Page 24 of Speed Trap

“Let’s save something for later, huh?” His lips brushed the shell of my ear in an indisputably intimate gesture.

A shiver ran over my body raising gooseflesh in its wake.

Hawk’s gaze tracked the tiny movement. His hands dropped from my wrists to close on my waist instead. “Coops?—”

An enormous honk shattered the silence around us.

I looked around him to find a garish ducky yellow truck parked behind his equally lurid lemon sports car.

“Your friend is here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much testosterone in one place.”

“You’ve been at the track on race day. You can smell it.” Hawk grinned. He released me to jog to his car, extracting his keys from his pocket.

With a bit of clever maneuvering we managed to fit all three vehicles in the small parking lot, though I wasn't sure how exactly we were going to get them all out again.

Ryan waved at me, grimacing when he saw the wreck. “Yours?” he called, taking in the damage.

“It was.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat that sank to my stomach, a weight that moored me to the ground, helpless and hating it.

“Is.” Ryan yelled back from the top of his truck as he hauled on a pair of tattered leather gloves. “Don’t underestimate what Hawk’s team can do. We’ll get her fixed up, Miss Cooper.”

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. Swiping at them under the facade of pushing my hair back, I ran into the building to collect whatever cleaning equipment I could find as the first tear trailed down my cheek.

Janie sat behind the reception desk and looked up with a bright smile. “Sunny! I thought you’d left for the day.”

I blinked at her, and it took me well over a minute to find my voice. A minute I spent dashing recurring tears away. “Um, my car got wrecked.”

“Oh.” She stilled, her gaze darting between me and her screen. “By who?”

Did she have something else to do that was more important? I banished the narcissistic thought from my head. “I have no idea. Didn’t you see the police out front?”

“I’ve been smashed with all this.” Janie hefted a stack of haphazard paperwork. “Seriously. I get stuck in my own little fishbowl space here.”

“Fair enough.” I managed to offer her a smile that didn’t slip off my face. “Be careful leaving the building and coming in early, okay? It looks like we have a vandal around.”

“Will do.” She waved a hand above her head which was already down as she clacked away at her keyboard.

I headed to the janitor’s cupboard and armed myself with garbage bags, a very old and broken looking vacuum I hoped still worked, leaving the newer one in its spot and grabbed a dustpan and brush.

HummingSadie the Cleaning Ladyunder my breath I towed everything back to the parking lot.

My car was already on the back of the tow truck, the boys lashing the carcass to the flatbed. The spot my car had sat onleft an outline of surprisingly little broken glass and twisted metal, and I had the whole thing cleaned up and the equipment returned to its home by the time the boys were ready to go.

Ryan left us with a wave and the address of the crew workshop, promising I could come by the next day to talk out repairs.

“He’s not going to take payment. You know that, right?” Hawk stood behind me. Heat rolled off him.

“You must be good company on a cold night.”

“Is that an offer, Coops?” He stood too close. Way too close.

I swallowed and made to step forward but he caught my arm, turning me in a small circle to face him. “No. And I’m not letting your crew chief fix my car for free. Though I am relieved it’s someone I trust.” Ryan had an excellent reputation around the track. I’d always been sad he had been paired with Hawk—until I got to know his driver.

Perspective.

I smiled a little.

Hawk traced the corner of my mouth. “What’s this for?”

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