Page 44 of All Twisted Up
“I completely forgot that your team drove us here,” he remarked as I dropped my bag and handed him the shaving kitbefore pulling the cover off my vehicle. He whistled as I revealed the shiny, white paint with gold accents.
“My God…this is your car?”
I wadded up the car cover and threw it in the back with my bag as he held out the shaving kit. I took it as he walked around the front to get a good look at the hood. The golden eagle painted on top was my pride and joy.
“What year is this?” he asked, stroking a hand over the painted bird.
I grinned. “1979. It’s a limited Jeep Golden Eagle edition.”
He glanced up and grinned at me, shaking his head. “I can’t believe it. Where’d you find something like this?”
“I’ll tell you all about it once we get going,” I said. “The ragtop won’t provide any protection from bullets, but I’ll be a hell of a lot more confident when your blond head isn’t attracting eyeballs.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, opening the door and diving inside. I slid into the driver’s seat and started the Jeep with a roar, using the manual stick to back up out of the space. As soon as we were out on the open road, I felt better. “This really is a beautiful car,” he remarked.
“Thanks. I picked it up in New Orleans at a police auction if you believe that.” I could hear the pride and happiness in my voice as I talked about the second most important thing in my life. The car had earned second place status after I adopted Marvin.
“A police auction? I’ve heard about those but didn’t think you could find anything this beautiful at them,” he replied.
I chuckled. “Trust me, it looked nothing like this when I bought it.”
“Tell me what happened.” He sounded relaxed.
I checked the rearview mirror as I drove down Santa Monica making sure no one was following. “It had been owned by a criminal who’d made the mistake of taking it on a police chase. When he ran over police spike strips, his tires blew, and he ran right into a telephone pole.”
“No shit!”
I dragged my gaze away from the road for a few seconds to look at him. His eyes were wide with surprise. I returned my attention to the road and nodded. “After they pulled the perpetrator out of the vehicle, the parish police decided to tow the car since it was pretty fucked up. It sat in their lot for a long time before going to auction after the guy was convicted of robbing several convenience stores. I picked it up for a little more than five grand and then went about restoring it.”
“Wow,” he said, running a hand over the dashboard. “It looks brand new. You did all this work yourself?”
I spotted the driveway to our destination up ahead. “I had a couple of buddies who helped.” I chuckled. “Okay…actually, they did most of the work while I ran around looking for parts since I’d never so much as changed a tire in my life.” I wasn’t about to admit to having staff who did all that for the virtualfleetof cars my fucked-up father owned.
He chuckled as I realized just how easy it was to talk to him. It felt natural. I pushed those dangerous thoughts aside as I slowed down and pulled into the parking lot. I checked our surroundings again as I waited for a guy to saunter across the parking lot in front of us, holding a gym bag in one hand while he scrolled on his phone with the other. I pulled into an empty space and checked the rear and side view mirrors again before grabbing the gym bag and shaving kit to get out.
He followed suit, meeting me on the other side of the car, paying little attention as I eyeballed the parking lot and the insides of parked cars just to make sure no one was lying in wait. I was a little paranoid but at the same time, I felt like the caution was warranted.
As I walked into the gym, I ran another check. There were women on the treadmills, stair climber, and five guys at the back, lifting weights. A guy on the abductor machine carried on an animated conversation with someone, and a trainer was working with a woman. Two people sat behind the square kiosk talking to each other and both stood up when we approached. The guy was young with a familiar face. He flashed me a big smile, recognizing me.
“Hey, Nash. Nice to see you during the day,” he said, glancing at Joshua as I punched my phone number into the keypad.
“Day off,” I muttered, glancing at his nametag. “Todd, I’m gonna need a guest pass for my friend.”
He smiled at Joshua. “Sure. Name?” he asked and tapped something into his terminal.
“Joshua.”
“Okay.” Todd issued a guest pass and handed it to him as I glanced around again. When I returned my gaze to Todd, he sent me a friendly smile. “Have a good workout.”
“Thank you.” I looked over at Joshua. “Where do you want to start?”
He smiled at me, lifting his backpack. “Lockers?”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” I headed to the back of the room, keeping an eye on everyone and entered the locker room first. I checked the bathroom and shower stalls. Satisfied we werealone, I walked to an open locker and held the door for him. We shoved our bags inside and he shut the door before putting a lock on it. I accepted a towel and a drink from him.
“Let’s go,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to this.”
He seemed almost relaxed as I nodded and draped the towel over the shaving kit with my weapon inside. We were walking out as one of the guys who’d been working legs walked in. The minute I got a look at his face, I recognized him. He smiled brightly.
