Page 54 of American Hellhound
He had only a few minutes.
That’s all it would take.
Thirteen
Then
Ghost had forgotten about the car. Damn it.
The night he dropped Maggie off at home and learned she was sixteen, he spent four sleepless hours tossing around in the dark and glaring up at the water stains on his bedroom ceiling. During that time, he went from feeling stupid and duped…to feeling like a shitheel and a creep. Had he really thought she was legal? At best, he’d figured she was eighteen. Did those two years make such a difference?
Well, they did legally. He didn’t want to go to jail over a piece of ass.
Not that shewasa piece of ass. He didn’t think of her like that, even though it was dangerous not to, even though he should have. She could wear oversized leather jackets and as much lipstick as she wanted, she couldn’t hide what she was – anicegirl. The kind of girl that never hung around one-percenter clubhouses; the kind who only liked bad boys in an abstract, hypothetical way. The kind who did well in school, who respected her elders (even when they didn’t deserve it), and who thought missing curfew was the most heinous thing she could get up to.Innocent.
Maybe it was just one of the dark aspects of being a man: the wayinnocentsounded sogood.
But he suspected it might be more than that. As his disastrous marriage to Olivia proved, he had a weak spot for the kinds of women who held him in contempt.
The only fix for it was to push her out of his mind and never speak to her again. But then he showed up at the clubhouse and there was the car. The car he’d washed and waxed and been planning to give to her.
All the Dogs were, if not talented, at least competent mechanics. Before the divorce, Ghost had been trying to wear Duane down on the idea of opening a garage. Oil changes, light body work, bike repair. Other clubs ran legitimate businesses, as a means to provide legal income for their families, and, if they were honest, to launder the money they made selling drugs. But of course, implementing that plan would have taken time and capital, neither of which Duane was interested in spending on, as he put it, “a goddamn money pit.”
Some of the guys took on small side projects, though, and the weedy backyard of the clubhouse had slowly been overtaken by clunkers. One of which wasn’t so much a clunker as a hidden gem that just needed a little TLC. Ghost didn’t want to keep it for himself, and he hadn’t invested much in it, so he’d decided to surprise Maggie with it. A girl that pretty shouldn’t be at the mercy of friends and predators when she needed a ride.
But then he’d found out she was sixteen…
Just damn it.
A shadow joined his across the pavement. “It looks good,” Collier said of the Monte Carlo. “I like the black.”
“Thanks.” It did look good, at least to Ghost. A shiny onyx black with two white racing stripes up the hood, across the roof, and down the trunk. It had come to him with the original mag wheels and they’d just needed polishing. He’d gotten a set of tires for cheap and bleached the white letters until they stood out like neon. Wiped down the whole interior and Armor-All’d the dash.
“Who’s it for?” Collier asked.
Ghost stiffened; on the pavement, his shadow drew up into a straight line. “Why’s it gotta be for someone? Maybe it’s for me.”
Collier snorted – and not unkindly. “That truck you drive around in hasn’t been washed since it was manufactured. This.” He gestured to the car. “This is for someone else. A paying someone…” he speculated. “Or.” And here he turned to give Ghost a mildly interested look, brows lifted in question.
“You don’t know me,” Ghost lied, grumbling.
“What’s her name?”
Ghost wiped his hand down his face, hoping he could somehow, miraculously, wipe away the shame that heated his cheeks. No such luck. “Who says it’s a girl?”
“Hey, I’m not judging you for it. I’m just glad you found one that makes you want todo something.”
“It’s not like that. It’s complicated.”
“Uh-huh.” Collier clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll buy you a beer later and you can tell me all about it.”
Ghost nodded and left the car behind, still not sure what the hell to do with it.
~*~
“Maggie! Hey, Maggie!”
Her step faltered and she closed her eyes tight, exhaling a frustrated breath as she listened to the sound of footfalls catch up to her, the scuff of sneakers bouncing off the locker fronts. She frowned for as long as she could, then smoothed her expression and turned to face him, polite smile pinned in place.
