me, wild curls all over the place, I think maybe this won’t be so bad.

  “Plus,” Raven adds whe
n I’m sitting in her bathroom on a stool, “you never know who you’ll run into tonight. God knows there’s more out there than the guys at Walker Automotive.”

  I nod, unsure where she’s going with that considering she’s fucking one of them herself.

  “It’s nice to have someone to hang out with,” Raven remarks, digging through her makeup bag and then the drawers below the sink in search of something. “Most of my friends either left for college or got knocked up.”

  I know exactly what she’s referring to, not that I was ever close to anyone.

  Nova comes back into the bathroom and sits on the edge of the tub, a Popsicle in her hand with drops of cherry red sugar trickling down her tiny hands. She looks at me, bright red lips pulling into the cutest smile. Seeing her smile like this she reminds me of Red.

  She looks up at Raven. “Auntie, can you straighten my hair?”

  Raven snorts. “No, we tried that once, remember?”

  “I know.” Nova shrugs, biting into her Popsicle and then talking with a mouthful. “But I want my hair like Lenny’s.”

  “Well…” Raven finally finds the curling iron she was looking for. “You’re in luck. I was going to curl Lenny’s hair. You two can match tonight.”

  Nova’s eyes go wide. “Cool!” She hops down from the tub and then disappears into Raven’s bedroom.

  “I know she’s going to drop that damn Popsicle in my room again,” Raven groans, reaching forward to plug in the iron next to me.

  Ten minutes into this, I have makeup already being applied, and Nova has literally shown me twenty pairs of shoes. They all sit at my feet too waiting for me to try them on, should I want to. And I’ve also been shown five different dresses. Apparently, Nova thinks I’m going to wear a dress. I hate to break it to the little squirt, but no way in hell I’m wearing a dress. Ever.

  Nova returns, standing in front of me as Raven applies eyeshadow to the crease of my brow, the faint sounds of country music flowing through the room. “Do you think my daddy is handsome?”

  My eyes go wide, about the same time Raven laughs. “What?”