Page 38 of A Love So Wrong
Chapter 9
"So off sight, it only looks like the spindle on your driver's side got damaged, but if you take a closer look here," the mechanic pointed a greasy finger to the tablet where a photo was pulled up. "You will see that the axel and plate are all out of whack too."
Gideon closed his eyes. Standing with both fists balled on either side of his hips, he tried to reign in his anger. Hitting that fucking cement block felt like they had hit another vehicle. Jade's scream had echoed throughout the cabin, and all Gideon could do was pray that they didn't wreck, pray that nothing happened to Jade. Thankfully, at least, God came through on the second part of that prayer, he thought bitterly. The truck, however, was a different story.
Right away, Gideon could feel the change in the truck as he took the next exit. He could hear the terrible grind in his tire and could feel the displacement of the alignment. He cursed like a black storm as they limped the truck along. Jade immediately called Toby, who was currently hauling a load to New Mexico, and like a man donning a hero's cape for the women he pined for, Toby thankfully directed them to a garage he had used in the past.
"You’re looking at about three thousand for the axel, spider plate, and spindle replacement as well at the alignment," the man said, running that same grimy hand thoughtfully through his shaggy greying beard.
"Tell me that includes labor?" Gideon asked darkly.
He was prepared to strangle the man if he gave him even one additional piece of shit news. All that scrimping and saving only for this to happen. Without even thinking, his gaze shifted to the glass window at the other end of the garage, looking out into the waiting room. Sitting on the old, tattered chair, Jade sat holding up the phone to her ear and biting her nail as she presumably listened to Toby on the other end. Gideon wanted to roll his eyes, the man was probably trying to reassure her and give her comforting words. And as pathetic as that was, all that fucking did was piss Gideon off more.
"Oh yeah," the mechanic laughed. "It includes it. I even gave you a bit of a discount being Toby's friend and all."
Gideon couldn’t stop the annoyed grunt from slipping past. "So, Toby's a good customer, I take it?" he asked, though he didn't give not one shit.
Throwing down the tablet onto a nearby metal workbench, the mechanic turned to the blue pearlescent truck that was not only Gideon's and Jade's livelihood but their home. It pained him beyond words to see it here like this.
"Heck yeah, he is. Toby likes to gamble like a bird likes to fly. That man goes to Vegas damn near every month and blows big money, so much so the big hotels out there put him up for free," the mechanic laughed as he began flipping through a Volvo parts catalog for Gideon's truck. "And each time he drops his truck off here for any needed maintenance."
Nodding, Gideon spied an open doorway in the back. He wasn't ready to go back to the waiting room yet, not ready to face Jade.
"So, about three days tops, right?" Gideon asked, trying and failing to stamp down the note of warning in his voice. If the man changed his mind and said longer Gideon wasn't sure what he was going to do to him.
Not looking up from the catalog, the man nodded. "Yep, you’re lucky, got a Volvo supplier right up the street."
Lucky his ass, Gideon thought darkly as he trudged his way through the open, shining doorway. Walking through, he took a deep breath of the fresh outside air and leaned against the wall. Fuck! He wanted to yell. To howl out the rage boiling in his veins. Repair costs, losing the nice paying load, and now three nights of hotel costs. His hands were shaking with the need to punch something.
Hearing voices around the building's corner, Gideon opened one eye and looked at the two young grease monkeys talking. They ignored Gideon and continued towards a pair of worn looking chairs further down for their cigarette break.
"Yeah, man, I'm telling you, my buddy Travis just did it the other day," one guy said as he flicked the rolling spark-wheel to his lighter unsuccessfully a few times before finally lighting the cigarette.
"So, what? What did he do? Did he steal anything or trash it?"
"Naw, he didn't fucking trash it. What the fuck, man?" The first guy shook his head and stared at the other guy like he was a savage. "No, he just likes going in and filming them for his anonymous YouTube channel. Here let me show you," the first guy leaned to the side in the battered chair and pulled out his phone from his pocket before typing on it and turning it sideways. "See," he said, offering the phone to the other guy. "He just breaks into those nice ass houses in Henderson or at Lake Las Vegas and films shit he sees."
"So how the fuck does he get in, though?"
"Man, that's the thing," he said excitedly. "Those rich fuckers don't lock all their doors. He usually gets in via a sliding door or an unlocked window. Hell, once the backdoor was unlocked on one of them."
"And they don’t have alarms or anything?" The other guy asked suspiciously, obviously not believing what he was hearing.
"Yeah, man, Travis calls it hubris or something. Man, I don't know, but you can see here it works, though," he added smugly.
Looking back to the phone, the other guy took a drag of his cigarette and nodded, seemingly convinced by the video. "Yeah, I guess so."
~
"Gideon, where are we going?" Jade whispered to him for the third time.
They were sitting on a bus heading in the direction he looked up on his phone. The Nevada sky was painted in fiery oranges and reds bursting across the pale blue sky from the edge of the skyline like the last angry reaches of a thrashing sun that did not want to go down. In a few minutes, probably less than an hour, the surrounding desert would be dark and much cooler.
Looking from the window, he looked back down at her and stifled a grin. She looked ridiculous holding that damn pressure cooker in her lap. He had told her to pack her bag with everything she would need for a few days. What he did not expect was for her to take the damn Instant Pot she loved with her. Now she sat next to him on a half-empty bus clutching the large black and silver pressure cooker in her lap like any minute someone was going to snatch it away.
"I told you, you'll see when we get there," he whispered back.
Ire sparked to light in her hazel gaze, and he knew she was quite unhappy about his secrecy. But Gideon forced himself to endure it a bit longer. There was no way he could tell her his plans yet.
