The Bad Boy's Forever Girl Read online

  Yeah, if that didn’t make a guy turn sour on women, he wasn’t sure what would. Still, after he’d gotten out, he hadn’t wanted to allow himself to be bested by the female species.

  So he dated. Every weekend really. Different girl most weekends. Because that’s what he was never going to do again. To think that there was one girl who was better than everybody else, different. The one for him.

  There was no one.

  He thought of females maybe the way he’d think of having a pet tiger or pet snake. Kinda cool. But one handled it with care, because one knew it could hurt one. Badly.

  “I just know you like that sappy stuff.” He jerked his head at Ms. Reva. She knew how he felt; she was one of those old ladies that just knew. But he wasn’t going to say. That she’d been like a mother to him, and that he was really going to miss her.

  “Got your mom’s car done.” He gave Jazz a nod. “Ms. Reva’ll get your bill while I back it out and pull around front.”

  Jazz’s fingers landed on his arm as he turned to go. She blinked at him. “You were a little nicer to me than this last weekend.” Her voice held insinuation, and maybe there was a little hurt in her eyes.

  That touch of hurt made him feel guilty. She looked like a tough girl. Especially compared to Libby. Jazz was definitely harder, she’d been around the block a few times, and she knew he wasn’t interested in anything long-term. He’d been clear.

  But in his experience, women never believed him when he said that. That he didn’t want anything long-term. They always thought they’d be the one to change him.

  Not a chance.

  The ones that knew what he went down for might actually believe him.

  BLADE LOCKED THE DOOR after walking Ms. Reva to her car. His brother Thad had brought a cake, and Foster had gotten a bag of chips and some sodas. Even Bram, the oldest brother, the doctor, had shown up for Ms. Reva, bringing a vegetable tray.

  The vegetable tray was mostly untouched, but the chips were gone and so were the sodas and most of the cake. Ms. Reva hadn’t wanted to take it home, since she wasn’t supposed to be eating cake.

  Blade could admit to a certain amount of sadness, since Ms. Reva had been their secretary and parts person since they’d opened their shop, and that was before he went to prison.

  Thad had hired her. Blade, being the youngest brother, hadn’t really had his act together. He’d just wanted to work on engines or do something with his hands, something that involved vehicles.

  ’Course, he’d brought a lot of work to the shop with the street racing. That reputation hadn’t helped him when it was time for him to give a defense with the Hopkins girl.

  But he couldn’t change anything now.

  “Have you guys hired someone to replace her?” Bram asked, sticking a carrot in his mouth. He held a water bottle in his other hand.

  “Don’t you realize how tight the job market is?” Foster asked, balling up the bag of chips and throwing it in the garbage can.

  “We’ve had like two people apply,” Thad said. “One of those was a college student who didn’t want to come in to work until twelve, and the other didn’t seem real interested after asking about our benefits package.”

  “And?” Bram said.

  “And what?” Blade asked.

  “And beggars can’t be choosy.” Bram took a swig of his water, capping the bottle. “So did you hire either of them?”

  Foster met Blade’s gaze, and they rolled their eyes together.

  “Spoken like an elitist who is a little out of touch,” Thad said, smacking his brother on the shoulder and picking up a piece of cake with his fingers, eating half in a big bite.

  “I’m not out of touch. You guys need a clerk and a bookkeeper, you had two applicants, neither one of whom are perfect, but you have to fill the position. Just being practical.” He shoved another carrot in his mouth and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Maybe that’s what they do when there’s a shortage of doctors in the hospital...” Foster began.

  “Very funny, Foster.” Bram picked up another carrot and waved it at his brother. “In the hospital, we’re dealing with life and death. This is a garage, not like it’s rocket science. Either one of those two characters you were talking about would work. You need someone, pick the lesser of the two evils if that’s all you have to choose from.”

  Thad swallowed the last of his cake and brushed his hands down his pants. “Ms. Reva said there was a girl in here today that was asking about it.” He eyed Blade. “She said you seemed a little antagonistic toward her but that the girl looked like she’d be a good addition to the shop.”

  Blade opened his mouth. He wasn’t gonna take this. Once his brothers realized it was the Hopkins girl, there wouldn’t be anything more said about hiring her.

  Funny Ms. Reva hadn’t mentioned that tidbit of info. Sneaky lady. Of course, she kind of had to be, working with them for so long.

  But before he could speak, Thad spoke again. “Guess you guys all know we’re working on getting a contract with a big trucking company in Richmond, doing all their body and welding work. Warranty stuff. It’s a pretty big deal. If we get this, our garage is gonna be set.” He poured himself a cup of coffee while he continued to speak. “I know you’re not gonna want to hear this, Blade. But that girl that was in here, she’d bring some respectability to our place. I’m going to have a couple of meetings with the GM of that trucking company, and it wouldn’t hurt for him to see her, if you know what I mean.”

  Blade’s neck heated, and his hand fisted at his side. “No!” His voice was firm although not loud. He wasn’t brooking any room for argument. This was nonnegotiable. “We are not going to hire the Hopkins girl to work in the shop.”

  Foster whistled, and Bram paused with the carrot halfway to his mouth.

  “The Hopkins girl was in here? Mariam?” Foster spoke so low it was almost a snarl.

  Blade ground his teeth together.

  Thad shook his head. “Not Mariam. The one that limps.”

  “It doesn’t matter which one it was. I won’t stand to have a Hopkins in the shop. Have you forgotten about the years I spent in prison?”

  Prison had taught him a lot of things. One of which was to keep his emotions tightly contained, even more so than he had learned growing up in a household with three brothers. To show emotion was to show weakness and to give one’s enemy an opportunity to attack.

  So Blade’s voice was low and soft, and his face was as bland as he could make it. Although he could feel the thumping of his heart up the arteries of his neck and the blood pressing against his forehead.

  “I know how you feel about the Hopkins family. And I don’t blame you. I don’t like them either. But that girl didn’t have anything to do with what Mariam and her father did. And you can’t deny they’re well respected in Richmond and even more so in our little town. Having her here would almost guarantee that we get the contract. There’s some stiff competition for it, and we aren’t the biggest shop in the running. If we get it, we’re going to be sitting pretty good, which is exactly what we’ve been working for all of this time.”

  Foster shook his head. Growing up, Blade and Foster had done everything together. Bram, being the oldest, had always been kind of the ringleader. Thad had been the serious second child. Blade knew he could count on Foster to support him.

  “Sorry, bro, but I think Thad’s right on this one. Seen that girl in town; she’s not really like the rest of her family. Plus, not only is she a Hopkins, but she works at that big church on the hill. Think she’s a secretary there or something. Not everything we’ve done in the past has been on the up-and-up. Having her here would put us on a path toward respectability.”

  Blade couldn’t believe that Foster was siding against him. It almost took his breath away, the anger that surged through him. None of them had spent time in the pen because of some trashy little brat and her bigshot dad.

  “I never thought my brothers wouldn’t back me up on this.”
He pushed off against the toolbox where he had been leaning, wanting to smash something. Dig a grave. Take his pickup out and open it up.

  Something. Something to get rid of all the aggression and anger that gurgled inside of him like magma in a volcano.

  Even as he thought that, he knew all the aggression that he was dealing with wasn’t directed solely at his brothers. He was angry at himself, because when Libby had walked in today, he’d wanted her here. Hadn’t been able to look away from her. Had wanted to be closer.

  And what kind of man, what kind of person did that make him, after what her family had done to him? She’d stood by and let it happen.

  She was the only other person in the world other than him, and maybe Mariam, who had known why he was really behind Richie’s grocery store that night. Her testimony would’ve saved him. She wasn’t a witness nor an alibi, but she could’ve shown up on his side. And yet she didn’t.

  Bram moved, touching his arm, putting his body in front of Blade. Blade might be the youngest, but he was just as tall as Bram, and he looked his brother in the eye.

  Bram was the reasonable one. He was methodical too. Setting a goal and doing whatever was necessary to work toward that goal. It was no small thing for him to come from the family he had and become a doctor. It had involved a lot of sacrifice on his part, along with an almost unbelievable amount of work.

  Still, Blade would not be moved. He couldn’t work with the Hopkins girl.

  “What about a temporary arrangement? Just something employing the girl until we’ve landed the contract for the trucking company in Richmond. Once that’s in place, we’ll find a permanent replacement. We’ll be honest with her upfront, letting her know that the position is only temporary.” Bram lifted his brows and nodded his head a little, as though nodding would help Blade forget about the three years he’d spent in prison.

  “No. That’s a hard no. That’s an unshakable no. That’s a no that’s not going to change.” His eyes skimmed over his brothers, a quick skim, but he gave a fraction of a second to meeting each brother’s gaze. “I will not work in this garage if you hire that girl.”

  He didn’t give them time to say anything else, because as far as he was concerned, there was nothing else to say.

  He turned on his heel and strode out. His pickup was parked outside, and since he’d gotten out of prison almost three years ago, he’d spent a lot of his time working on it while he met the conditions of his parole.

  He’d been done with parole for almost a year. And he hadn’t even done so much as anything that might get him a speeding ticket. But it was late, just a little before midnight, and he was taking his truck for a ride.

  The night was dark, with no moon, but warm, as June in Virginia usually was. He had both windows down and the radio up as he wound down through the hills and hit the flat bottom of the valley where the road stretched for miles straight as an arrow between the two mountain ranges on either side.

  In the daylight, it was beautiful, the verdant valleys, the soaring mountains cradling them on either side, with the blue Virginia sky overhead beaming down on it all. It was a picture he held close to his heart all those years in prison, as he looked out between the bars, eagerly anticipating the day when he would walk out forever.

  He made some vows to himself during that time. One of them was that he would never trust a woman again. He wasn’t so stupid as to actually believe that there were no trustworthy women in the world. But he couldn’t tell which ones were and which ones weren’t, and it was too big of a chance to take. Better to look at them all like they were conniving witches as Mariam was. It was safer.

  He wouldn’t be caught like that again.

  And the Hopkins family would not be forgiven. He wouldn’t allow it. Not by him. And yeah, there was something about Libby that spoke to him, maybe. But she was a Hopkins, and he had vowed that he would have nothing to do with the Hopkins family ever again.

  He had every intention of keeping that vow. If his brothers hired her, which he really didn’t think they would do, he was dead serious. He would not be working at the shop.

  By this time, he’d hit the flat and wound his pickup out. Sometimes, the local trooper would sit behind the Brandstetter’s garage, so he kept it down to only ten miles an hour above the speed limit until he passed that potential speed trap.

  After that, he was home free, and he floored it. The speedometer tacked out twenty seconds later, and his truck handled like a sports car, just the way he had intended. The wind blew in, and the radio blasted, and if it wasn’t helping the aggression fade from his body, it gave him a feeling close to flying and almost made him feel free, which was the feeling he would never take for granted again.

  He’d almost gotten to the point where he could smile when blue and red lights lit up the night behind him, flashing brightly in his rearview mirror.

  His heart sank and his chest wanted to shrivel, even as his stomach cramped and his hands immediately began to sweat.

  He took his foot off the throttle, but it was way too late. He could be wrong, he’d been wrong a lot in his life, but it looked like a state trooper. If it was, Blade was in some big-time trouble.

  Chapter 3

  Liberty held on to Casey’s leash as Casey sniffed the bush beside the sidewalk.

  “I don’t know why you’d want to work there anyway,” her sister and roommate, Justice, said. “I told you I have two friends who are coming down from Pennsylvania and I’m financing a shop with them; if you really want to work in a shop, you can work for us. The Richmond Rebels might be going out of business.” Justice smiled a little, and Liberty didn’t take it the wrong way. She knew Justice wasn’t really wishing bad things to happen to the Richmond Rebels. She was just competitive and wanted to win. She hadn’t become a top bank exec by being bashful.

  “That hasn’t happened yet. And I need a job now.” Liberty waited while Casey finished sniffing the bush, then started walking again down the path.

  She hadn’t gone back to the flower shop yet, since her boss had given her the news yesterday that her job was ending. But Justice had told her this morning as they were getting ready to walk Casey that she had heard that the niece was coming home this weekend.

  The news had made Liberty’s heart shake. She needed the money to pay her rent. Going back home to her parents’ was not an option.

  “You can be their parts person. They’ll need one too. And you know you’re perfect for the job. It’ll be an all-female shop, and women will feel comfortable dealing with them versus going to the Richmond Rebels.”

  This wasn’t an argument that Liberty wanted to have today. She and Justice had had it a hundred times before. Liberty didn’t see the difference in an all-man versus an all-woman situation. Wasn’t one just as discriminatory as the other? But Justice insisted all women was okay, all men was exclusive.

  Liberty could understand her having an opinion, but she didn’t see that being backed up by rational fact.

  “I don’t think it really matters. Blade was there, and there’s no way he’ll let them hire me. Not after what Mariam and Dad did to him.”

  “What Mariam and Dad did? All they did was get justice for a crime committed. That 22-year-old slimeball was groping your 16-year-old sister. He deserved every second of the sentence that he got and more.”

  Liberty didn’t say anything. He had gotten the “and more” as well. Since he had to register, any time he moved, anywhere he lived, his name was on the registry. She couldn’t see Blade wanting to work at a school or even at the church where she did. But he wouldn’t be able to. No place like that would hire a man who was a registered sex offender.

  “Mariam never acted like a sixteen-year-old. And she certainly didn’t look like one. And if you’re being honest, you know she wasn’t above lying about her age to get what she wanted.” Liberty hoped her words were coming out kindly, because that’s how she meant them. However, they were also true words. And she didn’t regret saying them. />
  “I won’t argue with you on that, I know you’re right. It still doesn’t excuse the jerk. Doesn’t matter how old the girl is or how she acts, if she says ‘no,’ he needs to respect that. And the fact that he didn’t, well, they should’ve put him away a lot longer.”

  “But they could never prove that. It was Mariam’s word against Blade’s. Either one of them could be lying. And we know Mariam lied. We’ve seen her. Why are you so sure, in this instance, that Blade was the liar?”

  They’d discussed it a hundred times. A thousand times. Liberty had heard plenty of women talking about it, and almost everyone said the exact same thing. Blade was guilty because Mariam said he was. Because she was sixteen. Because he was twenty-two. Because her shirt was off. There were no facts that actually backed up Mariam’s claim, and that bothered Liberty. Because she didn’t think Blade was that kind of man.

  However, there were no facts that backed up Blade’s claim either. He said he hadn’t meant to be meeting Mariam. That she hadn’t told him no. That she’d been encouraging him. He couldn’t prove any of that, either.

  Problem was, Liberty had been brought up in a judge’s house, and she believed in innocence unless proven guilty. It was hard to see her own father throw away everything he had ever believed in, in order to simply send someone he was sure was guilty to prison.

  He hadn’t been the judge in charge of the case; he excused himself because it involved his daughter. But she’d witnessed some of the behind-the-scenes conversations, and her dad had a big influence on the trial and sentencing.

  She and Justice were never gonna see eye to eye on this, so Liberty kept a tight grip on Casey’s leash and deliberately changed the subject. “Are we still on to clean our parents’ attic?”

  Justice stretched first one arm over her head, then the other one. “We sure are. I don’t know when I’ll get a free day, and we know it’s going to take a while, but it’s better for us to do it than to have mom stress over it.”