Blindsided - A Stepbrother Romance Novel (7 page)

The house was silent and the kitchen was empty. There was a note on the counter for her next to a freshly brewed pot of coffee. It was from Luke.

Sam, I took Aaron by the parts store before I headed into work. Call my cell if you need anything. I’ll pick Aaron up on my way home.
He signed it,
‘Dad.’
Samantha realized that what was even odder than being in a strange place was living with a father you didn’t even know. Luke’s laptop was sitting on the kitchen table and Sam did something that she’d never done before, she Googled her father. In the past she convinced herself that it didn’t matter where he was or what he was doing. He was the one that was supposed to be looking for her, not the other way around. Now, she was suddenly curious to know more about him.

Her search returned thousands of hits mostly for a company called, “Glass Engines.”

She clicked on the first one and it took her to a website that had a logo with a picture of an engine made out of glass. She read through it and awe began to take root and growing inside of her.

Glass Engines serve industries demanding precision and performance. The development of engine and propulsion systems is the company’s expertise and they have the ability to manage the development process from initial concept through detailed design, analysis, prototype manufacturing, prototype assembly, and testing. Glass’s ability to meet customer expectations is supported by a highly trained and experienced staff, and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. The manufacturing plant and company headquarters are located in Pasadena California and the founder and primary stock holder Luke Glass also owns a string of high performance parts stores all across the state. Luke began the business by designing and building high quality engines in his garage. Today after fifteen years of business, his company provides the bulk of engines, parts and tires to all of the major racing teams in California as well as many across the rest of the United States.

Samantha read that passage three times before she moved on. She had no idea that Luke was so successful…or so proficient when it came to building engines. They talked about her Mustang on the way out and she’d told him what happened to the engine. He had humbly offered to help her replace or rebuild it. She knew he owned the parts store so she was sure he knew what he was doing, but she had no idea that she was being offered help by the biggest manufacturer of racing engines in the state. Sam was filled with another new feeling then, it was one of deep respect for her father. She’d felt respect for her friends and other racers and men and women she’d only seen racing and building cars on television…but she’d never had any respect for a parent. As much as she loved her mother, Lacey had never done anything to earn her respect. Luke made himself out of nothing and apparently he has made quite an impact on the racing world. It was all so incredible and somewhat surreal that it made her head spin, but it also made her feel another new emotion…hope for what might come next.

Stewart Turner, one of Conrad’s crew since he started it five years earlier rode out to the race site with him. The cops were cracking down hard in L.A. and the surrounding areas, but his step-father had plunked down a lot of money for a strip of private land on the outskirts of nearby San Marino. He’d even had the old road re-paved and now it’s where they hold most of their races. It’s still not strictly legal, but if nobody bothered them out here for the most part as long as they didn’t invade the affluent community nearby. As he and Stew were pulling the blue Camaro Conrad was driving tonight off the trailer Stew asked him, “Where’s Shawn tonight?”

“He should be out soon. He’s picking up some chick that moved here from Arizona. His friend Troy says this girl is one hell of a racer and just as good of a mechanic.”

“Damn, if she’s hot too maybe I’ll marry her.”

Conrad laughed. “Not with Mandy this week?” Stew and his on again, off again girlfriend Mandy had been on and off since middle school. Conrad was sure one day they’d end up married…and then divorced.

“Nah, we’re taking a break.”

“That’s why I don’t do relationships,” Conrad said, releasing the tow strap from the front end of the Camaro. “I’m on a permanent break.”

“Yeah, but the difference between you and me is that pussy doesn’t throw itself at me. I masturbate until I’m half blind and then I can’t remember a single one of Mandy’s flaws and I beg her to take me back.”

Conrad laughed again. Stew was right in the fact that sex had never been hard for Conrad to come by, but after everything that happened with his family, in part because he was more interested in getting laid than taking care of his brother, he wasn’t as interested as he used to be. He still had needs he had to satisfy, but instead of allowing it to rule his life he put that energy into his cars and racing. Over the course of the next few weeks he had interviews set up with several professional crews getting ready for the upcoming drag racing season. He didn’t need any distractions from that.

They finished taking the car off the trailer just as Beau drove up in his white Acura Integra. It was slammed low to the ground and had multi-colored rear wings. Conrad always made fun of the way it sounded like an angry bee, but the truth was that when Beau was in the mood he and that little import could blow most of the rest of these guys off the track. Conrad wasn’t into the Japanese cars. He liked the classic American muscle car the street racers drove in the old days. It was one thing him and his step-dad had bonded over and they’d spent a big part of the years his mother couldn’t stand the sight of him out in the shop, restoring them.

Beau clasped hands with Stew and then Conrad. “Brought out the big guns tonight, huh?” Beau asked, looking at the Camaro. The Charger was Conrad’s true love, but the Camaro’s engine was stroked. A few weeks before Beau had added a supercharger and it was juiced. Conrad absolutely thrived on hitting that little button that would release the nitrous oxide and send him soaring at speeds up to 160 MPH. There was nothing better, not even sex.

“Yep. It was time,” he told Beau. “There's seven grand on the table tonight.”

“Like you need the money,” Stew said, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t have any more money than the rest of you,” Conrad told him. That was technically true. The fact that his step-father was loaded and his own father did pretty well was beside the point. Conrad had been pulling his own weight since graduating high school. He spent a couple of years at USC, but racing was all he ever wanted to do and the place to learn about cars and speed was not in college, but on the street.

Casey and Drew arrived just before the first race began. The girls had been with the crew for two and three years respectively. Casey works at the bar where the crew sometimes hangs out and Drew works part-time as a waitress. Like Conrad they would both rather be racing than doing anything else. Drew was racing tonight in her sky blue Nissan 300ZX. She’d bought it stripped for five hundred bucks and she’d put every penny she’d made in tips into it over the past three years. She’d only raced it once before and although she didn’t win, she’d come damn close. Beau had made some modifications for her since then and she was practically buzzing with excitement to try it out tonight.

“Where’s Shawn?” Drew asked.

“Picking up my bride to be,” Stew said.

Conrad rolled his eyes. “He’s picking up a girl that might be racing with us soon.”

“That’ll take some of the pressure off the two of you when we’re in the mood for a crew orgy,” Beau said with a grin. Drew flipped him off and Casey said,

“I wasn’t going to say anything about that lump on your head, but I think it’s made you delusional.” Beau’s face was still bruised and his right eye was swollen. Dark stitches adorned the space underneath his left eyebrow making it look almost like he had two on one side. No one in the crew had to ask what happened to him. Most of them never even mentioned it. Casey was a different story; it pissed her off to no end that Beau wouldn’t fight back. He brushed her off now and stuck his head underneath the hood of the Camaro alongside Conrad.

The first two cars, a Mitsubishi Starion and a yellow Integra pulled up to the starting line and began revving their engines. The crew fell silent and turned around to watch as they readied for take-off. A tall, heavily tattooed Vietnamese guy stood a few feet in front of them. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt and he raised both of his hands in the air and as soon as he let them drop, the cars took off with a squeal. All eyes were on them as they accelerated from zero to hauling ass in seconds; that was until Conrad caught sight of Shawn’s car out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over as it parked and then back at the race…and then he did a double take.

The passenger door opened and the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen stepped out. She wasn’t very tall, maybe five four at the most, but her legs looked like they went on forever. She had shapely hips that filled out her jeans, a small waist and the curve of firm, shapely breasts showed just above the neckline of the gray A-frame tank she was wearing. Her dark hair was cut in uneven layers that framed her gorgeous face and hung down to the center of her back. Conrad felt his mouth go dry as she and Shawn walked toward them. Suddenly racing once again had competition in his brain for top spot and most of the blood in his body had moved down south.

When they got closer Stew suddenly took notice of the curvy brunette with the ice blue eyes and leaned in close to Conrad. “Damn, my future wife is hot.” Conrad elbowed him back and he heard Stew snicker.

“Samantha Glass this is Conrad Watts,” Shawn said. Conrad took the hand that Sam offered and he wondered if she could feel what he was feeling. He wasn’t sure he could even describe it if he had to, but he’d never felt anything like it before. She wasn’t just hot; she literally made it hard for him to breathe.

“Welcome,” he said in a voice he almost didn’t recognize himself.

“Thanks,” she said. “Thanks for inviting me.” She let go of his hand and Shawn introduced her to the rest of the crew. Conrad had to force himself not to stare at her and he found it almost funny that the way the rest of the guys were looking at her bothered him just a little bit.

**

Conrad sat in the Camaro revving the engine and watching the black smoke the wheels spit out rise up from underneath it. He’d spent the last half hour trying not to stare at Samantha and as he sat behind the wheel now and looked out at the spectators, those crystal blue eyes were all that he could see.

“Fuck, it’s been too long since you got laid. Forget Samantha and concentrate before you kill your fool self.” He said all of that out loud. It was practically drowned out by the revving of his engine and the engine in the ’92 Honda Civic at the start line next to him. The guy driving was Conrad’s age. His name was An Bui and he was one of the most arrogant prick’s Conrad had ever known. This was his first race against him and another reason besides the seven grand that he was aching to win this one. The guy in the bright yellow shirt came into view and Conrad saw the car next to him lurch like a chained dog. He raised his hands and both cars wheels began to spin as they lay on the accelerators with one foot while holding it back with the other on the brake. As soon as his hands fell they both took off. Conrad’s car lurched a good car’s length in front of the other one. He stayed in first gear until the speedometer reached 40 mph and then he jammed it into second. He felt his head snap back and heard the tires squeal. The adrenaline flooded his system as the speedometer climbed, quickly reaching 100 mph. The Honda was struggling to keep up already. Conrad actually let him close in and to the on-lookers it had to look like he was about to be overtaken. That was when he reached for the orange button. He glanced over at An and smiled. An flipped him off and almost simultaneously pushed a button on his dash as well. Conrad had no sooner let his finger sink into his than he felt the rush of speed pushing back the skin on his face. He grit his teeth and gripped tightly to the wheel. His whole body was shaking with the car as it reached 160 mph. The Honda was dropping back and Conrad was more than a car length ahead of it when he crossed the finish line. He wished the track was longer as he eased up off of the accelerator and began to let the car coast. He waited until the speedometer was down below sixty and then in an arrogant move of his own he threw the parking brake and let the car spin to a stop. He was grinning from ear to ear when he climbed out and if the ride and knowing he was seven thousand dollars richer hadn’t been enough, the look on Samantha’s face would have been. She was smiling as widely as he was and as he slapped hands with the rest of the crew he was sorely tempted to wrap her up in a celebratory hug. He resisted the urge…for now.

Sam hung out and watched the rest of the races. The girl Drew that Shawn had introduced her to ran the last one against a big Mexican guy in a Porsche. It looked like she was going to win right up until the last second when the big guy suddenly flew over the finish line with his wheels practically off the ground. Drew was still smiling when she got out of her car. Sam understood. Just the feeling of being behind the wheel was enough to put a smile like that on her face too, but then again, she rarely lost.

She glanced over at Conrad for the hundredth time tonight. When she first saw him she couldn’t help but notice how hot he is. His short brown hair looks like someone drug their fingers through it and those light green eyes practically send chills down her spine every time they land on her face. He was close to a foot taller than her and built more like an athlete than a race car driver, but watching him drive that Camaro tonight had been almost as sexy as the man himself. He was looking back at her now and she found herself wondering what those thick lips would taste like.