Page 68 of A Lonely Road
The realization that it was my own strangled breathing hit me a second later.
All of the work Jake had put in, all the repairs I'd cooed over the other day, all of my pride and pleasure was obliterated by the tragic sight of almost every inch of my beloved car covered in neon orange and green paint.
“SLUT” was the clearest of the graffiti, written right across the windshield, but I spotted half a dozen more filthy names amidst the chaotic scribbles.
“Oh my god,” I whispered, my grip on Jake’s arm tightening just to keep myself upright.
When I started to crumble, Jake wrapped his arms around me and swore under his breath, far more creatively than whoever had done this to my car. He tucked my head against his chest to keep me from looking back at the neon mess of words.
“Don’t touch anything,” Jake warned, already on the phone with the police.
I barely processed his side of the phone call, though I heard the sharp edge of fury in his voice as he spoke. Even with my face hidden in his shirt and my eyes squeezed shut, the nasty words blinked like a fluorescent sign behind my eyelids. When Jake ended the call, he squeezed me tight and started murmuring reassurances that barely registered.
“All your hard work,” I whispered into his shoulder. “All that effort.”
With his hands on my shoulders, Jake pulled back to look me in the eyes, his expression fierce. “Don’t even worry about that. Shh, it’s not worth crying over, Nora. I’ll fix her back up, good as new. Nothing to worry about, my love, I promise you I will fix everything.”
I hadn’t even realized Iwascrying, but silent tears streaked down my cheeks and soaked into Jake’s shirt when he hugged me close again.
“My dad. He’ll want to know, I have to call him.”
Jake shook his head. “I'll text him, but Roberts said he’d call him on the way. It’s okay. It’s okay, Nora. I’m so sorry. I should have parked Baby in the garage.”
A strangled laugh broke from my lips. “So he could spray dirty words on your beautiful truck instead? Or on the siding of poor Mr. Jenkin’s garage?”
The question made us both look toward the apartment and I lifted my head.
“Is it possible either of the cameras might have caught whoever did this?” I asked, wiping at my wet cheeks.
“Let’s check.”
Jake pulled up the app on his phone and gave a tense smile when he saw that the camera by the apartment door happened to capture the front half of my car. He scrolled to the second feed, which covered the passenger side. Before he could look too far into the stored video clips, the chief’s cruiser and my father’s Honda pulled up out front in swift succession.
Roberts gave a low whistle as he took a walk around my little blue car. My dad strode straight to me first, looked me over carefully as though checking that none of my wounds were external, then he gave me a quick squeeze before joining the chief.
“Safe to assume you two didn’t hear anything during the night?” Roberts asked.
Jake shook his head. “No, sir, but the cameras we installed at the apartment may have caught something. It looks like onecamera angle shows the front of the car and the other one gets the front passenger door, at least. I didn’t go through any of the recorded footage yet.”
The chief nodded. “We’ll take whatever you’ve got. Give me a timeline here, Jake. John said you were all out at the beach yesterday—what time did you get home?”
“Just after eight, I think,” I said.
“What time did you head on to bed?”
Since I was sure my cheeks had gone fiercely pink and avoided looking toward my father, Jake answered for us. “Ah, just after eight, sir.”
The chief gave Jake a knowing smile while my dad kept his eyes on the car, his jaw tense. He knew how much Baby meant to me.
Jake added, “We had breakfast and watched some TV this morning. I didn’t even look out front. Nora had plans with my sister so I was just walking her out when we saw the damage. I called you first thing.”
“Oh, no. Sam,” I exclaimed. “I need to call her and cancel. I don’t want her to show up and see Baby like this.”
Jake kissed my temple. “Go on inside and give her a call, we’ll be right here.”
The three of them watched me walk back into Jake’s house, though when I glanced back through the window next to the door, I saw them all huddled together like they were planning out football plays rather than discussing a stalker who seemed to be getting bolder by the day.
In the end, I sent Sam a text and waited for a reply to be sure she saw it. If I started relaying the details aloud, I had the distinct feeling that I would fall apart again. I gave myself another minute to take a few deep breaths, then slipped back out the door in time to see Jake sigh heavily and rub a hand over his jaw. He must have felt my presence, because he turned and held out one arm to tug me against his side again.
