Blindsided - A Stepbrother Romance Novel (14 page)

“Shit.” Conrad rubbed his face. “Do you think Robert will press charges?”

“I doubt it, if he does though I was a witness that Robert started it. I doubt they’d do anything.”

Conner nodded. It sounded like Beau’s switch had flipped and that was probably dangerous as hell. “Go home, Case. Stay away from that piece of shit and if he bothers you, call me, okay?”

“Okay…are you going after Beau?”

“Yeah, I’m going after him.”

**

It was almost four a.m. when Conrad found Beau asleep on the bench in the park. He sat down next to him and tapped his foot. Beau jumped up with wild hair, red eyes and looking like he was ready for a fight. When he saw Conrad he sat back against the bench and looked like he was willing his heart to slow down. “I found out that Samantha is my step-sister tonight and the father we have in common has cancer.”

Beau sat up straighter. “Fuck man, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too on both counts.”

“You like her.”

“Yeah, I do. She’s different and we have a lot in common…” He laughed and said, “Ironically that statement just made things even creepier.”

“Aw, it’s not like your sleeping with her or anything…Oh shit, sorry man.” Conrad had always hated his overly expressive face. It had gotten him in trouble lots of times as an adolescent trying to lie to his parents.

“Before I knew,” he said.

“You want my opinion? I mean, advice coming from a guy with no girlfriend sleeping on a park bench doesn’t necessarily mean shit, but if you want it, it’s free.”

Conrad laughed again, “Sure Beau, give me your opinion.”

“You’re not blood related and you didn’t grow up as siblings so it really isn’t gross or anything.”

“I keep telling myself that,” Conrad said. “But there’s still that “ick” factor to it. Do me a favor man and keep this to yourself, okay?”

“Sure no problem. I’m sorry about being a dick earlier. The crap with my old man is just really getting to me lately. I have to get a real job and get the hell out of there.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. Casey told me what happened with Robert earlier.”

“Yeah, I kind of lost it on him. But man you should have seen what he did to her.”

“I did, and I would have done the same thing to him if it had been me. I’m just a little worried that if it ever came down to it with you and the old man you might not be able to stop yourself.”

Beau nodded. “That’s exactly why I’ve never put my hands on him. Everyone thinks I’m a pussy. I just don’t want to do twenty to life for squashing a bug.”

Samantha was behind the wheel of the Mustang for the first time in over a month and even the fact that she hadn’t heard from Conrad in almost a week wasn’t going to get her down today. She felt all the muscles in her body tighten up as she powered through the gears. The fingers of her left hand gripped the custom steering wheel as her right hand gripped onto the wood-lacquered knob that Luke had bought for her this past week. She zipped through the morning traffic, almost disappointed that it was light. She’d been almost shamelessly looking forward to zooming in and out between a few businessmen in their Mercedes on their morning commute. She loved the way they almost looked about to take a shit when she brought the Mustang in so close that they could reach out and touch it if they wanted to.

For today she’d have to settle for the look on her brother’s face as he gripped the “oh shit” handle above the passenger door and looked like he was re-thinking the four extra pancakes he’d eaten just before they left the house. She jerked the steering wheel hard to the left and then pulling it smoothly back to the left she simultaneously tapped on the clutch and brake pedals and felt the car slide sideways.

“Sammy what the fuck are you doing?”

“Watch your mouth, Aaron.”

“Watch you driving Sam.”

She was watching it. She maintained pressure on the throttle and as the wheels spun she steered into the slide. It took them drifting on four wheels right up in front of the big windows of the parts store, but she wasn’t finished yet. The tires screeched as she pulled the wheel hard to the left and floored the gas. She pressed her body into the leather bucket seat and gripped the wheel with both hands as they did another four wheel slide into the parking lot. She was smiling from ear to ear. Poor Aaron was green. She lifted her foot off the gas pedal and feathered the brake until the blue Mustang slid into a parking spot, perfectly positioned between the two yellow lines. As soon as they were sitting still Aaron pulled the door open and jumped out. Samantha was laughing as she watched her brother racing for the front door and undoubtedly the bathroom to throw up…it was a great commute.

When she stepped through the tinted glass doors she was greeted by Lee’s disapproving face. She felt her face color slightly as she passed the retail area as quickly as she could. She had been unpacking car manuals and arranging them the night before. She had six boxes to finish. She was whistling when she stepped into the utility area and came face to face with Conrad. He looked as surprised to see her as she did him. He was holding a clipboard and dressed in a casual black suit with a green tie. His usually messy hair was styled and he was clean shaven. He could have graced the cover of any men’s magazine in the world and sold millions of copies. That flame that smoldered in the pit of her belly since she met him ignited and her body was suddenly engulfed in the heat of that flame.

He smiled…sort of. “Hi Sam, what are you doing here?” He was looking at her body and sending chills down her spine. She realized suddenly however that he was looking at the red and blue button-up shirt she was wearing with the store logo and her name on it. He didn’t know that she worked here.

“I work here,” she said, pointing at the shirt. “What about you?”

“Yeah, I work here too. Well, not here, exactly. I’m the district manager for all of the stores in this district.”

“Wow, fancy.”

His lips twitched. “I’ve been working for Luke since I was eighteen. I started on the sales floor too.”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t worried about it.”

“How’s Luke?”

“He’s good. But, you might know better if you visited him every once in a while. If you’re just avoiding me I could leave for the day or something.”

“Sam, I’m not avoiding you. It’s just…I just needed some time to figure all of this out. I’ve been checking in on Luke at the office.”

“Nice to know you’re a liar.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re not avoiding me but you visit Luke at the office to make sure you won’t run into me…The not avoiding me part, that was the lie.”

His green eyes seemed to darken slightly as he said, “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

“What’s to say? You slept with me, you didn’t like it….”

“I did like it,” he whispered, “A lot.”

“Oh, okay. So you slept with me and you are one of those guys who attract needy women so you were afraid that I’d read more into it than I was supposed to.”

“No Sam. I slept with you and found out about Luke all in the space of a couple of hours. I needed some time to get used to things, I guess.”

“Okay, take all the time you need. I’m not one of those needy women by the way.” She picked up one of the boxes and put it on the dolly. When she went to grab the other one he put down the clipboard and bent down too. “I got it.”

“I don’t mind helping you.”

“I don’t need your help, thanks.” She stacked two more boxes on top of that one and without another glance in his direction, she pulled the dolly out front. She was glad that he couldn’t see how she was shaking inside. She’d wondered for two days what was going on in his head and if finding out about their “relationship” was going to change things. Five days without a phone call and one look at his face was all she needed to answer her questions…he was sickened by the thought.

She dropped the boxes and took the box cutter out of her pocket. Aaron was at the counter talking to a customer and the other guys were busy on the phone or out on the floor. She saw Conrad come out to the front out of the corner of her eye and approach Lee with his clipboard.

“Hey Aaron,” he said when he saw her brother. Aaron glanced sideways at him, gave him a chin nod and went back to his customer. Lee on the other hand looked like he would be happy to give him a BJ if he dropped his pants.

“So how did things look back there, Conrad?”

Conrad sat down on one of the stools next to Lee and for the next half an hour as Sam stocked the books on the shelf; they went over whatever it was on the clipboard. Sam finished her three boxes and went in the back to get the other three, when she came back out, Conrad was gone. She was pissed that the idea of him leaving without even saying good-bye made her chest hurt. She’d never had feelings like this about any man and the fact that Conrad obviously didn’t feel the same way just literally pissed her off. “Sam?” She turned and saw Lee standing at the entrance of his office. “Can I see you for a minute?”

“Sure.” Sam left the dolly next to the book rack and went into the office.

“Have a seat Sam.” She sat down, wondering what was going on. Once she was seated he said, “Conrad told me about Luke.”

Sam had been thinking about talking to Lee about taking the time off to go with Luke for his treatments all week, but Luke asked her to wait until he had a chance to talk to him. He wanted to let his board of director’s know what was going on before they heard it from someone else. He’d just met with them on Thursday and she’d planned on talking to Lee today. It looked like Conrad beat her to it.

“Yeah, about that…”

“I’m really sorry to hear it. My heart is breaking for your whole family. You’ve all had a lot of changes lately.” Lee said. Samantha didn’t want him to get all mushy on her. She preferred they handled this on a professional level. She took a deep breath and willed the shakiness out of her voice as she said,

“Yeah, it sucks. I was planning on talking to you today. Luke starts his chemo treatments on Monday. I’d like to be able to go with him. He’ll have them from eight to eleven Monday through Thursday, so I wondered if I might be able to change my schedule for a few months.”

“Luke’s my boss, and my friend. I am of course going to do whatever I can to help and if changing your schedule will help then of course I’ll do it. You might want to speak to Conrad however before you make a lot of changes.”

“Why? Does he have to approve it?”

“No, I can do that,” Lee said. “It’s just that the reason he told me about Luke was because he said we’d have a temporary district manager for a while. He mentioned something about taking him for his treatments.”

Son of a bitch!
“I’ll talk to him,” she said out loud, “But I’ve already spoken to Luke about this. I’ll be the one taking him.”

“Okay then, we’ll plan on you coming in at noon or so starting on Monday. If you want the hours you can stay until seven, if not we can get you out of here when the last shift comes in at three.”

Three hours a day wasn’t exactly what she had in mind, but she had to also think about how much help Luke might need at home. For now it might be better not to commit to any more than that. “Let’s start with three and see how things go,” she told him. She thought about Conrad taking the time off again. There was no way she would let him be the one to take care of her father. That was her job, even if she had only really known him for less than a month.

Sam got back to work after her talk with Lee. The day was busy so it went by quickly and the best part of it came when she got a call from Shawn just before quitting time. “Hey Sam! We’ve got a race out near Huntington tonight. The winning take will be close to five grand. Are you in?”

“Hell yeah!”

Shawn laughed. “Okay, are you going to drive out or you want me to bring the trailer?”

“Only pussies trailer their cars to the race,” she said.

He laughed again. “True story. I’ll text you the address and see you there before nine, okay?”

“Perfect Shawn, thanks!”

“No problem. Hey, you haven’t talked to Conrad lately have you?”

“Um…not really, why?”

“I just can’t figure out what’s going on with him. He hasn’t been himself lately.”

“Oh,” Sam hesitated for a second over telling Shawn Conrad’s personal business, but then she remembered it was her business too. “His step-father is sick. He has cancer.”

“Oh, fuck. No offense but why did he tell you that and not me? I mean I’ve been here for all of the shit he’s been through.”

“It’s nothing against you, Shawn. He didn’t tell me. Conrad and I found out that his step-father is my bio dad.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“Nope.”

Shawn laughed. “I’ll be damned! Conrad’s your brother?”

“Yeah,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “Small world, huh?”

“Have you spoken to Conrad?” Luke and Sam were in the shop getting her car ready for the night’s race. That seemed to be the question of the day. Sam picked up the torque wrench and finished torqueing down the head bolts as she said, “I saw him at work today, all decked out in his supervisor suit. I didn’t know he was our supervisor.”