Taking Mine (10 page)

I pull the baseball cap off and readjust my hair. “For now, I’m just trying to pay for school. This is the only thing I’ve got.”

He finishes his half of the burger and wipes off his hands. “By stealing cars and doing what with them?”

My laugh is dry as I shake my head, at a loss for words.

“Lilly,” he says, sensing my hesitancy. “I’m sitting in a stolen vehicle with you. I’m not going to judge you.”

I can feel his eyes on me as I fidget in my seat.

“Do you sell them?” He’s persistent.

“For parts,” I clarify. “We break them down and sell them on the black market. They’re worth more that way.”

“We? Who’s we? Kaley?”

I laugh. “Kaley is the least stealthy person I know. No,” I say, my laughter dying off. “She doesn’t know about what I do.”

He looks surprised. “Then who is we?”

“This is how Kip supported us after our mom left. She left, not a word, in the middle of the night. At the time I don’t think I quite understood the implications of her leaving. Kip did a good job shielding me from it. From my understanding, he went to a few local businesses, asking to work for cash. He ran across Toby’s, and Taylor’s dad gave him one.”

“He gave a sixteen-year-old a job to steal cars?”

“Fifteen.”

Justin blows out a breath, leaning back in his seat. “How come no one alerted the authorities?”

“About my mom?

He nods.

“She wasn’t known to be mom of the year. It was normal for her to miss parent stuff at school, and neighbors knew she was a recluse…a drunk.” I pause, surprised by the lump in my throat. “For me, life went on as normal.”

He lets me finish my food in silence, even offering me the rest of the fries. It’s when I prop my feet on the dash that he gives me a strange look.

“Where are your shoes?”

I laugh, forgetting I’m barefoot. “Got ruined at work.”

He shakes his head, offering nothing up as to what he’s thinking.

“What?” I implore.

He releases a breath and smiles at me. “Considering your history, you’re surprisingly…”

“Not who’d you expect to be a criminal,” I finish for him.

“Yeah,” he says, smiling. “You’re….”

“You can say it, sheltered.”

“Protected,” he reiterates.

“Kip doesn’t know I’ve been stealing again.”

“Again?”

“I quit when I started college. New beginnings and everything. I guess old habits die hard.”

“You’re out of practice.”

I throw my head back, laughing. “You can say I’m a little rusty. Or desperate,” I add at the end.

“Because you lost your scholarship,” he clarifies.

“I need half of my semester’s tuition paid by Monday. If it’s not, then all my hard work will have been for nothing and I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life. I’ll be working at the shop changing brake pads and oil pans for twelve dollars an hour.”

Justin breathes in deeply, like he’s taking in the stress I’m letting out. I can physically see the pressure building up inside him and wonder if that’s what I constantly look like. No wonder Kip’s been in my space lately. I must look like shit.

I laugh.

A confused smile kicks up the side of his mouth. “What?”

“You’re such a conundrum.”

“I’m the conundrum,” he says, pointing at his chest.

“Yes.”

I don’t elaborate.

His laughter gives me pause, the realness of his smile. I forgot how much I’m attracted to him. Okay, I was distracted. But he’s looking at me like I’m interesting, and it sets a burn inside my chest. I have a weird urge to slap him. It hasn’t escaped my awareness that whenever I can’t handle my feelings toward him I become internally violent. It’s like he sets all of my insides on fire, and I’m still not sure if it’s a good or bad thing. Not knowing how to handle my irritation, I lean over the middle console and kiss him instead.

The second my lips meet his, his laughter dies in my mouth. There’s a light hum in the back of my throat. It’s a sharp, quick kiss before I pull away, stunned by my own audacity. We’re both not breathing. I watch his eyes dip to my lips and he reaches to the nape of my neck, pulling my mouth back to his.

This time the kiss is edged with tension but more control. Justin’s tongue meets mine, creating a deeper connection. The hand clutching the back of my neck gets tighter the closer my body draws to his. He wraps his other arm around my lower back, pulling me into his lap. It happens so quickly I don’t even question it. Air hits my waist as his hand trails up my spine, drawing up my shirt along the way.

My hands frame his neck, feeling the muscles I’ve fantasized over more than I care to admit. There’s a tug on the hair at the base of my skull, pulling my head back enough to angle my neck toward his mouth. The second I feel his open mouth place a kiss at the curve of my neck, I don’t falter, instead gliding my hips over his, feeling him through the rough fabric of his jeans. Justin sucks in a shudder, his mouth open against my throat, pulling me farther down onto him.

A loud bang startles us apart. Two feral cats are fighting on top of the dumpster behind us, causing the lid to fall open and hit the metal side. After we realize we’re safe, we untwine from each other. Justin’s hand slips out from under my shirt, leaving a cold imprint of where it was. Tucking the loose strands of my hair behind my ear, I ungracefully scoot back over the console, straightening my top and trying to gain control of my breathing.

I force myself to look at Justin even though a huge part of me wants to ignore what just transpired. His hand is covering his mouth as if he’s hiding the evidence. He runs his fingers over his lips a few times before he looks at me. My heart stalls.

“Lilly, I’m…shit.” He closes his eyes and opens them again. Trying again, he says, “I’m in a bizarre place right now. If we, us, became more than friends…it would completely derail me.”

I try to calmly, rationally digest his words, but I can’t stop my feelings from being hurt. My ego, at the very least, is a tad bit taken back.

“We’re obviously very attracted to each other,” he says, stating the obvious.

It’s easier to clear the air now. Get it out in the open and rid ourselves of the uncomfortable place that we’ve been in since the night we left Chuck’s. My eyes focus on his lips for a split second before I realize what I’m doing. My brain isn’t very quick to keep up.

“I get it,” I say, not getting it at all. “We’re both focused on school, right?”

He gives a hesitant nod. “Right.”

“We’ll stay friends, just like we have been, and pretend this entire night didn’t happen.”

Justin straightens, placing his back up against the door. “I get the feeling this isn't about our kiss.”

“Kiss is a mild term for what we just did, but whatever way you want to look at it,” I say.

“Are you going to continue doing this?”

“You mean stealing cars?”A logical part of me knows I should just say no, lie and go on about my business, but for some god-forsaken reason I don’t want to lie to him. “Yes.”

“Then I want to come with you.”

I jerk my head back, confused. “What?”

He heaves a sigh. “I know that you’re still going to do this even if I try to convince you otherwise. If your brother can’t even stop you, I have no hope, but I want you to be safe.”

“Contrary to what you saw tonight, I’ve done this for a long time without being caught. I got careless tonight. It won’t happen again.”

“It’s not only that. You’re in a bad part of town, by yourself, doing something incredibly stupid. As your friend, I can’t let you do this by yourself.”

“As my friend,” I repeat.

“Yes.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him adjust himself through his pants. The sexual tension is still there. A lot there. And he wants to be friends. Yeah, this isn't setting us up for disaster.

“We should be safe to leave, huh?”

He checks the rear-view mirror even though he can only see a tiny portion of the street from where we are. “Where to?”

“Toby’s. It’s the automotive shop off of Dupont.”

“A certified chop-shop.”

THE BACK ENTRANCE
to Toby’s is open for us when we arrive fifteen minutes later. Taylor is already waiting as Justin parks the Toyota in the closest bay. His gaze is perceptively cool at the sight of Justin driving.

“Who’s he?” Justin asks.

I don't get a chance to respond, as Taylor’s already opening my door. “Who’s your friend?”

“Justin,” I say as Justin exits the driver side. “This is Taylor. Taylor, this is Justin. He's a friend from school.”

“Care to explain why he’s showing up in a stolen car with you?”

The whole lying thing with Taylor never goes well with me. “You wouldn’t believe the coincidence.” Taylor’s attention doesn’t waver as I stall. “So, he kind of happened to be passing by when I was popping the lock.”

His face tells me he doesn't believe me.

“It’s not like I invited him along, okay? I’m just as thrilled as you are that I got caught.”

“That still doesn’t explain why he’s here, with you, in a stolen car.”

This is the part of the story that I’m less than thrilled about telling. If Taylor thinks I’m a risk, he’ll revoke my privileges. He’ll refuse to sell for me anymore.

Justin answers for me. “I didn’t give her an option. I figured if I let her go, I was already an accessory, so I went along for the ride.”

Taylor glares at him. “This isn’t a fucking merry-go-round. You don’t get to hop on and off for fun and then decide you’re getting sick of going in circles. You’re either in or you’re out.”

Justin holds Taylor’s attention steady as he replies, “I’m in. Lilly knows I’m in.”

I can see the metaphorical noose being strung around Justin’s neck. Taylor can see it too, and his smile says it all.

A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER,
Taylor corners me in the break room, asking if I can speak to him in his office. Ethan gives me a questioning look and I shrug. Taylor watches me approach from the other side of the glass window.

“Shut the door.” Reluctantly, I take a seat, already annoyed by how often I’m finding myself in his office lately. “I need your help.” The seriousness of his tone sets me on edge. “Jimmy has come through with his compromise. We have an order coming up and it’s going to make us big money.”

“Which is?”

“It’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done before and it’s different from anything we’ve ever done before. But I need your help to convince Kip to do it.”

“Why? Kip doesn’t deal with this stuff anymore. And it’s not like you exactly need his permission. Technically, Toby’s is yours.”

“Kip is who Jimmy dealt with when he ordered from us years ago. He reached out to Kip about this new deal, but Kip directed him to me, said he doesn’t handle this side of the business anymore. It put Jimmy on edge. He wants Kip. He trusts Kip.”

“You know I can’t convince Kip of anything.”

Taylor twirls a pen around his fingers. “I’m hoping the money will be incentive enough to get him on board, but if not, I need you backing me. Two against one is better odds. And you’d be surprised how hard of a time Kip has telling you no.”

“That’s debatable, considering how many times a day he says it to me.”

He chuckles. “I’ll go over the logistics with the both of you at the same time so he doesn’t feel like we’re ganging up on him. That way, we’re all on even playing field.”

“And how do you know I’ll even think this order is a good idea? If you’re saying it’s out of the norm then it might be too big of a risk.”

Taylor smiles and buzzes Kip into his office. “Because, Lilly,” he says, pausing to lean back in his chair. “The kind of money Jimmy is paying is more than worth it.”

Kip pauses at the door when he sees me sitting across from Taylor. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” Taylor says. “I have something I want to discuss with you.”

Kip looks to me for answers. “What’s this about?”

I shrug.

Taylor mimics Kip’s tone, sitting up tall, losing the unperturbed Taylor and replacing it with business-savvy Taylor. “I want to talk to you about Jimmy’s proposition for us.”

“I don’t do orders,” Kip says.