Page 19 of Unconditional

“If you’d just stayed away from me to begin with, you wouldn’t have to hear it!”

“Well, if your stupid little friend hadn’t run off with my brother—”

“Everything okay out here, folks?”The intrusion of a third voice cutting in had both our heads snapping up to see who it had come from.

A stocky man with a graying beard that reached his chest was standing there, thumbs hooked into the pocket of a well-worn navy blue work jacket.The name tag that had been stitched there read, “Rodger.”The man in question gave us both a once over before settling on the two of us as a whole and raising his eyebrows in a way that told me he wasn’t impressed.

I glanced back to Talon, who I’d only now realized was right in front of me, our chests nearly brushing.We’d gotten closer in our arguing, nearly nose to nose.Clearing my throat, I made a poor attempt at taking a subtle step back.“Uh, yeah.I mean, no.Something’s wrong with our car.”

My voice seemed to bring Talon back to the present, because he blinked and relaxed his posture—or attempted to.“Timing belt.You wouldn’t happen to have one on hand that would fit an ’02 Chevy Malibu?I can do the work myself and be out of your hair in a couple hours.”

I felt my own eyebrows lift slightly, but I kept my surprise to myself.My heart was still hammering from the frustration that had come forth in the heat of our argument, and I highly doubted that Talon was any calmer than I was.

“Don’t think we do, but we can go inside and take a look.”Rodger said, hooking his chin toward the door behind him.For the first time, I looked at the sign on the front of the building which read, “Paulie’s Garage.” Wordlessly, Talon followed him, not waiting to see if I would too.My eyes rolled at his blatant assumption that I would, telling myself the only reason that I did was because my toes were going numb from the cold in my absurdly cute ankle high booties.

twelve

Talon

Asifthistripcould get any more fucked up—and behind schedule.Of course, the convenient little car I’d bought off one of my long-time customers had to go and take a shit.I’d given the vehicle a quick tune up before making my way to Chicago, but I hadn’t anticipated that Milo would have bunked up all the way across the fucking country.If I had, I would’ve taken further measures to ensure that the hunk of junk could make it.I hadn't wanted to take my own vehicle—it would have made it too easy for Kyle to track my plates, and for reasons I still didn't understand, I wanted to keep the finer details of this trip under wraps.

Still, this was my fault.I’m a mechanic for fuck’s sake.I should have been prepared before leaving.So eager to get on the road—and get Leo out of Kyle's line of sight—I didn’t even grab my tool bag before I left the shop.Rookie fucking move.

Now we were who-the-hell-knows-where, and Misely’s heeled boot was tapping incessantly against the dusty concrete floor with impatience.I shot her a look but she wasn’t paying me any attention, her focus on the old man who was sat behind a rusty metal desk, clicking through his computer.The desktop was about as ancient as the surface it sat on top of, a yellowing, off-white monstrosity that was making a loud humming noise.

After what felt like ages, the man clicked his tongue against his teeth.“Sorry to say, I think we’re out o’ luck on that belt.We’ll have to order one.”

My jaw ground together painfully, but I held back the curses I wanted to dispel.“And how long will that take?”

He shrugged, unbothered brown eyes meeting mine.“Hard to say.Paulie is the only one allowed to do the orderin’, and he won’t be back from his huntin’ trip for a few days.”

In my peripheral, I saw Misely’s mouth gape in time with the widening of my eyes.“Why can’t you order it?”I demanded, trying and failing to keep my temper at bay.

“Paulie is the only one allowed to do the orderin’.His shop, his rules.”The man’s tone was apathetic, and I knew it wouldn’t do any good to argue with him.

“Well, are there any other shops around?We’re on a pretty tight schedule.”

“‘Fraid not.We’re the only auto shop ‘till St.Rawlins, and that’s about an hour out.”

This time, the curse fell free.Pulling up the directions on my phone, I weighed my options.St.Rawlins was, in fact, about forty-five minutes out but it was at least in the general direction we were headed anyway.The engine was already ticking.If the belt snapped before we could replace it, there was a pretty solid chance that the engine would go to shit.“We’ll have to chance it.Let’s go, Blondie.”To the man I said, “Thank you for your time.”Because I’m not acompleteasshole.

His bushy brows rose just slightly in surprise before he gave us a short nod.“Not a problem.Here.”He passed me a worn looking business card.“If the belt don’t last, give me a call and I’ll come get ya.We got a tow truck in the other garage.”

The car didn’t make it out of the parking lot.I put the keys back in the ignition, and the engine wouldn’t even bother to turn over.Unable to help myself, I sent my fist flying into the steering wheel over and over again until I felt the skin at my knuckles split.Beside me, Misely was stone still, her skin paler than usual.She was facing forward, not daring to look over at me with her hands squeezed tightly together in her lap.She was scared of me.

Mentally I berated myself, even as I jumped back out of the car to check under the hood.Sure enough, the belt snapped as soon as I had tried to start the engine.If we were lucky—which was at this point was highly unfuckinglikely—we would be able to replace the belt and all would be well.But it looked like for right now, we were sitting ducks.

Rodger, who had been watching from where he leaned into the doorjamb of the shop, began walking over, a toothpick caught between his teeth.

“Come on, I’ll give y’all a lift into town.I’m sure Susie’s got a room open.Then I’ll see if I can get ahold o’ Paulie and get you an ETA for when he’ll be back.”

I glanced over to Misely, who was inspecting her nails with a hip cocked against the side of the car.At least that look of frozen panic had left.She sighed and gave me an expectant look.“Pop the trunk, I need to get my bags.”

A weight settled into my stomach.This was really happening.We were delayed, yet again.Every second that passed was like a ticking time bomb in my gut, counting down until—just like the timing belt—Kyle decided enough was enough and snapped.And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it right now; the control over the situation was out of my hands.

Kyle wouldn’t give a shit if the car I was using broke down.He wouldn’t care if I’d had a heart attack and was dying in the hospital.If I didn’t deliver Milo at his feet soon, he would follow through on his threat.My throat felt tight.

Misely must’ve seen something change in my expression, because hers changed to one that almost resembled concern.“Talon?”She took a single step forward, the movement snapping me out of my momentary lapse of sanity.

---