Big O's

by M. S. Parker

  9

  Kane

  An ugly scrape marred the back of my knuckles. Okay, it might qualify as more than a scrape. If I had much sense, maybe I’d go get it looked at because it might need a stitch or two.

  Instead, I prowled through the first aid kit that Eddie and Rick had helped me stock and pulled out something called a butterfly bandage. It took another couple of minutes of holding pressure to it before it stopped bleeding long enough to slap the bandage into place, but once it was done, it looked like it had managed to close it enough so that only a little blood seeped through. I covered that with a bigger bandage and went back to work on the truck that had appeared in my lot during the middle of the night.

  I’d expected it.

  It had come from Ringo, one of the guys I used to run with before I’d gone to prison. Of course, Ringo had been the one to suggest I go on the run that had landed me in prison.

  Shit.

  “Don’t think about that mess,” I told myself. Ten years stood between me and the stupid boy I’d been when I’d taken the job to run some drugs to Mexico via Texas. I’d gotten caught, arrested, and summarily sent to prison for possession with intent to sell. Since I’d had a record in New York, they hadn’t given me much of a chance, and I’d taken the deal rather than risk a heavier sentence.

  After five years, they’d let me go, and I’d come back here, back home to New York.

  I’d started working in a garage, avoiding that old life, but there were still reminders of it. Reminders in the form of trucks belonging to Ringo that kept showing up. Sometimes I wondered why I kept any kind of contact with those guys. Every time somebody like Ringo came around, I found myself thinking about how different my life might have been if I hadn’t done that run through Texas.

  “What’s the matter, Kane? You forget how to handle a wrench?” came a lazy familiar drawl.

  The sound of that voice made me smile, and I turned around, grinning at the tall, lean blond standing in the doorway. “Hey, you son of a bitch.”

  Jake King came striding toward me, and the two of us met in the middle of the garage, greeting each other with a quick hug and a slap on the back.

  Pulling back first, Jake pointed a finger at me. “You stood me up, you bastard. You were supposed to come by the house for New Years. You chicken out?”

  “I sure as hell did,” I admitted honestly. “I don’t do champagnes and canapes.” I was almost positive I’d pronounced it wrong and watched as Jake shook his head, his grin widening. I didn’t take it personally. “I told you that when you called me to ask if I’d be coming over.”

  “I know, I know. That’s why I asked Michelle if she minded if I had a guest over for dinner sometime this week. That way, you and I can ring in the new year the right way.” He winked at me. “With beer and a good action flick.”

  “That sounds more like it.” I considered what I had on schedule the next day and figured I could come in an hour or so later in case the night ran late. Although Jake was no longer in his previous line of work, he still made his own hours, and it didn’t matter to him if he stayed up until one or two in the morning occasionally. Even though I was self-employed myself, garage owners who had hours like that were either shit-faced with exhaustion all the time, or they just didn’t sleep. “How is Michelle?”

  Jake had been seeing this girl for close to a year now, although I hadn’t met her until late spring or early summer. She was a doll, no doubt about it, and she didn’t seem to mind that I was about as rough as they came. As far as she was concerned, friends of Jake’s were friends of hers.

  “She’s fantastic.” Everything about him changed as he talked about her and I couldn’t deny a little bit of envy.

  It wasn’t likely I’d ever end up finding somebody who accepted me the way Jake had with Michelle.

  The two of us had both done time in prison, but Jake wasn’t rough around the edges like I was. Hell, I wasn’t rough around the edges. I was rough all over, and I knew it.

  It turned out that Jake’s stint in prison had been all for nothing because he’d been framed. How he managed not to be bitter about it, I didn’t know, although Michelle probably had something to do with it. Maybe being able to go home to a woman with a summery smile who looked at him like he’d hung every star in the sky made all the difference in the world.

  Shrugging off the melancholy, I gestured for him to join me as I got back to work on Ringo’s truck. “You got time? Have a seat.” I scanned him up and down, taking in the expensive sweater and jeans that had probably never seen a speck of grime on the threads and snorted. “If you weren’t dressed so pretty, I’d tell you to get your hands dirty. That’s assuming you remember how.”

  “I’ve forgotten more about cars than you ever knew, dickhead,” Jake said. He looked the truck over and shook his head. “I thought you were trying to take in more imports and shit. This thing is a hunk of junk.”

  “I know. It’s a job for a friend.”

  His eyes slid to mine, and I knew he didn’t need any hints to figure out exactly what kind of friend Ringo was.

  “You so sure it’s a good idea to keep any kind of contact with those…friends?” Jake asked after a moment.

  “Let it go.” I dropped down onto the rolling stool I used while he grabbed a folding chair and joined me.

  “Hey, I’m just being a friend. If you were in a car, heading straight for a ditch, I’d tell you to steer away from the ditch,” Jake pointed out. “This just seems like a bad idea.”

  I bit back the smart-ass response that immediately jumped to my lips because he wasn’t entirely wrong. Sometimes, one of the guys brought me a vehicle that was in…questionable shape. I always figured if I didn’t know anything about it, I was free and clear, so I never asked, and I didn’t let them tell me anything either. But I doubted it was as simple as that, if I was being honest with myself.

  “You’ve thought about it,” Jake said softly.

  “Hell, all I’m doing is fixing up a banged-up truck,” I told him, irritated now.

  “And how’d it get banged up? Looks like it hit something – another car, maybe?” Jake held up his hands and looked at me. “Hey, I ain’t trying to start anything. I got your back, always have.”

  That was the truth. The two of us had been tight in the joint. That hadn’t changed, even though he’d gotten out a year before I had. The two of us had both ended up in New York City about the same time, and he’d helped me land a job at the garage where I’d worked up until I bought this place.

  He’d left the garage before I had to pursue an, um, alternate line of work, and while I’d missed having him around regularly, I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to get up at the crack of dawn and listen to that old bastard who’d constantly ridden our asses. That was why I’d been dead set on getting my own place.

  I’d done that, just a couple years ago.

  Was I jeopardizing what I had because I just couldn’t sever that connection to a past that was better left in the past?

  I didn’t know.

  “You ever miss your old life?” I asked him, staring hard at the truck.

  “What old life? I’ve had a couple by now.”

  I cracked a grin and looked up at him. “The one you gave up for Michelle, I guess. You sure as hell can’t miss living behind bars, and it goes without saying you miss what you had with your mom and dad, although nothing will bring that back.”

  His eyes took on a far-off look. Jake’s mother had been dead for years, and his father had disowned him. “Nah, man. I don’t miss prison, and you’re right. I’m not getting back that time before Mom died. I wish I could sometimes…wish I hadn’t been that stupid kid who’d gotten wasted at that party, but you can’t turn back the clock.” He scratched his chin. “Even if I could, I don’t think I would.”

  “Why not?” I asked, curious. If I could go back and save my dad…

  “Because the road I’ve been on led me to where I am, and I’m not giving up Mi
chelle.” He shrugged. “Not for anything. So, to answer your original question…do I miss whoring? Not even a little.”

  His blunt words weren’t any shock. He’d never tried to pretty up the occupations he’d chosen after he left the garage. He’d somehow slid into a life where women – beautiful, wealthy women – were happy to pay him for sex, and he’d gotten to where he was in serious demand for it, from what I could tell. There had been a time when the two of us barely had time to get together for more than a quick beer every few weeks, his fucking dance card had been so full.

  “Ain’t that something,” I muttered, shaking my head. Bemused, I studied him, and he still had that goofy grin on his face. “You slept with beautiful, rich women for money and you don’t even miss it. You had the life.”

  “Nah. That wasn’t the life.” Jake shook his head. “What I’ve got now? That’s the life.”

  Jake surprised me by finding a pair of coveralls to slip into, and the two of us spent the afternoon getting that old, beat-up truck back into shape. Ringo wouldn’t like it, but Ringo didn’t have to know, and I knew if there was anybody I could trust to keep their mouth shut over something, it was Jake.

  “So, I figure if I charge you my going rate…” Jake said as he stripped out of the coveralls, “you’ll be owing me from now until…hell, maybe next New Year’s Eve. Sound, about right?”

  “Why don’t you suck my dick?” I suggested.

  “Sorry, man. I don’t do that anymore. And I never took on guys.” He gave me a solemn look. “But I do know a few who do. Want their number?”

  I threw a shop rag at him, and he dodged it with a laugh. “You want to go back to your room and shower?” he asked, looking me up and down. “You’re a fucking mess.”

  I flipped him off on my way to turn off the open sign and make sure everything was locked up. The woman I employed part-time to help with the books and run payroll only came in the latter half of the week, and Bryce Tanner, my only full-time guy, worked from five in the morning until two in the afternoon, so for the past few hours, it had just been me.

  To be honest, I preferred it that way, but my garage wouldn’t ever grow if I only took on the work I could handle on my own.

  Besides, there was no way in hell I was going to handle contacting insurance companies and all those other headaches. That was what Sandra Parr had been hired for.

  “Why don’t you come on back?” I told him. “You can watch TV while I clean up.”

  He complied, ambling along next to me with a loose-hipped gait that made me think he must have been a cowboy in Texas, but he’d just been a kid, an all-around jock who’d been everybody’s best friend up until he’d made a stupid mistake. He’d paid for it and then some. But hell, it was amazing how he’d turned his life around.

  While he kicked back on my old, beat-up couch, I retreated into the tiny bathroom to scrub off the dirt. As I did that, I mentally tried to figure out when I’d done laundry last and what I had to wear that wasn’t just grease-streaked blue jeans and beat-up old band shirts or graphic T’s with rude suggestions on them.

  Just over an hour later, we stepped through the brightly lit, oversized loft apartment where Jake now lived with Michelle. It was more than twice the size of the apartment where my mom lived with Austen, and everything about it screamed class and money. Just like the sweet lady who lived there with one of my best friends.

  But as he called out for Michelle, there wasn’t any answer.

  “She must have gone out,” Jake said, tossing his keys down on the small wooden table that looked like it belonged in another century – and not the 1900s.

  He gestured for me to follow him into the kitchen. “Come on. I’ll go ahead and start dinner since she’s not here. We always eat around seven, so she’ll be here soon.” He frowned and pulled out his phone to check it. “She hasn’t texted me so she’s probably just out shopping.” He rolled his eyes. “She’s falling in love with shopping.”

  I chuckled. “Aren’t all women in love with it?”

  “She didn’t use to be.” He shrugged and went over to the sink to wash his hands. “She plans the week out when it comes to food. Today’s supposed to be pasta. That okay with you?”

  “Any food I don’t have to cook is fine with me,” I answered. This was turning out to be a good week. Two home-cooked meals that I didn’t have to go to the trouble of cooking.

  Not that I had much ability in the kitchen other than nuking a pizza or making macaroni and cheese.

  I’d just managed to pull up a stool to the kitchen island where Jake had put some water on to boil when the door to the apartment opened.

  Michelle’s voice rang out, and a grin split my buddy’s face. “She’s here.”

  “Is that a fact?” I responded with a straight face as he cut around the island to head for the living room.

  I got up to follow him but stopped dead.

  Michelle wasn’t alone.

  And the petite woman with flame-red hair standing next to her?

  It was the drop-dead gorgeous woman I’d kissed on New Year’s Eve.

  10

  Raye

  I so wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but I was already here.

  Michelle and I had spent the afternoon together, dropping into stores as we talked, and she shopped. After she asked where I worked, we dropped by my boutique, and inside, she hadn’t been like a demon with a credit card. She’d been like a kid in a candy store…with a credit card.

  I was in awe.

  Or at least I had been.

  Now I was feeling a little sick as I stood behind her, holding the few bags I’d talked her into letting me carry.

  She shot me a grin as she opened the door. “Relax. It’s better this way. Get it all over with in one shot, okay?”

  “And what if he doesn’t want to meet me?” I asked in a hurried whisper.

  “If I thought that was the case, you wouldn’t be here.”

  “But…how well do you know him?” I demanded. Then it dawned on me that she was unlocking the door – not knocking on it. “You live here. Are we going to his place next?”

  “This…is his place,” she admitted softly. She made a face and chewed her bottom lip for a second. “I wasn’t sure how to cop to that part. We’re…uh…the two of us have been living together for the past six months or so.”

  My mouth fell open in surprise, but I managed to snap it shut just as she pushed open the door. “Hey, Jake…we’re here!”

  Jake…?

  A tall, lean blond appeared in the door, a smile curling his lips as he looked at Michelle. That smile lit up his entire face, and I fell a little in love just looking at it.

  I wanted somebody in my life who looked at me like that.

  Movement behind him caught my eyes, and I glanced past him. Although I’d successfully managed to shut my mouth a few seconds ago, I found my jaw hanging open all over again.

  It was the big guy who’d saved me on New Year’s Eve.

  The guy who’d then kissed me.

  The guy who I’d been daydreaming about ever since.

  Oh…and the guy I’d slapped.

  Oh, shit – what if he was Matthew? Talk about awkward! Maybe I’d misunderstood Michelle. If that guy was my brother…my belly twisted violently at the thought, but as the blond stepped forward, Michelle reached back and took my hand. “Come on,” she whispered.

  She tugged on my hand persistently, pulling me forward and I went, still holding three shopping bags in my right hand. She’d dropped hers near the door, freeing her hands to hustle me deeper into the apartment.

  “Jake, there’s somebody I want you to meet,” Michelle was saying.

  Heat suffused my entire face, and I uneasily looked at the blond in front of me before shooting another look at the tall, dark stranger looming in the background.

  “Raye, this is Matthew – MJ – Jakes. He goes by Jake now.” Michelle winced, and I looked from her to Jake and saw that his mouth had gone tigh
t. “Don’t look at me like that, baby. I’ve got a reason for telling her. She’s…” Michelle looked at me. “Do you want to tell him, or should I?”

  Matthew…

  I stared at the tall blond in front of me, stared into his blue eyes. Eyes a lot like mine, I realized. And the shape of his nose. Even the shape of his chin. He was Matthew, not the other guy. My knees might have melted in relief, except everything in me had gone rigid the moment he shifted those blue eyes my way.

  I couldn’t speak.

  Michelle was waiting for me to answer, and I couldn’t speak.

  “I guess I’ll tell him,” Michelle said lightly. She squeezed my hand in support, then looked back at Matthew. No. Jake. She said he went by Jake now. “Honey, Raye…Raye tracked me down because she wanted to talk to you. She thinks she’s your sister. And…”

  Michelle pulled out her phone. She’d had me text her the picture my mom sent me, and I guess that was what she was showing him.

  His mouth parted as he stared at the screen.

  “Where did you get that picture?” he asked, his voice rough.

  “Raye’s mama sent it to her. She said it was her father.”

  Jake looked at me, shaking his head. “I don’t understand.”

  To my horror, tears flooded my eyes, and all I could do was stare at him. Again. “I…um…” I finally squeaked out a few words after Michelle looked at me, waiting. This part had to come from me, I realized. I understood the reason, and it made sense, but I couldn’t tell him yet. “Can I get some water?” I asked desperately. “Please?”

  Michelle poured me a glass of wine instead. I would have refused. I hated most wines unless I cut them with Sprite or something. They always made me feel like I’d shoved a handful of crackers into my mouth. But I was desperate for something to loosen my throat, and wine would probably do a better job than water would. Taking a gulp of it, I braced myself for the chore of swallowing – and hating it – only to be surprised by the sweet, fruity taste of the pale golden liquid.