AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Madelyn
Istepped out of the Uber and glanced at the concrete-walled building across the street, which had a rack of tires out front. A large neon sign above the entrance read, “Javier’s Mechanic Shop,” and below it, in smaller writing, was what appeared to be a list of the most common services. Contrasting with the old, yellowing color of the concrete, Logan’s dark sedan was parked off to the side. All three of the Vigil members stood around it, heads bent together as if they were discussing their approach to the situation at hand.
I checked the traffic and hustled across the road before striding toward them. Slade noticed me first, confusion and then amusement flickering through his expression. Dexter’s eyes pierced into mine next, revealing nothing of his thoughts before he looked back at Logan. My stepbrother finally glanced over his shoulder.
His gaze collided with mine. It didn’t surprise me when his lips tightened and his expression hardened, but his reaction to my presence still stung. I could only imagine what he was thinking, remembering the way he’d blatantly told me to take a hint only to find me in front of him without his invitation.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, turning to fully face me.
“Helping find my car.” I shrugged, stopping a few feet away from them and crossing my arms. “The same thing that I told you I was going to do from the start.”
Logan’s jaw worked. “How did you even know we’d be here?”
Frustration flared in my chest. “Oh, you mean because you didn’t fill me in, even though you said I could be part of the investigation as long as I didn’t screw things up? I was really hoping that you would have kept your word, but I wasn’t going to put too much stake in that, so I asked Dexter to text me if you came up with any leads.”
Logan’s gaze shot to Dexter, his eyes narrowing, before refocusing on me. “You went behind my back?”
My laugh came out harsh. “Only because you went behind mine. I asked him to keep me up to date on the investigation since I apparently can’t trust you to do that. Dexter, at least, is good to his word.”
“This isn’t a part that you should be around for. That’s the only reason I didn’t tell you.”
I snorted. “It’s pretty clear you don’t think I should be around for any of it, so forgive me if I’m not going to go by your word on that. At this point, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass how you feel. You gave me your word that I could help, so I’m going to help. It’s as simple as that.”
And I just wouldn’t think about all the other things he’d said since then.
Logan swung around to glare at Dexter. “And you see no problem with tipping her off without my go-ahead?”
Dexter held his gaze for a moment before his focus veered elsewhere, but he stayed totally calm, no sign that he was intimidated by the bigger guy. “She hasn’t interfered with anything we’ve been doing yet. We did agree to let her join in as long as she didn’t get in the way.”
Slade chuckled and popped one of his cinnamon candies into his mouth. “You never told us specifically that weshouldn’ttalk to Maddie about it, Logan. Dexter went by what you said rather than what you didn’t. If you didn’t want her here, you shouldn’t have made the deal.”
The support from the other two guys gave me the confidence to raise my chin and glower at Logan. “I’m only sticking around until I get my stuff back. Don’t worry, I won’t be apatheticshadow once this is all over.”
Something flashed in Logan’s eyes, but he was the one who looked away first. His shoulders rigid, he stalked into the mechanic shop without another word. I didn’t think going in there furious was going to help him handle the situation right, but who was I to tellhimwhat to do? If he ruined things, he’d have no one to blame but himself.
Slade motioned to me as he and Dexter moved to follow. “Stay close to us and take a good look around. Let us know if you see any sign of your car—or parts that could have come from it. Otherwise, it’s better if you focus on watching rather than talking—we’ve got more experience with guys like these.”
He said it smoothly without a hint that he was being patronizing, which made the instructions a lot easier to swallow than if they’d come in the tone Logan usually took with me. I nodded and hustled after him. The last thing I wanted to do was make a misstep and prove my infuriating stepbrother right.
It appeared Logan had gotten his own frustrations in check quickly. I found him approaching the reception desk with a confident but unruffled air.
“I need to check on a car I brought in,” he said to the man behind the desk.
The guy squinted at him and then tapped at his computer, looking a bit puzzled.
I scanned the front office quickly. It was clean enough, the linoleum floor a bit scuffed around the edges of the industrial rug. A few pictures of men standing in front of retro cars hung on the walls. Nothing appeared particularly suspicious to my inexperienced eyes or related to my missing vehicle.
“And your name is…?” the guy at the desk said to Logan, but Slade was ambling past the desk to a door across from it. He was already pushing it open when the guy gave a shout. “Hey, clients don’t go in the bay!”
But Slade had sauntered right into the gloomier space I vaguely made out beyond the doorway, acting like he owned the place, and as the guy from the desk hurried over, Logan and Dexter followed. I darted after them, remembering Slade’s warning to stick with them.
“Just want to make sure the work’s being done right,” Slade was saying breezily. He and the other guys fanned out in different directions through the large bay that held a couple of cars on jacks as well as one right on the stained cement floor. Dexter had taken out his phone, no doubt snapping pictures of everything around us, but none of the three cars looked anything like mine.
I followed him instinctively, since he was the one who’d let me tag along to begin with. The guy from the desk hesitated in the doorway as the phone rang behind him. “You need to get out of here,” he snapped at the Vigil guys before dashing back to answer it.
A man in a grease-smudged undershirt and jeans scrambled out from under the car he’d been working on. He swiped his hands on his pants and started toward Logan. “What the hell are you kids doing in here? This is employees only.”
