BangShift: Skid Row Kings Series, Book #3

by Winter Travers

  “He’s not picking it up until tomorrow. You can finish it up when you get here in the morning.”

  Luke slammed the hood shut on the car he was working on.

  After I had gotten back from making Kurt lunch, Luke had come out from the office and started helping with all the cars that were backing up. He had grumbled something that had sounded like sorry and then took over half of my workload. It seemed all the Jensen boys were in an apologetic mood today.

  “You want me here early to get this done before we open?” I asked, as I wiped off my hands.

  “No. All you have left to do is change the oil, right?”

  “Yeah. But it’ll only take me twenty minutes to do. I can do it quick. It’s only five-thirty.” I had told Kurt we would get his phone done but if we had to wait until tomorrow or even the weekend, he would have to deal with it. Right now, I was the only one making money, and I needed to work as much as I could.

  “I got it, Lee. I was a dick to you this morning and gave you way too much shit to do because I was pissed off at Kurt.”

  I nodded, not really knowing what to say. He had been a dick to me, but I understood his frustration with Kurt. Hell, I felt the same way about him. “He’ll come around, Luke. You just need to give him time.”

  “Time for what, Lee? He’s a fucking grown man who acts like a sullen teenager and doesn’t think about anyone but himself.”

  He was right, but only to a point. I knew Kurt didn’t only think of himself. Jay and I were a prime example of how selfless Kurt could be. “He may not make the best decisions, Luke, but in his defense, he’s had you making all of his choices for him so long, you have to realize he’s going to make a couple of mistakes starting out.”

  “I don’t make his decisions for him.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “You don’t try to tell Kurt what to do all of the time?”

  “I’m just looking out for him. He should be thankful that I care enough about him to help make his life better.”

  “You know you sound like an ass, right?”

  “I’m not trying to be. I just want what’s best for Kurt.”

  “And you don’t think he wants the same thing? You need to give him more credit than you do. He’s smart, and I don’t think he’s going to run his life into the ground. He may not make the same choices as you, but that doesn’t make all of his choices wrong.”

  Luke looked me over and nodded. “You mean like the choice to marry you and not tell anyone?”

  I swallowed hard. “Yeah. That would be one of those choices.”

  “You gonna say anything more about why you two are married or are we just gonna walk around the elephant in the room?”

  I shrugged and pulled my keys out of my pocket. “Let’s just say Kurt and I being married proves everything you just said wrong. He didn’t marry me for his own benefit; he did it to help me. He hasn’t gotten anything out of it.”

  Luke nodded. “Just don’t let him bring you down, Lee.”

  I sighed. Luke was a lost cause at this point. He wasn’t going to see anything past the mistakes Kurt had made. Hell, had he really made any mistakes that were that bad? Yeah, he had moved to California without a word to anyone, but I understood why he did. Luke had the best of intentions when it came to Kurt, but those intentions were quite misguided.

  “Kurt’s going to surprise you, Luke.”

  “I hope he does, Lee, because I’m sick of rescuing him.”

  I ducked through the front office just as Violet was coming in. “Hey, what are you still doing here?” she asked.

  “Long day. I’d love to talk, but I need to run.” I didn’t want to talk. Talking with Luke had pissed me off, and all I wanted to do was go home.

  “Oh, okay. Give me a call, yeah?”

  I nodded and headed out. I didn’t need to be so short with Vi, but I had a feeling she wanted to have the same conversation I had just had with Luke, and I wasn’t up for that twice in one day.

  My car purred to life, and I rested my hands on the steering wheel.

  How in the hell had my life turned around from a year ago, where I wouldn’t say one word to defend Kurt, and now, all I wanted to do was tell Luke how wrong he was about Kurt?

  Luke was wrong about Kurt and I couldn’t wait for the day when Luke would realize it.

  ********

  Chapter 12

  Kurt

  Well, this was a fucking disaster. Who would have thought trying to make dinner would be so hard? Granted, all I was trying to do was warm up some Hot Pockets, but that was seeming to be more than I was capable of.

  I took the plate out of the microwave and looked down at the spattered and exploded pockets of pizza. They looked like the ones Leelee had made for lunch, but when I touched them, they were rock hard and likely to break every tooth in my mouth if I were to try to take a bite.

  After Leelee had left to go back to work, I hadn’t been able to fall back asleep and with every passing hour, I felt like a caged animal with no way out. I still felt like hell, but I knew if all I did was lay around and not move, there would be no way I would loosen up and not be so stiff.

  I had paced the living room fifty times, trying to get used to walking with the crutch. The problem I had that most people didn’t when they had crutches was, I also had a broken arm. It just went to show when I did something, I did it one hundred percent.

  At five o’clock, I became even antsier, waiting for Leelee to get home. By the time five forty-five rolled around, I was pissed off at Luke for making her stay late, and I was upset at myself for caring so much.

  Making dinner was supposed to distract me, but all it had done was piss me the hell off.

  “Wow, you’re up.” I spun around as fast as I could and saw Leelee walk through the door in her Skid Row uniform and bend over to untie her boots. “What is that smell?”

  I held up the plate of rock hard Hot Pockets. “That is supposed to be dinner, but I think the microwave won this round.”

  Leelee laughed and toed off her boots. “Now you know my struggle. I never seem to be able to cook anything in that damn thing without it having explode on me.”

  “Yeah, I had the same problem except I went one step further and petrified it.” I took one of the pockets off the plate and hit it on the counter. It sounded like I was banging it with a rock.

  “Wow. That’s a talent I have yet to conquer.” She laughed. “How about I get changed, and we’ll grab something to eat on the way to the phone store, then when we hit the grocery store, we won’t buy everything we see because we’re starving.”

  “Sounds like a damn plan to me.” I dumped my ruined attempt at dinner into the garbage can and dropped the plate into the sink.

  “Give me five minutes,” she muttered and headed down the hall to her room.

  I looked down at my feet and realized I had no idea how I was going to get my shoes on. But then I realized I had an even bigger problem. I didn’t even have pants on. “Jesus Christ.”

  I hobbled down the hallway, bracing myself on the wall. I was so fucking out of it, I hadn’t even realized I was just wearing boxers. I pushed open the bedroom door and was greeted with the sight of my jeans from last night, complete with a cut up the seam of the leg, and now, useless to me. “Fuck.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The only pair of pants I had are cut to the fucking crotch.” I bent over and picked them up. “I know it’s nice out, but I don’t think airing out my crotch to the phone store is ideal.”

  Leelee laughed and grabbed some shorts off the floor. “I grabbed these last night, but you passed out before I was able to get them on you. I think Jay has some Adidas sandals in the closet too that’ll be better than the work boots you were wearing.” Leelee tossed the shorts at me then rummaged through the closet looking for the shoes.

  “Sandals?” I wore tennis shoes and work boots; that was it.

  “Yeah. I know they’re not exactly manly, but with a broken leg an
d arm, you need something that is easy to slip on and has no laces. If you want, we can try to find you some other slide-on shoes. Jay has a pair of DC slide-on shoes he wears all of the time that are pretty cool.”

  “I’ll figure out how to get my shoes on. I’m not wearing sandals.” No fucking way.

  “Yes, you are,” she insisted. She grabbed the shorts out of my hands and held them out to me like I was a toddler. “Step in them.” I tried to balance on my good leg and almost fell on my ass. “Put your arm on my shoulder to steady yourself, Kurt.”

  I lightly grabbed her shoulder and managed to wrestle one of my legs into the shorts. “Now, how the hell do I get my other leg in?”

  She pushed on my stomach, throwing me off balance and I fell back onto the bed. She worked the shorts up my other leg and pulled me back up before I could catch my breath. She grabbed the sandals off the floor and set them next to my feet. “Put those on and then I’ll find you a new shirt to wear. You’re starting to smell a little ripe, but we don’t have time for you to take a shower.”

  Fucking great. Not only was I a fucking cripple, but I also smelled like shit. “I’m going to have to call the hotel I was staying at and ask them to pack up all of my shit and send it to me.”

  “No need to. When you were passed out, I figured out where you were staying and checked you out. They weren’t going to let me in at first, but once I told them I was your wife, they let me in.”

  “Funny how we went to no one knowing we were married, and now everyone knows, even the hotel clerk.” I slid my feet into the sandals, thankful they weren’t the ones that went between my toes.

  “Yeah. There seems to be more benefit to it than we thought.” Leelee laughed. “I left your bag in the car. Here’s one of Jay’s shirts. You two seem to be the same size.” She held up a plain white shirt, and I knew it was going to be too small.

  “Lee, that isn’t going to fit.”

  She looked down at the shirt and shrugged. “So, it’ll be a little tight.” She tossed it on the bed and made her way over to me. She grabbed the hem of my shirt and worked my arm that wasn’t broken out of the shirt and then pulled it over my head and slid it down my broken arm.

  “Well, that was a hell of a lot easier than when the nurses had tried to get me dressed.”

  She grabbed the white shirt and worked it up my broken arm. “Jay broke his arm when he was younger. Mom and Dad were out on a bender and weren’t around to help.” She stretched my shirt out to my good arm, stuck it through the hole, then pulled it over my head. “It really was amazing that CPS didn’t come sooner than they did.”

  “Did you ever wonder if maybe they would have come that your parents might have snapped out of it?”

  “I wish. I think if that had happened, they would have just hidden it better. I think the reason they took off now was because Jay is older. He just turned seventeen, and they think he can take care of himself now.”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  “Yeah, well, I can’t argue with you on that one. Jay and I definitely didn’t win the parent lottery.” She pulled the shirt down my body, and it felt tight as hell.

  I looked down. “Lee, you can see my God damn nipples through this thing.”

  She shrugged. “Eh, you’ll survive. If anything, you’ll have to beat the ladies off.”

  “I’m not looking to talk to anyone and especially not looking to attract any attention.”

  She propped her hands on her hips and smirked. “Well, I hate to break it to you, Kurt, but even with a broken leg and arm, you’re still going to have to beat the ladies off.”

  “Well, then we better bring the crutch along. I’m not interested.” I hobbled down the hallway, the damn sandals on my feet trying to trip me. “You do know that I was already struggling with the crutch, right? Now that you threw in these fucking sandals, you’ll be lucky not to have to scrape me off the sidewalk. Men are not meant to wear fucking sandals.”

  “Just get in the car, Kurt.” Leelee grabbed her keys off the coffee table, bending over in front of me and it finally registered what she was wearing.

  Leelee was fucking hot. There was no other way to put it. Even in her Skid Row uniform, you could tell she had a hell of a body, but seeing Leelee in cutoff jean shorts and a tight green tank top had me stopping to take notice. She had miles of long, tanned legs, and I could go on for days about her lush ass that just begged for me to grab. She slipped a pair of sunglasses onto her face, shielding away her dark brown eyes that always saw too much when she looked at me. “You ready?”

  I blinked twice, trying to process the question. “Uh, sure.”

  Leelee quirked her eyebrow at me. “Are you feeling okay? Do you need another pill? When was the last time you took one?”

  “An hour ago, I should be good for another two.”

  Leelee reached over and grabbed the bottle off the coffee table. “I’ll bring them along in case this takes longer than we think.”

  “Lee, we’re only going for a phone and then the grocery store.”

  “Always be prepared, Kurt.” Leelee headed to the door, swung it open and motioned for me to move. “Your chariot awaits, oh crippled one.”

  I hobbled out the door, tripping on the rug and almost landed on my ass.

  I had a feeling this quick trip was going to be much more than I had bargained for.

  ********

  Chapter 13

  Leelee

  “Red or green?”

  “Huh?”

  “Red or green?”

  “Lee, I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

  “Grapes, Kurt. Grapes.” I held up two packages, one red and the other green.

  “Is there really a difference?”

  I rolled my eyes and put the red grapes in the cart. “Yes. The red taste better.”

  “Then, why in the hell did you ask me red or green, when you knew that you wanted the red?”

  “Just being nice,” I mumbled. We had only been at the grocery store for five minutes, and Kurt had already said seven times that he was ready to go. “Did you want to wait in the car?” I could be in and out of the store much faster if I didn’t have Kurt with me.

  “No. I’m here to hurry your ass up.”

  I looked Kurt up and down. “You gimping behind isn’t exactly hurrying up.”

  Kurt turned his head and looked at the registers. “I’ll be right back.” He circled around and headed back the way we had just come.

  “Kurt, where in the hell are you going?” I called. He waved his broken arm at me and headed out the front entrance. “Whatever,” I mumbled to myself.

  I had made it to the end of the produce aisle when I heard a loud buzzing. I set down the bunch of carrots I had in my hand and turned around to see Kurt cruising past the display of apples, barely missing clipping them with the back tire.

  “Out of the way, woman, we’re grocery shopping the fast way now.” He grabbed a bunch of bananas as he flew past me and dropped them into the basket in front of his cart. “Move it or lose it, Lee.” Kurt sped around the corner, and I could hear him dropping stuff into his basket.

  “Lee, can we get Pop Tarts?” Kurt called from down the aisle.

  I hung my head and couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips. “I only eat cherry,” I yelled back.

  “Sweet, me too.” I heard him buzz further down the aisle and knew I needed to catch up to him if I wanted any chance of having more than Pop Tarts and bananas.

  “Where do they keep the pizza rolls?”

  Holy hell. I grabbed the carrots and ran down the aisle. “Are you actually grabbing things we need, or just filling the cart so we can leave?”

  “Both.” Kurt grabbed a box of taco shells and sailed it over his shoulder at me.

  “Jesus Christ.” I snatched the box out of the air and tossed it into my cart. “Do you think you could not throw shit at me?”

  “No rules to speed shopping, Lee. Pick up the pace, or you
’ll be left behind.” Kurt cruised to the end of the aisle, grabbing three more boxes of Lord knows what, then disappeared around the end and into the next aisle.

  “That seems to be your motto.”

  “Hasn’t failed me yet. That and bang shifting are the keys to my success.”

  I turned the corner down the next aisle and saw Kurt pulled over to the side, studying a box. “Bang shifting, really?”

  Kurt shrugged and tossed the package back at me. “Gotta hammer through those gears as fast as possible. Bangshift, baby.”

  “Jesus, how many times have you used that line?” I snatched the pack of Rice-a-Roni he threw at me and put it back on the shelf.

  “Enough. It’s not really as effective as you would think.”

  “Hmph, I’m pretty sure you saying bang shift is enough.” I passed Kurt and glanced in his basket. “Do you think we can get more than junk food and shit that is going to make my ass even bigger?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Kurt mumbled.

  I rolled my eyes and turned my cart to the right, cutting off Kurt, and looked down at him. “More healthy food, less shit.”

  “I’m paying, we buy what I want.” Kurt twisted the throttle and rammed into my cart. “Out of my way.”

  “You’re not paying.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Kurt, knock it off.” He rammed into my cart again. “I’m paying for my own groceries.”

  “No.” He rammed into my cart again, knocking me out of the way enough to sneak past me before I could recover. “And yes, I’m paying for the groceries. I’m eating the shit, too.”

  I wheeled my cart around and chased him down the aisle. “You’re not working, Kurt. You don’t have the money for groceries.”

  “You’re right, Lee, I don’t have a job, but you are wrong about not having money. Winning nine races this past year has cushioned my bank account. Not to mention the past eight years I’ve been racing. I can buy groceries for the next two months, and a new car for you,” Kurt scoffed. “Put what you want in the cart, so we can get the hell out of here.” He zoomed to the end of the aisle and cut over to the meat department. I knew the Jensen boys made their money racing and fixing cars, but I had no idea it was that lucrative. “Lee,” Kurt called. “Move your ass.”