Swerve: Boosted Hearts (Volume 1) (24 page)

Two months later.

Hugh opened the front door when he heard the Honda pull into the driveway. Shay had taken the car back; now he just had to convince her to let him buy her a better one. So far, he’d failed, but he’d wear her down eventually.

The door opened, and she climbed out. She’d taken a while. He’d left her half an hour ago to say her goodbyes. Joe had helped Hugh unload the bigger items of furniture from the back of his truck then took off, and Hugh had been waiting impatiently for her to get there ever since.

Though she’d been keeping most of her clothes at his house, all her other stuff had still been at the trailer. They’d been spending a few nights a week there. She was worried about Edna. Needed to know she was taken care of.

Now, Edna was covered, and it was time for Shay to come home. To officially move in.

He’d set up her computer in one of the spare rooms—her office—while he’d waited. Over the last couple of months, she’d managed to pick up more graphic design clients, enough she could quit her job at Woody’s, start her own business. Thank fuck for that; she wouldn’t take his money no matter how many times he offered, and he hated the thought of her around a bunch of drunks.

She opened the back door of her car and pulled out a box. His smile slipped when she turned to face him, eyes and nose red. She looked up at him, and her face crumpled.

Shit.

She started toward him, and he met her halfway. Took the box from her.

“Gran’s cats,” she managed through a sob.

He put down the box and wrapped her in his arms. She buried her face against his chest.

“Princess, don’t cry.”

“I just…” She pulled back. “Edna hugged me,” she wailed.

Jesus.
“She did?”

“I know Harold will look after her and Rocky, and I-I’ll still make sure her freezer’s stocked with her favorite meals…but”—she buried her face again and let out a loud sob—“it just felt so weird, you know? Driving away from Gran’s trailer, knowing I’ll never live there again.”

Never live there again.
Those words were music to his ears. “You regret moving in with me?”

She pulled back quickly, shaking her head. “Never. God, you don’t think that, do you?”

Hugh smiled down at his sweet, crazy, beautiful woman and brushed away her tears. He shook his head. “I know it’s hard to say goodbye to that part of your life, to those memories, but, baby, we’re gonna make some good ones of our own right here. You and me.”

She smiled through her tears and nodded enthusiastically. “You and me.”

“And the dog.”

She frowned. “What dog?”

“The one we’re gonna get.”

The smile was back. “Oh, I’d love that.”

“And the kids.”

Her eyes went big, and her mouth dropped open. Fucking cute as hell.

“Kids? You want children?”

“Yeah, we’ve got plenty of room. You want kids?”

“Y-yes.” Her eyes started to get glassy again, as if she was seconds from letting loose more tears.

Nerves gripped him low in the gut. “We’re shacked up, getting a dog, talking about kids”—he cupped her precious face in his hands—“I’m thinking, though, before we move to the kids part, we need to get hitched.”

“W-what?” Her watery gaze searched his.

He dropped to his knee in the front yard, took her hand in one of his and dug the ring out of his pocket with the other. “I want to make beautiful memories with you, Shay, here in our house. I want to have babies with you, grow old with you, spend the rest of my life with you. Princess, say you’ll marry me?”

Her face crumpled again, a second before she flung her arms around his neck, knocking him on his ass. She pushed his shoulders, so he was lying flat on his back in the grass, and straddled him. The tears were flowing again, a bright, breathtaking smile lighting up her entire face.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

His heart filled to bursting, and he threw back his head and laughed. Shay laughed with him, in between kisses.

Boosted Hearts #2

by Sherilee Gray

He never planned on falling for the enemy…

Indebted to a local crime boss thanks to their father’s gambling debts, mechanic Joe Colton and his brother have been forced to steal cars for three soul-killing years. But when Joe saves the man’s niece from police – the same deliciously hot-blooded woman sabotaging their efforts to clear the debt – it’s time to negotiate new terms. And discover why, that one night, she burned him with a kiss then ran…

Darcey Connors will do anything to get her baby brother away from the criminals in her family – even screw up a good man’s life. Yet in the midst of tailing Joe, she somehow falls hard for the sexy tattooed car thief. Nothing can happen between them, but she owes him big time, and if he’s going it alone, she is going to help. As long as no one ever finds out – not Joe, her family, the police – or she could lose everything.

Darcey Conners tightened her long dark ponytail, tugged her baseball cap lower, then keeping to the shadows, edged along the brick wall.

She scanned the parking lot again. All clear. Then returned her focus to the reason she was skulking around in the dark.

A little sigh escaped her lips.

Good freaking God, the man was a picture of male perfection, even while he was in the middle of committing grand theft auto. His big shoulders moved in a way that advertised the muscles under his shirt as he picked the lock, thick veins bulging along his tattooed forearms. Head bent in concentration, strong jaw covered in a thick beard, lips peeled back to reveal straight white teeth as he worked. She wanted to touch that beard. He’d grown it thicker recently, and all she could think about was how it would feel against her skin. Soft? Bristly? Would it tickle?

Ack!
Concentrate!

The lock popped and he slid straight into the driver’s seat, quickly disabling the car alarm. The engine turned over a second later. He didn’t hang around, pulled the door shut and drove away .

She checked her watch. Fifteen seconds.

He was good. Really good.

Joe Colton was one of the best.

He also hated her guts, and that was a damn shame, since she couldn’t even look at him without getting highly turned on—without imagining all kinds of fool things, things that involved white picket fences and happily ever after’s.

What made it ten times worse? She knew what it felt like to have his lips on hers. How he tasted. The dirty, hungry sounds he made when he kissed a girl.

The man kissed like she imagined he fucked. Deep, hard, and in total control of the woman on the receiving end.

She gave herself a mental slap upside the head. She had to stop thinking like that. He had a damn good reason for despising her.

It was her fault Joe was still stuck boosting cars for Al. Al Ramirez was a complete and utter asshole. He was also her uncle. Well, that’s what he liked to be called. Len, Al’s bastard of a brother married her mom seven years ago, when her brother Noah had only been a few months old. That’s when Darcey had been brought into the Ramirez fold—whether she wanted to be there hadn’t been up for debate.

Now her mom was gone, and Al owned her—like a pair of shoes or a pet that he didn’t really like all that much but kept around anyway just so he could put the boot in every now and then.

Which meant when he’d ordered her to make sure the Colton brothers didn’t meet their deadline, so he could add interest to their debt—she had to obey.

But following them, watching them, it quickly became a bit of an obsession. Okay, Joe became her obsession.

So much so she’d taken to following him other times, times he was obviously not about to, or in the process of, boosting a car. This became a problem for Darcey when she followed him into a bar about a month ago, watched him pick up some random and take her home. She’d hated it with every fiber of her being. Which was irrational. Completely ridiculous.

But the next week, when he’d gone to that same bar to get himself some action, she hadn’t been able to merely stand back and watch. No, instead of sticking to the shadows, she’d followed him right on in. The idea of watching him go home with someone else had been unacceptable, because as messed up as it was, Joe Colton had somehow become hers. A man she’d never once spoken to, had never even been within touching distance.

A man she’d been screwing over.

He had been standing at the bar when she walked in, elbows resting on the surface, thick, long fingers curled around his beer. Those jeans he always wore hugging his ass and long legs, t-shirt stretched over his wide shoulders. She’d wanted to walk up to him and pull him down for a kiss, stake her claim. Had wanted to be the one to run her hand over his cropped hair, feel his beard against her skin. After watching him for weeks, she’d felt as if she knew him, could feel this…this connection between them, and he didn’t even know she existed.

She’d wanted that more than anything, for him to
know
her, to
see
her.

So she’d taken a stupid risk, and approached him.

He had looked down at her when she’d taken the vacant space beside him—while her heart pounded like a frightened rabbit’s in her chest—unmistakable interest in his extremely dark eyes. They’d talked, laughed. Something she hadn’t done in a long time.

The dream became reality.

And when she’d grabbed his hand, he’d let her lead him outside, had followed her down behind the bar, those intense, hungry eyes never leaving her. Had been completely on board when she pushed him against the wall and climbed that long lean body like a tree trunk, wrapping herself around him the way she had been dying to since she first saw him.

He’d growled in her ear, spun her around and taken over. Taken her mouth and owned it. Owned her. Joe had been everything Darcey imagined. More. Perfect.

But then she’d remembered why she shouldn’t be there, why she
couldn’t
be there, what was at stake—right when the tips of his rough-skinned fingers slid under her shirt. They’d ghosted over the bare skin of her belly, while his erection had pressed deliciously between her thighs.

And she’d had no choice but to shove him away…leave him high and dry.

To walk away from the man of her dreams, away from his exquisite kisses. The addicting scent of pine and motor oil that filled her head making her dizzy. His worried, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” still ringing in her ears. As if he’d done something wrong. As if he’d somehow hurt or upset her and would do anything to make it right.

But there was nothing he could do. It was all her fault.

Everything. All of it.

Still, even then, she hadn’t known just how good a man he was. Not until he’d saved her ass.

A week after the make-out session to end all make-out sessions, he’d turned the tables on her. Followed her after she beat him to the punch, stealing a car he marked, a car he needed desperately to get free of Al.

Joe had no idea who she was, and he’d saved her from being caught in the act by the cops, anyway. God when he’d shoved back her baseball cap and seen her face, recognized her as the head-case from the bar. The chick who’d come on strong, gotten him hard then flipped out and ran off…

Shit, she’d never forget the expression on his face.

She forced the image away. 

Yeah, he’d used her carelessness to get his brother out of the arrangement with Al. But then he’d  taken that debt on himself. Al was grateful he’d kept Darcey out of police custody, but only because he didn’t want any blow-back on him. He didn’t care about her. And he certainly wouldn’t let a debt go unpaid just because of what Joe did for her. But Al had agreed to Joe’s conditions, because the guy had dirt on her, and Darcey had dirt on Al. Al knew she hated him enough that if she went down, she’d take him with her.

So no, Joe Colton hadn’t saved her ass because he gave a shit what happened to her. And why would he? If she hadn’t gotten in the way, he’d be free of Al by now. But whatever the reason, he’d saved her from a stretch in prison, from being away from Noah for months, and she was determined to repay the favor.

Even if he didn’t know she was doing it.

Since he’d taken that debt on himself, he had no one at his back.

Well, Darcey had just taken it.

She just had to make sure that Joe—and Al—never found out…

Shoving her hands in her pockets, head down, Darcey headed back to her car. But instead of going to her crappy apartment, she made a detour across town.

It didn’t take long to get where she was headed.

A nice neighborhood. Expensive cars, manicured gardens, big fancy houses with designer dogs peering out windows. She pulled up across the road from a three storey monstrosity, tacky pillars on either side of the glossy red front door, and glanced up to the second floor. The curtains were drawn, but she could see the light on behind them. Bright enough the racing cars printed on the fabric were visible from the outside. Noah would be in bed reading. Clutching one of his books, letting the story take him away somewhere wonderful, somewhere he didn’t have to live with a prick of a step-father and an equally wicked step-mother. Somewhere Noah and Darcey could be together again.

A stray tear surprised her, streaking a hot path down her cheek and she dashed it away.

Tears were pointless.

Until she could think of a way to get Len to let her have regular visits with her little brother, she had to rely on Al and the control he had over their step-father. She had to stay under Al’s thumb.

She blew a kiss toward his window and started her car, got out of there before Len saw her and lost his shit completely.

“Night, Noah,” she whispered.

* * *

Joe Colton could feel those melted chocolate eyes burning into the back of his goddamn head. Like two laser beams trying to burn their way into his skull and fry his brain. She was doing a fucking good job of it, too. How the hell was he supposed to concentrate with her parked across the damn street, watching his every move?

“Ow! Motherfucking shit!”

Adam turned to him and snorted. “You’re supposed to use a wrench to undo bolts, not smash your thumb to pulp.” The prick took the wrench from Joe’s hand and held it in the air demonstrating. “See it’s easy.”

“Eat shit, asshole.” Joe snatched it back and ignored the irritating bastard.

In the last few weeks Adam had become more annoying than normal, while his brother Hugh had been walking around like he had fucking clouds for shoes. Shay, his new fiancée, had his brother whipped and the idiot loved every second of it.

Joe’s feelings on love and relationships aside, he was ecstatic for the guy. Everything had worked out. Hugh got the girl, and Joe had taken on their father’s debt. His brother and Adam were none the wiser. They could live in ignorant bliss. No debt. No more boosting cars, and no more being tied to Al Ramirez. And that’s the way it needed to stay. Hugh had put himself on the line enough for their family. And Adam…well, this wasn’t his fight. It wasn’t his useless, waste of space father that left his family drowning in gambling debts.

Joe glanced over his shoulder and gritted his teeth. It was thanks to the deceitful little saboteur sitting a short ways down the street, watching him from her beaten to shit Toyota, that he’d been able to convince Al to lay the debt on him and him alone. Ironically, it was also her fault he still owed that fucker in the first place. Well, Joe had turned the tables on her, had tailed her for several days, and when the police had been closing in, minutes from catching her red-handed, with her ass in someone else's car, he got her out.

Al had agreed to his terms. The prick didn’t care how he got what he was owed, as long as he got it, and Joe intended to deliver.

It would be a lot easier without his fucking shadow, though. The woman sucked at stealth. Every job he’d done since, she’d been there, watching him. Why Al still had her following him, he had no idea, but it was starting to make him bat-shit crazy.

The tingle at the base of his neck intensified. Shit. He could fucking
feel
those dark eyes sliding over his back. He growled, pissed at himself.

Pissed that her gaze wasn’t the only thing he was feeling when it came to her. The memory of her soft body flush against his hadn’t let up since he’d had her pressed against that wall. Neither had the sound of her husky moans when he’d thrust his tongue in her sweet as candy mouth and fucking devoured it…

“Jesus.” He threw the wrench in the tool box beside him and scrubbed his hands over his cropped hair.

Adam slid out from beneath the car he was now working under. “Yes, my disciple,”

“Shut it.”

“You realize talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, right?”

“You realize if you say one more smart-ass comment, I’m going to shove my foot up your ass, right?”

Hugh strode out of the office, brows hiked high. “When the fuck did this happen? Is it Freaky Friday or some shit? It’s like you’ve switched brains.” He crossed his arms, shaking his head. “I don’t like it. Adam’s supposed to be the grouchy, broody one and Joe’s the smart-ass.” He pointed at Adam. “Get fucking brooding would you. And it’ll be my foot in your ass, baby brother, if you don’t crack a goddamn joke in the next—” he glanced up at the clock on the wall. “—five minutes. Go.”

Adam scowled. “You can talk. You’re the one walking around like fucking birds and butterflies and little girly hearts are floating around your fat head.”

Joe snorted. “You’re whipped, bro. It’s a fucking disgrace.” Joe didn’t mean a word of it of course. He loved Shay. But he couldn’t ignore his duty as a brother. Giving Hugh shit was all part of the gig.

Hugh grunted. “Bullshit.”

“No shit.” Joe shut the Subaru’s hood. “You’re an embarrassment to men everywhere.”

“You assholes can mock me all you like, but just you wait. The right girl will come along and knock you on your ass. Then we’ll see who’s whipped.”

Adam shook his head. “Never happen.”