Craving Rose (The Aces' Sons 5)

I finished my coffee quickly and rolled under the Camry, and almost instantly, I was covered in black sludge.

“Fuck,” I muttered, reaching up to try and find the leak. I was going to be pissed as hell if it got into my eyes, but I didn’t want to stop to find some safety glasses and lose my chance to find out where the shit was coming from. By the time I was finished a few hours later, I was covered in grease and oil. It was everywhere. My hair, beard, I could even feel it in my fucking ears.

“Jesus, what happened to you?” Casper asked as I peeled off my coveralls and left them in a pile.

“That fuckin’ piece of shit,” I mumbled, pointing at the Camry. “I don’t even know how they managed to drive it here.”

“People are idiots,” he replied easily.

“No kidding.” I made my way back into the clubhouse and went straight to my room, peeling off my white tank top and unbuckling my belt as I went. I needed a shower, pronto. Thankfully, I always kept a few spare sets of clothes for me and Kara at the club. They’d come in handy more than a few times over the years.

My room didn’t have a bathroom connected, so I stripped down to my boxers and grabbed a towel, leaving all my shit on the floor as I left the room. There usually weren’t too many people around in the middle of the afternoon, and it wasn’t as if I had anything they hadn’t seen before.

The hot water was fucking terrific, and I stayed in the shower longer than I usually would have. By the time I was done, my fingers were pruning up and I was pretty sure I was done for the day. I was still a couple hours short, but I didn’t mind making it up later.

Walking back to my room in my towel, I could make out women’s voices in the main room of the club, but since my hearing was pretty much shot, I couldn’t decipher who it was. Hopefully, Kara had come over with Trix if the women were congregating. It would save me a trip over to their place. Maybe my girl would want to grab some suits and head to the swimming hole. It was still early enough to get a couple hours of swimming in before it started to cool off outside.

I wasn’t paying attention as I got dressed, because I was too preoccupied with thoughts of the damn river, and I almost ate shit when I slid my foot into my boot and straight into a gooey, wet, mess.

“What the fuck?” I pulled my boot back off and stared uncomprehendingly inside. It was filled with something thick and yellow. I glanced at the door that I’d left open while I’d showered, lifting the boot closer to my face.

There was almost an inch-deep layer of tapioca pudding in my goddamn boot. Why was there tapioca pudding in my goddamn boot? Reaching for my other boot, I cursed. It was full of the shit, too.

My blood was boiling as I grabbed both boots and stomped in my socks toward the main room of the club. I kept slipping every time my tapioca sock made contact with the cement floor, which just pissed me off more. I didn’t know who thought it would be funny to fuck with my perfectly-worn-in-and-comfortable-as-hell-boots, but there was going to be hell to pay when I figured it out.

Poet barely even looked at me when I passed, him, but pointed toward the front door while he tried to hold back laughter. Yeah, I was pretty sure I looked hilarious walking around in my socks, one of them visibly slimy and gross and with a hole at the end where you could see my big toe.

When I hit the forecourt, I came to an abrupt halt and my mouth dropped open in surprise as comprehension dawned. No fucking way.

Rose.

“Payback’s a bitch!” she called merrily, hanging out the driver’s side window of her SUV. “Now, we’re even.”

She yelped in surprise and scrambled back in the window as I started jogging toward her. But before I could reach the car, she was already pulling away, spitting gravel as she fled.

“Man,” Will said, watching the whole thing unfold from one of the garage bays. “I told you she’d get ya back. What’d she do?”

“She put fucking pudding in my boots,” I growled back, dropping them onto the gravel.

Will’s head jerked as his eyes widened. “Seriously? You musta really pissed her off.”

“I put her ass in the kiddie pool during a fucking water fight,” I snapped back. “And that was after she’d sprayed me with water.”

His lips twitched and he rubbed his hand over his mouth, trying to hide his smile. “My baby sister has never done anything halfway in her life.” He paused. “It’s good to see her back at it. She’s been moping around for a month.”