Chapter 39 Kiera
KIERA
Giving me a once over to make sure I wasn’t injured, Leo nodded to Dom’s hand. “Wash that out with soap, and let me know if it starts turning colors.”
Then, without waiting for a response, Leo grabbed my hand and led me down the hallway to the front door. I struggled to keep up with her as the adrenaline faded from my veins. “Where are you taking me?”
“Safest place I can think of.” Leo muttered, grabbing a spare jacket from an entryway closet and throwing it over her arm.
When we got to her red Ducati, she guided me to lean against it, draping the leather jacket over my shoulders before taking a longer look at me. “Did she hurt you?”
Other than an achy scalp, I wasn’t injured. But I couldn’t help my temper flaring after that confrontation — especially after seeing how relaxed Leo was in the face of it. “You tell me. Do you think that’s something she’s capable of?”
Leo’s gaze darkened. “If I thought that, she’d be walking out of that with a lot worse than a bite mark.”
Satisfied that I was fine, Leo placed a spare helmet over my head, buckling the strap beneath my chin with delicate precision. “Come on, let’s give her some room to chill the fuck out.”
Hopping on the front of the bike, Leo held out a hand to guide me behind her. The bike was a little bigger than Spencer’s, but the knot in my stomach felt just the same. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get quite used to riding on the back of these death traps.
Beats dying by Dom’s hand, though.
One thing I’d figured out, at least, was hand placement. I wrapped my arms tight around Leo’s torso and leaned my head flush to her back, glad to have something solid to hold onto after my near-death experience.
Once I was locked in, Leo gave the handlebars a twist. I squeezed harder, steeling myself for the whiplash of careening down the driveway. But unlike Spencer’s joyride of terror, riding with Leo was calmer, the turns steadier.
We were still hitting pretty high speeds — I could tell that much by the way the trees blurred past us down the back roads — but instead of my chest tightening with that electric buzz of energy, I felt like I was soaring, untouchable.
It wasn’t long before we were out of the woods and pulling past the sign for Valemont. A lump the size of Mars grew in my throat at the sight of it, but at least this time I was prepared for the possibility. After all, in a mansion that was isolated, there were only so many places nearby.
It’s here or the woods, I guess.
For a moment, I wondered if we were going to the coffee shop Spence and I had dropped into, or maybe even the Glass Cannon. But Leo weaved through the backstreets like she was on a mission, leaving both of them in the dust.
I desperately wanted to ask what hole in the wall we were headed to that was even deeper into Valemont’s downtown than the Glass Cannon, but between the heavy helmet and the hum of the engine, there wasn’t a chance she would hear me.
So instead, I sat back and tried to relax, tried to release the responsibility of holding everything together to someone else. Leo was good at that, after all: holding things together. Making me feel safe.
Before I could get too lost in the feeling of calm that washed over me, we pulled up to our destination: the double-door garage of an auto body shop. I squinted up at the dingy Lucky Strike sign plastered over the doorway and felt my heart sink.
Getting out of the house was always a good thing, but I wasn’t sure that being around a bunch of cars and mechanics was going to help the unease coursing through my veins. My mind drifted back to my dad’s hobby car. In another life, he would’ve loved to own something like this.
Too bad he only got the one.
Leo pulled the bike through the open door on the right.
The inside of the shop was much cleaner than its facade — much louder too.
Classic rock blasted from the built-in speakers in the ceiling.
A handful of bikers in leather jackets hung around the back of the shop shooting the shit.
And at nearly every work station, mechanics were elbow deep under the hoods of luxury sports cars.
Lamborghinis, Porsche, Maseratis: cars that easily cost more than the downpayment on a nice house. Fuck, they’ve got some bougie clientele.
But unlike every other mechanic shop I’d had the displeasure of visiting before, the place was entirely devoid of men. Odd…
Though, the more I thought about my captors, the more sense it made. After all, Leo could hardly stomach five minutes at the bar with Gabe. It was hard to imagine her taking kindly to some douche mansplaining engine parts.
Kinda nice, actually. Could probably get an oil change here without forking over half my rent money.
Leo rolled through to a quieter corner of the shop before flinging down the kickstand. As she cut the engine, I pulled off the helmet with a sigh. “Doesn’t this town have a bookstore or something I can go hide in?”
“It does…” Leo shrugged, pulling off her own helmet to look at me over her shoulder. “But I would argue a shop that’s open to the public isn’t the safest place for a girl hiding out from her crazy ex-boyfriend.”
“What, don’t think you could take him in a fight?”
Leo raised her eyebrow. “I think I already proved I can, darlin’. I don’t think you want to see what’d happen to him if I wasn’t holding back.”
Thrill hummed through me at the thought. “Maybe I do.”
Holding out a steady arm to help me off the bike, Leo let out a chuckle. “Okay, well maybe if you’re good, we can make that happen some time. Hell, I’ll even throw in a trip to the book store when we’re done. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds like a deal to me.” I smirked, grabbing ahold of her arm as I hoisted myself from the seat. Her biceps were rock solid even through the thick leather of her jacket. She didn’t budge an inch until both of my feet were firmly on the ground.
With my helmet off and my vision clearer than it was under the visor, I took a look around the shop. Overhead, square LED lights illuminated the entire workspace in a bright, even light — shimmering off of the polished, black concrete floors.
Even the walls were painted black.
Probably easier to hide grease stains.
Letting out a sigh of her own, Leo set her hands on my shoulders. “Okay, while we’re here, I’ve got some work to get done. Think you can stay out of trouble for a little bit?”
I clutched a hand over my heart. “I always stay out of trouble. Trouble just doesn’t always stay out of me.”
She raised an eyebrow, prompting me to smack her in the arm. “Not like that, you pervert.”
“Uh-huh,” she laughed, heading over to a locker in the corner of the shop. “Whatever you say, hon.”
I leaned back against the Ducati, crossing my arms over my chest. The farther I was from Leo, the more that cold unease crept in over my shoulder.
I thought about wandering across the shop to introduce myself to some of the other mechanics, but after the episode with Dom, I was probably at my threshold for ‘new experiences’ today.
Don’t want to risk breathing too hard on one of those fancy ass cars and having to pay for the repair.
There really were quite a lot of fancy cars. Bikes too, farther back in the garage. As I counted them up, my mind drifted back to the money Spencer had been handling in the back room of the Glass Cannon.
Those two things have to be connected somehow… right?
I was desperate to ask someone about it, and if anyone would tell me the truth, I had a feeling it was Leo. But showing my hand was a dangerous move. After all, I barely knew these women.
Everything I’d seen from them so far should’ve been setting off serious alarm bells for me. I shouldn’t want to learn more — I should be grabbing the keys to the most expensive car in the shop and peeling the fuck out of there.
But somehow, I couldn’t get myself to do it. Despite all of the cryptic secrets, Spencer and Leo made me feel safer in a few weeks than I’d felt in nearly my entire life. I couldn’t bring myself to walk away from that. Not without understanding why.
And if I wanted to get to the bottom of anything, I needed to proceed with caution.
Leo slammed her locker shut, pulling me out of my thoughts. She’d shed the helmet and her heavy leather jacket, striding toward me in navy Dickies and a tight white undershirt.
I swallowed hard as she ran a hand through her hair, revealing tattoos that traced the curves of her bulging biceps. But more shocking than the sheer volume of her muscle were the hard nipples peeking through the translucent fabric.
Is she… braless?
Heat rose to my cheeks in an instant. The outfit was more revealing than usual for Leo.
And that would be jarring enough on its own without the memories it brought to mind — the way those muscles glowed and flexed for me under the blue TV light.
The filthy thoughts that had been plaguing my mind ever since.
And that massive tattoo, whose hilt still tempted me to ask questions.
Leo cleared her throat as she wrapped an arm over my shoulders. “Ready to see how we keep the lights on?”
I nodded, letting her lead me across the shop to a red Ferrari that was hovering up on a big black lift. The other mechanics eyed me as we walked, more with curiosity than any ill intent, but Leo pivoted us to keep her body between us anyway.
Dragging over a tall tool cabinet, Leo placed her hands on my waist and lifted me gently to sit on top of it. “Comfy?”
I’d spent my entire life being told by men that I was too heavy to lift, that it was my fault they were weak. But Leo… Leo moved me around like I was a doll in her playhouse. As if one finger would be enough to carry me across the Atlantic.
“Mhm.” I nodded. Satisfied, she scooched my legs to the far side and started picking through the drawers.
“How does a doctor end up working as a mechanic?” I pulled my feet up, sitting criss-cross to keep out of her way.
“Dom set me up after I left the military. Whole place is hers.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Is there anything in this town she doesn’t own?”
“Plenty. But there’s nothing she couldn’t afford.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sounds about right.”
I couldn’t stand people like that — rich fucks who liked to hoard their wealth. It was one of my least favorite things about Gabe, if I was being honest: he had all the money in the world, but he was a god awful tipper.
When we were together, I’d tried to convince myself that his generosity toward me was a point in his favor. He wasn’t selfish, he could just be forgetful that other people didn’t have it like he did.
But the further I got from him, the clearer it was to me that Gabe didn’t give out of the goodness of his heart. He only spent when he thought there was something to be owned. And he’d certainly convinced himself that he owned me.
At least Dom used her money to give people jobs.
Leaning my elbow against the tool cabinet, I tried to keep my breathing steady as Leo snapped on a pair of black, nitrile gloves. “What’d you have to do to get in the Beast’s good graces?”
“Not much.” Leo shrugged, popping open the hood. “Dom and I go a ways back.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow, struggling to imagine where on earth they would have met.
“Went to school together. After my service, I was looking for a job, and she was looking for a mechanic. Worked out well enough.” As Leo laid out a selection of wrenches and bits on the cabinet, she smirked up at me. “You’re awfully curious about Dom…”
“Am not.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m just trying to get to know you. Figure if we’re going to keep living together, I should know more about you…” Assuming Dom isn’t currently burning all of my shit.
“You’re not asking about me, though, are you?” Laughter teased beneath her words.
As she craned her neck up to get a look under the car, my eyes drifted down her neck and past the collar of her shirt.
Without looking away from the car, Leo asked her own question. “Has it always taken awhile for your bruises and wounds to heal?”
I thought I’d noticed her eyes flicking over the scabby wounds on my hands, the brown and yellow skin on my arms.
Looking at them, I shrugged. Of course they had, in fact I’d noticed it my entire life just to be told by doctors that I was clumsy, always running into things and I should be more delicate with my skin.
“Sorta, I’ve not thought about it a lot.” I hoped it sounded natural.
Clearing my throat, I tried to keep my eyes from drifting elsewhere. “Fine. What’s that tattoo about, then?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific, darlin’.” Leo mumbled, reaching up to start unscrewing a bolt in the chassis.
“The sword.” I pointed to my throat, trailing a finger down to mimic its placement on her chest.
“It’s for the motorcycle club I’m in.”
“What’s it called?”
“Valemont Violence.” She wiggled her brows.
The name sent a slight tingle down my spine, but I tried to keep my voice light. “Sounds kind of brutal. What do you get up to with a name like that?”
Flicking her eyes to mine, she smirked. “Let’s just say you don’t want to get on our bad side.”
I frowned as she returned her gaze to her work. I was sure she meant it as a joke, but I couldn’t help suspecting that there was a hint of truth in it — that my saviors weren’t quite as virtuous as they’d have me believe.
Spencer’s tattoo was almost exactly the same and she’d been smuggling bags of cash out of the backroom of an arcade.
But before I could ask more, Leo moved toward the cabinet, placing a hand on the work surface on either side of me, just close enough to make me blush without ever touching me.
“You know, it doesn't seem quite fair that you get to ask all the questions. Have you considered that maybe I’d like to know a little bit more about you, Princess?”
“You know plenty about me already,” I deflected, uncertain I should be telling this shady woman anything more until I knew exactly who she was.
But the information I wanted came with a price, and Leo was determined to see me pay it.
“How’s about this: let’s play a game of twenty questions.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What are we, twelve? Besides you asked a question.”
Leo smirked, head cocked just slightly to meet my gaze. “We’ll take turns. You can ask me anything you want. But when it’s my turn, I’ll be sure to match your energy, so be careful where you go digging. You in?”
I swallowed hard as my eyes drifted from that confident smile to the glimmer in her gold-flecked eyes. This game was trouble, and we both knew it. But what had playing it safe ever gotten me?