Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
That was true. I didn’t let my dad drive it, though, because my dad wanted it.
My baby, my 1969 ‘Cuda, was my dream car. I’d found her on the side of the road outside of town. An old man had broken down there, and I’d offered him a lift to my dad’s shop.
He’d looked haggard, beaten down and just plain sad.
The car, however, was pristine…at least on the inside. On the outside, she was a hunk of potential, but nowhere near the beauty she would one day become.
“Seems to me if your daddy bought you the car, you should at least let him drive it,” Rafe drawled.
I won’t punch him in the face. I won’t punch him in the face.
“My daddy didn’t buy me this car,” I said. “I was given this car in a dilapidated state by a dying old man who was happy to find an owner for it who would love it as much as he did. My daddy and uncles helped me fix it up. The only thing they did, however, was the paint job. I didn’t want to fuck it up with my lack of experience. So, they did that for me. The rest, though? That was all me.”
“You know how to work on cars?”
Kayla started to snicker. “That’s why she’s always so dirty. I think you’ll come to realize, my dear friend Rafe, that you shouldn’t underestimate any of the girls in this family. Scout, Rebel, Janie, me, Sam’s three girls. Hell, any of the Free girls, really. They all know their way around a vehicle. Janie here just knows her way better than most. She’s the one who spent the most time with them.”
Rafe looked at me, grinned, and put my baby into reverse.
His hand came perilously close to my left hip since I was half on Kayla’s lap and half on the console, but he didn’t touch me. Dammit.
“How fast do you think she’ll go?” he questioned.
My car shook and shuttered, the car seemingly struggling to stay alive.
That was a lie, though. My car wouldn’t die. This baby was perfectly primed and in the best shape a car of its age could ever be in. Hell, it was better than almost any new car I could drive off the lot.
“She’ll go about one twenty and stay within the lines,” I said almost instantly.
Kayla snorted.
Rafe didn’t say a word.
But his hands did tighten slightly on the steering wheel, almost as if he was upset that I knew my car’s top speed.
But…who didn’t know their car’s top speed? If you didn’t, you were likely a wiener.
I, most definitely, wasn’t a wiener.
“Where are you going?” I questioned as he expertly pulled out of the lot.
He didn’t even stall. That was pretty impressive with my car.
I had a modified camshaft in it, and the proper fuel ratio made it persnickety sometimes. It took just the right amount of gas on the driver’s part to get it to go without hesitating, and Rafe had applied it without ever being in it before.
That was damned impressive. My ‘Cuda was a finicky little bitch.
“I’ll go to your place. I have something I want to discuss with Sam anyway. Once I’m done, I gotta head to my sister’s place. Then I have to head back down to Hostel,” he answered, pulling out in front of a slow-moving minivan.
He went through the gears expertly, stopping in fourth gear and loosely letting his hand rest on the gear shift.
Glock and Kimber both woofed, causing me to snort. “Can you roll your window down for them?”
Rafe had it down moments later, and my hair started to fly all around my face.
“Their back windows don’t go down?”
I shivered as the cool air hit my skin. “No. That’s why I had this one and the other window cracked for them. The windows in the back need some work, and I haven’t had the time to fix them since they stopped rolling down.”
“Easy fix,” Rafe muttered, his eyes going to the rearview mirror before he switched lanes.
He accelerated past a slow-moving dump truck, and then returned to his original lane.
“Maybe,” I agreed. “What’s in Hostel?”
“A job.”
“What kind of job?” I questioned.
“One where I intend to work for a while,” he answered, looking over at me for a short moment before returning his eyes to the road. “Why?”
I felt my lips turn up.
“Just figured that you had plans of some sort. Hostel’s a small town,” I admitted. “And I’m just curious.”
“You’re always curious,” he muttered, sounding put out. “The road construction finished this way?”
I shook my head. “No, they hit a snag with a pipeline,” I said as I gestured to a side road he should take. “That one is faster.”
Rafe grunted but pulled off before the back road that I’d indicated. Instead, he’d taken some road that I’d never once seen before. A dirt road of some sort.