Legacy Read Online Free Page B

career,” he said with a chuckle.
    Lucas felt his annoyance turn to anger. “Sorry,” he said, leaning through the driver’s-side door to turn off the engine. The new-car smell hit him immediately. “Can’t find anything wrong with your car. Maybe you should take it to a more educated mechanic.”
    “Didn’t think you would find anything,” the older gentleman said, pushing off from the worktable and limping closer to Lucas. “I just bought it yesterday.”
    “So what the hell did you have me looking under the hood for?” Lucas asked, temper flaring.
    “I wanted to see you,” the man said, limping closer still. “I’ve traveled pretty far just to talk to you.”
    “What did you want to talk to
me
for?” Lucas snarled.
    The man just stared.
    “I’m your father,” he said finally. The words seemed to suck all the sound from the garage.
    Lucas stumbled back, feeling as if he had been slapped across the face. “Wha—what did you just say?”
    “You heard me,” the man said. “I’m your father, and I’ve come to speak with you about—”
    Lucas was suddenly moving. First he slammed the driver’s-side door, and then he walked to the front of the car.
    “You’d better go,” he said. He couldn’t think. He pictured his brain exploding into sparks like those computers did in the old movies.
    And then he pictured his mother, drinking herself into oblivion as she thought about the bad old days. Days that this guy probably had something to do with, if he was indeed who he said he was.
    “We have to talk,” the older man urged, his limp more severe as he tried to step closer.
    “Get out,” Lucas yelled, slamming the hood of the Mustang.
    “Everything all right in here, Lucas?” Big Lou’s massive bulk suddenly filled the doorway between the main office and the garage.
    The old man glanced quickly at Big Lou, then turned his eyes back to Lucas.
    “Yeah, everything’s fine,” Lucas said, his gaze not leaving the old man. “I was just giving this guy directions to the highway. You got those all right, old fella?” he asked, venom dripping from every word.
    The old man nodded slightly and walked to the driver’s side of the car. “I’ve got it,” he said, opening the door and carefully lowering himself behind the wheel. “Nice talking with you.”
    Lucas suddenly wanted to say so much more to the man… wanted to slice him apart with the savagery of the words that now filled his head. Instead, his eyes followed the Ford Mustang as it backed from the garage, into the lot, and onto the road out front.
    I’m your father
. The words reverberated inside his skull, pounding like the worst migraine he’d ever had.
    I’m your father
.
    And suddenly Lucas was sick, leaning over while what little there was in his stomach spewed from his gaping mouth into the garbage barrel.
    Lucas didn’t know how long he’d been standing in front of the Good Eats Diner.
    The morning was a complete blur. As soon as the old man
… his father …
had left the garage, Big Lou had been on him to straighten up the shop and work the pumps.
    It had been pretty insane the last few days—first the business with Richie Dennison and now this. If things kept going the way they were, he was pretty much certain he wouldn’t be able to keep a straight thought in his head.
    Things are just getting too freakin’ weird
.
    And now, standing out in front of his mother’s place of employment, he had the chance to make them even weirder.
    Lucas had no idea what to do. Should he tell his mother what had happened across the street—who had paid him a visit?
    His thoughts flashed back to the night before. She had drunk herself into a stupor over something that had happened years past. He’d never really asked for specifics, because he’dnever really cared. Something had made her leave Seraph City, and he guessed it had something to do with her being pregnant, and with the guy who had just introduced himself.
    But doesn’t she have