Racing Hearts (Hollows Garage Book 3)

Jax was already sitting down by the time I made it to the table. He nodded to the seat next to him and I reluctantly sat down, seven sets of eyes on me as I did.

It was as bad as I thought it would be, each of them smiling and looking me over, and I was almost holding my breath in anticipation for the comments. I already knew the girls so Jax introduced the guys. Ransom, a dark haired guy with more tattoos than I could count. Fox, who was tall, muscled, and had a nearly perfect face besides the scar running through it. And then Kye, who was possibly the most intimidating of them all but only because of the angry glare on his face. The tattoos and piercings didn’t help that either.

Jax knocked my hand and leaned in, making it even harder to breathe as I caught sight of a tattoo partially hidden under the collar of his shirt. It was still too covered to read the small lettering, but I was suddenly more interested in that than the table of people staring at me.

“Remember, you’re the one that bites,” he said, smirking. “Take a real breath.”

I met his eyes and listened, taking a deep breath.

“Good,” he said, the deep, pleased tone making a shiver run through me. “Now please keep doing that and eat.”

I nodded, trying to remember what we were talking about as I looked back up at him.

“I’m starving and this smells amazing,” Fox said.

“Wow,” Scout said, looking over all the food. “Did you seriously make all of this? There’s like ten different things!”

I laughed as Scout came up next to me. For being the girl who grew up with these rough guys, and raced, she seemed the opposite. Happy, bubbly, and welcoming. “There’s only three, but I doubled up the recipes. I assumed you all ate a lot?”

“You assumed right,” Jax said. It wasn’t exactly a dining room table, two fold-up tables pushed together with one nice tablecloth covering the entire thing. The small table that made up his real dining room table only had enough room for two.

I sat staring, a little surprised that everyone was piling their plates.

“Seriously, Carly, this all looks amazing. Are you a chef?” Ash asked.

“No, nothing like that. Want to be, maybe, but not yet.”

Fox groaned as he started eating, and Kye made a similar sound.

“This is the best focaccia bread I’ve ever had,” Jax said. “And this sauce. I want to bathe in it.”

I knew my eyebrows jumped higher than they ever had. “You know what kind of bread that is?”

I really didn’t take him for a guy that would know the difference between breads.

“And you want to take a bath in pasta sauce?” Scout asked, trying not to laugh. “That sounds disgusting.”

“And like it would burn?” Quinn said, her nose scrunched. “Eww, now the only image I have in my head is Jax is a big bathtub of sauce.”

The table erupted in laughter and groans as Jax turned to me.

“Yes, by the way, I know what type of bread this is. I can also tell you that this is bolognese sauce.” His smile grew, apparently proud of himself.

“Wow, I’m impressed. I thought all you street racers only knew cars and getting in trouble.”

All eyes turned to me and I shrunk back at the sudden attention.

I shouldn’t have said anything or brought more attention to myself. I knew the temper guys like them could have, and I knew what it was like to draw too much of their attention, or anger.

Suddenly, everyone broke into a smile.

“I’ll have you know, Quinn has worked hard to make sure we aren’t barbarians,” Jax said.

“And now you have to tell us what racers you are hanging around that make you know so much about them,” Scout said.

I tried to shrink back further, even though no one seemed mad about my statement.

“Carly?” Jax asked. “Care to answer the question?”

“I have some people in my family that are into that.”

“Really? Who? We might know them,” Fox said.

I let out a deep breath as everyone waited. “You apparently do,” I said, knowing how much of a fan everyone was of my newest stepdad.

Jax knocked my hand again. “Come on. We have to tell them.”

I tried not to notice the jolt that went through me as his hand lingered against mine for a few extra seconds. Or the way he said we instead of you, like I wasn’t sitting here alone to tell them where I came from.

But I was. I was alone, and it was me on my own with this. I could tell them who I was, and it didn’t matter how they felt, I would need to get going alone.

“Umm, my mom was alone for most of my life. You probably know my stepdad as Slaughter. Somewhere along the line, Slaughter met my mom and decided forcing his way into our lives would help him get ahead in life. Him and his friend, Tristian, are big into this stuff. He kind of took the role as head of our house after that, and my mom let him.”

The room went quiet as everyone looked at each other and then back at me.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Scout said, her mouth falling open.

“That’s who you were trying to get away from?” Fox asked, looking at me first, and then around the table.

“Yeah, him and Tristan. Ever since Slaughter took over, it’s been one thing after another going bad and I couldn’t take it anymore. I came across some things I shouldn’t have and my options were running off, or staying and helping them. I couldn’t handle being around them anymore.”

Quinn’s face scrunched as though she was in pain. “I don’t blame you.”

Ransom threw an arm around her, pulling her into him. “We know him and have had our own problems with him,” he said.

“Problems?” she asked, obviously pissed off. “He ran you off the road, tortured you, and tried to kill you. I don’t think that’s just having problems.”

“Serious?” I asked. “I mean, I’m not shocked he did that, but I’m surprised you guys know him that well. Of course I managed to run right into people that would have had such serious issues with him.”

Jax was shaking his head as he looked at me. “He thought we took some cars and went right to trying to kill us. We haven’t had trouble with him since it was proven that we weren’t the ones who took them.”

“You know that’s thin ice, though,” Fox said. “If he has the chance, he’s going to come right back after us again. He made that clear before.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jax said, his lips tight as he leaned back. His arms flexed as he crossed them, and I watched as his jaw clenched.

“Which would include finding out that I am hiding out here with you,” I said. “After I learned all about the things he’s doing, they wanted me to help them change serial numbers on cars to steal. I didn’t agree and left instead,” I said, not ready to add in that I took the laptop. I wasn’t sure how much I could trust all of them yet. “I will immediately be a problem for them. He’s not going to be relaxed about me running out. He takes the family thing seriously even though we aren’t even related, and they won’t be happy letting me go with what I did learn. I really should go. I don’t want to bring my trouble to you all. Is my truck ready? I don’t mind leaving tonight to save anyone from run-ins with him again.”

Jax rubbed the back of his neck. “No, not quite. I think I found the problem, but it’s not as quick of a fix as I hoped.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s a bit of a two-fold problem. Maybe more like tenfold? Kind of a domino effect. One thing went wrong and then a few other things.”

“Then a few more,” Scout mumbled.

“What is wrong with it?” I asked, trying not to let my anxiety boil up. My options became very limited again if my truck wasn’t ready.

“The head of your engine cracked, then your radiator cracked, and since you kept driving it they got worse and worse, which led to —”

“I don’t know mechanics that well. Give me a normal person’s explanation.”

“Your engine is about a minute from blowing up. It’s all fixable right now, but I would basically be rebuilding an entire engine unless we found a good one to drop in there. Best bet, a week to wrap it up.”

“And worst bet?”

“I would say two weeks to account for parts being shipped and put on, plus testing. And that’s if all the other cars I’m working on go smooth in the meantime or they help out more when they can,” he said, nodding to the others.

“So I have no chance of driving for a week or more, at least?”

“I would honestly give it two just to be safe. Then all the parts will be in and I will have time to put it back together.”

“Back together?”

“I had to tear it down to find the problem,” he said, scrunching his face. “It doesn’t matter either way. You wouldn’t have been able to drive it far even if it was put together.”

“Two weeks,” I mumbled. The words echoed like a curse as I tried not to cry while everyone looked at me. “I have to go back for two weeks, and then somehow leave again?”

“Go back?” Jax asked.

“Well, I have to go somewhere and I’m definitely not getting far by walking.”

Jax sighed, running a hand through his hair. “No, I don’t think you can go back. It would only be worse now. If they are how you say they are, they wouldn’t give you another chance to leave. What about a hotel?”

“And waste every cent I have? There would be no point because I wouldn’t be able to pay for anything after I had my truck back.”

“I could help you out. A loan or something to help you until you’re working.”

I thought it over. It wouldn’t be terrible, and I would probably be safe enough from Slaughter. At least for the time being. I had no idea how I would start to pay him back hundreds of dollars for the hotel costs. I knew staying in a hotel that long would not be cheap.

“Are you serious?” Scout asked, her angry glare looking around at each one of us.

“What’s wrong?” Jax sighed, the care in his tone genuine.

“She’s not staying in a hotel. How is she going to feel safe from him alone in a hotel?” She honestly looked outraged, and I realized it was outrage for me.

“Scout, I can’t risk Slaughter finding out she’s here and coming for us again. That was hell before and almost got Ransom killed. Almost got us all killed trying to save him. We can’t risk that.”

Scout looked to me, and back to Jax. “And she can’t risk sitting at a hotel in town waiting for Slaughter to find her there. There are only two hotels in this town. Hold on, there’s actually one because the other is a creepy motel. Do you really think he isn’t going to look for her at those places?” She turned to me. “How much do you know exactly? Like ‘get him in trouble’ type of knowledge or just ‘piss people off’ type of knowledge?”

“I don’t know for sure yet, but maybe more the get him in a lot of trouble type.”

She looked around the table again, her face hard. She was small, but I assumed she wasn’t as sweet when she was pissed.

“If she did nothing wrong and doesn’t want to go help Slaughter, then why wouldn’t we be the first to help her?”

“Because Slaughter isn’t our enemy right now and we need to keep it that way,” Ransom said. “It has nothing at all to do with you, Carly.”

“No, I get it. I don’t want any problems for you guys,” I said, and I meant it.

“That’s not the point,” Scout said. “We are always willing to help people and I don’t know when we got so scared of Slaughter. We dealt with him once and can deal with it again. Why wouldn’t we help her? We help everyone else?”

“I think it’s different, Scout. You guys don’t know me,” I said, surprised at how much I could hug her for being so sweet right now.

The room went quiet as they looked at each other.

“I’m with Scout,” Kye said. “We didn’t know Quinn and helped her. We didn’t know Ash, and that brought some issues around. Slaughter had a problem with us from day one and we’re the ones that made it worse trusting the wrong people. Why wouldn’t we help her? Scout is right, she didn’t do anything, and the last place Slaughter is going to be looking for her is with us. Bringing her to a hotel would be next to useless. They know her truck broke down. They will be looking at mechanic shops and places she could be staying.”

My jaw almost dropped open that Kye was on the side of helping me. He was the last one I would have expected.

“Exactly. They will be looking at shops. Ours would be on that list,” he said.

Scout rolled her eyes hard and Kye leaned back. “So? We can keep it in the back bay. It would be out of the way and out of sight from the street. We can get it done, and she’s on her way again.”

I didn’t even know what to say. I felt like I shouldn’t be here for this conversation and should also tell them that the hotel was fine, but I was too stunned to speak. I never had anyone stick up for me like this, and wasn’t sure how to show my thanks for them being so thoughtful. I could only look at Jax who looked right back at me. His face was calm, but I didn’t miss the pinch to his lips before his face softened.

“Would you feel better staying here?”

I thought of the hotel. While I would be alone and that would be nice, Kye was right, Slaughter would definitely be checking for me there.

“Yes, but I don’t want to be a problem for you,” I said, still watching him. He looked around again, everyone making some silent agreement, but I caught the sharp nod of Ransom’s head and Ash’s annoyed glare at Jax.

“You’re not a problem. And they are right, you staying here is safer. I live alone so we can figure out room for you to stay comfortably for the next two weeks.”

“Seriously, I can make the hotel work if you’re not okay with this,” I said, barely meaning it. I don’t know when staying with a group of street racers became the better choice, but it was.

“If everyone is good with you staying, then I’m good with it. Any sliver of a sign that Slaughter or Tristan found you, though, tell us immediately. That’s not negotiable at all.”

I looked at each one of them, from easy smiles to nods, they really all seemed in agreement now.

“And Riot?”

At the sound of his name, he ran over, sitting and looking up at Jax, hoping his name meant he was getting some food.

“As long as he doesn’t eat me alive in my sleep, he was included.”

“What if he does find out I’m here?”

“How would he find that out? I doubt Tristan had any chance to get a good look at me or my car before I broke his nose, and we’ll all be a little more aware of our surroundings for now.”

“I don’t know. Like I said, if he does, I don’t want any problems for any of you.”

“There won’t be any problems. Plus, where else are you going to go that’s as safe?” Jax asked. “The truck is already starting to get fixed, and I’ll be looking for all the parts tomorrow. Just hang out until it’s done.”

“But Jax—”

He cut me off, leaning close that only I could hear. “Enjoy the dinner that you worked hard on and we can figure it all out later. You stayed here one night already. You can at least stay one more.”

I nodded in agreement and saw the relief on his face.

“Perfect, you’re staying for now, then. And a bonus for you, you’ll be staying long enough to taste my cooking now,” Jax said.

“You’re cooking?”

The table groaned.

“Don’t eat it,” Scout said. “Whatever he cooks, do not eat it.”

“You know what, my microwave mac n cheese is a delicacy. She will love it,” he said, smiling at Scout before turning to me.

The tightness to his jaw was gone, replaced with a grin, and his dark, messy hair was cut back to not hide his ruggedly handsome face. It all gave him an effortlessly charming look that pulled me in. A shiver moved through me as he looked at me again. To make it all worse, every time he spoke, the easy, calm tone he always seemed to have made me feel calm.

I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse, but as I ate and listened to everyone talk, I tried not to think about what came next for me.