Better When He's Bad

CHAPTER 9 Bax

YOU LOOK TERRIBLE, SON.”

I couldn’t argue with the grizzled old mechanic. My face was still a wreck, my side was healing, but slowly, and there was no refuting that I had repeatedly gotten my ass kicked in the last few days.

I grunted and reached out to shake Gus’s hand. Everything I had learned about cars I had learned from this old guy. He ran a shop that was the legal front for the chop shop that handled all of Novak’s hot cars. The Runner wouldn’t be half of the beast it was if it wasn’t for Gus. Well, for Gus and for Titus dragging me with him to the shop after school for years before I realized I hated my half brother’s guts. Titus was almost as good with cars as I was. It was really the only thing we had in common; that and we both always looked up to Gus.

“I’m glad you’re out. Nobody around here appreciates classic American muscle the way you do. I can’t let half the idiots that work for me touch the pre-’76 stuff coming in. They don’t know what they’re doing with it.”

I laughed a little and took a drag on the smoke that was dangling out of my mouth. I had spent all day Sunday running around trying to put a face to the elusive rich guy Race seemed so obsessed with. I’d had no luck, and I was irritated that I wanted to touch base with Dovie, so I purposely didn’t. I didn’t need some girl floating around in my head, not with all the booby traps and nasty stuff that was already constantly in there. She was just supposed to be fun, an easy way to get my needs met until I got my hands on Race. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a lie I could sell to myself and it was more than my dick that wanted to see her tonight.

“I ran into Titus, he told me to swing by. He said you might need my help.”

Gus rubbed his greasy hands on his coveralls and lifted a bushy gray eyebrow at me.

“You listened to your brother?”

“Half brother, and no, I was going to swing by and see you when I got a minute anyway. I’ve been busy trying to find Race. You hear from him at all?”

He grunted and propped his booted feet up on the metal desk in the tiny office. His eyes shifted away from my own. “You need to cut Titus some slack. Man’s gotta work, and just because he does it on the right side of the law doesn’t make your brother a bad guy.”

I blew out a puff of smoke and crossed my arms over my chest. “You say that until he shuts you down for running a chop shop. It doesn’t matter if we have long-term history and that you’re tied to his family or not . . . he’ll put your ass in jail.”

“I run a legitimate business, son, and no one can prove otherwise. If Titus could prove it, he would be well within his right to lock me up, just like he did with you. Plus, he saved your ass from going upriver for the rest of your twenties. Maybe you should thank him instead of swinging at him.”

I snorted. “He ratted me out?”

“I got eyes, Bax. Titus is a monster, he isn’t gonna get a shiner like that from someone he didn’t let put it there. You wanna get your hands dirty, all aboveboard? I got a Stang, a Nova, a Chevelle, and a Hemi ’Cuda all looking to be rebuilt and polished up. They don’t have a thing to do with Novak. It’s a car guy’s heaven and I’ll pay you well to get them up to your standards. Plus, it’ll be an easier paycheck than letting Nassir use you as a punching bag.”

I rolled my eyes. “I need to find Race, and I’m not even started on Novak.”

“That’s not smart, Bax.”

“It doesn’t need to be. I’m tired of him playing puppet master for the entire Point. Someone needs to take him down, and I don’t have anything to lose.”

He sighed and closed his eyes so he could rub them.

“You have a brother by blood and another by choice who would be turned inside out without you. And your mom. Jesus, Bax, what do you think burying you would do to her? She would follow you into the ground.”

I finished the smoke and put it out on the heel of my boot. I was going to tell him it wasn’t my job to worry about any of that when he went on.

“And Race, he has that little sister he’s all tied up in now. What about her? You’re gonna bring the house down around a bunch of innocent people, Bax? Not even you are that careless.”

I frowned at him and shoved my hands in the pockets of my hoodie.

“What do you know about Dovie?”

“Race was frantic about her. Seems like his pops let it slip he had a little accident and the mom wouldn’t keep her mouth shut about it. The rich bastard wanted to make the whole mess disappear; typical Hill attitude. Race went crazy. I had never seen the boy like that.”

“After I got locked up, right?”

Gus looked at me and stacked his hands on his potbelly.

“A few weeks before. He was all about getting the girl, making sure she was safe. He was talking like you. Novak would pay, he was tired of Novak pulling strings, then things went south and he disappeared. I don’t know why he brought the girl back here, put her not only in his old man’s face but in Novak’s as well, but he must have had a plan.”

I couldn’t believe Race knew about Dovie before I went to jail. He had never said anything, never mentioned he was in trouble. It didn’t add up and I didn’t like the way everything was circling back to the redhead.

“Right before he disappeared, Race was flashing a picture around, asking a bunch of questions about some rich guy. You know anything about it?”

“Yeah. It’s his old man.”

I blinked stupidly and rocked back on my heels. “What?”

Gus kicked his feet off the desk and lumbered to his feet. “Race figured that the only person his old man would’ve asked to handle the dirty work was Novak. He was trying to put the two of them together the second he got back into town.”

“What exactly are we talking about when we say ‘dirty work,’ Gus?”

“You know Novak, Bax. What do you think?”

I swore and followed Gus back into the garage, where welders and air hoses made it impossible to talk. If Race thought his dad had asked Novak to kill Dovie, that made things even worse and more complicated than I thought. What in the hell kind of tangled mess had Race wandered into?

We stopped by a pile of rust that would be one badass ride with a little work. There was nothing like old muscle. I put a foot up on the bumper.

“She’s a sweet girl.”

Gus looked at me out of the corner of his eye and leaned on the fender. “The sister? How do you know?”

I just lifted an eyebrow, which made him shake his head. “Race is going to kill you. He loves that girl something fierce.”

“Well, he’s doing a shit job keeping her safe. Benny and his goons are all over her, and I’m the one running interference.”

“You run interference with what’s in your pants?”

“I told you she was sweet, and apparently she played a bigger part in Race going to ground than I thought. I need to figure this shit out. It looks like I might have to take a trip up to the Hill.”

“Be careful. Those people would like nothing more than to put you back behind bars. You took a lot of their really nice stuff.”

We shared a laugh that had very little humor in it. I pushed off the bumper and pulled my hood up over my face.

“I’ll help you get the monsters running, but that’s it. I don’t want anything to do with Novak’s business.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near Novak, Bax. Jail won’t be his answer to dealing with you this time around. Don’t be stupid, son.”

We shook hands and I tried to draw a picture in my head of all the info Gus had just given me. Race knew about Dovie. His dad wanted her dead. Old Man Hartman had asked Novak to kill her. Dovie was still around, Race had helped kidnap the old man the night I got arrested, and somehow that was all tied into him coming back to town and subsequently disappearing. He had to have dirt on Novak; something nasty if he felt safe enough coming back to the Point for a whole year before my release. I was starting to think he had purposely waited until I was out, until I was free to make his move, even if I didn’t know what that move was. One thing was clear—I was a pawn in all of it. I had given up five years of my life for someone else’s goal and that just pissed me off. I didn’t like to be used by anyone, ever.

I was running it over and over again while I drove to the school to get Dovie. She told me just to wait for her in front of the main doors and she would be out at ten sharp. Only she was already waiting for me when I got there, and my blood heated up when she yanked open the door on the opposite side of the car and slammed it shut with way more force than necessary. Her pretty mouth was screwed up in a pout and there was a flush under the freckles on her cheeks. She was upset about something and all I wanted to do was get her naked and play connect the dots.

“What’s up?”

She tossed her head back against the seat and fixed her eyes on me. I liked the way the green got darker and deeper when she was feeling something strongly. They did that when I made her come, too.

“College, even community college, is impossible with no books. I hate that Benny guy, I hate whoever Novak is, and I’m pretty pissed at my brother right now for dragging me into the middle of this.”

“You need money?”

I looked at her and she glared at me.

“Not from you.”

I made a noise in my throat and tried to remember why I thought I’d missed her the last couple of days. She moved a little and under her baggy plaid shirt I caught a peek of her creamy throat. There was a very visible hickey on the side of it, and it all came back to me in a rush, a rush that made my jeans suddenly too tight.

“Would you take it from Race?”

She begrudgingly nodded and crossed her arms over those breasts that I swore I would remember long after she was just a fraction of a memory.

“Well, Race isn’t here, so I’m the next best thing. Take the damn money so you don’t flunk your classes. Consider it going to a good cause.”

“I’m not a charity case.”

“Are you sure about that?” I liked to rile her up. It was fun to watch her get all huffy and puffy. “How was your weekend with the kids?”

She looked at me curiously, like maybe I was trying to set her up, but I really was curious. I didn’t know anyone in my world who cared about the future well-being of others. She was like a saint or something . . . a very sexy, very alluring saint.

“It was fine. Everyone was on good behavior, which is rare. They all thought your car was boss.”

I chuckled. “My car is boss.”

She moved some of her hair out of her face and bit her bottom lip. I wanted to replace her teeth with my own.

“Marco, my neighbor, said you promised him a ride. He asked me to remind you.”

“That little punk scammed me.”

She laughed a little as we got to the house. “You should still take him for a ride. It would make his day. He doesn’t have a lot to get excited about.”

I climbed out and followed her to the front door. “I’ll think about it.”

“What errand do you have to do tonight?”

“I already did it. I had to go see an old friend.”

She looked up at me with questioning eyes as I pushed open the door and let my arm linger over her head. I told her I would let her get her schoolwork done, and I had every intention of sticking to it, but if she kept batting those copper-colored lashes at me and looking at me like she wanted me to shove her against the door and have at it, I totally was going to.

“Did you find out anything about Race on Sunday?”

We went into the living room and I saw her surprise when she took in the TV and the computer that were now part of the furnishings. I had dropped a mint at the electronics store yesterday. I didn’t know how to work half the stuff, but if I was going to be crashing here, I needed the basics.

“No.” I wasn’t going to tell her about Old Man Hartman putting a price on her curly head. I don’t care how tough she pretended to be, hearing that her blood wanted her dead was bound to throw her for a loop, and I would just rather avoid the drama, at least until I had a clearer idea of what was going on. “You want something to eat?”

She made an incredulous face and flopped down on the couch. “You can cook?”

I lifted an eyebrow and smirked down at her. “I’m a man of many talents.”

I gave myself a mental high five when I saw a blush race up her neck.

“Sure, I can eat.”

“It won’t be anything fancy, but I can feed us.”

“Whatever. I’m gonna try and do my homework. Do you care if I use the computer?”

I shrugged and gave her the password to log on and went into the kitchen. When your mom was a drunk and your older brother was too busy trying to claw his way out of the muck and mire, you learned how to fend for yourself. I was never going to have a show on the Food Network, but I could throw together some stuff that would taste all right and keep us going.

I plopped a plate in front of her and turned on the TV. I wasn’t the type of guy who ever just lounged in front of the TV. I was always up to something, had somewhere to go or someone to meet. Maybe that’s why trouble had no problem finding me. I kicked off my boots, pulled off my hoodie, and settled in for as long as it was going to take me to wear Dovie down and convince her to go back to bed with me. Or maybe go down on me. Really, I wasn’t picky.

“This is good, Bax.” It made me grin that she sounded so surprised. I looked over at her and caught her watching me instead of looking at the computer.

“It was fend for yourself or starve around my house when I was little. I learned to make do.”

She swiveled around in the chair so we were facing each other.

“Is that why you started stealing? That’s how you fended for yourself?”

I put the empty plate on the coffee table and gave her a stony look. She was always trying to make me into something better than I really was.

“No. People had stuff that I wanted, so I took it from them. Cars, TVs, credit cards . . . I wasn’t stealing to make do, I was stealing because I wanted stuff that I was never going to work for.”

She made a face at me and turned back to the computer. “That’s not entirely true.”

I gathered up my plate and her now-empty one. I needed a smoke and to get laid, and not particularly in that order.

“What do you know about it?”

She lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I know you love that car and you didn’t steal it. I know that you wanted to do something nice for your mom, so you used your talents, as felonious at they might be, to get her this house. It wasn’t all about taking stuff just because you wanted it.”

I wasn’t used to anyone else being able to pick my true motivations out from the smoke screen I usually threw up. I couldn’t say I liked it very much.

“I’m gonna step outside for a minute.” She waved me off and I grumbled at her under my breath. Spending time with this girl was more headache than it was worth, even if I could still taste her all across my tongue and feel her like she was embedded under my prickly skin.

I let the smoke of a cigarette fill and escape out of my lungs and tried to get a handle on my rampant thoughts. There was just too much going on. Everything with Race, Titus popping back up on my radar, this girl twining her way into the very fabric of who I was. I wasn’t sure I could handle any of it with barely a month of freedom under my belt. I wasn’t the kind of man who was big on self-discovery and personal growth, only right now it didn’t seem like fate wanted to give me the option of burying my head in the sand.

I flicked the cigarette butt into the gutter at the end of the driveway and walked back in the front door, pulling my shirt off over my head as I went. I figured I could at least take a shower and work out some of my pent-up frustration on my own if Dovie wanted to continue to be a good little schoolgirl. Man, if that didn’t just put images of her in a short, plaid skirt and shiny Mary Janes all up in my head. This chick was going to make me lose my mind.

“I’m gonna take a show—” I got cut off when I entered the room and was simultaneously attacked and shoved back over the edge of the couch by a redheaded flurry of activity. The cushions of the sofa scattered and my pants and boxers ended up clattering to the floor under her small and hasty hands. I grabbed her around the waist as she climbed on top of me, still fully clothed. She put her hands on the center of my chest and loomed over me, her hair a bright curtain closing us in our own moment.

“Why didn’t you call me on Sunday?” I don’t know how she could talk with my dick standing up straight between us, but she started pulling at her top, so I figured if talking to her would get her naked faster, I would struggle through it.

“Because I wanted to.”

She paused with her arms over her head and I took opportunity of her position to unhook her bra and set those awesome breasts free. The pink tips were already hard and she shuddered when I rubbed the pads of my thumbs over them. She responded sweeter than any girl I had ever touched before, like it was a special treat to have my hands on her.

“So you wanted to call me, which means you didn’t?”

“Dovie, I only ever call chicks to hook up, not to chitchat, so yeah, I didn’t call you because I wanted to.”

She giggled a little because I ran one of my hands down her front and circled her belly button with my index finger. I wanted to lick it and put my mouth on every inch of her, but I had to work on getting her as naked as I was first, and it seemed like all she wanted to do was catch up.

“You didn’t want to hook up?” She actually sounded concerned.

I groaned and grabbed one of her hands that was still on my chest and wrapped it around the erection standing like a pillar between us.

“What do you think?”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and I groaned again. She was killing me with all her innocent seduction.

“I don’t want to want this, Bax.” Her voice was just a whisper of sound as I popped open the button on her jeans and got a hand under the waist of her panties.

I raised both my eyebrows at her, because as she said it, she started to move her hand up and down the straining length of my cock.

“I was going to let you study. I was on my way to the shower.” She whimpered when my finger hit its target, and she lifted up a little on her knees to give me better access.

She bent over so she could put her mouth on mine. I let her use those full lips and that clever tongue to kiss me until I was ready to roll her on her back and shove into her, whether she was ready for me or not. Between the soft glide of her hand up and down, and the pull and drag of her mouth over mine, this was bound to be over before she realized what she started. She pulled up and I immediately attached my mouth to the tip of her breast. I rolled the little pebble of pleasure across my tongue while she continued to work me over with her delicate touch.

“It was going to happen anyway. I almost jumped you in the car when you picked me up from school. I hate it. You make me feel out of control.”

Her words were punctuated with a squeeze at the base of my dick that made me grunt in surprise. I needed to get her pants off and get inside of her, like yesterday.

“Being out of control isn’t always a bad thing.” I tried to lift her up and off of me but the couch was narrow and she refused to let my erection go. I was pinned under her and captivated by those moss-colored eyes.

She suddenly climbed to her feet and let me go. I thought she was going to shimmy out of her baggy jeans and climb back on my lap so we could get down to business and I could make her forget all about not wanting to want this, but instead she dropped to her knees in front of me. I think my brain short-circuited, because the next thing I knew, my cock was sliding in between those lips that by themselves were enough to make me hard.

“Shit.”

I gathered a fistful of that flaming hair so I could watch her slide up and down on me and tried to regulate my breathing so I would last for more than a minute. There had never been anything in my life more beautiful than that face, with its smattering of freckles and sensuous mouth bracketed by those checkered flags. It was a mental image that I was glad came after being incarcerated, because if I had ever experienced all that was Dovie Pryce and her magical mouth before getting locked up, I never would have made it.

She swirled her tongue around the head, ran it along the throbbing vein underneath the side, and used her clever hands to bring me to the brink of exploding in her mouth within seconds. I told her to let me go, bucked up on the couch and used my hands that were lost in her endless waves of hair to try and pull her off of me, but it didn’t do any good. She was determined to see it through to the end, to get me as out of control as she claimed to feel around me.

The very tip of my erection hit her in the back of the throat and one of her hands disappeared between my legs. The only coherent thought I had after that, as the very edge of her teeth scraped over my most sensitive flesh, was oh fuck. I prided myself on keeping it together no matter what the situation was, and she had just undone me. She had taken me apart and left me scattered all over the place. I wasn’t sure what order I went back together in.

She ran her tongue over one of the finish-line flags and shook my grip loose out of her now messy hair. She got to her feet between my still-bent knees and I watched her with heavy-lidded eyes as she let her too-big pants fall to her feet so that she was clad in only her panties and the marks I had left all over her after our interlude in the kitchen. She bent over a little and put her hands on my shoulders and worked her way on top me, straddling my lap. I liked to think I had more stamina than the next guy, but she had turned me inside out, so even with those spectacular tits in my face, it was going to take me a minute to recuperate.

She squealed when I put both of my hands under her ass and got to my feet. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and we were eye-to-eye. I was taking her to bed.

“That was unexpected.”

The corner of her mouth tilted up in a grin and she laughed when I tossed her onto the bed. I hooked a finger under the leg of her panties and pulled the last garment keeping her from me out of the way. The trip down her long, pale legs was enough to get blood flowing in the right direction.

“I’ve never done that before.”

Just like that, all my pieces went back together in a better way than they had been before. Again, I felt like she was giving me something that was all my own, something I didn’t have to take just to feel like I had something of value. I placed a kiss on the quivering skin of her stomach and looked at her from under my brows. I pulled her legs apart and bent one knee so I could get between her folded-up legs and return the favor.

“You ever had a guy do this for you?”

Her head shook back and forth on the comforter and she curled one of her hands around my face so she could rub her thumb over the star on my face. She liked to do that when we were together like this, I had noticed.

“No. The last guy tried, but I thought it was too much, so I told him no.”

“It feels good. You should let someone make you feel good, Dove.”

Our eyes locked for a moment and I saw her chest rise and fall in a shaky breath. She moved her hand down and brushed her fingers over my mouth.

“You should let someone show you that being good isn’t all that bad, Bax.”

I dropped a sucking kiss on the inside of her thigh and made room for my shoulders between her legs.

“I’m about to be better than I’ve been in a long time, Copper-Top. You’re lucky.”

I wanted to make her crazy, to take her all apart like she had just done to me, plus my dick was back in the game, so as soon as I made her lose control, I wanted back inside her. Hell, I wanted to spend the entire night there, the rest of the week if she would let me.

She was honeyed everywhere, and all her slick pulsing inner flesh was no different. She was just so fresh and responsive. Every time I touched her, licked her, put openmouthed kisses on her little bud of pleasure, she reacted. There was no question she liked what I was doing to her, and when she started writhing under my mouth and started panting my name over and over again, it made me feel better than anything I could remember. I didn’t even register that she was gasping “Shane” and not “Bax.”

She was creamy and fluttery, all greedy inner muscles and clasping hands that were raking over my short hair. She was practically bowed up off the bed, her clit throbbing against my tongue every time I detoured to torture her with it. I could feel she was ready to go over the edge, she was moaning and restless against my mouth. I should push her over and eat her up, but I decided I needed to feel her, needed to be inside her when it happened. She was like some kind of redemption I never even realized I needed until we collided into each other’s lives.

I kissed her hard as I fumbled in the drawer of the bedside table for the stash of condoms I had tossed in there just in case. She kissed me back and twined her arms around my neck so we were plastered together, chest to chest and thigh to thigh. She was pressing against me, eager to get hers, which was hot on so many different levels. The fact that I could make this girl as greedy for me as I was for her was intoxicating.

“Come for me, little Dove.” I pressed all the way into her as she arched up hard against me and coiled her legs around me. Her mouth opened in a perfect little O of pleasure and those darkened eyes of hers danced between green and black as pleasure washed over the both of us. She was slick and soft where I was hard and hot. We burned against each other, melded in a rhythm that had her inner walls grasping at me and my hips involuntarily grinding into hers. It wasn’t frantic, but it was close. I wanted to be gentle with her, but there was no way—she felt too good, too tight and clasping.

We moved together like we were made to do it. All I wanted to do was make her feel as good as I felt, which wasn’t that much of a chore because she was already primed and ready to go. She tossed her head from side to side and dug her fingers into my sides.

“Jesus, Shane.” Her eyes fluttered closed and I kissed her right as she broke apart underneath me. I could taste the pleasure, the satisfaction I had given her on her tongue as it twisted and danced with my own.

I picked up the pace, was probably rougher with her than I needed to be, but it only took a minute after she found her release for me to find mine. I groaned into the hollow of her throat and buried my face in her endless fall of hair. I don’t know if this was what her intention had been when she ambushed me in the living room, but I had to admit I was a fan.

Her hand caressed my sweaty shoulders and I felt her trace the letters of my name that stood between my shoulder blades. She was rubbing the bottom of her foot up and down the length of my calf and I never wanted to move, ever.

“I changed my mind, Bax.” Her voice was raspy and she sounded as sated as I felt.

“Hmm . . . ’bout what?”

I started to suck on the ridge of her collarbone where my mouth had landed. All parts of her were like candy on my tongue.

“You don’t need anyone to show you how to be good, you’re so much better when you’re bad.”

She sighed in delight when I moved away from her neck and started to kiss behind her ear. Lucky for her I had no intentions of trying to be good anytime soon. Bad was what I was best at, it was what worked for me, and after that bout of sex, I was pretty sure Dovie could make bad work for her as well.