Chapter Twelve
Present Day. St. Louis, MO.
“Are you okay?” Mina asked on the other end of the line.
I fell back onto my pillows, staring up at the ceiling of the bedroom. I’d been stuck in this loft with Cain for over five days, and I was going stir crazy. We hadn’t spoken to each other in three days. He stayed on his side of the loft, working on engine designs for Oasis, while I mainly stayed in my room, only leaving for the bathroom and food.
“I need to get out of here,” I croaked, my voice thick with emotion. “Mina, I’m going fucking crazy.”
Mina and Amara knew everything about Cain and me. The night he went down to the bar below, I’d called them. My emotions were high, old wounds resurfacing, and the last thing I needed was to bottle it all up again. It took over an hour, but by the time I was done, both of the women were stunned into silence.
Mina sighed, bringing me back into the present. “Okay, the roads should be clear by now.”
I shot up, hope flickering inside of me. “Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Come get me,” I begged. I didn’t care if the roads were still covered in ice; I was ready to take my chances. I didn’t want to be near Cain anymore, not unless I absolutely had to be and it didn’t seem like he was leaving the loft anytime soon.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she finally said.
I closed my eyes, a breath of relief escaping me. That was quickly pushed away when she said, “I think Kavi is back in Chicago.” She was whispering now.
My spine straightened. “How do you know?”
“I overheard Dontell talking to Jeremy last night on the phone.”
“Wasn’t Kavi just in Chicago? Wait—I thought he was last spotted in Denver,” I told her. That fucker liked to move around a lot.
“I don’t know. I think Jer got the cowboys from Hallow Ranch to chase him out of the city.”
I blinked. “Cowboys?”
Mina hummed. “Yeah, the boys are really good friends with Mason Langston.”
A memory sparked inside my head. “The bull rider?”
“The one and only,” she confirmed.
Without warning, my brain conjured up images of cowboys chasing a man in a suit down the streets of Denver. It was a puzzling picture, a knock on my bedroom door had all thoughts running from my mind as my heart jumped into my throat.
“Yeah?” I called, trying not to sound like I was having an existential crisis.
“Just checking,” Cain’s deep voice rumbled on the other side of the door. “You missed breakfast.”
“Is Cain at your door?” Mina asked.
“Mhm,” I said to her, then to Cain, “I wasn’t hungry. Thanks though.”
That was met with silence.
“You really should eat,” Mina said gently. “Don’t starve yourself to avoid a stupid man.”
“Oh, so now he’s stupid?” I asked quietly. “Last I heard, you and Cain were best friends.”
“We are, but he is also a man. Men are stupid.”
“Okay,” Cain said through the door. “I’m headed downstairs. Text me if you need anything.”
What I needed was a one-way ticket to anywhere but here. I didn’t respond to him, listening for the sound of his retreating footsteps instead. A few seconds later, I heard the loft door open and close.
“He’s gone, and he’ll most likely be gone for a while. He’s been trying to get Sullie’s backup generator running. Come get me now,” I hissed, jumping up from the bed. My ankle was much better, and now, I could put a little weight on it. I wobbled over to the closet and grabbed my bag.
“Shouldn’t you wait until he comes back? So you can’t let him know—”
“Mina. Please.”
Something in my voice must’ve gotten through to her, because she said, “I’ll be there in seven minutes. Meet me in the alley.”
After I hung up, I quickly packed up all my stuff and headed to the bathroom to grab my toiletries. Once that was done, I grabbed my coat, slung the bag over my shoulders, and headed to the door. I glanced at the crutches I’d gotten from the hospital, debating taking them.
“For shits and giggles,” I muttered, grabbing them too. A minute later, I heard the crunching of gravel outside. With my hand on the doorknob, I looked over my shoulder at the small home I’d managed to create since coming here. My eyes drifted over to the designs on the coffee table, the scattered papers, pens, and a half empty coffee cup. Cain had come into this place and infected it.
I needed to rid myself of the infection.
Ten minutes later, I was in the passenger seat of Mina’s SUV, looking up at Dontell’s gorgeous home as she pulled into the driveway. The roads were mostly clear, a few ice patches here and there, but otherwise okay. The ride over here was filled with silence, and the further and further we moved away from the loft, the clearer my head became.
I was about to turn to Mina to thank her, but the sight of Dontell stepping out through the front door had me pausing. He was dressed the most casually I’d ever seen him, in black joggers and a white hoodie. The look on his face was grim, his brows furrowed in concern.
“Me being here isn’t going to cause you problems, is it?” I asked, looking at Mina.
She was staring at her man, her eyes soft before she blinked, looking at me. “No. That look isn’t about you—well, not completely.”
My door opened, and I whirled, a small yelp coming from me. Dontell held up his hands, his eyes going wide. “Jesus, Nikki. You’re jumpy.”
“S-sorry,” I muttered, giving him a small smile.
He returned my smile. “Let’s get you out of the cold. Cleo is dying to show you her dinosaur collection.”
I loved that little girl. She didn’t collect dolls. No, she collected things that interested her, like dinosaurs and books. She was cool kid.
“I can’t wait,” I said, swinging my legs out.
“How’s the ankle?”
“So much better. I brought the crutches just in case, but I think I can make it to the front door,” I assured him as I caught another concerned look.
Once we were in the house, Dontell went back to the car to get my bags as Mina and I went into the kitchen. “Coffee? Tea? Wine? Hard liquor?” she offered over her shoulder as she headed to the sink.
I laughed. “Water will be fine, thank you.”
The front door closed, and Dontell came into the living room, my bag over his shoulder, the crutches underneath his arm. “I’ll set you up in the spare room, Nikki. That good?”
I began to shake my head. “You don’t have to trouble yourself. I can sleep on the couch.”
The man blinked once, then said, “My family doesn’t sleep on the couch. We clear on that?” The firmness in his voice sent a chill down my neck, and all I could do was nod.
When he disappeared down the hall, I turned back to Mina. “What the hell was that?”
Mina slid a bottle of water across the island to me as I pulled out a stool. Once my butt was in the seat, the dull ache that had been in my ankle faded away. I didn’t let it show that I was uncomfortable. I needed to deal with it and heal. The sooner I did that, the sooner I could be behind the wheel again.
“He’s just on edge,” Mina told me. Then, she raised her chin, calling for her daughter.
A second later, I heard the pounding of little feet racing down the hall, and I spun the stool just in time to see Cleo emerge at the mouth of the hall, dressed in a Belle costume with a basket of dinosaurs hanging from her hands. “Oh good! You’re here!” she squealed, running to me, the butterfly clips at the ends of her braids bouncing as she ran to us.
For the next hour, I sorted and played with a seven-year-old girl, pushing all thoughts of Cain and the hurt he’d caused me out of my head, at least for a little while. Mina watched us and chatted with me about random things, keeping the heavy topics away from Cleo’s innocent ears while Dontell went into one of his garages to work.
Late in the evening, as I was helping Dontell wash dishes after dinner, I leaned in, brushing his arm against mine. “Are we okay?” I asked, not bothering to hide the anxiety in my voice.
I looked up to study Dontell’s handsome profile, his eyes on the plate he was currently scrubbing. “Why wouldn’t we be?” he countered.
When I didn’t give him an answer, he glanced at me. He must’ve caught the look on my face, because he set the plate back in the sink and reached for a towel to dry his hands. Then, he turned to face me, bracing a hand on the counter to lean on before lifting his chin. “What’s going on?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “If I’m a burden, please tell me, because I can go get a hotel or—”
“Like fuck you are,” he grunted, cutting me off. My mouth closed as he reminded me of the harsh truth. “There’s a fucking mad man hunting us—Oasis racers—right now. Currently, that sorry son of a bitch thinks you’re dead.”
I flinched.
“He thinks he won,” Dontell continued, throwing his arm out, gesturing to his beautiful home. “He thinks he is going to take us all down soon and that all of this; everything that me, Jer, Lee, and fucking Cain have worked for, will be his.” He lowered his hand, pointing it to his chest. “The second I saw you on the ground, Lee and Cain trying to pull you from the car, something snapped inside of me. Kavi. Hurt. You.”
Nodding, I tried to cut in. “I know that, but I’m okay—”
“He killed Tiggy,” he cut me off harshly. “Tiggy wasn’t an Oasis driver, but fuck, how he wanted to be. Kavi cornered the woman I love and shot Tiggy in the fucking head, right in front of her.”
Knives gathered in my throat. “I know. I know,” I whispered, pain blooming in my chest. I didn’t know Tiggy. The night I’d gotten into town was the night of his funeral. Judging by the amount of people mourning him, he seemed like a wonderful guy.
“You were invited here. You accepted the invitation. We were supposed to have your fucking back,” he said, his voice getting dangerously low as a shadow loomed over his head. “You trusted us to protect you and we failed you.”
“Dontell—”
He stepped forward then, forcing me back into the corner of the kitchen. “No, you will not stay at a fucking hotel. No, you are not a fucking burden. You are fucking family. Do you get me?”
I nodded quickly, his words seeping into my soul as my bottom lip began to quiver. “Yes,” I breathed.
Blinking, his features softened. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I didn’t mean—”
I waved my hand. “No, you didn’t. You’re just on edge—everyone is. I get it.”
He stepped back, nodding, and I took the opportunity to say what I needed to say. “I don’t want to cause any problems between you guys and Cain. Our history is complicated, but we shouldn’t let it interfere with the problems at hand.”
Dontell stared at me as if I had two heads.
Some days, it felt like I did. “I want to help,” I stated. “I want to make sure that Kavi is found and the Bratva gets put back in their place. I don’t know much about how all that shit works,” I said, a small laugh coming from me. At the sound, Dontell’s lips twitched. “But I’m here. Whatever you need. I’m not some baby who needs to be coddled. My ankle is healing and the sooner I get back behind the wheel of my baby, the better.”
“I don’t think—”
I held up my hand then, all laughter dying. “I’m not some damsel. You said I was Oasis, so let me help you guys. Yeah, I nearly died, but so what?” His eyes flashed as his features hardened. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say. “What I mean by that is: I survived. I’m okay. I’m ready to fight. Whatever it takes.”
He was silent for a moment. Then, he nodded. “Whatever it takes.”
I held out my hand for him to shake, feeling the best I had in days, like for the first time in my life, I was doing something for me. Protection and defending Oasis was for me—not Cain.
For once, it wasn’t about Cain.
My bruised soul sighed with relief for the first time in ages.
“Yeah, just tighten that bolt there,” Dontell instructed me from behind, my head buried in the engine of his Camero.
Once I was done with the bolt, I rose up. “She’s fucking stunning,” I told him, referring to the classic car as I turned to face him. “You ever take her out?”
My friend gave me a sad smile. “Nah, not in a long time. When I do, it”s usually in the summers.”
The tone of his voice caused a pain in my chest as I studied him for just a moment. We’d been out in garage for the last three hours, and he was teaching me more about engines than I could ever know.
I didn’t have anyone to teach me about racing—at least, not at first.
After that night at The Pit with Cain, I went and did my own research on street racing and worked to transform my old car into something I could race with. It took months. Over the years, of course I’d picked up more tips and tricks from the racers I’d encountered. In Denver, I’d learned the majority of my car and engine knowledge.
My eyes flicked to the powerful engine and back to Dontell. “She scare the shit out of you or something?” I teased, referring to Fast n Furious. The side of his mouth lifted slightly in a poor excuse for a smile, then I watched as it fell back down, his brow furrowing. His eyes landed on the engine, flashing with memories.
“This was my dad’s,” he began, his voice soft. “It was just him and me since I was a boy. After my mother left us, when he wasn’t at work or doing stuff for the Crew, he was in the garage teaching me about this engine.” His eyes met mine. “It was a safe space for us, you know? If I had a bad day at school, he’d order a pizza and take me in here. If it was storming outside and I couldn’t go play with Jer and Kay, I was in here with him. He taught me how to drive in this car, he taught me how to be a man in this garage.”
I nodded, my throat suddenly feeling thick.
He turned to face the Camero, putting his hands in his pockets as he stared down at the engine. “I don’t know if you’ve learned about Amara’s dad, but he was a police officer and a good friend of Sullie, Dom, and my dad. When Amara was thirteen, her dad was killed in a drive-by shooting in Soulard.”
“Oh my gosh,” I breathed, my hand coming to my chest.
He twisted his neck, looking at me with sadness in his eyes. “It gets crazier. My dad passed away on the same street, almost in the same spot, from a heart attack.”
I tried very hard to school my features. That was crazy. What the hell?
A depressing chuckle came from him. “Yeah, I know. It’s insane.”
Silence settled between us like a heavy winter snow.
Then, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I stepped forward suddenly to wrap my arms around him. I was a tall woman, but he was tall man, and my head fit right underneath his chin. When our bodies collided, he staggered back slightly, only causing my arms to tighten around his middle. “I’m so sorry about your dad,” I told him in a broken whisper.
Instantly, his arms wrapped around me. “It’s alright,” he told me. After a few more moments, I let him go, stepping back as he gave me something special. “I don’t take her out much because she’s a piece of him, and if I were to do something to lose this piece of him, the only part of him I have left…” He trailed off, his throat working.
My eyes began to sting. “You don’t have to explain anything else to me,” I assured softly. “I apologize for prying.”
Dontell shot me a look. “You’re family. You’re allowed to pry.”
All I could was nod, feelings swarming around me like sharks in a deep sea of humanity. In my gut, I knew he read me, and for my benefit, he changed the subject. “So, how long have you had the Mazda?”
“Since I landed in Denver a few years ago,” I answered.
“And before that?”
I smiled, walking back to his toolbox. “A little Honda my dad bought me.”
“Are you close with your family?”
Looking over my shoulder, I nodded. “My dad, yes.”
About a year after I’d left Detroit, my father finally moved out of that house, leaving my mother to suffer in her own damn misery. They were still married, and he still provided for her, but he had his own life. Divorce was never going to be an option for him, because, despite everything, he still loved her.
Dontell nodded, not asking anything else, which I was grateful for.
For the next few hours, while Mina was in the house working on a project and Cleo was sleeping, we worked on the Camero and his Porsche.
All the while, Cain sat in the back of my mind.