Page 31 of Kings Don't Break

“What’re you doing at the shop so early?”

“I could ask you the same. Neither of us are early birds.”

Mace spears me with a hard look. Even with my focus on the lug nuts and my wheels, I can tell from the corner of my eye.

“I’m not the one who’s been acting different these past couple days. I heard your bike rumble by the house, by the way. So you’re damn right I’m curious when my best friend’s coming by the shop at six a.m. just to turn some wrenches.”

“Still missing your point.” I hoist myself up to my feet with my hair in my face and extra bolts cupped in my hand. You’d think I was alone with way I move toward the other side of the garage and drop off my things in my toolbox.

Mace traces me every step of the way with that damn glare of his.

A tense second passes between us. Even if I act like I’m unbothered. Even if the opposite’s true. We both know it deep down.

“This got anything to do with Korine being back?” he asks finally.

“Korine?” I fiddle with the tools inside my toolbox just to give my avoidant ass something to do. “What about her?”

“Don’t pull this on me, Cash. Don’t act like I don’t know you. We’re damn near brothers. You forget I know all about how in love with her you’ve been damn near all your life?”

“I was a kid?—”

“Bullshit. You’ve still got a thing for her. Which means her being back… creates problems for you.”

“Well,” I say, shrugging, “she’s married. So it doesn’t matter what I think, does it?”

“You gonna be alright seeing her around?”

“Alright as I’ve always been. I’ll deal with it. The crazy thing is… here I was hoping we could be cool. At least friends. But she wants nothing to do with me,” I explain, forcing my tone to be more nonchalant than I feel on the inside. “You want to know what’s even crazier? Her husband’s some prick that cheats on her.”

Mace raises his brows, his arms tight across his chest. “She have any idea?”

“Don’t know. She told me to stay the hell away from her… but something’s up. I just don’t know what.”

“You two didn’t leave off on the best of terms.”

“Apparently, worse than I thought. Don’t know what’s worse—what’s happened with Korine or my parents trying to force me to be around them.”

“They’ve never been good for you.”

“Tell them that.”

“Cash,” he says. “You know we’re all here. We’ve got your back.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m more than good.”

Mace doesn’t look so convinced, but it doesn’t matter. Either he leaves or I do. I slam shut my toolbox, producing a thud that echoes through the empty bike shop. I’d come by for some alone time, keeping my hands occupied and sorting out my thoughts. Not to be lectured… even by my best friend.

I haven’t sorted out what to do about Korine or what’s going on with my folks. Both situations have been sawing away at me so much I’m running on three hours of sleep.

“I’ve got something else I wanted to talk about,” Mace says, picking up on my mood swing. He leans against the cinderblock wall and considers his words. “Things’ve been good for us these past few months. Real good.”

“Real good for you,” I finish for him. I shoot him a sideways smirk. “You and Syd are serious. Living together. Playing house.”

“Yeah, it is. More serious than I thought I’d ever get with anybody. But that’s not what I was talking about—I meant the club. We’ve been thriving since we got back into dealing. We’ve been turning in three times the profit than what we were before. The monopoly we’ve established since the Hellrazors and Rebels’s downfall has helped.”

“Seems like we earned it after what they put us through. It’ll take them a long while to recover. Which is good news for us.”

“You’d think. The law feels differently. We’re their latest target.”