He grunts and glares at me. “We’re not exclusive, Bonny.”
Bonny. What were her parents thinking?
“No,” she says, crossing her arms. “But you said I was special, different and…”
“Oh, I know the next one,” I say, jumping up and down, waving my hand around. “Real! He said you were real.”
Tazen looks like he wants to strangle me. I keep my smile¸ even though inside I’m falling to pieces.
“No, but why would he have said that to you?”
Because I am real. Obviously. That actually makes my heart soften just a little, because he clearly didn’t say it to her.
“Look, Bonny,” he begins but she puts a perfectly manicured hand up.
“I deserve better,” she declares.
“Girl power!” I say, fist bumping the air.
Tazen steps closer to me, and curls his arm around my head and then presses a hand over my mouth. I want to bite him, but I just can’t manage it. So I stomp on his foot.
“Stay still,” he snaps.
I snort.
Bonny stares at us, then shakes her head. “This is too weird.”
“I’ll call you, Bonny. Explain.”
She huffs. “No thanks, like I said, I can do better.”
“Yeah,” Tazen snorts. “Whatever you say.”
Ooh, Bonny got burned.
Her face scrunches and she turns, storming out of the garage, picking up her purse on the way. When she’s gone, Tazen lets me go and spins so he’s facing me. “Leave, now.”
“Nope,” I say, stepping past him.
“I’ll call the fucking cops.”
I laugh. “I’ve been servicing their cruisers for years, so good luck with that.”
“Fuck!” he barks as I disappear into the office.
That’s right, Tazen Watts. You messed with the wrong girl.
* * *
“You’re doing it wrong,” I say, leaning a hip on a pole in the middle of the garage.
A young apprentice of Tazen’s is trying to fit a tire on the nearly final custom build that is due to go out tomorrow. It’s a super cool two-door convertible that’s bright candy apple red with white leather interior. It has a V8 engine that is awe-inspiring, and sounds even better. The convertible nearly tops a race car in speed.
“What the hell would you know?” he snaps at me.
“I’m a mechanic, and a good one. You’re doing it wrong.”
“Oh fuck off.”
I snort. “Oh, boss,” I call to Tazen who is monitoring the installation of an engine into a sleek, yellow build. “Potty mouth over here doesn’t seem to know how to fit a tire.”
“Stop tormenting him, woman!” Tazen finally barks.
“No. If I stop this car is going to be a shambles. If you give me a job, I can show you how epically awesome I am.”
“Not gonna happen. You can stand there until you get bored.”
“Seriously, boss?” the apprentice mutters. “Can’t you just kick her ass out?”
Tazen’s eyes grow hard. “It would be easier to poke my own eyeballs out than it would be to get rid of her.”
I snort laugh. “Admit it, Tazen. You like me.”
His lip quirks, but he says nothing. He just turns back to the job he was doing. I’m right, he likes me.
I turn back to the apprentice. “Do you want me to show you how it’s done?”
“No,” he grunts. “Not havin’ no wack job telling me how to fit a tire.”
I laugh. “Okay then, your loss. But you should know that is the wrong tire and that’s why it isn’t fitting correctly.” I turn and begin walking away, calling, “You’re welcome.”
When I reach the front of the garage, I slip outside and press my back against the wall. This isn’t as easy as it looks. Testing Tazen is truly testing everything inside of me, because all I want to do is throttle him. I hate watching, piece by piece, as my garage disappears before my eyes. In its place, slick cars and shiny equipment. If I’m honest, it’s impressive. Tazen has three builds currently going, and he’s brought his entire team over from California.
They still have a shop there, and the last lot of apprentices he trained up have now taken over and are running the customs from there. From what I have figured out, Tazen flies back twice a week to overlook the builds and make sure they’re exactly how they are meant to be. He is running the shop here, with four members of his team that have been with him from the start. He’s building a good deal of race cars because of the amount of racing in this area.
It’s an impressive setup, and the four guys he’s got with him are amazing at what they do. Watching them work today has been a real eye opener. They are skilled mechanics. Watching Tazen work has been even more impressive, though I’ll never admit that to him. He is incredibly talented and when he gets under those cars, it’s enough for instant panty melting.
“Quinnie?”
I jerk and turn to my left to see Timothy, one of our old regulars walking up the drive. I flash him my best smile, but it’s as fake as fake can be.
“Hey, Timmy.”
“I heard what happened here,” he says with a sympathetic tone. “I’m so sorry.”
I nod, feeling the burn in my heart extend. “There wasn’t much I could do about it, I’m afraid.”
His eyes shoot towards the garage and go hard. “Heard about the jackass that took this place, I’m here to give him a piece of my mind.”
It’s laughable that he would say that. Timmy is a tiny, frail old man that couldn’t take Tazen on even if he was holding a gun. No doubt he has some serious word vomit to spew at him, though.
“It’s not worth that.”
Timmy turns his eyes to me, and narrows them. “It is worth that, Quinnie. Your family has owned this garage for a heck of a long time and some dirty bastard preyed on your weakness to snatch it out from beneath you. I can tell you now, he doesn’t have my business.”
I want to tell him it doesn’t matter, Tazen doesn’t need anyone’s business. He has a big enough one of his own and his client base is huge. He doesn’t fix cars, he builds them. I don’t say this, however, because it’s pointless. If Timmy wants to be angry, he has every right to be.
“Can I help you?”
I turn to see Tazen stepping outside. Timmy immediately strides over to him, waving a finger in his face. “You cannot help me, you terrible man. Do you know how long Quinn’s family has had this garage? Do you? And you took it away from her. You should be ashamed of yourself. You won’t have my business, do you hear me?”
Tazen stares at the man, then his eyes flicker to me. I look away.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, sir,” Tazen says in his most professional voice. I want to slap him because he sounds genuine. “Perhaps I have something I can offer you to make this transition a little less heartbreaking.”
Pig.
Stupid pig.
He doesn’t care about my heartbreak, he only cares about his business. He just doesn’t want a bad name.
“What you can do,” Timmy says, still waving his finger, “is give the garage back to the woman who helped build it.”
Tazen’s jaw tics. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Timmy huffs and puts an arm around my shoulder. “Then you’ll not have any support from this town.”
With that he turns his nose up. It would be laughable at any other time, but I can’t laugh at his passion. It makes me feel warm inside.
“If you need anything, you call me,” Timmy says, kissing my temple before leaving.
When he’s gone, I turn back to Tazen. I’m not going to apologize for that, because I’m not sorry. At all.
“Are you happy now?” he asks.
I shrug. “I didn’t ask him to behave like that, but I’m not sad he did.”
I walk back towards the garage, but Tazen’s hand lashes out and stops me by curling around mine. Then he leans down, so his mouth is near my ear. “Play your games, Quinn, I can outlast them. Know this, though … you will lose.”
Then he lets me go and disappears inside.
It didn’t escape my notice that he hasn’t called me angel since this all happened.
That doesn’t hurt … it doesn’t.