Six
6
Tex
Twenty-One Years Ago
Friday nights in the fall used to mean football, then parties after. Now, it was working until close, which was seven, and getting drunk at the apartment with friends before heading out to do whatever stupid shit we could afford. It was getting old. I missed football.
My boss walked in while I finished up replacing the oil line on a Harley that had been brought in for an oil leak.
“What was the issue on that one?” he asked as he dried his hands off on a towel.
“Damage to the oil line. Just regular wear. I replaced it,” I told him.
He nodded as he walked over to study it, then went on to look at the other two bikes I’d worked on today. “You’re good at this. Fastest worker I’ve had in years. Might be that you actually graduated high school and went to trade school for this,” he said the last bit with a smirk.
I shrugged. “Eh, I enjoy it. I’ve been taking shit apart and putting it back together since I was a kid.”
He chuckled. “You’re still a kid. Many miles to go before you’re a fucked-up adult like the rest of us. You got that hope in your eyes that diminishes with time.”
Brick was a big man. He wore his dark hair in a ponytail that hung down his back and was covered in tattoos. I wouldn’t say he was any older than thirty, but he had served time behind bars.
One of his former inmates had come in a while back to catch up. They openly talked about their time in lockup. From what I overheard, Brick had been put in at twenty-one for cracking some guy’s skull over a woman. He had gotten out after twenty-eight months on probation for good behavior. The other guy said he had been in there for four years, but Brick joked that he couldn’t tame his tongue and kept pissing off the guards. They never said what he had been in for. The guy’s name was Grinder, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how he had landed that name. I was almost positive he hadn’t been born with it.
“You real attached to Ocala?” Brick asked me.
I shrugged. “Not necessarily. My mom lives in McIntosh, and she’s single. I didn’t want to get too far in case she needed me, but I didn’t want to stay there either,” I explained. Satisfied with my work on the Harley, I stood up.
“Miami too far for you?”
Miami? The image of hot, bikini-clad females all over the beach came to mind.
“I don’t know,” I said reluctantly. Guilt at leaving Momma behind sank in.
He stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it up, then took a long pull from it before looking back at me. “I’m opening up a bike shop there. Need someone to run it since I’ll be going back and forth between the two. Got this young girl here—hell, she’s too young for me, but she’s legal,” he said. “Anyway, she’s in college and can’t move, not that I’d ask her to. Still trying to decide if I want to deal with her drama and shit, but, damn, that cunt is fucking tight.” He took the cigarette out of his mouth and shook his head. “You don’t know it yet, but the older you get, the looser the cunts get. Makes putting up with college-girl bullshit worth it when they spread their legs for you.”
Yeah, I’d seen the girls Brick had dated over the past year. They were all about my age. One had flirted with me, and I was uncomfortable. The man could be scary, and I didn’t want on his bad side. He noticed, and right in front of her, he informed me I was welcome to tap that ass, that she was real good about pulling her skirt up and offering up her slick pussy. She was pissed and stormed out while he cackled, watching her. I hadn’t seen that one again.
“Can I think about it?” I asked him, not wanting to turn down Miami and the opportunity, but that nagging guilt about Mom was there.
“Yep. It’ll be a while still before I can get it ready to open up. Bought the building and equipment, but there is a shit ton more I gotta get done.”
Good. I had time.
Brick’s gaze shifted to look out the open garage door, and a slow, appreciative smile spread across his face as he took his cigarette out of his mouth. “Can I help you, sweetheart?” he asked in the drawl I’d only heard him use on attractive women.
Grabbing my work cloth, I started to wipe my hands, then glanced back to see who had him turning on the charm. If you could call it that.
The cornflower-blue eyes, however, looking back at me wasn’t what I’d expected. I tossed the cloth down and started toward Salem.
What the fuck was she doing here? Where was my mom?
The tip of her pink tongue came out and licked her lips as she shuffled her feet nervously. She looked like a scared kitten, ready to bolt.
“Salem?” I asked as I reached her. “What are you doing?” I scanned the parking lot for my mom’s car, but saw nothing.
“I, uh, I was wondering if you could give me a ride home, uh, to your mom’s,” she stammered.
I studied her closer. Looking past those incredible eyes and full lips. Which was fucking hard to do. But I managed. She was scared and not of Brick. Her body was trembling, I realized. What the hell had happened? I scanned the parking lot again, trying to find a reason for her to be acting so odd, but it was still empty.
“How did you get here?” My question sounded more like a demand.
When she winced, I felt like a dick. I hadn’t meant to bark at her, but I wasn’t handling the fact that she was all skittish well. Someone or something had caused it. If it was a someone, I wanted a name.
“I, uh, walked,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Where did you walk from?” I tried to soften my tone this time.
She licked those damn lips again, and I struggled not to stare at them. She’d turned sixteen last week, but that didn’t matter much. teen was still too young.
“School,” she replied.
School? It was six thirty. School had let out over three hours ago. Sure, she’d walked, but it was two miles from here. She could have crawled here in less time.
“Salem, why are you walking here from school at this time? And why are you fucking trembling?” I was getting impatient for answers.
She took in a deep breath and glanced behind me to where Brick stood. Was he making her nervous? Yeah, he looked rough, but most females thought he was attractive. The college girls who came here to see him were hot.
“Um,” she said, then dropped her eyes to stare at the ground. “My uncle came to school today,” she whispered. “My dad’s brother. He, uh, was sitting in the parking lot when I went outside. I saw him get out of his car, and…and I panicked. So”—she swallowed hard—“I ran and hid under the bleachers in the gym until the janitor found me and made me leave before he locked up.”
Okay, why wasn’t my mother worried about her, and what the fuck had her uncle done to her to cause her to hide for that long? I had a lot of questions, but she didn’t seem to want to tell me with Brick here. I’d get details later. I did know Mom had said she had been in an abusive home, but that was all I knew.
“Why isn’t Mom looking for you?” I asked, needing to at least know that.
If she was out, panicking, then I would have to find her.
“She had a teachers meeting after school, and then she was going to Zumba class, then to get groceries. I was supposed to get a ride to her house with Spencer.”
Who the fuck was Spencer? She just had a fucking lineup of guys, it seemed. First the dickhead who had come over for dinner, then she had gone on a date the night of her birthday with a Michael, and now there was a Spencer. And why the fuck hadn’t Spencer gone to look for her?
I turned back to see Brick watching us with interest. God, he was a perv. She was sixteen. Not college-aged. He needed to take his thirty-year-old eyes off her. But then I struggled to do that, too, so could I blame him? Yes. He was fucking old.
“I need to get her to my mom’s before she gets home and freaks out. I’ll get back here and close up. It won’t take me but twenty minutes.”
“Go on. I’ll handle closing up,” he replied with his cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth.
“I need to borrow a helmet too,” I told him.
He nodded his head back to the stockroom. “Yeah. Go grab her one. Need to protect that pretty little head.”
I liked Brick, and I appreciated this job. He was a good boss, but I wasn’t leaving Salem out here with him. She was already spooked. He’d send her over the goddamn edge.
“Come on,” I told her. “Let’s get one that fits good.”
Her eyes widened. “Are we riding a motorcycle?” The trepidation in her tone was cute.
“It’s what I drove to work.”
Her shoulders lifted and fell dramatically as she inhaled, then blew out a breath. “Okay.”
I leaned closer to her, bending slightly so I was more eye level with her. “Trust me. You’ll be fine. You might even like it.”
She nodded, but said nothing.
“Come on,” I told her and waited for her to move up beside me.
Then I placed a hand on her back and led her past Brick, who was leering at her and pissing me off.
When we reached the stockroom, I closed the door and went over to the spare helmets.
“Is that your boss?” she asked me.
“Yeah,” I replied, picking out one that would fit her.
“He has a lot of tattoos.”
I grinned as I turned back to try the helmet on her. “He got a few in prison.”
Her face paled, and I felt like a dick. She was already nervous. I didn’t need to make it worse.
“He was young and did something stupid. He’s not dangerous,” I assured her.
She didn’t seem to relax, and that made me feel worse. I needed Mom to tell me what had happened to her at home. Staring down at her face, I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her. Other than my mom, I had never had this need to protect anyone until now.
My eyes drifted to the beauty mark on her face. It was in the exact spot as Marilyn Monroe’s. She’d look angelic if it wasn’t for that sexy little addition. Well, that, and her lips. Jesus, those lips were plump. I heard her breathing quicken, and I realized I was standing there, silently staring at her mouth like I was about to claim it.
Shit.
Dropping my hands from the buckle on the helmet, I cleared my throat and stepped back. “Better get you home. Mom will send out a search party within minutes of not finding you there,” I said, keeping my gaze anywhere but on her.
“Rome?”
Goose bumps covered my arms at the sound of my name being said in her sweet drawl.
“Yeah?” I asked, still not looking at her.
“Thank you.”
Fuck, what was she doing to my chest and my damn cock? I had to get a grip on this. Maybe it was time I took Cammy, the girl I’d been messing around with, out on a date instead of just fucking her. I’d call her after I dropped Salem at home. Focusing on someone my age might help.
“No problem,” I told her, then headed for the door, hoping she was following.
Brick glanced up from some paperwork he had been looking over and smiled at me with a knowing smirk.
Shut up, Brick, and keep your lecherous eyes off her.
“Enjoy the ride,” he called out. I could hear the amusement in his voice.
Slowing my stride, I glanced back to make sure she was behind me. Her eyes met mine, and the instant punch that came with it had me jerking my gaze back to my bike.
She’s only sixteen, she’s only sixteen, she’s only sixteen . I repeated those words the entire ride to my mom’s.
But as I did it, I was well aware that I really fucking loved the way she felt behind me on my bike.