Under The Hood

by Juanita Kees

  “That constitutes back seat driving. Behave or I’ll pull over and you can take the back seat.”

  She folded her arms. “City boy,” she muttered.

  Scott smiled and slipped a hand from the wheel to squeeze her thigh. TJ stiffened as fire shot up through her leg and into a place she’d really rather it not go. She picked up his hand and put it back on the wheel, trying to suppress a laugh as he made to move it back to her leg again.

  “At least I’m driving the speed limit and keeping my travelling distance. You’d be in and out of the traffic, weaving like a mad woman.”

  “Well at least we’d get to work on time!” She looked pointedly at the hand that had returned to her leg.

  He removed it with a grin. “Just saying.”

  They pulled up into the car yard parking and piled out just as the clouds parted and dumped a shower on them. Soaked to the skin, TJ skipped over puddles to unlock the door and turn off the alarm. The boys dashed past, laughing as they trailed water across the reception floor.

  “One of you needs to come back with a mop and clean that up before a customer slips and falls! You’ve got five minutes to change, boys.”

  “Sure thing, TJ. Be right back.” Surprisingly it was Tiny who responded. In the past TJ had been unable to get him to lift so much as an oil rag.

  She looked up as Scott pushed through the door and her heart stopped. His dark hair was damp from the rain as he removed his raincoat and shook it out. He was as gorgeous in a suit as he was in his footy gear or, for that matter, wrapped in one of her huge, fluffy pink bath towels. Her hand stilled on the booking sheet for the day as she watched him from behind the safety of the reception desk. She’d pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind so often in the last few weeks that she now allowed herself a moment to enjoy the sight.

  The frown lines that had marred his brow the day they’d first met hardly appeared these days unless he was concentrating. The thunderous brows gathered only if he was really annoyed, which seldom happened now as things settled down with the change of ownership. And those eyes! Those gorgeous blue eyes that now glittered with a smile rather than greyed with anger.

  It was getting harder to see Scott the boss over the Scott she shared her home with. Keeping them separate was even harder. Scott the boss was professional, fair and committed. Scott the boarder was irresistible, with charm that lured the birds from the trees—a dangerous charm becoming harder and harder to resist. Those simple touches, the odd wink, the companionship they’d fallen into as they shared a beer on the veranda at night.

  He looked up and caught her looking. There it was, that devilish grin that sent her heart rocketing to her stomach and back again, bringing with it the heat that pooled in places she didn’t need or want it to. Her eyes lingered on the full lips as they spoke, not hearing the words that fell from them. She watched, frozen, as he walked towards her and took her chin in his hand to tip it up. He lowered his lips to hers, touching them with a feather light kiss before lifting his head again.

  “Have a nice day, Tiger,” he whispered, pinning her eyes with his. He winked and turned to enter the corridor that led to his office.

  It couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, but TJ swore her feet were glued to the floor. Surely the soles of her safety boots had melted with the heat that surged through her at that fleeting touch of lips.

  “F—”

  “Fark!” said Tiny as he whipped into the reception with the mop and slipped on the wet tiles. He put out a hand against the counter to stop himself falling.

  “See? Now imagine if that was a customer. We’d have a compo claim on our hands. You okay?” TJ recovered enough to ask.

  “Yeah, no worries, mate. All good.” Tiny replied as he mopped up the wet tiles.

  All good, thought TJ. Wouldn’t it be nice if she could answer the same?

  As the door of the workshop rolled up and the staff began to arrive, TJ wondered why she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen. Everything seemed in order, but the feeling hung on like the grey clouds that dumped down rain until mid-morning.

  By lunch time, the sun was trying to shine weakly through the gaps, and TJ’s mood lifted marginally. She stepped out the back of the shop to take stock of the oil drums in the shed and noticed a black car pulled up in the staff car park to the left of the building. Tiny stood talking to someone through a dark tinted window rolled down only a crack.

  The feeling of foreboding intensified. She tried to get the registration number but it was too far away so she made a note of the make and model instead. It looked like an expensive car and she doubted it was a friend of Tiny’s.

  A shiver ran up her spine. Surely Tiny’s dealer wouldn’t be brazen enough to approach him so publicly? As Tiny stepped away from the car and tipped his cap back on his head, the driver reversed out of the parking lot.

  TJ walked inside. She didn’t want Tiny to think she was spying on him. Should she tell Scott? That would probably be a good idea. Her phone vibrated in her top pocket and she pulled it out. Perfect. Detective Mark Johnson … even better.

  “Hi, it’s TJ.”

  “Hey! Staying out of trouble?” Mark chuckled in her ear.

  “For now. What have you got?”

  “No leads at the moment but we’re working on it. Since I haven’t had to go to court in the last few weeks, I’m guessing the boys are behaving themselves?”

  TJ slipped into an empty office and closed the door. “They were. I was just about to ring you.”

  Mark’s voice tightened and TJ imagined him sitting up to motion his partner over to listen in. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

  “No, I don’t think you’re going to. A black sedan was parked in the staff parking lot. Tinted windows, opened only enough to talk through. I couldn’t see a face. It was too far away to get the registration but it gave me a bad feeling.”

  “I’ve learnt to trust those gut feelings. Is it the first time you’ve seen the car?”

  “Yes, but then this is the first time Tiny has hung around for so long. I’m worried, Mark.” She gave him the year model and make of the car.

  “I’ll see what comes up on a cross check but it’s hard without a rego. Have you spoken to Scott?”

  “Not yet. I was about to.”

  “Do it. I don’t suppose he’d agree to security cameras in the parking lot?”

  “He’s as concerned as I am about the boys, so I’d say he’d definitely think about it.”

  “Good. Ask him. How are you guys going shacked up together anyway?”

  TJ bristled. “We’re not shacked up.”

  “Aah, that says it all then! Keep an eye on those boys in the meanwhile. I’ll call you if anything comes up.” With a chuckle, he hung up.

  “Cheeky bastard!” said TJ as she punched the button on her phone to end the call. But he was right. Scott would want to know and security cameras sounded like a good idea. It would help to curb the weekend vandalism of the used cars in the front lot too.

  As she pulled open the door, Scott was standing at the reception desk.

  “Ah, I was looking for you,” he said. “Everything okay?” He waved a hand at the frown between her eyes.

  “No, not really.” She held up her phone. “I was talking to Detective Johnson.”

  “Oh? And?”

  “Can we talk in your office?”

  “Sure.” Concern coloured his gaze as he looked down. Her lip was clamped firmly between her teeth.

  “I’ll tell Tony to watch the shop. Be there in a sec.”

  He nodded and went back to his office.

  TJ passed Tiny on her way to talk to Tony. “Everything okay?” He couldn’t meet her eyes and her heart sank. “You’d tell me if there was a problem, right?”

  “Sure,” he mumbled and turned back to cleaning the floor.

  Her heart sank farther. Gone was the smile. Gone was the happy boy he’d been the last few weeks. Somethin
g was definitely up, and she didn’t need to be psychic to guess what it was. She patted his shoulder but he turned it away. Dropping her hand she turned to give Tony instructions.

  “Take care of the boys, Tony. I’ve got a meeting with the boss. Keep an eye on Tiny for me.”

  “Sure TJ. No worries.” Tony knew the drill. When TJ said keep an eye on someone it was usually code for trouble brewing. “I’ll get him to work on Sheila for a while. He can change the battery and cables.”

  “Thanks, Tony.”

  She swung through the connecting door and headed down the corridor towards Scott’s office. His door was open and he held out a mug of coffee to her as she stepped through it. She took it and sipped thankfully.

  “Cheers,” she said, tipping it in a toast.

  He smiled back at her and her heart did a little back flip. She should be used to that smile by now.

  “So what’s troubling you?”

  “A black sedan approached Tiny in the car park about ten minutes ago. Looked a little dodgy. Now Tiny’s playing up. He’s back to being the boy we first took home.”

  “Did you see who was in the car?”

  “No. The windows were tinted and only opened a crack. Just enough to talk through. I don’t like it, Scott. My gut instinct is telling me it’s Tiny’s dealer or a contact. Either way, it’s not good.” She cupped the mug with her hands.

  “No, not good at all,” he agreed. “How long were they here?”

  “I don’t know. I went out to check the oil stocks and they were already there. They left a couple of minutes after.”

  “Will it help if I talk to him?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want him to think I’ve dobbed him in. He won’t take that well at all.”

  “So what do we do?” Scott poured himself a coffee.

  He stood close. A little too close perhaps, but TJ didn’t move away as she normally would. The warmth he generated was comforting. Suddenly she was really glad he’d come along. There was no way she could continue this way on her own. She was tired. Tired of putting her life at risk every time the boys went off the rails, tired of shouldering the burden of the program.

  She loved the boys and would do what she could, but it was getting harder to do as they got older. And the closer they got to eighteen, the more dangerous it became for them. After that, they were adults, and she had no hope of stopping them at all.

  When he put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side, she didn’t object. Instead, she lay her head against him and closed her eyes. Mistake. The musky tones of his cologne teased her senses as the cashmere wool jacket tickled her nose. His hand came up to smooth her ponytail.

  “Mark wants to know if you’re willing to install security cameras to monitor the car park.” She should move away. Her resistance was weakening, and that could be a big mistake. But, oh for one more blissful minute, she wanted to enjoy his warm strength. “Would you do that?”

  He removed the mug from her nerveless fingers and put it down on the table next to the coffee machine. Dropping his arm from her shoulders, he placed a hand on each of her upper arms and turned her to face him. “Yes, I will if it will help Tiny. We’ve come too far to lose him now.” He pulled her to him and hugged her close.

  TJ sank into the solid wall of his chest and burrowed deeper until she felt the comfort of his strength against every inch of her body. She accepted the press of the hard length beneath his zipper against her stomach. Now was not the time to question the direction their relationship could take. She needed him. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

  “Thank you.” Her voice was muffled by his jacket. She hoped she didn’t have grease on her face. He’d have a problem getting that out of his Armani suit. She felt him kiss the top of her head and knew she should protest.

  “I’ll get the security company on to it right away.” He set her aside gently.

  Reluctantly, she moved away and poured herself another coffee. She needed the caffeine. Her whole body tingled from the contact, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t a reaction to the cashmere.

  “What about Tiny?” he asked.

  “We’ll have to keep a very close eye on him. If they’re putting pressure on him, he could disappear at any time. It was going so well. This is the longest we’ve kept him.” The knot of muscles in her neck clenched tighter and she massaged them with her free hand.

  “We won’t lose him. I’ll do everything I can not to.” The certainty in his reply was comforting and she hoped he was right.

  “I know you will. But he turns eighteen in two days. We can’t stop him after that. And his contract here is meaningless in the underworld.”

  “I know. All we can do is hope that we’ve reached something in him to help him turn that corner.”

  TJ swallowed the rest of her coffee and placed the cup on the table. “I’d better get back to the shop. I don’t want him slipping out when Tony’s not looking.”

  “I’ll come with you and check up on the team. I haven’t been in to say hi to the guys in a couple of days. I want to do a walk around. We need to do a list of equipment and tools for the audit.”

  Business as usual, exactly what they needed to return things to normal. Her moment of weakness had passed. “I’ve got the tool register on my desk. Everything you need is in there.”

  And there was that heart-stopping smile again, she thought as he said, “Well, lead on then.”

  With his hand on her back, he steered her down the corridor to the workshop. He pulled the connecting door inward and held it open as she walked through it and towards her desk to retrieve the file that contained the equipment register.

  He tucked it under his arm and made his round of the workshop, stopping to chat with each of the employees on the floor.

  She watched as their apprehension disappeared when he talked, how he set them at ease with a joke or by showing an interest in what they were doing. After their initial concerns, they’d seen that he could be trusted. He’d proved that with his plans for improvement and a budget for new equipment. TJ had no doubt he’d deliver.

  Her eyes strayed to where Marty and Tiny were huddled in a corner. Marty was shaking his head. He toed the concrete floor with his steel caps, hands fisted in his pockets. Time to break it up. As she neared the boys, they stopped talking but not before she heard the desperate undertone in Tiny’s voice.

  “I have no choice, man!”

  “You do and so do I,” Marty bit back.

  “Everything okay here, guys? No time for chats today. We’re booked full. There’s tons of work to be done.” Her eyes pinned first one then the other.

  “Getting back to it now, boss.” Marty pushed away from the wall and headed to the wash bay to turn the pressure cleaner onto the muddy four wheel drive that stood waiting to be cleaned.

  Tiny pushed past her, bumping her shoulder backwards as he walked by. The attitude was back. Her heart sank as she realised she’d been right about the occupant of the black sedan. They weren’t going to leave him alone.

  What had they threatened him with that left him feeling he had no choice? She could only imagine the worst as she watched Scott stride over and talk to Tiny. The boy’s shoulders were rigid, eyes cast down as his body language screamed hopelessness and desperation. Scott placed a hand on his shoulder and said something in a low tone to which Tiny responded with a nod before walking away.

  “He’s not talking,” said Scott as he walked up to where she was standing checking off the jobs list.

  “I know.”

  “We’ll keep a close eye on him. He’ll be okay, TJ. I’ll do everything I can to make sure of it.”

  “I know you will. But I don’t think you realise what you’re dealing with. If he doesn’t do what they tell him to do, they won’t hesitate to get rid of him. And he won’t be walking away.” Desperation warred with futility.

  “I really hope it won’t come to that,” he said quietly.

  His hand on her
arm provided little comfort this time. “Me too. But how can we stop it if we don’t know who we’re dealing with?”

  Chapter Twelve

  As the days dragged by, Tiny withdrew and became more sullen, despite their efforts to cheer him up. Whatever was happening wasn’t going down in a hurry. Each day, fear seemed to grip Tiny harder. Scott wished he would talk to them, but instead he withdrew farther and farther until he no longer spoke at all, not even to Marty. He went through the daily routine without missing a beat, though, and Scott had to give him credit for that.

  Tonight was the awards night, and Scott hoped that his nomination for Apprentice of the Year would cheer him a little. He was pleased to see a glimmer of a smile on his face as he and Marty stepped into the living room in their hired suits.

  “You two scrub up all right!” Scott laughed as he took in the gelled and spiked hair, gleaming shoes and slightly skewed ties.

  “The ties are a killer, man! I’m choking.” Marty faked strangulation as Tiny’s lips twitched.

  “Try to stay alive until after dinner is served, Marty. You’re allowed to remove the tie after the awards are handed out,” Scott reassured him.

  “Awesome! Dunno how you wear these damn things all day.”

  TJ appeared in the doorway, and Scott found himself at a loss for words. God, she looked hot. His eyes made their way up her shapely legs, and he blessed the fashion gods for those stilettos that made them go on forever. Her blue skirt swirled mid-thigh. The stiff, ruffled edges revealed far too much leg in his opinion.

  Her bare shoulders above the strapless bodice were his undoing.

  “I hope you’re going to cover up. It’s a little cool outside,” he choked out.

  She twirled the silver satin wrap in front of her as she stepped into the room and held it out to him. “Right here.”

  He took it from her and the satin slipped through his nerveless fingers to the floor. Bending to retrieve it, he was rewarded with a close up of satiny covered legs and a glimpse of … jeez! Suspenders?

  On his knees, he vowed no one would dance with her tonight except him. He didn’t think he could handle watching her dance in anyone’s arms dressed like that, knowing what was underneath that frilly skirt. Damn the woman and her penchant for short skirts!