Despite my protests, Oscar insisted I spend the entire day in bed, downing Aspirin and water until the pounding in my head and the throbbing throughout my body became manageable enough to function. After he returned to the shop and the next round of painkillers kicked in, I found myself sinking once again into a restless sleep. My dreams were horrible; nightmarish visions of my father becoming a monster and then dying and then waking up and doing it all over again.

I watched my father’s funeral through bleary eyes and fuzzy thoughts. Tears ran freely down my face, but Oscar, dry-eyed and stoically silent, stayed for all of it. I was glad. Other than us watching the live stream, there was no one present. Once, I thought I saw a figure in the corner of the camera as they passed by the gravesite. A man dressed in a dark jacket and sunglasses. His haircut had reminded me of Vorack, but he was gone too fast to know for sure.

After that, I was too lost to my own grief to even care.

By the time the service ended and the live stream cut off, Oscar was fidgeting. I told him to get back to work, and the moment he was gone, I gave in to my grief and cried myself to sleep.

Hours later, Oscar brought me dinner and another paper bag full of fast food and even through my haze of pain and grief, I realized he needed that cooking and cleaning more than he’d let on.

The place wasn’t gross, but dust motes danced in the slanted sunlight that streamed in through the windows, and the fast-food dinner seemed like a habit.

By the next morning, I woke a little less achy and a lot more clear-headed.

Oscar’s bed was already empty when I stumbled to the bathroom and took a shower. But when I emerged, a couple of pairs of leggings along with a few sports bras and tank tops had been tossed onto my bed.

I looked around, listening for someone else, but the apartment was quiet. Empty.

Wrapped in a towel, I picked up the clothes and examined them. One was a button-down shirt with the Twisted Throttle logo printed on the right breast. Underneath, Oscar’s name had been stitched. It would be big, but I could tie off the ends at my waist and make it work. Moving on, I studied sports bras and leggings. They were my size, I realized with surprise. Somehow, I couldn’t picture Oscar shopping for clothes in my section. Especially sports bras.

Not that I was complaining.

I got dressed and ran a comb through my hair. My face was still a hot mess, but the rest of me looked almost human again. It would have to do. I couldn’t sit in this apartment alone for another day. Not when my thoughts kept drifting back to my dad.

Now that the funeral was over, all I could think about were monsters. The one he’d become and the ones supposedly hunting us. I’d lived with his fears for so long they’d become commonplace. I’d dismissed them and learned to live with his paranoia like one would live with OCD. But now, I knew there had to be more to it.

The questions my mind made up continued to torture me. So, rather than drive myself crazy, I headed downstairs. Even another run-in with Kai would be better than sitting alone with my thoughts.

But Kai was nowhere to be seen in the front office. In fact, despite the “Open” sign lit up in the window, the place was empty.

I peered through the side door that led to the garage and saw Oscar perched on a stool beside a large motorcycle decked in chrome.

Beyond him, there was one other guy farther back. He was bent over the hood of a car. My car.

I opened the door and stepped into the garage. The scent of grease and oil hit me. I found it weirdly pleasant. Oscar looked up as I walked over.

“Morning,” I said.

“I didn’t think those bruises could get any worse,” he said, studying my face.

I lifted my fingers to my cheek but then thought better of it. “They look worse than they feel,” I said.

“Good thing.” He snorted.

“How’s it going with my car?” I asked.

He looked over at it and then pushed to his feet. “Let’s go find out.”

I followed him over.

“Drake,” Oscar called out.

The guy bending over the hood straightened and turned, giving Oscar a nod. When he saw me, his perusal became more thorough. As did mine. He was a little older than me but not by much. Good-looking too. His brown eyes were sharp, assessing. His gaze lingered on the bruises I wore, and his expression turned guarded.

“This must be the niece,” he said to Oscar, somehow ignoring me despite looking right at me.

I rolled my eyes. And just like that, my interest in him dried up.

“Ash,” Oscar supplied. “What’s the verdict?” he asked, gesturing to the car.

“She’s DOA, in my opinion.”

“What’s DOA?” I asked.

He pretended I hadn’t spoken. It was Oscar who answered.

“Dead on arrival.” He grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

“From the looks of it, the thing should have been junked a long time ago,” Drake said. “It’s not worth the rust it’s covered in. I vote we sell it for scrap metal and be done with it.”

“That’s not your decision to make,” I said.

The guy arched his brow but otherwise didn’t respond.

Oscar turned to me. “Drake’s right. It would cost more to fix than the damn thing is worth. You’re better off junking it and starting fresh.”

“Starting fresh?” I repeated, biting back a scream.

Couldn’t he see that’s what I’d already done? It wasn’t like I’d had a choice either. But without a car, I was completely and utterly stuck here. At the mercy of guys like Kai and Drake and Oscar.

Not a single friendly face in sight.

My dad might have been drunk and paranoid, but he didn’t talk to me like he wanted to shove me into a ditch somewhere.

“Whatever, fine,” I said.

“Drake will take care of it and settle up with whatever we get for the scrap,” Oscar said, totally clueless about my looming breakdown.

“I’m on it, boss,” Drake said.

“Good.” Oscar turned to me. “I need to call a customer, but then you and I can go over some training in the front office.” Oscar looked at me for confirmation.

“Okay,” I said, already counting down the hours until I could crawl back into bed.

“I’ll be there in five,” he said and then strode away, already pulling out his phone.

I started to head back to the office to wait, but Drake stopped me.

“Does Kai know you’re sticking around?”

I turned slowly, wary and angry. “I can’t see how it’s any of his business.”

Drake snorted. “Everything that happens in this town is his business. Especially outsiders.”

“You do know this is a free country. People can come and go as they want. Unless you have some law against visitors?”

He chuckled as if I’d said something funny. “Believe me, laws are not our thing around here. We do things our way. And that means keeping the town clean from people who don’t belong.”

My face heated with anger. “Good thing it’s not up to you,” I snapped. “Tell Kai to kiss my ass.”

“Babe,” he said, grinning in a way that felt a little unhinged. “Be careful what you wish for.”

I walked away, forcing myself not to turn around or quicken my steps despite the ripple of fear at showing him my back. Something about Drake felt dangerous. Hell, they all felt dangerous. And I’d seen my fair share over the years too. Between the kind of people Dad brought around and the customers I’d waited on at work, I recognized it was toxic when I saw it. But these people were something else.

What was with the guys in this town thinking they could order me out of it? I’d be damned if it was going to work.

Oscar spent an hour going over the computers and invoicing system and the scheduling calendar he used to book jobs.

“How are you doing?” he asked at the end of it. “I mean, you know, with everything.”

If the question hadn’t stirred my grief up, I would have laughed at the discomfort he wore as he spoke. Oscar and feelings didn’t mix well.

“I’m good,” I told him.

He studied me as if trying to decide whether I meant it. Finally, he nodded. Then he deemed me ready and left me alone.

The work helped distract me, and by lunchtime, I actually felt like I had it under control. A few calls came in from people asking to schedule maintenance on their motorcycles, and I used the cheat sheet Oscar had given me to slot them the proper time in Oscar’s schedule. He was busy, booked out for more than two months, and most of his other techs were the same. Did everyone in this town ride a motorcycle?

Outside, I saw plenty of cars passing by on their way farther into town, so I knew there were other vehicles. But by the end of the day, I was convinced that either Oscar was the best around or all motorcycles broke down once a week.

A few of the customers asked my name, some even asking me to repeat it or being obviously nosy and asking how I knew Oscar. I didn’t give them more than the professional basics, but I had a feeling a town this small would probably allow them to find out what they wanted to know soon enough.

By closing time, the sun had dipped behind the building, casting the street and sidewalk out front into long shadows. Oscar had sent everyone else home, and the phone had stopped ringing almost an hour ago. When the clock struck six, I walked up and switched the Open sign to Closed.

I was just about to turn the lock when a figure darkened the doorstep on the other side. Unlike the other day, he was dressed in a plain tee that was fitted enough to reveal a lot more of him than I’d seen the first time. Broad shoulders, tanned arms tatted with a sleeve of symbols that I’d missed the other day, and a jawline that I was already seeing in my daydreams.

Kai.

I swallowed hard, my stomach flip-flopping with nerves.

He pushed his way in without waiting for me to invite him.

“We’re closed,” I said, retreating under the pretense of grabbing my pen from the counter.

A pen.

Like it was some necessity of my job to hold a pen in my hand. Like that would somehow protect me.

“I work here,” he said flatly.

Right. Shit. I tried not to think about what that meant for tomorrow. Or every day after that. Working under the same roof didn’t seem like a safe option, not with how much animosity he held toward me.

“You weren’t here today,” I pointed out.

“I took the day off. Not that it’s any of your business. Is Oscar here?”

“In the garage.”

He marched past me and out the door, taking the cloud of tension with him. Alone, I let out the breath I’d been holding and prepared to head upstairs. My head was throbbing after a full day on my feet. But the sound of voices kept my feet firmly planted.

Evidently, these walls were thin.

“You gave her a job?” Kai demanded in a voice almost as angry as he’d used with me.

“Watch your tone,” Oscar snarled with slightly less volume. “This is my shop last time I checked. Which means I make the decisions around here.”

“You know the rules, Oz.” Kai’s voice quieted, but the hardness remained.

“She’s family. That counts for something.”

“She’s an outsider. You’re putting us all at risk.”

“She’s an orphan who just got the shit kicked out of her by some deadbeat assholes. What am I supposed to do?”

Kai didn’t answer. I could picture the scowl he was probably wearing though. Lust pooled low in my belly. I seriously needed to work on that. I’d never had a thing for the rude asshole before. Not like this anyway. Even the jerks I’d hooked up with in the past had been passably polite to me. It was kinda embarrassing how attracted I was to a guy who hated me. And really annoying.

“This is a dangerous game you’re playing,” Kai finally said.

Oscar grunted. “Don’t I fucking know it?”

“Why’s her last name different?”

“No clue. Caleb wanted to disappear that much I know. I guess he decided to be thorough about it.”

“What’s the story with the mother?”

“She left a few years back, apparently. No word since.”

“Any idea who she was?”

“None. Caleb kept a lot of secrets.”

Kai snorted. “Yeah, and one of them is standing in your front office.”

There was a pause.

“Does she know?” Kai asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“What about her?” Kai asked. “Her old man was one of us.”

“I don’t know. Something’s off. I can’t get a scent. It’s like she’s just human.”

I blinked, confused. Of course I was human. What the hell else did he expect? But then I thought of my dad. The weird beast he’d morphed into right before he’d died. Did Oscar and Kai know something about it? And did that have anything to do with Kai’s question the other day?

What are you?

It hadn’t made sense, and I’d nearly forgotten about it in favor of all of the other fantasies I’d been having since. But now, it seems important.

Before I could decide what it all meant, I heard Oscar again.

“I know that look. What’s your instinct tell you, kid?”

I stilled. It was a weird way to phrase it, but I understood what it meant. Oscar wanted to know what Kai honestly thought about me. And even though it shouldn’t have mattered, I wanted to know what his answer would be.

“She’s different,” he said, and I huffed. The vagueness of his words only frustrated me more. He cleared his throat, clearly not willing to elaborate.

“She’s harmless,” Oscar said.

“Look, the fact is it’s just as dangerous for her as it is for us.”

“I’ll take responsibility,” Oscar said.

Kai snorted. “Are you sure that’s a job you want? Something tells me that a girl finds trouble wherever she goes.”

“She’s family,” Oscar repeated and then after a pause, “If you won’t give your blessing, I’ll go to the council.”

Kai growled, a sound of frustration. “The council already knows, Oz. You had her working your phones today, apparently. Without a single heads up to the rest of them.”

“Shit,” Oscar muttered. “Now what?”

“Keep her out of the woods. Hell, keep her inside these walls if you can. And I’ll do my best to keep the others off your back. But you need to find a way to get rid of her.”

“I can handle the others,” Oscar said.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

I barely registered footsteps signaling the conversation had ended before the door swung open and Kai stepped back inside the office. Our eyes met, and I had zero doubt he knew I’d been eavesdropping. Instead of calling me out for it, he sniffed then wrinkled his nose as if something had disgusted him.

“You really shouldn’t be here, Ashes,” he said then started for the exit.

Ashes?

“That’s what Drake said.”

He stopped and stared at me. “When did you talk to Drake?”

“He looked at my car. Then he told me I needed your permission to live in this town.”

“And what did you tell him?”

I couldn’t help the smirk that spread as I remembered my words. “Oh, he didn’t deliver my message?” I asked, fluttering my lashes innocently.

He shook his head.

I let the mock innocence fall away and snarled, “That you could kiss my ass.”

Then, I turned and stomped up the stairs before he could reply.

By the time I reached the apartment, I was almost hyperventilating. Where had that bravery come from? Kai hated me, and something told me he wasn’t used to losing. If he wanted me gone, that meant he was going to do whatever it took to make it happen. He was not someone to fuck with. So why was I doing exactly that?

It was the tattoos.

They’d given me temporary insanity.

Kai was not someone to mess with. Or flirt with. Or daydream about. He was an asshole. And definitely not someone I wanted to get naked with.

He was someone to avoid.

A toxic jerk exactly like the kind I’d just run away from.

So, why did I find myself wanting to run toward him instead of away?

Oh yeah, because I was an idiot.