by Leslie North
Her doe eyes narrowed and she glared at him as he slid into the drivers’ seat and revved the engine again. There were several gouges and scraps on the Aeon that he’d seen, but nothing a good buffing wouldn’t remove. Hopefully, by the end of the day he’d have this car safely in Loki’s hands and could walk away from this mission a success.
The passenger door opened and Everly slid into her seat. She stared straight ahead, her delicate jaw tight. “Fine. No way am I losing this deal now. I’ve got too much riding on it.”
7
Everly woke up to bright sunshine in her face and more farm fields blurring by outside her window. Judging by the sun’s position in the sky it was a bit past noon. She straightened and stretched, working out a particular sore kink in her neck before glancing over at Cam behind the wheel. “Where are we?”
He narrowed his gaze out the windshield, his expression contemplative. “Based on what I’m seeing, I’d say were square in the middle of Nowhere, Maryland. Population, us.”
She snorted and sat back, circling her ankles in front of her to restore some circulation. “How long was I asleep?”
“Couple of hours. Based on how hard you slept, you needed it.”
“Yeah.” She blinked at the digital clock in the dashboard. Twelve-thirty. “In my line of work, odd hours are a given. Never know when you might have a chance to catch a few winks, so you get used to sleeping when you can.”
“I hear you,” Cam said. “Used to be that way on SEAL missions too. And with the tech jobs I work for the agency, I’m on call all hours of the day and night. When they need me, I’m there.” He reached over and switched on the stereo then tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to the country pop tune filling the air. Finally, he looked at her again, his green eyes assessing. “So, what’s your plan?”
“My plan?” She ran a hand through her disheveled curls as she checked her reflection in the mirror. What she wouldn’t give for a bathroom and a toothbrush right about now. Honestly, her plans for how to handle this situation were about as empty as the landscape around them. She’d expected this job to be quick, easy, and over by now. Never in a million years had she expected to be saddled with Camden Thursday, let alone to like him so much.
It was a problem, one she had no solution for yet.
Instead of responding, Everly just shrugged and flipped the visor up again then crossed her arms as she stared outside. Finally, she said, “Where are we going now?”
“Well, we can’t go back to the safe house, that’s for sure. And I don’t want to head to the Norse Security offices until I’m sure we’ve lost our tail. So, I’ve been driving around in lazy circles since you fell asleep, burning through our gas and keeping an eye out behind us.” Cam smiled. “The good news is, no one appears to be following us.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“The only place I’ve seen around these parts besides the grain silos and the small one stoplight town is that building over there.” He pointed to a crumbling brick warehouse with faded lettering on the side proclaiming “White’s Piano Manufacture and Repair.” “Not exactly a five-star resort, but it’ll have to do.”
Everly squinted at the abandoned structure as Cam pulled the Aeon into the gravel lot. They got out and Cam muscled his way through a wide set of wooden, barn-style doors and inside the ramshackle interior. Weak beams of sunlight filtered through the grimy windows and dust motes swirled in the shadows. “Wow,” she said, checking it all out. “This place must’ve sat empty for years.” She pushed the corner of a tarp aside with the toe of her shoe and spotted the gleam of metal. Bending, she discovered an array of tools—screwdrivers, wrenches, wire snips, even a hammer and a saw. Everly assumed they’d been left over from the workers building pianos. Her phone buzzed from her back pocket, reminding her she needed to check in with her buyer, give them a final price for the job. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that until she’d given it a thorough inspection. As she stared at the tools an idea occurred. Cam acted like an overprotective mother where the car was concerned, but maybe being stuck in this place together, he’d let her do her thing as long as he was here to watch. She could give him some story about searching the engine to make sure the mob hadn’t tampered with it too.
Everly straightened and turned to Cam, who was keeping guard at the door. “You should bring the Aeon in here, keep it out of sight.”
He gave her a skeptical look. “This place is filthy and the exterior’s dinged up enough as it is. Last thing I need is to give Loki any more reason to kick my ass.”
“Loki?” Everly raised a brow at him.
“My boss.” Cam shook his head and looked away. “That’s his nickname. Kevin’s his real name, but he’s Norwegian and used to play a lot of tricks when he was in the military, so the name stuck.”
“Got you.” Well, damn. Her plan wasn’t working so far, but maybe if she applied a bit more pressure. “Yeah, I’d hate to see anything else happen to such a lovely vehicle, sitting out there exposed to all the elements like that. It’s a risk.”
Cam frowned. “It’s a bright sunny day. What could happen?”
“You sure you got all the trackers?”
His gaze narrowed on her. “What are you not telling me?”
Bingo.
She smiled slow and tapped a wrench against the palm of her hand, the cool metal stinging her skin. “Nothing. I swear. But I’d think a guy like you who wants to control every detail would want to be sure. Let me check the engine.”
“What? Nah.” He brushed off her suggestion. “I don’t like the idea of you poking around under the hood.”
“Why? You still don’t trust me?”
“No more than you trust me.”
“Touché.” Damn, he was sexy when he got all worked up like that. She shoved aside the errant thoughts and focused on her objective—getting a fair price, selling the car, starting her new life. No matter that niggle of unease that was starting to form the more she got to know Cam. She liked him, more than was wise, but that didn’t mean she ought to throw her future away over him, right? She stepped closer to him and resisted the urge to run her fingers through his short dark hair just to see if it felt as soft as it looked. “Listen, we can sweep up in here first and make sure nothing will hurt the car’s paint job. Then you can sit and watch me while I work. I promise nothing will happen to the car. I just want to look under the hood and make sure everything is as it should be. That should put your mind to ease.”
“Nothing about you puts me at ease, Everly,” Cam growled, exhaling loud as he walked past her to pick up a broom. “But you put that idea in my head about another tracker and now I can’t get it out. So yeah. Help me clean this place up so we can pull the Aeon inside.”
She snorted. “Good to know. Honestly, it’s good you’re letting me look. After all the shots fired by those two thugs, I can check to make sure there’s no damage we didn’t see.”
Cam rolled his eyes and grabbed two somewhat worn looking brooms from where they rested against the wall. He handed one to Everly then began to clear out the center of the large open space.
“You know,” Everly said a few minutes later, swiping her arm up to scratch her itchy nose. Her dust allergies were not happy. “Fixing cars is a lot like coding computers.”
“How so?” Cam asked without looking at her as he tossed some debris out of the way.
“Well, when you write your code, you’re telling the computer what parts to put where to get it all to run as a cohesive whole, yeah?”
His gaze flickered to her before darting away again. “Yeah.”
“That’s what I’m doing under the hood of the Aeon. Tinkering with the individual parts, removing some, inserting others, all to get the car to run at optimal performance. I love it. It’s like a big puzzle, just waiting for me to solve it.”
“Hmm.” He rolled an upright piano that surprisingly still looked in decent shape against the far wall of the factory floor. “I suppose I can see tha
t. About the similarities between the two things. Didn’t know you were into engineering though.”
“I’m into all sorts of things,” she said, then wishing she hadn’t at his heated look. She hadn’t meant that to sound dirty, it just came out that way. Everly shrugged it off and finished sweeping the debris from the floor into one big pile. “That’s another reason I want to open my own garage. To show people that women can be mechanics too. If only I didn’t have to worry about the office side of things.” She used a flat piece of plywood to help scoop up the dirt and rubble and dump it into a big steel barrel. “Accounting has never been my strong suit.”
“Really? I love the number side of things. It’s my specialty.”
“I thought tech was your specialty.”
“Both.” Cam emerged from the shadows, gritty and grimy and so gorgeous her toes curled inside her sneakers. He smiled, slow and sexy, then swiped his hand through his short dark hair, leaving it adorably mussed. “Math and coding go hand in hand, since it’s all binary—based on ones and zeroes. Anyway, once you get your place going, let me know. I can help you set up a system to handle your inventory and accounting for you. All you have to do is type in the numbers and it’s done.”
“How much would that cost me?” Everly asked warily.
His gaze narrowed on her. “Nothing. I write crap like that in my sleep. All it would take me is an hour or so to set it up. You’d have to get the computer and stuff is all.”
“Wow. That sounds awesome. Thanks.” Everly blinked back the unexpected sting of tears. In her family, nothing came for free. Someone offered to help or do something nice for you, they damned well expected the debt to be repaid. She’d never met anyone who’d offer a gift like that without guaranteed return. Then again, she’d never met anyone like Cam. Period.
On the heels of that thought came a fresh wave of guilt. Sure, he was being generous now, but that was only because he thought he had the Aeon in the bag. Little did he know that she planned to use her time under the hood to do some recalibration of her own and get a message to her buyer. The idea of double-crossing Cam made her stomach turn, but if she didn’t get the money for this job, she had no future. Besides, after he discovered what she’d done, he’d never want to talk to her again, let alone help set her up in business.
8
A few hours later, Cam stared around him at the various vehicle parts strewn about the cement floor of the old piano factory. Perhaps agreeing to let Everly tinker with the Aeon wasn’t the best idea after all. Beside his feet her legs stuck out from beneath the vehicle, where she was currently checking out the car’s undercarriage. Cam couldn’t resist doing some surveillance of his own, namely on the lower half of Everly’s fine figure.
Seemed his high-school crush had never really gone away. Despite their less than ideal circumstances, Cam had to admit she was still the most beautiful woman he’d seen up close—all smoldering dark beauty and sharp, quick wits. A lethal combination for a guy who tended to get more turned on by a woman’s brains than her breasts, although Everly’s magnificent rack didn’t hurt either.
His phone buzzed in his back pocket again, and Cam pulled it out with a sigh. Another text from Loki flashed onscreen wondering when he planned on arriving at the Norse Security offices with the Aeon. Cam shook his head and glanced out the open door of the factory at the setting sun. They’d been here for a whole day and there’d been no sign of those two mob goons, which was good. There’d also been no sign of anything more than corn, one gas station, and one fast food place for miles. He thumbed in a quick response then shoved the device back in his jeans pocket. Loki wouldn’t be happy about not getting the car until tomorrow, but dammit, Cam didn’t really fancy another run-in with those thugs tonight and beside, the car wasn’t exactly in working order at the moment.
He leaned slightly to see down the side of the vehicle, the smooth shiny paint marred here and there by dings and scratches from the bullets and gravel kicked up by the tires during their earlier escape down the alley. Loki wouldn’t be happy about those either. Then again, considering Loki was back in his office safe and sound, he’d just have to deal with it.
Cam nudged a nearby auto part with the toe of his boot and frowned. “Are you sure you know how to put all of this back together again?”
An aggrieved snort issued from beneath the vehicle, followed by Everly’s long shapely legs shimmying slightly as she slid out from under the vehicle. She sat up and peered at him, eyes squinted, looking stunningly gorgeous despite the dust and grease streaking her skin. “You still don’t trust me, do you?”
“Hmm.” Cam made a show of considering that before giving her a flat look. “No. Not any more than you trust me.”
“Right.” Everly climbed to her feet, her arm brushing against him as she moved under the open hood. Tingles raced through the left side of his body from the contact before he shook them off. She wiped her hands on a rag then placed her hands on her hips. “How many times are we going to have this conversation? I’m a licensed mechanic. I’ve got over a decade of experience. There isn’t an engine on this planet that I can’t figure out how to take apart and put back together again. Just because I’ve got boobs doesn’t mean I’m stupid or any less capable of doing my job than a man. Any questions?”
“Are you working for the mob?”
She blinked at him several times, a bit of the color draining from her flushed cheeks. Everly looked away and the corners of her mouth turned downward. “We’ve talked about that too. I told you I wasn’t.”
“But your family is?”
“I don’t have any control over them.”
“What about them over you?”
Expression exasperated, Everly cursed under her breath and crossed her arms. “I do what I want. Have since I turned eighteen. There were times I needed the money, yes, so I helped my dad out on occasion. But this isn’t one of them. I told you why I need this car—to make the sale and get the money to start my own place, free and clear of my parents and their underworld connections. Don’t believe me? That’s your problem.” She walked away. “Now, leave me alone so I can get this vehicle back together again. Having you loom over me all the time makes me nervous.”
Cam stepped back, shoving his hands in his pockets. Truth was, he did believe her. The girl he’d known in high school had been rowdy and fun and flirtatious, but she’d never run with the truly bad crowds, had never gotten into trouble. And one really couldn’t help their parentage. So far, she’d been nothing but helpful on this little adventure too—well, if you counted trying to steal the Aeon out from under him helpful. But damn if he couldn’t understand her motive behind that too. Honestly, if he’d been in her situation, he’d have done the same thing.
Carefully, he made his way through the maze of parts laid out on the floor and stood before the open door of the factory. There was a slight breeze blowing now and brilliant streaks of orange, pink, gold, and purple lit the sky. Night was coming and with it cold. They hadn’t eaten all day, except for a few energy bars he’d picked up at the gas station when he’d stopped to refuel. He remembered seeing a burger joint and a dollar store about half a mile down the road from where they were. With luck he could make it there and back before it got too dark outside.
“You hungry?” he asked Everly over his shoulder. “I’m going to walk into town for bedding supplies and can pick something up at the fast food place, if you want.”
She turned to face him, a wrench in one hand and a smile on her face, and his breath caught in his chest. Hair mussed and clothes wrinkled, she still affected him as no other woman had. Cam swallowed hard as she approached slowly. Part of him warned she might bean him with that wrench and take off with the car, once it was fixed. The other part of him realized he was a goner anyway. He’d stopped Everly Knight from stealing the Aeon, but somewhere along this convoluted path, she’d stolen his heart.
But as she drew nearer, he could see the spark in her dark eyes wasn’t malicious.
To the contrary, it was grateful. “I’m actually starving.” She rattled off her order and he committed it to memory, just like he had everything else about her. “Oh, and if it’s not too much trouble, I’d die for one of their cherry pies for dessert.”
“No trouble at all,” he said, his voice emerging far gruffer than usual. Cam coughed to clear the sudden congestion from his throat at the mental picture of her licking gooey cherry pie filling from her fingers. “I’ll, uh, I’ll just go then and be back shortly.”
He backed toward the door, loath to leave her for more reasons than just the car. She followed that small smile curving her lips and making him wish he could feel her mouth beneath his—taste her, touch her, see if she smelled as good as she looked.
Yeah, the walk was a great idea.
Cold air and shadows surrounded him as he stuck to the gravel berm of the two-lane highway. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic and he made it into the small town with no problems. After a trip to the dollar store where he bought two travel pillows and a couple fleece blankets emblazoned with football logos—along with other personal items they’d need—he headed to the burger joint and got their food then started back toward the factory. His mind wandered as he walked, wondering about Everly’s mysterious buyer for the car. She’d mentioned having a deadline for the sale, but it seemed unlikely she’d make it now. Guilt stabbed him deep. Why? He wasn’t sure. Yes, he liked her. Yes, he believed she really did want to get out from under her father’s crooked business dealings and start over. But neither of those things negated the fact he had his own mission here, his own purpose and goals. This was supposed to have been his chance to show Loki and Hunter that he was more than a coding geek, that he could handle the brute, physical side of stuff too.