Page 23 of Property of Mercury

“One idea I have for the future based on what you shared during your time in the clinic is to build a separate building on the property strictly for you to do restorations, Finley. It’ll have a paint booth and everything. You may only be able to take on one at a time since it would be you doing all the work, but you’ve said you have a reputation out there, so once folks know you’re here, the jobs will come.”

I can feel my eyes welling up at his words. “Really?” I whisper, too afraid to hope for something that I thought was beyond my expectations.

“Yeah, really. Mercury? I saw there was a tow yard that had junked cars in the back in town. We should see if they’re interested in selling because we’d have readily available parts, too. Plus, the crusher could come in handy. We could put the prospects on that for work, but we all might have to take a turn pulling tows. Shit, most of them are on Hercules’ crew. That might be an issue, but it’s one we can resolve, I’m sure.”

I watch the two of them silently communicate with their eyes and want to roll mine. Do they think I don’t know that they’re not all above-board? The Kings of Anarchy does have a reputation for settling scores and I’ve moved around enough that I’ve heard of them before. Still, they’re doing their biker thing and since it’s likely what Sutton says they call ‘club business’, I keep my mouth shut.

“I’ll run out there later and feel them out. If nothing else, see if y’all can pull parts. Would come in handy for restorations, I bet,” Mercury replies. “Especially on those older model cars.” He turns to me and asks, “Do you have contacts who can retool leather and upholstery?”

“I do,” I say. “Too bad I couldn’t convince Mike and John to move to Montana. They’d be great additions for the shop.”

“Who are they?’ Orion asks. “Mechanics you know? Have you worked with them? Do you think we could entice them to move? What do you think it would take?”

I start laughing, because his questions are coming out so fast, he’s almost spitting at me.

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

Mercury

“First of all, yes, they’re both mechanics, highly skilled in both foreign and domestic vehicles, as well as restoration work. Mike also has the bike certifications, so he’d be a huge help with those as well,” she informs us.

“It was pure fate that had Mercury finding you in that field,” Orion murmurs. I can tell his brain is already spinning with ideas to increase revenue so he can bring on two more mechanics. I have an inkling suspicion that once word gets out that Twist and Turn Customizations do good work without screwing the customer, they’re going to be inundated to the point they’ll be booked out in advance.

“Let’s bring that to the table,” I suggest to Orion. Looking at Finley, I add, “Go ahead and call your friends and feel them out about relocating. Let them know that we’re rebranding an old shop that didn’t treat the community well, so we’re going to be more than fair with our pricing. Also, let them know that since it’s a club-owned business, we will run a thorough background check on them once we figure out if we’ve got the finances to offer them a job.”

“I can definitely do that,” she replies, smiling up at me.

Seeing her so happy as she continues to look around at the shop, despite the fact that it’s dusty and outdated makes me even more glad that I found her. She deserves to have this happy after what sounds like a hard life. Not knowing how that feels personally, I mentally vow to do all I can to make sure she gets to realize all of her dreams.

“We need to do a deep cleaning before we can start unpacking the equipment coming today,” Orion muses as he runs his finger over a bench and comes back with dust coating his finger. “Man, I hate cleaning,” he mumbles as he continues along his path, inspecting everything.

“We can hire an outside cleaning crew to do that for us,” Finley suggests. “There are companies out there that specialize in warehouses and garages.”

“But do we trust people with our equipment already stored here?” Orion inquires.

“Somebody can be here to watch over them. We do have prospects now,” I remind him. “They’re still earning their stripes so it’ll do them good to do some grunt work.”

“But they aren’t like other prospects,” Orion points out. “We are kind of tossing them into the lion's den without proper gear.”

“It’s because we have to fast track them since we need the numbers,” I decree. Prospect time usually runs a year if not more depending on the man, but we’re having to bypass a lot of that to give us numbers.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as Finley pays attention to our conversation. This is stuff that doesn’t fall under the umbrella of club business, so I don’t mind that she’s hearing what we’re saying.

“Would they be able to come and help with the cleaning?” she asks. “I mean, a commercial cleaning company would be our best bet because they’ll go from the roof to the floor, but I know you’re just getting this chapter up and running again so money might be tight.”

“Don’t worry about any of that, wildcat,” I reply, “we’ve got it covered, and we’ll get prospects in to oversee things. Once the cleaning is done, the prospects can do any painting or moving shit around that y’all need so we can get the doors open as soon as possible.”

She looks at Orion and says, “We’re going to need a website created for us. It needs to have a bio for each of us working here, along with our certifications and awards. Because from the sound of things, the previous owner preferred to screw people over and I know that’s not how we’re going to operate. Plus, we can set some basic prices for oil changes and tire rotations, that sort of thing. Maybe once we’re officially opened, put an area in where they can buy basic things like antifreeze, windshield wiper fluid, and air fresheners. Maybe put a minimal mark-up on it, which will keep them coming back. We can offer spring or summer specials where we check their air conditioning system out for a flat fee. If we find a problem, we write up an estimate and they can go from there. Same for winterizing vehicles to make sure they don’t get stranded on the side of the road over something simple like a dead battery because it expired or the cells went bad.”

“Fuck, I love you, Fin!” Orion exclaims, pulling her in and hugging her. “You’re going to make this shop the best one around with these ideas. I mean, the obvious focus will be to repair cars and bikes, but these little things can become big things and cost more money if they’re not properly maintained.”

She’s amazing, my brain whispers.

“You did order the diagnostic machine, right?” she asks as the delivery truck pulls into the parking lot. “Because we’re going to need that for some of these newer model vehicles who seem to rely solely on computer chips.”

“Where are we going to put all of that?” I inquire as I see the delivery driver lower the ramp and start coming down with a hand truck full of boxes.