Unfiltered & Unhinged Read online

  UNFILTERED &

  UNHINGED

  Book Four of

  the Unfiltered Series

  Payge Galvin & Jane Lukas

  Unfiltered & Unhinged © 2014 by Payge Galvin and Jane Lukas

  Excerpt from Unfiltered & Undone © 2014 by Payge Galvin and Kasey Wolfe

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  OTHER BOOKS IN THE UNFILTERED SERIES:

  Unfiltered & Unlawful

  Unfiltered & Unknown

  Unfiltered & Unsaved

  Visit us at our website here or sign up for the Unfiltered newsletter here.

  —◊—

  To dear friends and great ideas.

  -Jane

  —◊—

  From the back cover of Unfiltered & Unhinged:

  After a night-shift shooting of a drug dealer in The Coffee Cave, twelve strangers each walk out with more than $100,000 in dirty money, a pact never to meet again, and the chance to start over…

  Cass Montgomery thought money was supposed to make everything easier. But when she tries to pay off her brother’s racing debts, she finds herself in deeper trouble than ever before as she’s forced to race in the sideshows Wrex Cooper controls. With her motorcycle totaled and no way to keep her brother Liam out of the hospital, Cass turns to Dev Coburn, hoping he can get her bike ready to race once more.

  What she didn’t expect is how attracted she is to Dev or how much she’s putting him at risk. As the countdown to the final race looms, will Cass and Dev be able to make it to the finish line or will she end up in debt to Wrex for more than money?

  Chapter 1

  First there was sex, and then came death…

  Cass stood in the entrance of the garage bay, looking around for a mechanic. Where the hell was everybody?

  She stepped inside, boots ringing on the concrete. “Hey! Anyone in here?”

  “Hang on!” came a deep voice from the back of an adjacent bay. A clatter of metal pipes met her ears, and she flinched at the loudness that echoed in the enclosed space.

  Cass looked at her friend, Scott, and shrugged.

  “I thought you said this guy was good?” he asked, looking unconvinced.

  “He came highly recommended,” she told him, then signaled for him to bring his pickup truck around to the bay. In the bed of the truck lay her motorcycle, a 2004 Honda Superhawk. It had seen better days, but she loved it more than she’d ever loved anything else, including all of her ex-boyfriends. That probably had something to do with why they were her exes.

  Just looking at the motorcycle filled her with sorrow and rage. Wrex Cooper was such an asshole. He was the guy who controlled the sideshows and—more importantly—the betting surrounding the races at the sideshow. Cass had been working for Wrex for about six months, trying to dig her twin brother out of his hole of debt.

  “Hey, sorry. Whatcha need?”

  She turned to meet this mystery mechanic. He came highly recommended by some of the guys at the last sideshow she raced in, before she’d tried to buy her contract out from Wrex. She hoped this mechanic was as good as they said he was.

  The guy standing before her was ridiculously great looking. He had dark hair and deep brown eyes that could melt a girl like chocolate. Axel grease streaked across his chin. She wanted to reach over and wipe it off and maybe run her fingers over the strong line of his stubbled jaw. He was over six feet tall, wearing faded jeans, motorcycle boots, and had a set of shoulders that filled out the old gasoline shirt he was wearing to perfection. Chest muscles strained against the thin fabric of his white tank top. Tattoos climbed over the visible flesh on his forearms.

  Cass swallowed, reminding herself that she was just there to get her bike fixed, not to ogle the mechanic. He might be fun for a couple of days, but her life was already way too complicated. Bike first. Hormones second.

  “Are you Dev?” Cass watched him warily, wondering if she could trust him with her baby. He may be hot as hell, but that didn’t mean he was someone who could handle the work she needed done.

  “Yeah.” He dragged a hand across his jaw, scratching at his scruff. He lifted his chin. “Who’s asking?”

  “I heard you’re good, and I need a rebuild.” She jerked her head over to the Superhawk lying on its side. “I’m Cass. This is Scott.” She gestured to where her friend stood at the other end of the pickup’s bed.

  Dev leaned over the tailgate for a look. “Damn. What did you do to it? Beat it with a baseball bat?”

  Cass frowned, shifting from foot to foot. She shared a look with Scott; Dev’s comment was uncomfortably close to what had actually happened to her bike. She ignored his question, asking one of her own. “Can you fix it?”

  He ran his hand through his spiky dark hair, causing it to stick up wildly from the grease on his fingers. “Let’s get it inside and see.”

  Cass lowered the tailgate and hopped into the truck bed. Dev rolled a ramp up to the truck’s tailgate, while she and Scott levered up the Superhawk to roll it down. Fiberglass had been busted, pieces were hanging off of it. Wiring hung from panels. Just looking at the damage made her want to hit someone.

  They rolled it down the ramp and into the bay. Dev handed her a form to fill out while he went to work. Scott leaned over and said softly, “I’ll wait for you in the truck.”

  “Thanks, Scott.” She gave him a shaky smile. He squeezed her shoulder before heading over to his truck. He’d known her since she’d moved to Rio Verde years ago; aside from her roommate, Scott was her closest friend.

  Cass absently watched Dev once she’d finished the forms. After stabilizing the bike, he ran his hand over the shattered machine. He crawled over and around it, getting an idea of the damage as Cass watched nervously. There was another sideshow in a couple of weeks. Wrex expected her to race in it, motorcycle or no motorcycle. She’d prefer to ride her own, but if necessary she could ride someone else’s and split the cash with them. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  She put the paper with her contact information on a nearby toolbox.

  “What’s the verdict?” she asked when she thought he’d been quiet for too long.

  He stood up and again ran his hand along the ripped-up leather seat. Looking at the bike with a kind of regret, Dev walked over to her. “Truth?”

  She nodded, noticing that his brown eyes had flecks of gold and green in them. And he had stupid long lashes, the kind girls would kill for. Yeah, he was right up her alley—which meant she’d be a complete and total idiot if she seriously thought about being with him. Her track record hovered somewhere between last place and flaming crash of death. She told her hormones to be quiet and focused on what he was telling her.

  He sighed. “You’d be better off selling it for scrap.”

  That bike had been with her for five years. It was the one constant in her relatively craptastic life. Years ago, she’d saved all the money she could get her hands on, taking on any job—babysitting, yardwork, afterschool—that would pay her something. She learned long ago to hide her money where her father wouldn’t look for it, and when she’d finally had enough,
she’d gone and bought the twisted wreck that sat before her now. She’d been eighteen. Dev’s words made her feel like she was being told to pull the plug on a loved one.

  “No,” she said.

  She saw Dev raise his eyebrows at her, as if he didn’t believe what he’d just heard. “Look,” he began, grabbing a rag from a rolling toolbox and wiping his hands, “I could do the work, sure. But it’s going to take a while to get the parts and we might need to scavenge for some.”

  “I need the bike fixed. Fast.” She stared at him, hoping he’d agree to the work.

  Dev rubbed the back of his neck with a clean section of the rag. He looked back over at the bike. “You obviously didn’t lay it down.” His gaze locked with hers, and Cass found it next to impossible to look away. “Your bike was trashed.”

  She swallowed nervously. Those eyes saw more than they should.

  “Since you’re coming to me to have it fixed, I’m guessing it wasn’t you doing it for the insurance.” He raised his eyebrows at her, as if daring her to contradict him.

  Cass looked down, snapping the elastic hair tie she wore around her wrist. The week had been beyond crappy, going into another realm entirely. This was just the icing on the cake.

  She felt a light touch on her arm. Dev had stepped closer, a concerned expression on his face. He smelled like metal and motor oil and sweat. Her toes curled inside her boots. This was so totally unfair.

  “You race, don’t you?” Dev’s voice was soft, like if he talked too loud he’d scare her away. When she didn’t answer him, he sighed. “You need to stay away from Wrex. This looks like his style, and trust me, you don’t want to wind up owing him.”

  Cass knew she shouldn’t have been surprised he knew about Wrex. If he was the mechanic of choice for some of the sideshow racers, he was bound to have seen—and probably repaired—Wrex’s crew’s handiwork. As for not owing Wrex? That ship had sailed six months ago when her brother had bet more than he could possibly afford to lose. She’d tried paying him off with her money from that night at The Coffee Cave, but he’d refused it. “Will you do the work, or do I need to find someone else?”

  Dev dropped his hand from her arm.

  Cass wrapped her fingers around the place where his hand had been, chasing the warmth of him.

  Turning away, he dropped the rag back on the toolbox. “I can do it.”

  Cass heard the distance in his voice. She guessed he thought she was being stupid or stubborn, that she was some dumbass girl who didn’t know what she was getting into. She clenched her jaw, telling herself it didn’t bother her, that she didn’t care what he thought. He was her mechanic. He would fix her bike. It didn’t matter what he thought of her.

  “How long?”

  He raised an eyebrow. She saw a slow grin cross his face as he looked her up and down. “When will it be ready?” she rephrased, giving him a sour look.

  He shrugged. “No idea. I can’t say what other work I’ll have coming in and how long it will take to get parts.”

  “Two weeks?” Her next race would probably be around that time.

  He snorted. “Are you kidding? I’ll be lucky to finish it in twice that.”

  Cass folded her arms across her chest. He put his hands up. “Look, sweetheart, yours isn’t the only bike I’m working on. And we’re not talking a tune up. This is pretty much a complete rebuild. That kind of thing takes time.”

  Her eyes lingered on her motorcycle. “How much?” Maybe if she kicked in extra money, Dev would put a rush on it.

  He shrugged. “Couple of thousand, easy. Depends on how difficult the rebuild is. But I’ve got a few more projects in front of this one.”

  Cass frowned. She needed to race. Wrex was counting on her showing, even if her bike wasn’t road ready. If she didn’t, bad things would happen. To her and the people she cared about. As much as she loved her Superhawk, it wasn’t going to be ready in time.

  She was going to have to buy a new bike.

  The thought sent her pulse racing. Cass felt sweat break out across her chest and at the small of her back, soaking her shirt. She could buy a new motorcycle, no problem. She had a backpack full of cash sitting under her bed. It was where that money came from that was the problem.

  Cass tried not to think about that night at The Coffee Cave. It had only been two weeks ago, but she was repressing for all she was worth—she was pretty sure she would medal in it if it ever became an Olympic sport. She hadn’t been out front when the guy got shot. She’d been in the back, interrupting the growing argument between the two drunk girls and the young Republican who’d tumbled out of the bathroom on top of the hippie chick. A strange guy had been back there too, with his phone out, but what his business was, Cass hadn’t really cared.

  That was when she’d heard the gunshot.

  Sugar, the other barista, was on the floor. The guy was bleeding out next to her. Jess—a regular—stood nearby, with Sugar’s revolver clutched in her shaking hand. And then everything had gone to hell.

  They had all agreed to keep quiet and split the money Sugar had found in the dead guy’s trunk. One of the drunk girls was going to cremate the body, and the hippie chick was going to get rid of the car. The only reminder of the shooting and her part in covering it up was the money. She and Sugar had agreed to quit their jobs at The Cave, and they’d only spoken once since, and that was only for Sugar to tell Cass she was leaving town and Cass should think about doing the same.

  Cass had wanted to. She wanted to skip town and start somewhere else more than anything. She didn’t want to race for Wrex anymore; she wanted to go back to only riding her Superhawk when she wanted to, but her brother had nixed that idea when he refused to leave with her. So here she stayed.

  And now she was left dealing with both her own drama and the worries from that night at The Cave.

  Her collection of thin silver bracelets jangled as she put up a hand to rub her temple. The massive stress headache that had been building all day had just flared sharply, stabbing into her skull. Perfect. Cass sighed. “Do it. Whatever it takes. Just do it.”

  He didn’t reply.

  After a moment, she looked up. Dev was standing next to her, looking at her curiously. Cass didn’t want to meet his eyes, but she couldn’t help it. And when she did meet his gaze, she found she couldn’t look away. It both excited her and scared the crap out of her.

  “You okay?” he asked, a concerned look on his face.

  She brushed dark hair out of her face and nodded. “Yeah. It’s just not the news I wanted to hear, you know?” Cass gave him a shaky smile.

  Dev grinned back and Cass felt her knees go weak. This was quite possibly the worst time to get interested and invested in some guy. She had serious problems to deal with. A hot mechanic was not going to be among them.

  “You were looking a little green.” His gaze skimmed over her again.

  “It’s not easy, you know.”

  “What, being green?” He grinned.

  She rolled her eyes, groaning. “I left myself open for that one,” she conceded, lightly smacking his arm. “I meant, leaving without my bike.” She shrugged it off, trying not to sound like a sentimental idiot.

  “I’m more than happy to help you with a new ride,” a voice Cass knew and loathed interrupted.

  She turned, her mouth pressing into a hard line. Wrex and one of his heavies stood in the open bay’s doorway. As she watched, he took a step closer to her.

  Wrex was tall, slim, and handsome, his body all whipcord and bone. Dyed blond hair hung into electric blue eyes, eyes so bright and jumpy it looked like he was plugged into a wall socket. He wasn’t as big as Dev, but he was fast and mean and more than a little unpredictable. He twitched into the bay, a wide smile stretching his thin-lipped mouth almost too far, like a rubber band stretched to its limit. His leg-breaker stayed just outside of the garage.

  One night. One stupid, bad decision night. The image of Wrex’s naked back flashed into her memory. It had bee
n a fling for her. She thought it had been the same for him. In the last six months of dodging his calls and avoiding his hands, she’d come to realize that it wasn’t so.

  Cass was the Queen of Bad Decisions.

  “Shame about your Superhawk.” Wrex nodded his head in the bike’s direction.

  Cass felt angry words rise in the back of her throat, but she swallowed them down. As much as she hated him, she couldn’t antagonize him. He came closer, close enough to touch her. She didn’t want to take a step back, but she sure as hell didn’t want his hands on her. Not ever again.

  Dev came up beside her, his presence a sudden comfort.

  Wrex raised an eyebrow, but backed off a few steps. “What’s up, Dev? Haven’t seen you at a show in a while, man.”

  Cass tried to keep the surprise from her face, but she didn’t think she did a very good job. Dev used to go to the sideshows? She had never seen him at one, so it must have been a year since he’d showed.

  “Got busy.” Dev crossed his arms across his chest, muscles rippling beneath his gasoline shirt. “What do you want?”

  “Ah, come on, man. That’s no way to greet a friend.” Wrex’s grin changed, turned harder, less pleasant.

  Dev didn’t say anything, but his expression made it clear that they were something, but friends wasn’t it.

  Before the silence could stretch out for too long, Wrex put up his hands, like he was placating the mechanic. “Just checking on my girl. Heard she was here. Wanted to make sure she got treated right.”

  “I’m not your girl,” Cass ground out, teeth gritted so tightly she was pretty sure she’d just cracked a molar. God, she didn’t want to Dev to think she was Wrex’s anything.

  His smile turned wolfish. “You drive for me, sweetheart. That makes you mine.”

  She dug her fingernails into her palms, wanting to snap at him. She raced for him, but that didn’t mean he owned her. Wrex’s proprietary gaze made her want to take a shower. With hydrochloric acid.

  “I’ve got work to do,” Dev said, his voice a rumble in his chest.