He turned to me, his forehead bunched so a little angry line appeared between his eyebrows. “Look, I know you mean well, but you should drop this crazy notion anything will happen.”
“You don’t know that.”
He sighed heavily. I was wearing him down, and Cassie was going to be thanking me.
“I don’t like to gossip, Waverley, and I’m going to assume that I can trust you with what I am about to tell you. I don’t want to cause any trouble for anyone, least of all myself. You feel me?”
“Er, sure, okay,” I said.
“We had a night together. Just one. It won’t happen again.”
A night together? Oh, understanding dawned on me. He was such a southern gentleman, he didn’t want to say it so bluntly. Cassie had already screwed the hot mechanic. And she had not told a soul. But what happened? Why wouldn’t it happen again? It all made sense now why she got so defensive.
It wasn’t a crush. Was it a regret? I couldn’t imagine being with Handlebar was something any woman would live to regret. I needed to talk to her about this. But that would give away that Handlebar told their secret, and they were keeping it for a reason.
Handlebar faced me across the bike and even though we weren’t alone in the garage, no one had paid any mind to our chat. “Do us both a favor and just please leave it alone.”
I was about to protest when I realized there was a look of sadness on his face. He didn’t want to discuss why Cassie was rejecting him. Whatever happened between them had hurt him. I nodded instead, feeling like a total asshole for pushing and joking with him. The only thing I could think to do was focus on something that made him happy.I hopped down off the bench and picked up what looked like a gun attached to a tube.
“What’s this and how do I use it?”
“That is an air powered impact gun, not a toy,” he said, taking it out of my hands.
“But what do you use it for?” I asked and grinned when he looked at me like I was an annoying kid in his workshop.
“Unscrewing nuts,” he said with an arched brow.
“I’m sure that is something you have no problem with.” I grinned at him.
“As I explained before, I do okay. Both with my tools and my…tools,” he put the impact gun down and pointed at a funnel behind me with a straight face despite his joke. “Grab that. We’re gonna change the oil now.”
“Yes sir,” I laughed. I’d leave him be. But somehow I had to figure out how not to let Cassie off the hook without letting on I knew what she’d done.
I stayed in the garage for a couple more hours, working with Handlebar until the bike was put back together and working like a dream. I offered to run it around and make sure it worked, but I got the MC glare. No one rode another man’s bike, especially not a girl, but it was fun to see the look on his face while he tried to figure out if I was going to steal the keys. He put them in his overall pockets, to be sure.
He went to the fridge in the office to get us some water. I glanced over at the counter where my phone sat. It had been on silent all day and I’d not paid any attention to it, but as I turned, I noticed the screen light up. I’d changed the screensaver to a picture of me and Connor a couple of days ago. It had been Declan until that point.
There were a couple of missed calls from his phone. He hadn’t tried calling for a while, so it was strange that he was ringing now.
“You gonna get that?” Handlebar asked, handing me a bottle of water then unscrewing his own to take a long drink. The phone went dark between us. “Avoiding someone?”
“Kind of,” I played with the lid of my water and the phone lit up between us again.
“Doesn’t look like he’s giving up,” Handlebar patted my shoulder. “Maybe you should answer and put him out of his misery.”
I stared at him for a few seconds. He was right. I clenched the bottle in my fist as Handlebar gave me an encouraging nod. Before I could chicken out, I picked it up. And immediately wished I hadn’t. Because it wasn’t a phone call, it was a video call. And no one spoke when it connected.
“Hello? Declan?” I asked, looking at the dark picture on the screen. Handlebar raised a brow at my question and walked over. I could hear heavy grunting and slapping. “Is he serious? Is he calling me while he’s…”
Handlebar’s face was hard. He shook his head and took the phone from me. The sounds came clearer as the camera moved. And I heard what Handlebar was hearing. That wasn’t the sound of someone having sex. My stomach bottomed out as I pulled the phone back to me. The picture came clearer as light filled the room. The sounds of someone being beaten were obvious now.
I stared in horror as the camera lifted. A man was held up, tied at the wrists, hanging from a bar. There was blood all over him and he grunted every time he took another punch. Two men were attacking his torso and back alternately. He looked defeated, almost dead. It was only the sounds he made after each hit that let me know he was alive. They’d worked over his face because it was barely recognizable. Only I could see who it was.
“Declan…” I whispered.
Handlebar moved away from me. I heard him making a call. But I couldn’t stop looking at the screen.
“No. Stop!” I shouted. But they didn’t stop, and I realized this was a video clip, not live. The camera pulled away from a screen where the caller was watching the beating. “Please stop, leave him alone!” I shrieked, but all I got in response was a laugh.
