“Come on, Ryder.” Levi put the boy in a headlock. “Do you realize how lucky you are to have a dad that is a super-rich car god? This vehicle, when we get done with it, will be the sickest car Destiny has ever seen. If you wanted to you could put wings on this damn thing and make it fly.”
“You are lucky, Ryder.” They heard a woman’s voice. Grace was standing just inside the door, her arms crossed, annoyance clear on her face. “You’ll be the only thirteen-year-old in the state with a car done by the famous Duke King. Too bad you’ll have to run over me to drive it anywhere.” She looked at Duke. “I can’t believe you bought Ryder a car!”
“He’s my boy.” Duke shrugged, as if giving cars was as normal as giving baseball gloves. “It will take a long time for us to restore it. I’m not going to let him drive it.”
“We can talk about this later.” She shook her head. “Hello, Colt. Hello, Levi. Would you like something to drink? I’ll bring out some snacks.” She turned away before either of them could answer.
“You just pissed her off,” Colt said. “She’s a little scary. I like that about her.”
“See what I did for you, boy? I’m about to take a bullet for you.”
“That’s what dads are for. Can I see the engine?”
An hour and a half later they had gone through every inch of the car and now Ryder and Colt were sitting inside the car in some sort of deep conversation about numbers.
“I think Colt likes him,” Duke said looking proud.
“Yeah. He finally has someone he can talk complex equations with. Who would have thought there would be two math geniuses in the family?”
“I don’t know where they got it from. Bunch of weirdos.”
Levi didn’t know how to approach what he’d wanted to talk about with Duke for the last few days, but he knew his brother didn’t like beating around the bush. “I want you to sell me the factory, Duke.”
“What? No. It’s mine.”
Levi knew this wasn’t going to be easy. “I told Colt I wanted to turn it into a karting track. There isn’t a lot for families to do around here. I think it can be a successful business.”
“I know it can be. It’s a damn good idea.”
“So what’s your damn problem? You don’t think I’m capable enough to handle a transaction this big? I’m the one who started in karting. I have raced all over the world. I know the business and I know I can bring people in from all over.”
“This will take up a lot of your time.”
“Maybe I want it to take up a lot of my time. Maybe I want something of my own. Maybe I want to show the world that I’m a good businessman and that I can do more than host a damn television show featuring my brother’s work. I know how to build it, market it, and fill it.”
“And that’s why I want to be your partner,” he said, shocking Levi. “Your mostly silent partner. King’s Customs will design the look of the karts—nothing gets outsourced to another country. Everything gets built here.”
“Obviously.”
“And I’m not selling you the factory, but you’re paying to do the renovation on it and everything else that comes along with it. I don’t want to run shit. This is your baby, Levi. Have at it.”
“You trust me to do all of it the right way?”
“I guess I’m going to have to.” He looked toward Ryder. “I’ve got a son to take care of.”
*
That evening Shelly sat curled up in Judy’s living room with a glass of fruity white wine in her hand and a large bowl of Buffalo cheddar popcorn between them. They had spent the entire day together. They had baked all morning for the reading party that was happening in a few days and then gone out for a long lunch; now they were watching a marathon of some reality show with rich housewives yelling at one another and throwing wine during dinners.
“So these are real people?” Shelly asked.
“Well, if you subtract all the plastic body parts and Botox, yeah.”
“And all they do is go to lunch and parties and talk about arguments they already had?”
“Pretty much.”
“Do any of them do anything else?”
“Not really.”
“Fascinating.” She took another handful of popcorn. “And this type of behavior is perfectly acceptable in this social circle.”
“Acceptable? Honey, it is the norm.”
“And they had nerve to call the King family trash.”
Judy laughed. “I’m having fun with you, Shelly. You’re way more fun out of work.”
“I know.” She grinned. “Do you think you’ll be a teacher forever?”
Judy nodded. “This is my second career. I left Destiny for a while. I lived in New York and worked as a buyer for a department store.”
“I had no idea.” Shelly shook her head.
“That’s because you never talk to me about anything other than fifth-grade-related stuff,” she teased.
“Didn’t you like New York?”
“Oh, I loved it. The men were beautiful. They city was exciting. I got to see plays and travel and go to fashion shows.”
“But you came back.”
“Broken engagement. Plus I didn’t see myself living that lifestyle forever. I missed my mother and I wanted to raise a family here. I was relieved when the engagement ended. I couldn’t be myself. I knew that life was too short to spend the rest of it with a man I wasn’t head over heels for.”
“Do you think you could be head over heels for Ace?”
“Let’s not talk about Ace. It was good … extremely good sex, and that’s it.”
“Can you do that? Keep sex separate from feelings?” She had been with Levi for one night and she felt so much. She had wondered if it was like that for everyone, if sex was always so earth shattering.
“Not everyone can, honey. And that’s okay. Do you want to be a teacher forever?”
“Sometimes I really love what I do, but there are times I wonder if there’s more to life. I look at you and Levi and I think about all the places I haven’t been. I could stay here and get married and teach until I retire, but then I feel like it will be too late, and I’ve wasted my best years.”
“You could travel.” Judy got up and took a pamphlet off her bookshelf. “They have teacher exchange programs. There’s Australia here. Costa Rica. Spain, Russia, Brazil. Or if you don’t want to teach at all, just take a sabbatical. Our contract allows it. You can take a year off and do whatever you want.”
“Oh, I couldn’t just go away.”
“Because of Levi?”
“No,” she said honestly. “He’s going back to Vegas soon. I think he’s going back to racing. His manager wants him to sign some kind of big deal. He hasn’t said much about it to me, but I get an alert whenever his name is mentioned in the press and there’s some buzzing about it. I knew he was only going to be here temporarily.”
“But he doesn’t have to be in your life temporarily, Shelly. He loves you. I can tell.”
“It’s the way we are. He’s got this big life and I would never want to be someone who just tags along with it.” She took the pamphlet from Judy. “I really think I need to make my own big life now.”
*
Levi sat in his Jeep in front of the factory, looking up at the building. It was hard for him to get out. This was the place that his father nearly single-handedly shut down for good. And now the Kings owned it.
They had come full circle and he wasn’t sure how to process that. It was wrong for him to be angry at the place for firing his father when he so clearly was at fault, but they all knew he was a single parent. They all knew Cal had sons who needed to be clothed and fed. But the town had so completely turned their backs on them.
He might have turned his back on this place, let it fail—but he couldn’t. Something inside of him wouldn’t let him do to them what they’d done to him. So he stepped out of the car and took his first steps toward the factory. He was nearly at the front door when a man he didn’t re
cognize stopped him.
“Hey, Levi.” He waved a pink flyer at him. “I know Bertie was losing business at the salon, but this is a brilliant way to get it back.”
“What are you talking about?”
“These. They’re all over town. It looks like Colt is going to be one busy man today at the salon. There are people rushing over to The Head Shed as we speak.”
The guy handed him the paper and Levi let out a long string of curses. He had to go get Duke and they had to get to Colt before he killed someone.
He rushed over to Duke’s place, honking his horn as soon as he pulled into the driveway.
Duke and Grace must have just gotten home because they were still in the car, but Duke stepped out, his guard up. “What’s the matter?”
“This.” He handed him the flyer.
“A Bertie special?” Duke swore under his breath. “This is going to be bad.”
“What is it?” Grace came to his side.
Duke frowned at the paper. “This flyer says that Colt’s doing hair down at my aunt’s salon.”
“What?” Grace laughed. “I don’t think so.”
“I don’t think so, either,” Levi said. “But these flyers are all over town and people are heading over to the shop in droves.”
“We’ve got to get over there.” Duke clenched his jaw. Levi could see his mind working.
“Do you think Colt knows about this?” Grace asked.
“Hell no. If there’s one thing Colt hates, it’s being made a fool of.”
They rushed over to Lolly’s salon to see cars lined up on both sides of the street. “Holy shit,” Duke cursed.
Holy shit was right. Colt didn’t like being the center of attention. He didn’t like to be made a fool of. All of the Kings had a ton of pride, but Colt probably had the most of all of them.
Levi noticed Grace’s hand slip into Duke’s. He hadn’t had a chance to ask his brother what was going on with Grace, but that move made it clear. “Why does anyone think Colt can do hair?”
“Colt can do hair. When we were kids, I worked at the body shop, but Colt and Levi worked here after school, sweeping up hair and doing whatever the old biddies asked. Lolly made him learn the basic stuff, because I think she wanted him to take over running the place for her one day. But when he acted up, she made him do roller sets. The summer he turned fifteen he had done so many of them that he got better than Lolly at them.”
“Oh.” Grace rested her head on Duke’s shoulder. “Do you know how to do them, too?”
“No, I was smarter than him. I learned to stay away from Lolly and do my dirt in secret.”
“I didn’t.” Levi grinned, remembering those days in the shop. “That woman must have had spies on me.” His eyes went to the door where a line was forming. “I guess we better get in there.”
They made their way through the crowd and into the still-empty salon. Colt was coming out of the back, pulling Zanna to the front of the shop with him.
“He’s looks ready to kill,” Grace said softly.
“Why do you think we’re here? Let Levi talk to him. He’s the only one who can get Colt to back down when he’s ready to blow.”
“What’s this?” Levi approached Colt, keeping his tone teasing. Colt didn’t often blow, but when he did, it was epic. “What did you do to make Lolly punish you now?”
“Lolly’s not punishing me.” He shot an angry look at the woman whose arm he was holding. “Zanna is.”
Zanna.
The woman kept rattling Colt’s cage. Levi loved that about her.
Perry Andersen along with his brother Jeff pushed their way inside the door. “Is this true? You doing hair for a living now?” He had that same smug look on his face that he always seemed to have. It was damn ugly. He kind of wished that Colt had knocked it off when he had the chance.
“He ain’t doing shit,” Duke growled and took a step forward, which would have scared the shit out of any normal person. “Now get out before I kick your ass, too.”
“I knew it was a lie.” Perry locked eyes with Colt. “Everyone should know by now never to trust a King boy. They’re no good, just like their father. Let’s go outside, Jeff, and tell everybody that Colt is running away, just like his father did after that accident he caused in the factory. Just like he did when Duke got sent to prison.”
“Send them in,” Colt said. Never challenge Colt to anything. He always rose to the occasion. He always came out on top.
“What?” Zanna said. “You don’t have to do this.” She looked horrified, and Levi wondered what had caused her to do this and then regret her actions. “I’ll send them away. I’ll tell them it’s my fault. It is my fault.”
“I don’t run away. Send them in.”
Everyone thought Duke was the badass. But Colt was just as tough, just as honorable. And now the whole town would see that.
“I’ll help,” Levi said. There was a ton of people outside. There was no way Colt was going to get through this alone—and if Colt could put himself out there, Levi would, too. He still felt like he owed his brother. “Colt wasn’t the only one who got punished by doing roller sets.”
“Don’t look at me,” Duke said. “I’ve never touched a roller in my life. But I’ll stay here to support you.”
“I’ll go first.” Grace stepped up, smiling at them. “I would be honored to have Colt do my hair.”
“Move it, Bertie,” Colt said, staring down the old woman whom the special was named after. “I’m taking over your station.”
“Send them in,” Levi said, feeling almost pumped, the way he did right before a race. He hadn’t thought he’d ever have that feeling outside a race car, but he was having it a lot here in Destiny. He glanced over at Zanna, who was standing to the side looking more anxious than a dog heading to the vet. “Well, don’t just stand there, Zanna. Turn on some music. Let’s make this a party.”
“You turn everything into a damn party,” Colt said, his expression somewhere between morose and grim.
“It’s better than turning it into a funeral.”
“All right,” Duke said to the people who were filing into the shop. “If you’re not here to get your hair set, get the hell out. We are just doing roller sets today. So if you want a cut or a dye job, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.”
“Duke,” Grace chastised as she sat at Bertie’s station.
He just shrugged, not seeming to care if his salty language bothered anyone. He looked to the neatly formed line, and Levi was pretty sure no one had the balls to give Duke any trouble. “Remember, if you don’t like your style, too bad. We don’t give refunds.”
Levi recognized the first woman in line as his former math teacher.
“Mrs. Ellicott?”
“Yes, Levi. How are you?”
He grinned at her. “Just fine now that nobody is forcing me to do homework with x’s and y’s and negatives in them.”
“You probably use that math every day and don’t even realize it. Embrace the beauty of it.”
“No, ma’am. I’d rather embrace your beauty.” He offered her his arm. “Let me escort you to the shampoo station.”
“You’re still charming.” The older woman gave him a smile. “It’s why I didn’t fail you.”
“You were the hottest teacher I had.” He winked at her. “That’s why I always came to class.”
Admittedly his and Colt’s first few sets were shaky. His hands were a hell of a lot bigger than they’d been when he was thirteen. And Lolly hadn’t punished him in years so he was out of practice, but after a while they got the hang of it. Lolly’s lessons hadn’t completely left him.
“Hey, Colt.” He looked over at his brother, who was rolling a woman’s hair with more focus than a brain surgeon would use to operate. “I bet you I can finish faster than you.”
“I know you can, Levi,” he said drily. “That’s why you can’t seem to keep a woman for very long.”
Colt’s joke surprise
d the hell of him and he laughed until his sides hurt. “You’re a son of a bitch.”
“And you’re about to lose.”
He did lose. By two damn rollers, and Colt’s lips curled into a brief cocky smile. It was rare to see his brother smile, but he was doing it now and he was in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and it was a side of Colt that he hadn’t seen in years, if he ever had. Colt almost seemed happy here.
And it probably had a lot to do with Zanna.
“Okay, sweetheart,” she said as she took the hairstyling cape off a client. “All finished. You go home and put on something pretty and tell your husband to take you out to dinner.”
Zanna had turned the woman from average to gorgeous. All he and Colt could do was put rollers in; Zanna and the other stylist in the shop had turned the women into glamorous old-school starlets.
Levi knew Lolly had worked hard all her life, but he’d always thought running a salon was more fun than work. As he was nearing the fifth hour on his feet, though, he understood that the stylists worked damn hard. And it was no easy thing doing the complicated styles Zanna was churning out.
“Is it my turn yet?” Shelly came up to him as he sent his last customer over to the dryer. Her hair was up in that high ponytail he had become so fond of. She was wearing a white sundress with little pink flowers printed on it.
He felt funny looking at her. Like his throat was all clogged and his chest was full. He purposely hadn’t seen her at all yesterday after he had left her in the morning. He needed to process what happened. Being with her was a much different experience than he had with anyone else. Their world had shifted and nothing was ever going to be the same. And he realized that maybe he didn’t want it to be the same.
“You want to get your hair done?”
“By you?” She shrugged. “I don’t know, Colt looks kind of cute in those jeans. I might want him to do my hair.” She spoke softly, like she always did when they were in public. She still had that shyness that floated around her.
He wanted to kiss her then, but he held back, unsure of how she would take being kissed in front of all these people.
Did she want the world to know about them?
Heart of a Bad Boy (Bad Boys of Destiny #3) Page 19
