Chapter One-Hundred and Fourteen
John pressed a kiss to Claire's nose as they pulled up to his work, making sure he had his water bottle and a few other small things he might need. "Love you." He smirked, opening his door and jogging into the shop.
Claire waited for a moment, making sure he was okay before she drove the rest of the way home. She knew that Amelia would be crushed that John hadn't picked her up from school today, but at least John could take her somewhere fun when he got off.
John clocked in, before Lee gave him the grand tour. "Chad!" He waved a young man over, patting him on the shoulder. "This is John, he's our new mechanic. I've got some paperwork to fill out, so I'll let you take over training him."
John held his hand out to shake Chad's in greeting. "Call me… Bender." He croaked, his voice still struggling to recover from being blown out.
Chad smiled, noticing that John was a rough looking kid, the kind that would fit right in with the rest of the guys. "Welcome to the team. I'm Chad Cook. Lee and Bridget are my folks, so I get to train a lot of the new guys."
John nodded, walking with him through the shop as he showed him where the tools were and everything else that he might need.
Chad held his finger up as the back phone rang, answering the call. "Hey, this is Chad Cook with Cook's auto. What can I do for you today?" His brows raised a little as he listened to the other person on the line. "The odds are that good?" He was silent for a moment, pulling out his wallet to show a few hundred-dollar bills. "Yeah man, put me down for six bills."
John did a quick tally of the money in the wallet, noticing that there was only three hundred at most.
"Yeah, come by later tonight and I'll get the cash to you." He nodded, at something the other man said, licking his lips a little. "Yeah, Frankie's here too. No. He quit smoking and drinking after he knocked up Julia, he doesn't deal that shit anymore." Chad barked a laugh. "Yeah, that'd be rich! My old man paying him more for the shit jobs he does? Hell, he can barely change the oil in a Subaru. Pop just keeps him on because that damn girl. I tell you… Dad's a sucker for anyone going through a tough time." Chad smirked, before he said goodbye and hung up the line. "Sorry about that, personal call. That's all we use this phone for. It's mostly a way for family to get ahold of us if anything's wrong, like if Frank's chick goes into labor or some shit, she can call him from the hospital." He motioned to a muscular brunet who was fumbling with something under the hood of a blue Chevy pickup. "Frank!" He pointed to John, not seeing the way his muscles tightened when his eyes landed on the little skull-shaped scar on Frank's left cheek. "This is John. Maybe if you pay attention, he can help teach you what a steering wheel is." He barked a cruel laugh, ignoring the way John shrunk away in fear. "Come on, I'll show you where we keep the impossible projects. It's kind of a tradition to spend your first couple days getting pissed off at them before we let you work on the real jobs."
John followed Chad to another part of the garage, locking his gaze on Frank to make sure he was the man who'd mugged him and taken his notebook that night he'd spent at the diner.