22. Bay
TWENTY-TWO
bay
“You did it on purpose!”
“Did not.”
“Yes, you did! Now, I have to start over again, Mae.”
“I don’t want pink. I want blue.”
“We don’t have blue.”
“Yes, we do.”
“No, we don’t. I told you that already. Now, sit still while I fix this… Mae !”
“Stop!”
“I’m so tired of you! I don’t know why I even bother!”
“You stink at this! I want Bay to paint my nails!”
“No! And I do not! You won’t stop moving. That’s why it’s getting?—”
“You messed it up!”
“You just wiped your hands on your pants! How did I mess it up?”
“Because you didn’t do it right!”
“You have to use nail polish remover, idiot!”
“I’m going to go ask Bay to do it.”
“No, you’re not! She’s sleeping.”
Not anymore.
I’ve been lying on the couch for the last fifteen minutes listening to my sisters go at it while attempting to do something by themselves.
Poor Ellie still hasn’t learned that Mae cannot and will not sit still to get her nails done. The girl moves around like she constantly has ants in her pants and always smudges the polish then demands it be done again.
Ellie has already done two coats.
Now she’s attempting to do a third.
“I don’t want you to do it!” Mae exclaims. “I hate pink!”
“You love pink!” Ellie retorts back. “It’s your favorite color!”
“No, it’s not!”
“Yes, it is!”
“No, it’s not ! You suck at this!”
“You love pink, and you know it!”
“You’re lying! You don’t know me!”
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t grow up with sisters, just me?”
I grin at the sound of Levi’s voice behind me, and he has no idea how grateful I am for that. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“I need you, Astor.”
Not sure why, but my brain picks up on the octave of his tone. The steady dip in it sends a wave of goosebumps across my skin.
“For what?”
“Why don’t you come see? It’s not nail polish, but I think you’ll like it.”
I lift my chin so I can see him upside down. He’s wearing a black tee with some blonde bitch on it. I’m not sure what it says—don’t care—because I ask the more important questions here. “Did you bring me cheeseburgers?”
“You can take me to get some, and I’ll buy, if you get your fat ass off the couch.”
I perk a brow. “Fat ass, as in damn, she’s stacked ? Or fat ass, as in damn, she needs to lay off the cheeseburgers ?”
“Fat ass, as in you’re gonna lose your ass by runnin’ after me when I take back what I brought you.”
Eh.
I’m comfortable where I am.
However, Levi always brings me good shit. And I’m a sucker for his surprises.
“Alright.” Pushing myself up to sit, I swing my legs over and look up at him. “This better be good, Wallace. A girl needs her rest.”
“Oh, you’re gonna cream your panties when you see this.”
Rolling my eyes, I gesture for him to lead the way while I follow. He takes me toward the garage and memories of Reeve fill my brain.
It’s not the same house, but the garage is attached, and I remember his freak out when I flipped Dad’s car. When he fucked me on top of the hood and promised me shit he had no business promising.
No business I had believing.
The relationship—I’m using that term loosely here—I have with Emilio was bound to rip us apart. I just thought it was going to be with Torin.
Levi swings the door open and steps inside. Inhaling, I do the same, and my heart reacts before my brain does.
Sitting in the not-so-empty space anymore is Dad’s Nova. The dark navy-blue paint looks like it just rolled out of a showroom. The edges and curves of the car are pristine.
It’s brand new.
Everything is exactly how it was before.
Everything.
It’s the prized possession that holds all of Dad in it.
The only thing I have that’s really worth a damn.
The thing he loved most besides me, the girls, and Levi.
The door clicks shut behind me, and that’s when I round on my best friend, jumping in the air in a trust catch and wrapping my arms tightly around his neck.
I smother my face into the side of his neck and breathe in motor oil and grease. The scent equally as calming as it is intoxicating.
Hot, fat tears burn annoyingly at the corners of my eyes, but this was Dad’s fuckin’ everything.
Everything.
So many memories I hold involve this car and Dad. Eating peanut butter sandwiches and talking his ear off, sitting on the cement and watching him work.
Looking back on it now, I took all those memories for granted. I was never permitted the chance to say goodbye.
He was just gone.
“How did you do it?” I ask into the nape of Levi’s neck. “How did you get it all done so fast?”
“A bunch of man hours and Juice and Hot Rod owed me some time.”
I squeeze him tighter as one of his arms latch around my back to keep me up. “I needed this. Just one thing to be fixed, Lev.”
“She’s back up to par, exactly how you and Dad had it before.”
God, I love this man. He knows exactly what I need.
“You’re the best,” I mutter into his warm skin. “I seriously don’t know what I would do without you.”
“You’d suck at life more,” he lightly teases. “But you know I got you, Astor. Always have.”
All fucking facts.
Levi has never let me down. He’s been my soldier and my savior all in one. He’s taken care of my sisters, Dad, fucking me and all my troublemaking. He’s given me space, but he’s known when to take it back, too.
“I don’t deserve you.”
“You don’t have a choice.” A few seconds go by before he says, “You wanna get off me now?”
I don’t move, feeling content where I am. “I like the air up here.”
“I spent three nights on this car, and you’ve only glanced at it.”
“Do you need me to fully inspect your work, or did you do it right?”
“You know I did it right because I’m anal as fuck with shit.”
“Don’t ever say the word anal again, please. It’s weird.”
“Why?”
“Because it is.”
“Have you imagined that I’m some saint that’s never fucked in my life or something?”
“Hell no,” I reply. “I know you’re not. But I’m not waking up in the middle of the night thinking of where your dick is either.”
“Good to know.”
“Let’s stop talking about your small dick now.” Levi scoffs, but doesn’t reply. “How did you get all the parts?”
“You don’t wanna know.”
I pull back, even though I’m not going to give him shit for it. “It’s like that, huh?”
“It’s like that,” he confirms. “I almost feel bad for the motherfucker when he opens his garage to see half his shit missing.”
“Oh, Levi,” I chide lightly with a smirk. “What’s a girl to say when you’ve gone to such lengths?”
“That my length isn’t small, and you haven’t gone your entire life thinkin’ I had small dick energy.”
I smile wider. “I never thought you had small dick energy. Your cock takes all your brain cells and uses them. It’s why you’re so stupid sometimes.”
His greens narrow. “That’s the stupidest shit you’ve ever said to me.”
“I’ll take that.” Unwrapping my legs from around his waist, Levi sets me down on the ground so I can turn and look at the Nova again. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is. Now, you’ll have your own shit to race since I’m not gonna be around.” My eyebrows clash together as I pivot back to him. “I got a job. A big one. Twenty grand, but I’m gonna be gone for a few days.”
“No,” I immediately retort, feeling a twinge of panic rise in my chest. “That instantly screams dangerous and illegal.”
“Astor, that’s all we do.”
I rock my head back and forth, for some reason, not able to wrap my head around it even though—like he said—we’ve done this shit a million times. “Nah, this already sounds like some next-level shit. We don’t need the money like that.”
Levi’s expression contorts. “What do you mean, we don’t need the money like that? Did you change your mind?—”
“No, I just…don’t want you getting in trouble to where it’ll only set us back.”
“You haven’t even heard the job yet.”
I lift my shoulder dismissively. “I don’t care. I know how to count. I’m fully aware of what kind of bullshit getting that much money entails.”
“I’ll have Juice with me.”
My eyebrows pinch. “That’s not reassuring.”
And it’s not because he’s bringing Juice over someone else, it’s because Levi is going to go do something stupid and dangerous. How many more times are we going to get lucky until we can’t take it back?
“I need you to trust me on this,” Levi vouches softly. “Twenty grand is going to help us a whole hell of a lot.”
“I know, but?—”
“C’mon,” he presses, reaching out for me and pulling me up against him. “It’ll shave off months of us trying to save that money. I promise to keep in touch with you at all times. I’ll always have my phone.”
“I know, but?—”
“You still want out of here?” The immediate answer of yes doesn’t roll off my tongue as quickly as it has because some of the shock and things that have happened have started to make me numb to it. I haven’t left the house in the last few days, and I’m completely content where I am.
However, it doesn’t stop the world from turning or the fact that I have enemies out here.
“Absolutely,” I force from my lips. “But…what kind of job?”
Levi flexes his fingers around my hips, as if contending with himself to tell me, until he does. “I’m runnin’ ecstasy to New York.” My lips part when he adds, “I’ve already done my research.”
“On what? Lev, this is?—”
“Crazy,” he finishes for me. “But we have to start makin’ moves—big ones—in order to get Ellie and Mae out of here. If you’re changin’ your mind?—”
“I’m not ,” I retort. “I’m not. I guess…” God, I hate this. I really loathe allowing him to just go off and do chancy shit while I’m here, but he’ll never let me go with him. “I’ll find us a place. Another state besides California and Michigan.”
“I kinda liked Cali,” Levi replies. “If the boys show up, I can make them disappear easier.”
“I don’t think they’ll show up.”
“You remember Torin Wildes, right?” He perks an eyebrow at me. “Middle name; asshole?”
“Yes,” I grind out. “I remember.”
Trust me .
“Southern California,” Levi suggests. “Family town.”
I nod. “Okay.”
“Make sure we can get to a beach.”
“Got it.”
“Give me some options, and when I get back, we’ll narrow them down.”
“Fine.”
He crooks my chin with the bend of his index finger, and I’m immediately met with his confidence. “I’m gonna be fine . You can bug me whenever, Astor.”
“Well, I don’t want to bug you when you’re in the middle of trying to concentrate.”
“Then, I’ll bug you.”
“Then, it’ll be second nature.”
His lips coil. “Yeah…I guess so.”
I reach for his fingers and give them a tight squeeze, needing some comfort since my stomach has already dropped to my ass. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t like that you’re still pretending to be Emilio’s little daughter bitch, but we have to take some shit up the ass right now.”
“Stop talking about anal.”
“Sometimes it’s the best and safest?—”
“ Last warning and then I’m popping you in the balls,” I warn easily because, my God. “You’ll promise to come back to me unscathed and without a warrant for your arrest.”
“I promise.”
I inhale, still hating the idea. “I’ll hold down the fort.”
“Speaking of that…” He removes his fingers from my chin and takes our hands to his chest. “I need you to know something.”
My stomach knots at the seriousness of his tone, and I can’t get any words out because they’re too busy being strangled to death.
“The Nameless.”
“I…know who they are.”
“But you don’t know who they are.”
Right.
I heave my body upward. “Obviously, because?—”
“I know every single person by name and who’s involved. And since we don’t make them get stupid ass matching tattoos, anyone who is tied in will have a black mole on their neck until I’m gone.”
“A what?”
“You know what a mole is, Astor.”
I frown. “Why would?—”
“You don’t feel safe here. But I want you to know how many people support us in this venture. How many are around us. It’s more than you think. And we don’t do tattoos and shit because of the obvious. But they will mark their throats temporarily with a pen or marker until I’m back.”
Is he wanting to stay?
“Okay,” I say instead. “I’ll…keep my eyes open, I guess. But a lot of people have freckles and?—”
“On the left side.”
Specific.
“You don’t need to have them do that,” I retort softly. “I trust that you have shit under control.”
“I know you do.” He squeezes my hand. “But just look.”
“Okay.”
“That’s my girl.” He brings my hand up to his lips and presses a soft kiss to it before letting it go. “Now, let’s grab the girls and I’ll buy you cheeseburgers for your fat ass.”
Dick.