Page 76 of Toxic

“I’ll bring it back in about ten minutes?” I said, asking for permission from the girl again.

“Okay,” she said in a bright tone. “We’ll be here.”

“Thank you again,” I told her and hurried back to my truck. I pulled out the tire iron and wooden blocks and laid them on the ground.

Isla finished her phone call and stood there, hands on her hips watching me. “What are those for?” She knocked one of the blocks over with the toe of her sneaker.

“Bottle jacks,” I held it up, “are too short for a truck like this. I need to balance it on the wood in order to jack the truck up high enough to get the tire off the ground.

She looked impressed. “I might have to have you teach me this. I guess I can’t just go around stealing cars as much anymore.”

“Well, certainly not when you have a load of feed. Imagine trying to fit all this into a car.” I laughed and agreed to teach her. Piling the blocks of wood until they were high enough, I put the jack on them, then used the rod to start raising it up. Once I had it positioned on the frame of the truck, I jacked it until the tire was just lightly resting on the pavement and stopped.

Her phone rang. “Hey, Hush. Nevermind, Billie found someone who had one.” She paused, tilting her head as she listened. “No. She’s got it under control.” A frown crossed her face. “No, seriously. She’s going to have this changed long before you can even get here. I promise I’ll call if anything goes wrong-” She paused, then sighed. “Yes, I’ll call once we’re back on the road. Either way, I’ll give you a call.”

She put her phone away and we exchanged grins. These men were extremely protective, something Toxic taught me right away.

“I’d help you, but I hurt my back recently. I’m afraid age has gotten the better of me.”

Looking around Isla, I saw an older man, probably in his seventies. He was grimacing at the thought of leaving me to change my own tire. “Oh,” I said with a smile, “it’s okay. We’ve got it.”

He scowled as people flooded around us. There were young men walking past without offering to help. I didn’t expect anyone to help me change my tire. I knew how to do it, but he had a disgusted look on his face. “They should be helping.”

I laughed and eyed the men. “In my experience, there are a lot of men who don’t know how to change a tire anymore. I’d rather do it myself so I don’t have to worry that they forgot to tighten the lug nuts. I don’t want my tire flying off while I’m on the freeway.”

The man grumbled and shook his head. “I’ll let you get back to it. I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

“Thank you,” I told him. “But don’t worry about us.”

“Guys don’t know how to do this shit?” Isla asked, looking confused. “The guys at the clubhouse spend a lot of time fixing up their bikes and stuff.”

“Yeah,” I replied, “they’dknow how to. And guys raised rurally usually know how to. Women too,” I added, “because ifyou get a flat there might not be anyone around for miles to help you change it. But city guys?” I snorted out a laugh. “They’re used to being able to call someone else out to roll around on the hot pavement to change their tires for them.”

“Hmmm,” she said. “Let me do that. So I can learn,” she added when I started to argue.

“Okay. Before we raise the tire all the way off the ground we want to loosen the lug nuts.” I walked her through how to change a tire and before long we had the new tire on and the jack back to its owner.

We were both sweating and dirty by the time we climbed back into the truck. The AC felt like heaven as I drove home. I pulled in and stopped next to the house. Movement caught my eye and a scowl stretched over my face as I watched Toxic walk out of my house, a smile on his face, as though he hadn’t just abandoned me for two days.

Slamming out of the truck, I stalked toward him. I poked my finger into his chest, noting the way his smile faded and anger entered his eyes. “Where have you been?”

“Let’s go fix something out in the barn,” Warrant muttered to Isla. “Better yet, at the clubhouse.”

“What?” she asked as he started hauling her away toward the SUV he’d been driving each day. “But I want to watch-”

I focused back on Toxic as Warrant shoved Isla in the SUV then drove off. “Typical,” I snapped at him. “You shove your way into my life, take over, then just leave.”

“I left you with people to watch over-” he started.

Cutting him off, I jabbed him again. “I don’t want anyone else watching over me, Toxic.”

I was being unreasonable. I was aware of it, but there wasn’t anything I could seem to do about it.

The smile was back, only now it was more of a satisfied smirk. “Let me get this straight,” he said, his tone teasing. Itmade me want to smack him, but I held back. “You’re pissed because I left?”

“No,” I denied, crossing my arms over my chest.

“That’s what it sounds like,” he replied.

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