AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Seventeen
Reaper
YESTERDAY, GARCIA OVERPLAYED his hand. By calling Alex, he let us know exactly how desperate he is to get his hands on her. With Troy in jail, he has to make the deal and provide his daughter to the buyer. It won’t happen as long as I’m still breathing. If he wants to sell someone to the highest bidder, he can sell his damn self. Alex is not a pawn to be used in his game; she’s my woman who I’ll be claiming in front of the club very soon and a woman who has her own mind. Not someone to be sold and bartered with as if she’s a possession or a piece of property they can sell off at their will. All I know is Hawk hasn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours because he’s been up working on this shit. I’ve been wrapped around Alex with her body under me, over me, and curled up in my arms. Exactly where she belongs.
Today, I’m heading to work. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the garage my father started when he was in his twenties. I started working there as soon as I could walk steady and hold the tools. That’s where my interest in cars and bikes came from. I love getting my hands dirty and fixing something that’s broken. Or just making sure a car, truck, SUV, or bike is running the best it absolutely can. To know the person who brought it into us is trusting us to make sure their vehicle is in tiptop shape and ready for them to use for their next adventure.
Even before my dad was taken out by a rival club, I had taken over the garage, Buckley’s, from him. He didn’t want to deal with the day-to-day running of it or worry about making the customers happy. My dad was crabby and only wanted to deal with running the club, setting up new deals, and adding on anything he could do to extend our club business. When I took over, I cleaned it up and made it a better place for the customers to wait while we were working on their cars.
We have four bays for the mechanics to work. Essentially, we each have our own bay. Toolboxes fill the back wall with every imaginable tool we could ever think of needing. A long counter was installed against the wall for the waiting room with a computer system set up. It makes things easier to check our inventory before heading to the storage room, ordering parts we don’t necessarily keep in stock at the shop, and print out orders or input the work we’ve done to print out in the office and give the customers when their vehicle is done. Makes things so much easier on us. Jameson, Jonas, and Trax work with me at the garage, and we all work together amazingly. Half the time, we don’t even need words to convey what we need and want to one another.
In the waiting room of the garage, I had the walls painted a light grey and took down the posters with half-naked women straddling bikes or leaning up against cars. Those were always a favorite of my fathers. My office sits in the front corner of the waiting room with some chairs. We have shelves filled with some of the products we use and a storage room filled with the most common parts we install on cars. I’ve filled the walls with pictures of employees of the garage from the day it opened until now. Even customers are in the pictures with us. They don’t care if we’re part of a motorcycle club because we do quality work on their vehicles. When I took over, I wanted to make sure the customers knew we value them and their faith in us. So, what better way to show them than to add pictures to the walls showing them?
Pulling into the parking lot, the first thing I notice is the wrecker parked in its usual spot. We also do towing and have one wrecker for now. I’m seriously considering adding a flatbed and possibly one more wrecker to the small fleet we’d have. Jameson, Jonas, and Trax’s bikes are already parked in the parking lot along with a familiar red older model car. Althea is here. She’s one of our frequent customers. She brings her car in to get oil changes, check the tires, and perform other routine maintenance. While we’re working on her car, she sits on a bench I put out front and talks to us through the open bay doors. I know the car belonged to her husband, who passed away not long ago. Now, she comes in to make sure it runs as smoothly as it did when he was alive. I also believe Althea just wants someone to talk to. So, if one of us is on break, we make sure to sit with her and listen to her tales.
Shutting my bike down, I get off and pull the bandana from my hair. I pull it back and secure it with the hair tie from my wrist before walking over to Althea, where she sits on the bench. Her grey hair is curled close to her head, and there’s not a single ounce of make-up on her wrinkled face. She’s wearing her standard attire of cotton pants and a tee-shirt under her sweater. Her purse is on the bench next to her as I stroll up and sit next to her.
“Good mornin’, Althea,” I greet her with a smile.
“Good morning, honey,” she returns, always calling each of us honey.
“How are you doin’ today? You feelin’ okay? Need any work done at the house?” I question her, knowing I’ll send the Prospects over to take care of anything she needs help with.
“I’m doing as good as you’d expect for an old lady like me. I feel better than I have since I’m finally over this cold or whatever I had in the middle of summer,” she answers, laughing a little bit at herself. “I don’t need anything done right now. Your club takes such good care of me. Mowing my grass, repairing anything that needs it, and anything else you find along with way. My Harry would appreciate all the help you give an old woman like me.”
“You’re family whether you know it or not,” I tell her honestly. “You seen my grandma lately?”
“Yeah. She was at Bingo last night. She heard you have a woman living with you and is upset she hasn’t met her yet,” Althea informs me.
“Yeah, things have been crazy, and I’m just gettin’ back on track. I’ll take Alex over to see her tonight or tomorrow. You’ll like her,” I tell Althea knowing she’s almost as close to my grandma as I am.
“You better do that,” she scolds me as Jameson comes out of his bay and heads over to Althea’s car. “Don’t forget to put the seat back.”
Jameson turns and gives her a smile. We’ve all forgotten and nailed our knees on the dash and steering wheel of her car more than once. Considering we’re all over six feet tall and barely five feet, her seat is always too far forward for us. As he opens her driver’s side door, we watch as he bends down and moves the seat back before sliding in behind the wheel. I swear, the only time Althea drives this car is to bring it to us. When she goes to Bingo or any other activities, someone else always picks her up and takes her home. Althea won’t drive after dark and always gets a ride. She feels safer that way. The guys from the club have been known to take her and pick her up from activities a time or two.
“I’m gonna head into the office and get started on the paperwork. If you need anythin’, let one of us know. I’ll check on you soon,” I tell Althea, knowing I have to get the paperwork done before I can move on to start my day.
“I’ll be fine right here, honey. Go take care of business,” she demands in a way only a mother can demand something.
Standing up, I head inside and make my way to my office. The door is already open since the guys have been here longer than I have. They always have access to my office here at the garage. Only customers don’t have access when one of us isn’t in the waiting area. It’s where we cash them out, discuss their bill, and talk to them about what we need to do in order to fix their vehicle if it’s not in for routine repairs. That’s the one thing I made sure to do was take out the cash register and counter in the main waiting room. If we have to talk to a customer about something, I don’t want to do it in the open. It’s no one else’s business but the customer we’re taking care of, and that’s how I prefer to conduct business.
Sitting behind my desk, I look over the work order piled up on my desk. This is the part I hate the worst about running the garage. If I could get someone in here to take care of this part, I would in a heartbeat. I’d rather be getting my hands dirty than stuck in an office going through paperwork and making calls. As the owner, I have no choice in the matter until I can get someone in here to do this shit work for me.
“Boss man, you need to call Pedro and get him to give up any information he has on Garcia. I can’t find shit else on him,” Hawk says, entering the room without knocking or anything else.
“Hawk, what if I was in here with a customer?” I ask him, leaning back in my chair.
“Knew you weren’t. Althea is the only one here, and she’s sittin’ outside shootin’ the shit with Trax while he waits on his customer to get here,” Hawk informs me, a smile on his face.
Pulling out my phone, I pull up Pedro’s name and wait for him to answer.
“Hello, my friend. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Pedro asks, his accent coming out thick today.
“Hawk is havin’ an issue diggin’ up more on Garcia. He called his daughter yesterday somehow and didn’t have her new number. I need to take care of this fucker once and for all. My woman isn’t gonna be locked behind our gates indefinitely. She needs to get out and live her life the way she’s meant to,” I tell him, knowing there is no way in hell I’m going to be able to give her a life until her father is dealt with.
“What do you want to know?” Pedro asks, his voice not showing any amusement or anything other than the seriousness required for this situation.
“Everythin’ you got on the fucker. I need to know everythin’ and not just what he plans to do with Alex. I think we all know what that entails.”
