Mavis sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.
“We need you to tell us how to take a driveshaft out.”
Murphy blinked at the two of us, unsure what to say or do in regards to Mavis’s words.
I didn’t even know what to say or do when she came up with her harebrained schemes half the time. Now, I just rolled with it.
Murphy shook his head, as if he was trying to clear the confusion out of his brain before he spoke.
“I’m sorry, but what?” he rumbled.
I studied the man as Vlad practically leaned out of my arms to get to Murphy.
Murphy looked like he’d gladly take him out of my arms, but the fact that his hands and half his body was covered in enough grease to cause Mavis—the woman who hated dirt and grime more than anything in the world—to have an apoplectic fit stilled his movements.
“We need you to teach us how to take out a driveshaft,” Mavis repeated.
I looked at Mavis, then to Murphy who was once again stunned into silence, and grinned.
Mavis and Murphy couldn’t be any more different from each other.
Where Mavis was small, blonde, pale and waifish, Murphy was tall, very strong, and had the most beautiful dark hair that fell perfectly in a messy cascade around his face.
Mavis never left the house in anything but pristine clothing. Murphy looked like he didn’t own clothes that didn’t have grease covering them.
Mavis was the good girl through and through, and Murphy looked like he could be the bad boy that soiled the good girl.
Mavis had a thing for Madden, but if I was being completely honest, I didn’t think she knew what she wanted. She had a dream of a house, two kids, and a dog with a white picket fence. For some reason, she had always pictured a man like Madden being her ‘endgame.’ But Murphy? Murphy looked like he’d set fire to Mavis’s lawn, knock her up with five or ten kids, and enjoy every single second of it.
I couldn’t wait to see how this played out…
Vlad leaned over again.
“Oh, just take him,” Mavis griped.
Murphy took Vlad and grinned as he did, making my heart squeeze at the sight.
Once Vlad was settled in his arms, Murphy looked at Mavis with a frown.
“If I show you, will you leave?” Murphy grumbled.
I looked from Mavis who narrowed her eyes to Murphy who was looking at Vlad as if he were his son, and not some random woman’s he didn’t like.
“Yes,” Mavis replied sweetly.
“If you get in trouble for this, just don’t fuc—freakin’ blame me,” Murphy ordered.
He then proceeded to tell Mavis exactly how to take out a driveshaft.
When he was done, Mavis picked up the wrench that he’d been using and said, “I’ll bring this back in an hour.”
Before Murphy could say a word to the contrary, Mavis had Vlad in her arms, and she was all but marching down the driveway to her minivan.
Before I could move in her direction, Murphy caught my eye as he started to curse. “Don’t let her do anything stupid.”
I snorted. “Yeah, like I was ever able to control Mavis Pope.”
Something in Murphy’s eyes hardened at that name, and his face closed down.
I fell into step beside Mavis after giving Murphy a questioning look.
“Why does he hate you so much?” I asked. “Because, I swear, I was getting vibes of him really being into you. While on the other hand, he hated that he was really into you.”
Mavis looked at me. “You don’t remember Murphy, do you?”
I frowned. “I guess not. Why? What am I missing?”
“Do you remember Alessio Romano?” she asked.
The moment she said Alessio’s name, I was taken back to a little boy that lived on our property with his mother. His mother was a maid at my grandmother’s estate. She lived in her own little small house at the back of the property, and every once in a while, I would see Alessio, her son, running around the back part of our property.
Until my grandmother asked them to leave because Alessio’s mother ‘couldn’t control her son.’
“They lived on Grandmother’s property. In the old carriage house at the very back. Grandmother fired her because Alessio kept coming onto the main part of the property,” I recalled grimly.
“Alessio is Murphy.” She dropped that bombshell.
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
“What?” I gasped.
“Yep, and he hates me because when they were kicked out of Grandmother’s house, they had to live out of their car for almost a month before his mother was able to find more work.” She shook her head. “I fucking hate our grandmother.”
Speaking of our grandmother…
“She called me today while I was in bed with Taos. I ignored it, and she’s called me every fifteen minutes since.” I pulled out my phone and showed her all of the missed calls. “She hasn’t stopped.”
“She won’t stop until you answer.” Mavis snickered.
She was right. My grandmother thought she was above all the most important person in the world. If the President of the United States, the Queen of England, and God himself were in the same room, my grandmother would expect to be served lunch first.
She was that selfish.
Mavis pulled to a stop outside of an apartment building and parked.
I frowned hard at the location.
It was one of the nicer places in town. An apartment complex that was newly built, had state-of-the-art security, and was so hard to get into that there was a year-long waiting list.
“Why are we here?” I asked finally.
“This is where Heather Trudell lives.” She paused. “The reporter who thought she would be funny by plastering your name and face all over the newspaper.”
My brows rose. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she snarled then got out.
That was when I realized why she’d asked Murphy how to take a driveshaft out.
Because, over the next ten minutes, Mavis grunted and grumbled as she did just that.
I sat in the back of the van, watching the newest Hotel Transylvania with Vlad, and tried not to think about how many laws we were breaking.
And, of course, like clockwork, the cops showed.
I reached over and closed the van door, hoping beyond hope that they wouldn’t notice me sitting back here.
My luck didn’t hold out.
CHAPTER 21
You suck less than most people.
-Taos to Madden
TAOS
“I’m sorry, but can you repeat that? I don’t think I heard you correctly.” I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose.
I was knee-deep in serial killer bullshit when I got the call from an officer that I’d met only a few times before.
“We have your girlfriend here with a baby and that baby’s mother. They say they know you,” Officer Shane explained again.
I sighed. “Where is here? And what did they do?”
I had no clue that Fran had it in her, honestly.
“Fran didn’t actually do anything,” Shane explained. “It was the sister. They were asked to leave. The sister refused until she could finish taking a driveshaft out of a car. Then she loaded it into her van, locked the doors, then we took them all in. Her van’s been towed by Murphy’s Garage, and I don’t know what to do with them.”