Page 40 of Fractured Remains


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What the fuck?! One second we’re getting on like a house on fire, flirting and touching and she’s giving me all these ‘go ahead and kiss me’ signals. So I do. And then she’s jerking away from me before I can deepen the kiss and show her what she means to me.

I stare at her, breathing hard and trying to keep my temper in check. Why would she lean in to my kiss and then pull away like that? I force my anger and frustration down, and look at Callie. Really look at her. And that’s when I notice that there’s something wrong.

She’s completely frozen on the spot.

“Callie? Cal! Callie!” I snap my fingers in front of her face but she doesn’t respond. She’s turned to stone right before me. Well, aside from the trembling.

Realising that something’s seriously wrong, and that her reaction most likely isn’t anything to do with our kiss, I quickly cross around the bike that’s between us and pull Callie into my arms. As soon as I do, she breaks, shaking and dry sobbing against my chest.

“Callie, what’s wrong?” I press her for a reply but she’s mute. I’m starting to panic myself, now. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. But everything seemed to be going so well.

A bike outside misfires and Callie flinches so hard she almost falls from my arms. I grab her shoulders and keep her at arm’s length so that I can see her face. She won’t look at me. Even when I gently touch her chin to tilt her up to face me, she avoids making eye contact.

“Callie, it’s okay. It was just the bike outside. Come see.”

She doesn’t reply but she seems to hear my words. She marginally unfreezes, just enough to let me lead her out of the nearest side door. We’re right down the far end of the showroom, about halfway through looking at the bikes, and the side door brings us out right by the servicing area. There’s an engine in the workshop that’s jacked up to head height, and several mechanics are working on it at once. It misfires again and Callie jumps. Sure it was loud, but it isn’t terrifying. Matteo sees and signals to one of the guys to kill the engine.

“Sorry about that, mate. This piece of shit is giving us some real trouble.”

“That doesn’t look or sound like one of your machines,” I reply.

“As if,” Matteo scoffs. “No, this is just a regular service. Apparently it’s a custom job, but I think it came from the place across town. Bunch of butchers.”

“Oh, whose is it?”

“Some fancy-ass trainee doctor who thinks he’s all that.”

Still tucked under my arm, I feel Callie twitch at the mention of the bike’s owner. That’s interesting. She was definitely spooked before the misfire, which means it was the sound of the engine which scared her. Fuck. She’s still trembling now.

“Mat, we’re actually going to take off but thanks so much for today.”

“You don’t have to. My guys can take a break on this and come back to it later.” He’s picked up on Callie’s discomfort. Mine too, probably. Matteo is excellent at reading people.

“I’m sure you have a deadline.”

“That twat can wait.”

“Thanks all the same.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, we have to get back. I didn’t realise it would take so long. I guess you had more machines than I was expecting.”

“No worries. Did you see anything you liked?“

“Loads. We’ll narrow down the list over a beer and I’ll let you know in the week which we’d like to come back and test run, if that’s still okay?”

“For you, any time. You know that, mate.”

“Great. We’ll be seeing you in the next week or so then.”

“Yep. Maybe we can grab a beer after, catch up. It’s been too long.”

“Sure.”

“Nice to meet you, Callie.”

“Y-you too,” Callie stammers from beside me.

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