Lennox (18 page)

Uncle Drazic is standing behind me as I survey all the parts that
will have to be fixed, replaced, and swapped out. He claps one hand
on my shoulder and purses his lips. “I’m really sorry,
djevojka
.”

“No sorrier than I am.” I chuck the clipboard onto a
nearby rolling cart. Several thousand dollars’ worth of repairs
at the least. Probably into the five digits. “You sure it’s
worth it?”

He smiles sadly. “Don’t do it for Nash. Do it for me.”

I huff out a deep breath, blowing a stray lock of hair out of my
face. For Drazic. For my crew. Sure. I guess it’s the least I
can do.

I set to work, putting in orders for whatever we don’t already
have in the shop, and tearing out the biggest components that need
repairing first. Brakes are ground to shit, and the whole right side
panels will have to be replaced where they crunched against Lennox’s
Mustang. I can’t even imagine how the McManuses are treating
Lennox now for getting their car wrecked.

Or how they might be planning to repay the favor to us.

I can’t wait until all of this blows over. The thought rings in
my head, over and over, while I work. I want desperately to believe
it will—that I can earn enough to allow Lennox to part ways
with the McManuses, and that maybe Nash can get over himself and we
can have our old crew back, be our family again. I’ll tell
Drazic soon, when the timing is right. But I get why we have to play
it safe now, really, I do. The proof is right in front of me of how
badly things can go if I don’t wait for a sign that Drazic
might be softening.

Later in the afternoon, Jagger and Cyrus come to hang around the
shop. Mostly I’m able to treat them as background noise, but
Jagger’s bragging about his latest conquest in elaborate
detail, and I can’t help but grin to myself, thinking about my
stolen moments with Lennox. How I can’t wait to see him again.
We have so much time to make up for—I don’t want to waste
even a moment.

“Someone looks like she’s in a good mood.” Jagger
plops against the next car over and watches me work.

“Do I?” I gesture to the wrecked GTO. “You must not
be seeing well. Maybe you shouldn’t wear those stupid shades
inside.”

“Aw, come on, babe, don’t crimp my style.” Jagger
grins. “So what’s all this about you wanting to drive
now?”

He asks it casually, but there’s an edge lurking behind it.
Jagger was surprised and maybe even a little hurt that I wanted to
drive. I guess I can’t blame him for feeling threatened, but
I’m sure as shit not looking to take his spot. Hell, it’ll
probably be a long time before I’m able to make any sort of
times that put me in the competitive league. I just want to feel in
control.

“I’ve watched you guys long enough,” I say. “I
think I can handle it.” I waggle my eyebrows at him. “Unless
you think girls can’t race.”

Jagger laughs. “Never where you could hear it. Especially when
you’re carrying power tools.”

I whir the drill currently in my hands toward his general direction
and grin.

“Just seems like you’re going through a lot, doesn’t
it, Ellie?” He shrugs. “Dumping Nash, building your own
car . . . I don’t know what’s prompted it,
is all.”

“Yeah, well.” I punch through the crumpled up pipes to
drain them. “Nothing stays the same forever. Even when you
think it will.”

“Amen to that,” Jagger says.

“I mean, look at our family. We’ve gone through big
changes like this before. Been abandoned. Had big fights.”

Cyrus frowns. “But we’re always here for you, girl. I
hope you know that.”

“Yeah, sure.” I flip down my goggles, effectively
blocking them out, and get back to work.

I keep working late into the night, long after the boys head out for
god knows what. The longer I work, the more my annoyance builds. I
hate having to keep secrets, but I hate even more the reason I’m
keeping them. Because the crew can’t get over their hatred of
Lennox. Won’t listen to his side, won’t forgive him, when
they’re all guilty as well. How can I make them understand that
he’s not the villain they want him to be? The sooner I find a
way, the sooner things can get back to the way they belong.

A knock on the garage’s side door draws my attention. I close
my hand around my heaviest wrench. I can’t say why, but this
sick feeling washes through me that maybe the McManuses have come to
make our crew pay for what Nash did to Lennox. If Rory McManus knows
who I am, and ties me to Lennox . . .

But as soon as I approach, I spot Lennox’s face, waving at me
through the window pane. I toss the wrench aside and bound toward the
door to let him inside.

“Oh, my god.” I laugh and fling myself into his arms. “So
much for sneaking around, huh?” I press my face against his
chest. “The guys are off on a job, luckily for you.”

“Please, you think I wasn’t careful?” He loops his
arms in mine. “I’ve been waiting. Watched them leave. But
I remember how those jobs work. We have at least a few hours to
ourselves.”

His face is tanner than usual, like he’s been driving in the
sun all day, but his smile is warm and open. He looks more at ease
than I think I’ve seen him ever since he came back from prison.
I wish I could store that happy look on his face forever.

“I just couldn’t stay away,” Lennox continues. “As
long as I’m not getting you in trouble . . .”
His lips soften as he kisses my forehead. He smells freshly showered,
warm and spicy and all the scents I associate with him. I just want
to wrap myself up in him like a cozy blanket. “I had to see my
girl.”

I glance down the road, nervousness tight in my stomach, but he’s
right. Their jobs sometimes take them all night. I should relax and
enjoy the moment. “What a coincidence. I need to see you.”

I kiss him, gently at first, but as he deepens the kiss, I tug away,
sucking his lower lip between my teeth. Lennox hisses. Against my
thigh, I can feel his dick starting to stir. Good.

“I need to feel you.”

I trace my hand along the length of his shaft through his jeans.
Lennox groans, louder this time, as I press his back against the
shop’s wall. A dark, wicked idea comes over me, and I decide
how very badly I want him here. In my uncle’s shop. I want to
claim him as mine, no matter what the crew would say, while we have
this time. Because Lennox deserves better. He deserves everything.

“I need to taste you,” I murmur. And slide one hand down
the waistband of his jeans.

Lennox tips his head back with a throaty laugh against the wall and
squeezes my hips hard. “Elena. You don’t have to—”

“But I want to.” I work his jeans open and grip his shaft
in one hand while I sink to my knees. He’s just the right
size—big but not painfully so, and so responsive to my touch. I
gust a hot breath against the head of his cock and Lennox groans. His
hands sink into my hair to hold it out of my face.

“You’re so filthy,” he murmurs. “It turns me
on so fucking bad.”

“Good.” I grin up at him, then flick my tongue against
his shaft. “I love to make you squirm.”

“Oh, I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than squirm.”

In response, I wrap my mouth all the way around his cock, letting my
tongue twist against him. Lennox shudders and gasps for air; his
fingers grab my hair tight. Slowly, I slide my mouth off of him,
applying pressure all the way.

“Holy shit. I’m not going to last long if you keep that
up,” Lennox says.

I arch one eyebrow up at him. “Is that a challenge?”

I take him fully into my mouth again, intending to draw this out as
long as I can. I want him begging me for mercy. “Elena,”
he breathes, as I start to suck him off. “Elena.”

Then he goes very still. “Elena.”

Something in his tone jerks me to attention. I pull away from him and
glance over my shoulder with a creeping sense of dread.

And for good reason.

Because my uncle is standing in the doorway between the office and
the garage, wearing a murderous scowl.

Elena

Uncle Drazic is shaking with rage. I hurry back to my feet as Lennox
fumbles to button up his jeans, but we’re too late. We’re
far too late. I catch myself starting to inventory the shop. Drazic
keeps a handgun locked in one of his desk drawers. My wrenches are
just out of reach, on the other side of the wrecked GTO. I’m
defenseless. Not that I think Uncle D would hurt me.

But Lennox might be another matter.

Drazic takes one tentative step toward us, his entire body so rigid
it looks ready to snap. “Elena Drazic.” His voice is thin
as a wire. “What. The
fuck
. Are you doing?” His
lip curls back as he turns toward Lennox. “With
him
?”

I position myself in front of Lennox. I don’t know what Drazic
might do to him, nor do I want to find out, but I at least know he’d
never hurt me. No matter how badly I’ve fucked up. “Look,
Drazic. Lennox is a good guy. Not at all what you think.”

Drazic laughs, cold, as he continues to move toward us. “You’re
so naïve,
djevojka
. He’s got you fooled just like
he fooled us.”

“Please. He’s no worse than you, or the rest of the crew.
It’s bullshit, the way you’ve all acted toward him. He’s
learned from his mistakes—he’s a better man now. We’re
trying to make a real life together, out of the shadow of the past.
Why can’t you forgive him?”

“Because he doesn’t get to walk away.”

The voice isn’t Drazic’s. It’s Nash’s, coming
out of the same door as Uncle D. And he’s gripping a length of
metal pipe.

“I will never, ever forgive you,” Nash snarls.

Lennox scrambles away from me. My pulse roars as loud as an engine in
my ears as Nash stalks toward Lennox, brandishing the pipe. “Please,”
Lennox shouts at him, throwing his arms up to shield his head. “Think
of Elena for once. Instead of yourselves. Think of what
she
wants.”

“You want me to think of other people?” Nash pats the
pipe in his open palm. “What about people like Troy, huh? The
kindest, biggest heart I ever saw.” Nash’s face is
burning bright red; his eyes water. I search for something to arm
myself with, but I’m frozen in place. “He was my hero,”
Nash says. “And you took him from me.”

“Nash, you don’t understand—”

Nash swings the pipe right at Lennox’s torso. Lennox jumps
aside, just barely making it out of Nash’s reach. A scream
escapes me. My throat feels shredded up and raw. Everything is raw. I
want to claw my own skin off. But Drazic’s right here, Nash is
right here, and now, Jagger and Cyrus are, too. There’s nowhere
for us to go.

“You don’t know everything.” Lennox deflects Nash’s
blow once more. “And you never will.”

“Stop!” I scream. “Nash, please, leave him alone!”

Jagger rushes to block Lennox’s escape route. “Sorry,
fucker. You’ve had this coming for too long.”

“Nashville, drop the pipe right now,” Drazic bellows.
“Before you fuck up your standing in this crew even worse than
you already have.”

“But Drazic—”

“No one is killing anyone in my shop.”

Cyrus wraps his arms around Nash’s from behind to hold him
back. The pipe clatters to the ground. Jagger props against the exit
door and folds his arms, glowering at Lennox. Slowly, Drazic makes
his way toward Lennox. They stare at one another, Lennox’s face
proud but not defiant; Drazic, on the other hand, is bristling with
barely contained rage.

Then Drazic rears back and socks Lennox right in the eye.

“Yes!” Jagger cries, as I scream. I rush toward Lennox,
but Uncle D throws out a hand to stop me. Lennox is crumpled on the
shop floor, but he pulls himself up.

“It’s okay, Elena,” Lennox says. “I’m
fine.”

“You’re not! What the fuck is wrong with all of you?
You’re fucking monsters!”

Uncle Drazic steps right up to Lennox and his rapidly swelling eye.
“You betrayed my crew.” His voice is terrifyingly calm.
It makes my blood run cold. “You
killed
one of our own.
I was willing to write you off after that—treat you as if you
were dead, too. But you just didn’t want to play the part.”

Lennox swallows. “Sir—”

“But you can’t stop fucking with us, can you?”
Drazic asks. “You just can’t keep away. And now you’ve
come to ruin the life of the most precious thing in the world to
me—my niece.”

“She’s her own person, you know,” Lennox says. “She
can make her own choices.”

“She’s just a kid. She doesn’t know when she’s
being taken advantage of.”

“Fuck you!” I scream. “I’m not a kid anymore!
Why does everyone treat me like one?” I realize that being on
the verge of tears probably isn’t helping me state my case, so
I take a deep breath. “I appreciate your
concern
, Uncle
D, but this is my life. I’m tired of riding shotgun in someone
else’s. Let me choose for myself.”

“Shut up, Elena. You don’t know what you’re talking
about.” Nash lunges toward me, though Cyrus jerks him back.
“He’s a murderer and a liar. And you had better stay away
from him.”

“No. No, Nash. You don’t get to do that to me. Not
anymore.” Tears sting at my eyes. I whirl toward Drazic. “And
you—you’re not my fucking parents. You can’t make
me do anything. I’m my own goddamned person now.”

Drazic rears back as if I’d slapped him. “Elena—”

But Nash has broken free of Cyrus’s grip and charges toward
Lennox once more. “I’ll kill you, man. I’ll fucking
kill you.”

“
Nashville Graham
,” Drazic bellows. “
Stand
the fuck down.
”

Nash snarls and charges toward Drazic instead. Now’s my chance.
I snatch the car keys for the Camaro off of the ring where I’d
left them and beckon to Lennox. “Come on. Let’s get the
fuck out of here.” I survey the faces of the crew. The people
who are supposed to be my family. “Maybe we can both be dead to
them.”