Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,36

plucked the rag from his hands to wipe her own as she headed into the office. It was warmer in there, but better, it was out of sight. Tucked into the back of the garage, it wasn’t designed for customers so much as for Kellan and the other mechanics to do the paperwork they never wanted to do. The little kitchen behind it had an ancient fridge and a microwave along with the coffeemaker.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Kellan moved to the supply cabinet as though looking for spark plugs.

“How do you want to play this?” he asked without turning around.

I glanced at the mirror. One guy was still in the driver’s seat, but the guy who’d been smoking…was gone.

Frowning, I pushed off the wall and walked out of the bay as though I just wanted to stretch. Traffic hummed past. There were customers coming and going around the chicken place despite the early hour. I studied the street, then glanced back toward Kellan.

“We’re missing one.”

He pulled out a wrench and then his wallet. “Stay here,” he told me and then strode out of the garage and waited for a car to pass before he jogged across the street. The guy in the Buick started the engine, even as Kellan approached. He looked for all the world like he was heading for the chicken place too.

A split second before Kellan got to the passenger door, the car jerked away from the curb and burned rubber getting away. The scream of tires on pavement irritated me.

We stood there, both of us, staring after the car, and then I glanced at Kellan again.

Maybe I had overreacted.

Or maybe the other guy took a walk when Starling vanished from our sight in the garage. I was already running for the office before the first crash echoed out.

Chapter 11

Emersyn

Make coffee. Despite the face I made at the request, a little bit of pride sparked in my gut. I’d pulled the spark plugs myself. Granted, Kestrel had to help me adjust my grip twice and my fingers were a mess. Not that my manicure hadn’t been shot for months, but I’d broken a nail when we’d changed the oil.

Honestly, I needed to keep them clipped anyway, and I’d been getting lazy about that. It was a good reminder. The office was tucked in the back of the garage, and it was warm in there, warmer than outside anyway. It also smelled way worse than the garage itself.

At least out there, fresh air came in with the exhaust from passing cars and helped to dispel the competing scents of motor oil, transmission fluid, and whatever that gunk was Kestrel had to scrape off to open the box thingy with the spark plugs.

Cars kind of stunk. Sweat. Dirt. Oil. Grit. But it was also kind of fun, and Kestrel had been super patient about showing me how to do things, even when I had no idea what I was doing.

“No bad habits to unlearn,” he’d told me with a grin. Maybe I’d been really hard on him in the beginning. Then again, the sting of his betrayal had also eased. I’d expected a lot from a guy I’d only known a handful of days.

I’d known him a lot longer now. The door to the kitchen was a swinging door, so I backed through it ’cause I had grease on my hands. Though to be honest, there were little bits of grease here and there, plus smudgy fingerprints. Old George, the guy who worked with Kestrel, and Kestrel both had these stained cloths in their back pockets. I’d wrinkled my nose at them the day before, but I got it now.

The kitchen was kind of disgusting, but nowhere near as bad as the bathroom. Thankfully, I had strong thighs and calves, so my ass never touched that seat, and I could hold it for a long time if I had to.

Kestrel had actually looked a bit embarrassed the day before when I walked out of there. Honestly, there wasn’t enough soap on the planet. Speaking of soap, I searched the kitchen and eyed the old cake bar on the sink side with distrust.

Not happening.

With my foot, I opened the cabinet below.

Jackpot.

Dish soap.

It was half stuck to the bottom of the cabinet, and I refused to wonder why. With my elbow, I turned the water on, and it screeched as it hurtled through the pipes to spurt out of the nozzle before it began running in a