Page 51 of Shelter for Tanna

It took her longer than usual to find the pickup location, primarily because it was on PineDrive and she was on PineStreet. Yep, that didn’t work. It wasn’t running and the owners were at work, so they’d told Charlie on the call-in that the key was under the mat. That made her work a lot easier. She could just back up to it, winch it, stick the key in the ignition and put it in neutral, and pull it straight up the inclined flatbed. Easy peasy.

Being on the right street helped, and she found it with no trouble once she was on PineDrive. It was a late model VolvoSUV, a really nice one. She couldn’t imagine what was wrong with it. It wasn’t old enough to have a lot of issues. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to afford a car that new? It only took her a couple of minutes to get it ready, and she tipped the flatbed back until its back end touched the ground. She was about to hit the winch control when she felt a shiver run up her spine.

She got the distinct impression she was being watched. Tanna turned and looked down the block, but she saw nothing. There was no one across the street and no one in the yards around her.I’m being paranoid because of those two jackasses, she told herself when she hit the control lever and watched the vehicle as it rolled up the truck’s bed. It was almost completely on the truck when she felt something hard against her ribs.

Tanna hit the control lever and froze. “We’re only gonna ask you this one time. Where is that car?”

The pounding of her heart was visible under her uniform shirt. “I told you, I don’t know. I take them there and they put them wherever they want them.”

“You take them there? Where’s ‘there?’ I need to know,” a menacing voice growled in her ear, and she was pretty sure she’d heard it before.

“One of the impound lots. There are like five of those lots, and I don’t remember which of them I took that car to. I don’t even remember the car. I swear to god, I don’t.” She’d started to tremble as the man pressed the barrel of the gun harder into the back of her ribcage.

“You’d better start remembering,” another voice snarled. Great?they were both there. What was she going to do? If she told them the location of an impound lot, they were probably going to force her into the truck and make her drive them there. If the car wasn’t there when they got there, she didn’t know what they’d do. Plus they didn’t realize that the person manning the impound lot’s gate wasn’t going to let them in. And those guys were armed.

She was trying to figure out what to say when she heard a voice call out, “Yoo-hoo! Hello, tow truck driver! Can you hold up just a minute?”

“Who the fuck is that?” the man whispered from behind her.

Tanna didn’t dare move even enough to shrug. “I have no idea. The owners are gone.”

“God damn it! Listen to me. You keep your fucking mouth shut. We’ll take up this conversation again very soon.” The sensation of the gun barrel disappeared and Tanna stood there, paralyzed by fear. Were they gone? She was afraid to turn around and look.

“There you are! I hoped I could catch you! Are you finally taking that car away?” a woman’s voice asked somewhere nearby.

Tanna was fairly dizzy from the adrenaline rush of her terror. “What? I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Are you taking that car away? Because I’ve called about it every day for two weeks!” the woman announced.

“Uh, I’m taking it to the garage. Apparently it’s not running.”

“Oh. Well, at least it’s going. They park it right there on the street, and that’s my husband’s parking space. I’ve asked them nicely and they…”

Tanna wanted to scream at her, to tell her to just shut up and go away, but she could barely move. Her knees were knocking and her hands trembled. As the woman kept blathering on, Tanna hit the lever and finished loading the SUV. As soon as it was on the truck, she made her way on shaky legs to the truck’s door. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’ve got to go.”

“Oh. Well, thank you. At least it’s gone! Have a nice day now,” the woman said, but Tanna didn’t turn to look at her. All she wanted to do was get out of there.

As she drove along to the garage, she watched behind her in the rearview mirror, but she never saw anyone. The guys at the garage helped her get the SUV off the truck, and she headed back to Charlie’s office, praying the whole way that those assholes hadn’t gone back there.

But she didn’t see them for the rest of day. What she really wanted to do was go and find KipSallenger, ask him to take the report of what happened to her, but she didn’t want Charlie knowing anything about it. He’d start in with how women couldn’t handle themselves in a man’s world, and how hiring her had been a mistake. The man had no appreciation for how much money she’d saved him and helped him recover with the simple things she was doing in the office in her down time, and if she told him about the men, he’d probably fire her and say he didn’t need that kind of trouble hanging around. And she had to have her job.

All afternoon she prayed he’d get another call so she could get in the truck and run by the police station on her way to her pickup, but he never did. When it was time to go home, she reluctantly slipped behind the wheel of her little car and took off.

The aroma of something tomato-y hit her when she opened the front door. Daniel was making spaghetti again, it appeared. He was very proud of himself for being able to do that, and she had a feeling they’d be having spaghetti three times a week until he learned to cook something else. Eh, that was fine. He was trying, and that was all that mattered. Anything he could do to help, she appreciated.

After she’d helped him clean up the kitchen from dinner, she took her shower and changed into her sleep pants and a tee. God, she wished Braden were there! Almost as though he’d read her mind, Max piped up. “I miss Braden.”

“I do too, buddy,” she murmured to him and tousled his hair as he put the PEZ he’d earned from dinner in one of his new dispensers.

“I wish he could be here all the time,” Daniel added.

“That would be nice. So, all the homework’s done?”

“I’ve got one more paper. Can you help me, Mom?” Max asked.

“Sure. No problem. Go get it and we’ll work on it together. It should take?”

Her words were interrupted by a loud banging at the front door. Both boys turned to stare at her, eyes round, and she threw a finger up to her lips to shush them. The banging continued. “Mom?” Daniel whispered, a tremor in his voice.

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