Boys And Their Toys: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Troubled Playthings 1)

“Is the place out here any good, then?” Lucas asked. “I usually have a man I take mine to in the city, someone who’s been doing my family’s cars for years, but he was completely booked up this week—lots of people getting their services done I guess—and I didn’t want to wait, so I had to get in where I could. Still had to pay a bit extra to get a rush job on it.”

How nice to be in a situation where money could smooth out any wrinkles in your experience. I didn’t say something snarky like that, though.

Honestly, I was too distracted trying to stop myself from sneaking peeks at Lucas. Growing older had definitely been a good deal for him. The big dark eyes and black hair that had seemed a bit over-the-top on a ten-year-old had come together nicely now he was eighteen—a better haircut and clothes presumably not chosen by his mother were helping with that, too. He looked like the sort of guy who would have girls falling over one another to get their hands on him—and I knew for a fact he’d had his mouth on most of the girls we’d grown up in school alongside: the ones he thought were worth his time, at least. The ones who’d come from other, cooler schools.

Well, and technically he’d had his mouth on me, too… not that it had been in any sense anyone would care about. I doubted he even remembered.

“Rob’s great,” I said. “Doesn’t charge more than the work’s worth, doesn’t talk down to you assuming you’re too stupid to understand what he’s done—not that you’ll have that problem, not being a woman.” Lucas shot me an amused smirk. “Nothing s

eems to bother him, either. I brought my car in with the driver’s side door all bashed in and, I shit you not, he took a look at it and said, ‘nah, she’ll buff right out mate.’ He’s that kind of guy.”

Ashleigh and one of the other girls in the crowd were giggling away behind me. Suddenly I felt like an idiot for the way I’d been babbling to Lucas. There was something about that guy that got past all my usual common sense, just as it did for all those other girls I supposed.

“Great,” Lucas said, “because my car was a fucking mess.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

He shook his head and gave me a huge smile. I remembered his lips had seemed too big when he was ten too, his teeth protruding. The years and probably a quality orthodontist or three had done the most. “Don’t worry about that; trust me, the other guy came off a lot worse.”

“Oh,” was all I said. Wasn’t really going to express happiness over that. He made it sound like he and ‘the other guy’ had been using their cars in a pitched battle.

The thing was, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that hadn’t been the intention.

Chapter Two

We arrived at Rob’s place before I could gab myself into a situation I really didn’t want to be in, and the first thing I saw was Rob waving at me, calling out, “Callie!”—but then Lucas Starling stepped right in front of me, holding out his hand.

“The titular Rob, I take it?”

“Um, yes…” Rob shook his hand, glancing at me where I was now surrounded by Lucas’s entourage of Ashleigh and the other two girls and one guy who had come along with them.

“Lucas Starling,” Lucas introduced himself, as if his name mattered. Probably it did. “I hope you have a minute to go through the work you’ve done on the car. At the prices you’re offering, if I’m pleased with what you’ve done, I might consider taking my business to you again in the future.”

“Ah,” said Rob, tearing his eyes away from me. He knew I had to get to work after school and had promised he would have my car ready so I could save myself from having to endure another day on the bus. “Yes, very good… I won’t be a moment, Callie.”

I knew he couldn’t really afford to be dismissive of Lucas on my account. Lucas was a class of customer Rob didn’t normally see in his shop. Even with the both of us just wearing our school uniforms still it was obvious we were not the same type of person. I was an occasional few hundred dollars for Rob when I could no longer avoid getting my single car serviced, and Lucas probably already had three cars of his own and lots of friends who would listen to his recommendations. I got it. Rob was struggling through this world, just like me.

I sat down on a bench outside the shop to wait. Ashleigh and the others didn’t bother me with another glance once Lucas was gone. They started mucking around the yard, chucking wrenches and hub caps at one another. I watched them acting like preteen idiots who didn’t know any better about respecting someone else’s property, but I didn’t say anything. It’d just land me in trouble with the lot of them that would follow me to school for weeks, and though I was sympathetic to Rob just leaving me there so he could fawn over Lucas, that didn’t mean I was going to hang around guarding his property while he fucked me over.

I tried not to even watch them while they waited. After fifteen minutes, I shot a text to my boss to let him know I’d be late. It didn’t really matter, because Dane handled calls from new clients himself and the work I did could be taken care of at any time, but I was going to have to stay late now if I wanted my full pay. Mum got shitty with me whenever I missed dinner, like I was ruining some cultural institution instead of having to reheat baked chicken and chips.

I’d been waiting for twenty-five minutes when Lucas strode back out into the yard. The others dropped whatever they were doing and came together in front of him, like a bunch of ducklings who’d sighted their mother.

“Rob’s bringing the car around,” Lucas reported. Even though Rob was just the guy who fixed up my car occasionally, it bugged me the way he was speaking about him now. Like Rob was someone he owned instead of a guy he’d never even spoken to before that day. “Now…” His eyes ran over the group in front of him, and then flicked over to me. I hadn’t bothered to get up from my seat. “Callie,” Lucas called, “get over here.”

“What’s up?” I called, without doing more than shifting into a more comfortable position. That asshole had known Rob was about to speak to me first, and he’d deliberately cut in. I could have fucking been at work already and he apparently had nowhere particularly urgent to go.

“You’re coming with us,” Lucas said. “In my car.”

“What?” I said, speaking without thinking because it sounded like some joke I just didn’t get yet. “There’s already five of you here. Am I supposed to sit on someone’s lap?”

“You can take mine any time you like,” said the other guy in the group, winking. I thought he’d started school with the rest of us only a couple of years ago; I didn’t know him as more than a face and a pair of big arms.

“My car’s a seven-seater, Callie,” Lucas said. “No need for anyone to put their ass in anything but the proper place. Although my lap is wide open for you here sweetheart, no need to resort to Steven.”

I’d never heard of anyone my age having a seven-seater car. The only seven-seaters I’d ever encountered were the sorts of vehicles well-off single mothers with half-a-dozen kids drove.

Then Rob rolled around this sparkling BMW, which was when I realised I’d wildly underestimated the situation here. This was not a five-figure car, more like six. And I was definitely certain Lucas had gotten it new. Rob must have been practically soiling himself at the chance to play with that car. No wonder he was willing to give Lucas all the time he wanted.