Help Wanted (11 page)

Charisma must have ESP or something because Dr. Gearan had been leaving a message on her answering machine when she was walking out of the door to meet Charisma at the mall. “I haven’t been to see him. I’m not sure if I’m ever going back to work.”

Working for an airline wasn’t the only thing she could do with her life. She was young enough to have a career change, something that would be less dangerous and she wouldn’t be responsible for any other people’s lives.

“Keira, when are you going to snap out of this depression and constant fear you seem to be living in? What happened to the devil may care woman who went to Jamaica with me? You used to be so fearless and you didn’t let a thing stand in your way. Don’t you miss that part of you too? Or am I just talking to hear myself talk?”

Charisma didn’t understand. Going back to work had been the foremost thought in her mind since she got out of the hospital, but the nightmare started and the airlines told her that she couldn’t come back until she had a clean bill of health.

No one understood how much she wanted to return to work. However, how could she look into everyone’s eyes and hear all the welcome backs when she was the only one who knew what truly happened before the last part of the crash happened?

Keira had to get Charisma off this topic because she wasn’t ready to get into it with anyone. “I just need a little more time to clear my head.  I swear that you haven’t lost that woman who went on vacation with you.  She’s still here.”

“I hope you’re telling me the truth,” Charisma said looking at her with a doubtful expression on her pretty face.

“I am.” Keira was relieved that she’d dodged another bullet with Charisma.

Chapter Twenty

“Daddy, it’s so cool that you have your own motorcycle shop.  I love it here. When I tell the other kids at school about this they are going to be so jealous.” Trevor wandered around
Choppers
while Jim boxed up the last of the motorcycle parts, so he could get the space ready for a new coat of paint and the redesign he was planning.

“Now, Trevor I told you about bragging to make other people feel bad. I don’t like when you do stuff like that. You shouldn’t ever want to make anyone feel beneath you. Who did you get that idea from?”  He was trying his best to raise his son to be a good person, but he was going wrong somewhere if Trevor was saying things like that.

“Mom is always saying, if you have something good you need to tell people about it. It’s not your fault that they can’t afford the best things like you can.”

Jim had to swallow a couple of times to keep from losing his cool. Kathy was ruining every good lesson he was trying to teach his little boy. He couldn’t allow Kathy to turn Trevor into a smaller greedy version of herself.

He was going back to his lawyer for full custody. The only reason his worthless wife gave him such a battle for Trevor in the first place was for the money. Kathy was getting more from him by having Trevor with her instead of his son being with the parent who truly loved and cared about his feelings.

Trevor deserved to be in a good caring and loving home. He wasn’t getting that from Kathy and the different men popping in and out of her life every two months.

Jim hadn’t grown up in the best family environment himself, with both of his parents constantly cheating on each other.  He lost count years ago of how many half brothers and sisters he had, but the sad thing was his parents never got a divorce because they didn’t believe in the word.

His parents wedding anniversary was coming up in a couple of weeks and they had invited him but he wasn’t sure if he was even going to show up for the party.  He didn’t want to deal with the two of them. Maybe because his mom gave birth to him at fifteen she thought she had missed out on something during her life. His father wasn’t much older than his mother. He had just turned sixteen the day after Jim was born.

Thank God, his grandparents were still young enough to step in and help his parents out while they finished up high school and then college. He always knew who his parents were but he always thought of his grandparents as his true parents. They taught him how to be giving, loving and understanding of other people. He was going to pass those qualities on to Trevor with or without help from his ex-wife.

Jim looked at his son trying to find a way to answer him without making his mother look bad. He didn’t want to put Trevor in the middle of what was going on with him and Kathy. “Trevor, when you hear your mom tell you stuff like that, don’t pay attention to her. Anytime you aren’t sure about anything she tells you always remember you can come and ask me, okay?”

“Mom tells me that you’re a liar and won’t be honest with me. How do I know who to trust?” Trevor asked him.

A deep, unaccustomed pain filled his chest at the doubt in his little boy’s voice. He never wanted Trevor to be worried that he would never tell him the truth.

“Trevor, no matter how much you might not like my answers all of the time, I will always tell you the truth. You can ask and know that I will not lie to you.”

 Hazel eyes a shade darker than his stared up at him with a huge amount of trust in them. He hoped that Trevor never lost his belief in him because of lies that his mother filled his head with when he wasn’t around.

“I believe you, Daddy. I know you will always tell me the truth.”

“Good, now will you take that small white box by the wall out to Dante in the truck? I don’t want to leave it here. I need this space completely empty for the painters.”

Running away from him, Trevor grabbed the box off the floor. “Do you think he’ll let me play some games on his cell phone?”

“Ask him and see what he tells you,” Jim yelled as Trevor ran out the front door.

Shaking his head, Jim smiled at the abundance of energy that his little boy constantly seemed to be filled with.
I don’t ever remember having that kind of get-up-and-go when I was his age
.

Moving around the room, Jim took in the empty space hoping the vision he had for it would come true. The painters wouldn’t be coming until next week because he was having the bathroom’s plumbing fixed along with checking the lighting.

The place would take almost two months to get in shape, but the wait would be worth it. He was even getting a new black and gray sign made to have placed on the roof. The new
Choppers
sign was the biggest investment when it came to the redo because he was having it custom made by a new designer who was friends with Dante. He had seen this young man’s work and Romalliti was the hottest artist out there.

As the thought of redoing something crossed his mind, the memory of yesterday and what happened with Keira lingered around the edges of his brain. He couldn’t shake the vivid recollection of how good the two of them were together…
no, how perfect they were together.

Who knew that the tightly wound Keira Winters would be so sexually compatible with him? The second he slid his cock inside of her he hadn’t wanted to leave the unbelievable paradise that he had found there.

He hadn’t fathomed being with too many women since his divorce. Bambi held on to the belief that she might spend a night or two in his bed, but he never wanted her in that way. Hell, he never contemplated he would be interested in spending more than a night with a woman until sleeping with Keira.

Even when he was younger he never had the staying power he’d possessed last night with Keira. He would never forget a single detail of her face as her beautiful body bounced up and down on his cock while she was straddling his thighs. Honestly, ending up in bed with Keira wasn’t a part of his plan when he knocked on her door to check up on her, but he sure as hell wasn’t upset that it was where the two of them ended up for most of the day and night.. Shit, he was hoping Keira wouldn’t pretend they hadn’t spent yesterday learning what pleasures they could give to each other.

Even after he finally left this morning after kissing Keira goodbye, she filled his thoughts until he couldn’t do anything else but focus only on her. The date he went on with her to Dante’s restaurant ranked pretty high for him–like an eight out of ten.  Plus the sex was off the charts. He was more than ready to carry her over his shoulder back to the closest bedroom.

All of what he was thinking was good for him. Yet, he wasn’t too sure where Keira’s mind was today. She might be taken aback by his sudden interest in her after all of the disagreements between them. Keira was very skeptical when it came to things. So, he might have to take moving things to the next level with her very slowly because he wasn’t positive about what the next step should be himself.  All he knew was that he did enjoy the short period of time they’d shared together.

 He was man enough to acknowledge that he wouldn’t be against having another dinner date with Keira.  Maybe the next one could be a little more romantic. She might try to blow him off and pretend that last night didn’t blow her mind too, but he wasn’t going to let her do that. He was going to break that hard shell of hers down even more until it no longer existed.

Doing a favor for Dave wasn’t the reason he wanted to go out with Keira again and surprisingly the mind-blowing sex wasn’t the deciding factor either. The only reason he was interested in seeing Keira again was he found her extremely attractive and more challenging than any woman who had been around him in such a very long time.

It was intoxicating to him how Keira, although still not totally back to her old self, still found a way to make him pursue her.  The chase was giving him a thrill that he never imagined it could.

He hoped Keira was playing her best game because he didn’t mind losing, but he wasn’t going to give up until he got what he wanted which was her.

Chapter Twenty-One

10:45 am

Prison Work Crew

Los Angeles, CA

The hot sizzling sun beamed down on the top of his head causing more sweat to fall down his forehead into his eyes as he picked up the pieces of paper, soda cans and the other variety of litter that was scattered across the sides of the highway.

He couldn’t believe that he had been locked up for almost seven years before they even thought about allowing him to qualify for this fucking work release program. He shouldn’t have been given any prison time in the first place because he hadn’t done anything wrong.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, Dalton Blake glanced at the low life criminals working around him complaining about how uncomfortable they were working out in all of the heat.

God, why was he even in the same space as them? Damn it! He had MBA from Harvard. He should be working at a high paying job instead of being out here with these part-time drug dealers, car thieves and petty delinquents.

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that lying bitch True Williams…no True
Campbell. A car zoomed past him, the occupants yelling some kind of offhanded insult.

Since the first day when the guards dropped him off at prison, he’d been fighting off sex starved men from making him their new boyfriend while praying his cell mate didn’t want to make a late night call to his bed.

His backstabbing ex-girlfriend was tricking some rich idiot into placing a ring on her finger. True had gotten everything she ever wanted whilst he’d been living in his own personal hell.

I have to pay her back. If she hadn’t testified against me I wouldn’t have ended up in prison. She’s even the reason my brother Mark is dead now. He went after her best friend Jenisha and ended up dying in the fire he’d set for her.

Dalton could feel his hatred for True boiling up in his gut and working its way through his entire body. He had to get out of jail and the quicker he did the sooner he could pay his bitch of an ex-girlfriend back for sullying his near perfect life.

All he needed was an opportunity to sneak away from these other inmates. Continuing on further down the road, Dalton noticed how far out the guards had brought them to clean off the highway. He wasn’t dumb. He could figure out a way to escape the next time he came here.

He wouldn’t be able to do it today because the guards were paying way too much attention to them. He had to wait for the right opportunity and then plan his freedom. The second he did get free True would get everything  she deserved for crossing him in that court room all of those years ago.

“Dalton, get your head out of the clouds and get your ass back down here,” the male guard yelled at him. “I took this job for the extra money, not to baby sit your grown ass. We’re leaving. We don’t have all day to wait for you.”

Dalton opened his mouth to yell something nasty back, but quickly snapped it shut. He couldn’t afford to do anything to get him taken off this cleaning crew. It was the best thing that had occurred in his life in a very long time. In addition, this job might be his only chance at an escape and he wouldn’t fuck it up. The taste for revenge was too sweet.

“Yes sir, I’m coming,” he yelled walking faster to catch up with the other prisoners who were already in line waiting to get back on the bus.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Standing at the side of the curb, Keira stared into the huge canary yellow moving van at her father’s motorcycles. She remembered that Jim had mentioned in passing he was thinking about redoing her father’s old floor plan for
Choppers,
but she didn’t think it would be this soon. Jim hadn’t been the new owner for that long.

How could he know this quickly that he couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to deal with
Choppers
the old way? He could have at least given her some warning that he was going to do this today since they knew each other on an intimate level now.

Wait until I see him. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind…hell, I might give him more than that
Keira stormed towards the front door and into the shop.

Once she got inside Keira looked around, but Jim was nowhere in sight. As she spun around to leave she ran into a hard, warm chest. Tilting her head back, Keira’s eyes connected with Jim and before she could utter one word he kissed her until she wrapped her arms around his neck, and continued to kiss her until she felt her knees go weak.