Havoc (Tattoos and Ties 1)

“Do you drive it?” Keyes asked, crossing his arms over his chest to keep from touching the car again.

“Enough to keep him healthy. The engine’s original—well, everything’s original. I own a couple of homes. This is the only thing I move from place to place with me. Not even my clothing all comes, but that vehicle does. It’s another reason in a long list of reasons I chose this house. My grandfather loved this car, taught me how to take care of it. He was a great man.”

Keyes nodded at Alec who stayed a few feet away, giving Keyes all the room he needed to absorb such a surprise.

“Wow.” Keyes took a step back to better take in the car and bumped into a second vehicle behind him, a car he hadn’t paid any attention to once his gaze had landed on the Shelby. With a glance over his shoulder, he then turned an immediate one-eighty. “A Maybach? Are you kiddin’ me?”

“Get inside. Pull the hood latch,” Alec encouraged, grinning broadly. These were two badass cars for very different reasons. The almost reverent respect he had for the Shelby turned to sheer worship over the Maybach.

“Seriously?” Keyes might have asked the question, but he was already opening the driver’s side door, checking out the interior as he looked for the hood latch. This was fucking amazing. His mind was completely blown. He got out, rounded the front, and carefully lifted the hood to stare down at the V-12 engine. “This is why you handled your car so well that first night. I watched you in the mirror, expectin’ the worst. I’d’ve thought you’d’ve flipped the Ferrari.”

“My grandfather took me to the Grand Prix. Eventually, he got me lessons with James Hunt for a couple of summers.”

Keyes left the hood up as he stepped back to take in the beauty of both vehicles. “Thank you.”

“For what?” Alec asked, coming closer to where Keyes stood.

This was just such a private, personal collection. To have Alec sharing them with Keyes seemed such a generous act, which had to mean Alec trusted him. Maybe because Alec saw past his rough biker persona to the man he was on the inside… Wait.

Fancy cars, multiple houses. Keyes scowled as he cut his gaze to Alec in a sideways stare.

“How much money do you have?”

Alec’s grin grew as he ducked his head and moved toward the Maybach and closed the hood. “I see your walls falling back in place. Don’t do that. You’ll make me regret showing you.”

With a roll of the shoulders, Keyes released the sudden tension that had formed. He’d let Alec’s explanation be enough. He completed another once-over on the AC Cobra, committing all the details to memory. Alec was right, any info about his wealth would put impenetrable concrete barriers between them. With herculean effort, he did what he’d done earlier today and pushed away that mountain of differences between them, not letting it bring him down. “I have a shop no one knows about. No one but my uncle. It’s at his place.”

“You work on motorcycles there?” Alec asked, taking several steps backward, giving Keyes the room he needed with the cars.

“Yeah. Restore them. My uncle’s a teacher. He kept me in school when no one else really cared what I was doin’. Helped me get my mechanic’s certification. I have a couple of bikes there now,” Keyes said, moving closer to Alec. He could admire the cars from ten or so steps away, and he liked being closer to Alec.

“Like the crotch rocket outside right now?” Alec asked, seeming truly interested.

Keyes chuckled at the use of the name crotch rocket and kicked at nonexistent dirt with his toe. “Yeah, I forgot I was riding that. I barely take her out. My club requires a Harley. It’s a rule.”

“The bike’s a female?”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s how I think of her. Strong, always dependable, pretty, a badass. The prez’s wife and daughter are like that, so she became a girl,” Keyes said, explaining his reasoning, revealing information he’d never told another living soul.

“Is that the personal connection for the tattoo going up your side? The DNA strand. Does it represent your uncle?” Alec asked, stepping forward, lifting his arm to touch the foot-long metallic-looking DNA strand inked up the side of his body.

“You’re insightful,” he said, looking down at Alec’s fingers gliding across the tattoo. Dev had done an incredible job with the 3-D effect on this particular design. The ends appeared to be burying into his skin. No one had ever asked about that one. His old man only gave him shit about inking a ladder on his body. “Is insightful the right word?”

“Maybe,” Alec said, bending his head to get a better look. “Your tattoo artist is amazing. The detail’s incredible.” Alec ghosted his fingertips over the top of the tattoo then moved around to his hip where a tangled vine of skulls wove together—a tatt Dev designed when he began creating his own art. “Maybe you can take them both out for a ride sometime,” Alec said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder toward his cars as he stood straight and looked Keyes in the eye. “I’m sure you know places we can go that we won’t be seen.”