Shutdown (Nitro Crew, #4) Read online

  Mave pushed me toward the bedroom. “Literally.”

  “Bathroom,” I grunted. I had been putting this off since I had gotten home, but I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

  “Can do,” she replied cheerfully.

  “You’re entirely too cheerful for it being this late,” I pointed out.

  “No, that’s just my personality, Roc.” She wheeled me into the bathroom and turned me sideways in front of the toilet.

  “This is what you guys were doing in here today,” I mumbled.

  There was a thick, padded seat and bars on both sides of the toilet.

  “Just wait ‘til you see what we did to the shower. Susan is a regular MacGyver with all of this stuff.”

  Mave moved to stand in front of me, and I lifted like I did on the couch and she swung my legs as I transferred from the chair to the toilet. She held my legs, and I pulled my pants down.

  “I’m good, Doc.” I was struggling enough with being a cripple. I didn’t need to add on Mave watching me take a leak when I could do it myself.

  “Holler when you need me. I’m always here.”

  She slipped out of the bathroom, and I was finally alone. Harlyn hadn’t left my side all day, and while I loved my daughter, I also loved my alone time. If I was only going to get that time in the bathroom now, I was going to take it.

  I did my business and got the wheelchair back over to where I could put my arms on it and lift myself onto it. My legs followed, and I was able to get fully back in the chair before I called for Mave.

  “I’m done.”

  The door swung open, and Mave stopped in her tracks when she saw I was sitting in the wheelchair. “What the hell?” she gasped.

  “You were the one who said I was strong. Only thing I can’t do is unlock the wheels. I need to wash my hands.”

  A wave of exhaustion washed over me, and I dropped my chin to my chest while she walked behind me.

  “I’m glad you can do that by yourself, Roc. But you’re sure pale now, and I can tell that was too much for you.”

  She was right, but if being exhausted meant I could keep a little bit of my pride, then I was okay with that.

  We finished up in the bathroom with my pride fully intact, and for that, I was thankful.

  Mave helped me get into the bed, and I pulled my shirt off over my head.

  “You want to take the shorts off?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “I’ll be good in these. Just help me swing my legs in.”

  Mave pulled back the covers and swung my legs into the bed. “Good?” she asked.

  She pulled the covers over me and I laid my head down on the pillow.

  “Great.”

  “You’re such a grump,” she laughed.

  A grump was not what I intended to sound like. I was exhausted and didn’t have much energy left. “Hit the lights on the way out, Doc.”

  My eyes were heavy, and I knew it was only going to be minutes before I was passed out.

  “Walkie talkie is on the nightstand. Call me if you need anything.” Mave grabbed the TV remote and laid it next to me. “And here's the remote in case you wanted to watch Godzilla.”

  “I’m gonna watch the back of my eyelids for a few hours, Doc.”

  She laughed and moved to the light switch by the door. “Night, Roc. Day one done, only about forty-four left to go before you’re back to normal. See ya in the morning.”

  “Night,” I grunted. I relaxed into the pillow and sighed.

  Forty-four days was a long fucking time ‘til I got these damn casts off my legs. No way I was going to keep counting because I knew that was going to end up driving me crazy.

  I needed to focus on the fact I was finally home, and things would only get better from here. I was getting stronger every day and nothing was going to keep me from getting back on the track and back to work.

  Nothing.

  *

  Chapter Seven

  Mave

  “You want me to come over for breakfast?”

  I sandwiched the phone between my shoulder and ear while I flipped over the sausage patties. “Uh, what?”

  It was Saturday morning, my first morning taking care of Roc, and I had been surprised by an early morning call from Harlyn.

  “I can be over in ten minutes.”

  “Uh, why?” I had been hired to take care of Roc, not have his daughter come over to do it for me. “If you want to come over and visit with him then sure, but if you’re coming over because you feel guilty then don’t worry about it,” I laughed. “I gotta earn my paycheck, Harlyn.”

  “Not guilty,” she mumbled. “I guess this whole accident made me realize that even though my dad and I have our issues, he's still my dad at the end of the day.”

  “Then come on over for breakfast. I’m working on the sausage right now and the eggs will be done in a little bit.” The doorbell rang, and I dropped the spatula next to the pan. “Who the heck could that be?” I mumbled.

  It was eight thirty on a Saturday morning. Too early for anyone to be ringing the doorbell. I swung open the front door and was surprised to see Harlyn standing there with a box of donuts and three coffees.

  “Surprise,” she laughed.

  “Good thing I told you to come over, otherwise you would have been stuck with half a dozen donuts and three coffees.”

  She laughed and stepped into the house. “If anything, I would have ding dong ditched them on the front step.”

  “Mave!” Roc hollered.

  Harlyn cringed. “He sounds happy.”

  I wasn’t sure what kind of mood Roc was in. “I’m thinking the doorbell woke him up. Can you keep an eye on the sausage and I’ll see what he needs?”

  “Can do.”

  Harlyn moved into the kitchen, and I beelined to Roc’s door.

  “Morning, sleeping beauty.”

  Roc was sitting up in bed looking grumpy and pissed off. “Who the hell is at the door?” he demanded.

  “Your daughter. She brought donuts and coffee over.”

  Roc humphed. “She didn’t need to do that.”

  I helped swing his legs out of bed, and he lifted himself into the wheelchair. “She wanted to. I think she misses her dad not being at work with her.”

  “Right,” Roc drawled. “And I’m the queen of fucking England.”

  “You’ve got gray hair, she’s got white. I don’t think anyone would confuse the two of you.” I pointed to the dresser. “You want a shirt?” I asked.

  He grunted and nodded. “Try to find me something that isn't brighter than the damn sun.”

  “Can do, sunshine.” I moved to the dresser and saw I wasn’t going to have a problem fulfilling her request. “They’re all black or blue,” I laughed.

  “As they fucking should be,” Roc grunted.

  I grabbed one from the top and slid the drawer shut. “Black it is.”

  I could see why Harlyn had gone with bright blue and yellow for the clothes she bought. The man needed a little color in his life.

  Roc snatched it from my hands and tugged it over his head. “Qualifying starts in a bit.”

  “Uh, okay?” I thought qualifying had been last night but I knew absolutely nothing about drag racing.

  “You may not know what the hell I’m talking about right now, but by the of end two weeks, you’ll be more well-versed in drag racing than you are being a doctor.”

  I laughed. “I sure hope not. I’ll be trying to change my patient’s oil rather than actually heal them. Bathroom?”

  “Yeah,” he grunted.

  I understood that all of this had to be difficult for Roc. I didn’t know him before the accident, but from everything I observed and Harlyn told me, I knew being in a wheelchair had to be hard as hell. He could stand to smile maybe once though. The only time he showed any real emotion was when racing was mentioned.

  “Hey, Dad!” Harlyn called after Roc did his business in the bathroom. She was standing in front of the kitchen island, cracking eg
gs into a bowl.

  “You talk to Remy today yet?” he gruffed.

  Harlyn rolled her eyes and grabbed a fork from the drawer. “Yes, Dad. I talked to him on the way over here.”

  “What times does qualifying start?”

  “Funny car is around two.” She beat the eggs, and I grabbed a pan from under the counter.

  “What time does coverage start on TV?” Roc rolled into the living room and grabbed the remote.

  “Eleven. Must be odd to be on the flip side of the team,” she laughed.

  I sprayed the fry pan with oil and set it on the stove. “Pan is ready for you, Harlyn.”

  I turned the burner on medium and stepped to the side of the stove. If Harlyn wanted to help make breakfast, I wasn’t going to stop her. I knew I was going to be the one doing this for the next couple of weeks so her taking cooking duties for a day was good for me.

  “Help yourself to coffee, Mave. They’re all French vanilla. I didn’t add any cream or sugar because I know Dad takes his black and I wasn’t sure how you took your coffee.”

  “Black is good.” I grabbed a cup for myself and grabbed one for Roc. “I should have known you took your coffee black.” I held the cup out to him.

  “Just like my soul,” he growled. He grabbed the cup and took a drink. “You really had to get French vanilla? Whatever happened to coffee flavored coffee?”

  “Coffee flavored coffee?” I laughed. “Careful, you might have just came up with the latest coffee craze.”

  “If anyone is dumb enough to buy coffee flavored coffee then the purge needs to start,” Harlyn laughed.

  “Amen to that,” Roc agreed.

  Harlyn may be younger and much happier than Roc, but you could tell that they were father and daughter.

  Roc flipped through the channels ‘til he ended up on the one qualifying would be on.

  “You wanna do the toast?” Harlyn called to me.

  Roc was watching two announcers talk about all the sports events of the past week.

  “Gladly!” I hopped off the couch and grabbed the loaf of bread. “I can safely say that I am just not a girl who is into sports.”

  I would much rather be curled up on the couch watching a movie or reading a good book. I didn’t get too much time to do either since work was so crazy or I was always exhausted by the time I got home.

  “Neither am I,” Harlyn laughed. “The only reason I’m into racing is because of Remy and my dad.”

  “Come on,” Rock chided. “Drag racing is the most exciting sport there is. Guys strap themselves to a piece of metal and hurtle themselves down a quarter mile going over three hundred miles an hour. Drag racing is the only sport that matters.”

  “Then why are you watching two guys talk about soccer right now?” Harlyn laughed.

  “‘Cause they can’t have drag racing on all of the time.”

  I placed two slices of bread in the toaster. “You have like three hours until the race starts. Are you really going to watch these two talk the whole time?”

  I grabbed the butter and jelly from the fridge.

  “Pre-race shit will start in an hour,” Roc replied.

  “Oh goodie,” I mumbled.

  “You’re in a house that racing built,” Harlyn laughed. “You might as well as embrace the smell of nitro and burning rubber.”

  I sniffed the air. “Is that what that smell is?”

  Roc bellowed with laughter.

  Harlyn shook the spatula in her hand at me. “You’re going to fit in just fine around here.”

  It was my first full day of being here with Roc and I wasn’t so sure about that. I got that Roc’s life was racing, but maybe I could show him there was more to life than cars.

  For the next couple of weeks, that was exactly what I was going to do.

  *

  Chapter Eight

  Roc

  “We’re going.”

  Mave sipped her coffee.

  “Why aren’t you getting up?” I demanded.

  She should have gotten up as soon as I told her we were going. She set her coffee down and sat back in her chair.

  “I’ll go without you,” I warned.

  She rolled her eyes and smiled. “See how I just rolled my eyes? That’s about the only rolling you can do without me. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “This is bullshit. The team will be back in town by noon, and I want to be there.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because.”

  She blinked slowly. “Because?”

  “Yes, because.”

  “I’m going to need more of a reason than that if I’m going to haul your cookies to the shop.”

  Reason? The fact I wanted to go was reason enough. “Because it’s my damn race team, and I’m going absolutely insane staying inside this house.”

  She sipped her coffee again. She was entirely too calm and completely enjoying the fact she had all of the power right now. “I thought Delaney said it was Brooks team? It ten o’clock. Let me finish my coffee and then I’ll get you ready.”

  I released the brakes on my chair and rolled angrily into my bedroom. I had managed to figure out my chair and was able to get around the house mostly on my own.

  If Mave didn’t want to get me ready right now, then I would do it myself.

  Ten minutes later, she walked into my bedroom with a smug smile on her face. “Looks like you’re doing real good with those pants.”

  She sat down on the bed and crossed her legs.

  I had managed to get my shorts off after five minutes of grunting and huffing. Now, I had made the wrong decision to grab a pair of jeans to put on. I had been convinced they would fit over the casts on the bottom half of my legs.

  Wrong.

  “Well, would you help me instead of sitting there watching me?”

  She tapped her fingers on her knee. She sat there smug and looking absolutely beautiful. Mave was driving me crazy, but I had to admit that I liked having her around.

  “You’re not going to be able to wear pants, Roc. At least not any of the ones you own.”

  “Well, I don’t have anything else to wear.”

  I was at my wits’ end being stuck in this chair and relying on Mave for everything. For fifty-one years I had done everything for myself, save for my youth, and now I was back to relying on someone for absolutely everything.

  Saturday hadn’t been bad with Harlyn being there. Mave helped me to and from the bathroom and helped me get my meals. We watched the race and managed to talk without it being tense or stilted.

  Sunday, I had woken up in pain and my shitty mood never really improved. The King Racing team had won its third race in a row that day, and even that had left me pissed off because I wasn’t there.

  “Harlyn brought over some more clothes yesterday.”

  I rolled my eyes and wondered what colorful mess she had managed to find at the store. “Don’t fucking want them,” I bit off.

  I’d sit in this damn chair naked instead of wearing anything she bought me. I had nightmares about that yellow shirt she had made me wear before.

  Mave walked to the closet and pulled out a large plastic bag. “I think she was much more intune with your color preference than last time.” She pulled out three pairs of pants that were black and had snaps going up the bottom half of the leg. “If we keep the legs unsnapped, you should be able to wear these no problem.”

  Thank fucking God. “Bring ‘em over here. I’ll have to thank her for not shopping in the kids department this time.”

  Loved the hell out of my daughter but she was fully taking advantage of the fact I was at her mercy. The exact same thing I would have done if I were her.

  Mave laughed and started unsnapping the snaps. “You want to grab a shirt? I was thinking we could give you a bath, but I really doubt you are going to want to do that before heading to the garage.”

  I grabbed a black shirt. “Hell no. We can do that shit tonight when we get home.”

 
“Tonight?” she asked. “We’re going to be at the garage for that long?”

  The team was going to be unloading today, and I wanted to be there to help. I knew I wouldn’t be able to physically help, but I was damn good at telling them where to put stuff. “I don’t know how long we’ll be there. We have a bye week. We don’t need to start preparing for the next race so we just need to put everything away.”

  “You’re speaking Greek to me, Roc,” she mumbled.

  “Well, stick around and it won’t sound like Greek to you after a while.”

  If Mave was going to be around for a bit, then she was going to have a crash course in drag racing.

  She walked over to me and grabbed the pair of jeans that were hanging off of my feet. “I don’t even know why you thought you could get these things on,” she grumbled. She worked the silky black track pants over the casts then I lifted up on the chair to raise my butt so she could pull them on the rest of the way. “You are definitely taking a bath tonight, Roc. You’re starting to smell a little rank.”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled the shirt over my head. “I haven’t done a damn thing. I don’t smell.”

  At least, I didn’t fucking think I did. I lifted my armpit and cringed. Perhaps a couple coats deodorant wouldn’t be bad.

  She patted my knee. “Right,” she drawled.

  “Fine. We’ll take a damn bath tonight.”

  Her cheeks heated and turned red. “I think you mean you’ll take a bath tonight.”

  I eyed her knowingly. “Maybe.” I wouldn’t mind getting Mave naked and wet in the shower. She dressed rather modestly but under her clothes, she teased of a gorgeous body I would love to get my hands on. Being in this damn wheel chair might have slowed me down physically, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t noticing the woman standing in front of me.

  She stood up quickly. “Well, you’re ready to go. I’m gonna run upstairs and change. Call me on the walkie talkie if you need me.”

  She dashed out of the room, and I listened to her jog up the steps.

  That was unexpected. I didn’t think I could get Mave on the run with a little hint at taking a bath together.

  This changed everything.

  I may be trapped in a wheelchair right now, but that didn’t mean I was dead.