Cash nodded. “I checked on you before I went to work, but you were too out of it to notice. Sorry I abandoned you, I left a note.”
I followed his gaze to the sheet of paper on the bedside table. Fuck. How had I not seen that? I picked it up and scanned it.
Rae,
I’m going to work. If you want to chip, your clothes are drying in the downstairs bathroom and the van keys are on the kitchen table. If you stick around, Rhys can take a look at you later.
Cash
“Who’s Rhys?” I wondered aloud before I caught myself.
“A friend. He’s good at fixing people.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
I shook my head. “I don’t fucking know. I feel like I had ten pints last night.”
Cash frowned and ventured close enough to crouch by my side. He covered my forehead with the back of his hand and his golden eyebrows shot up. “Jesus, you’re hot.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t be a dick. I mean it. Maybe you’re ill.”
Ifeltill, but I wasn’t about to admit that to Cash. I wasn’t here for him to nurse me—in fact, if I’d done what Fletch and Meg had asked of me, I shouldn’t have been here at all. “I’m fine.” I shrugged his hand off. “And I’d better get going. If your van holds up, we can use it next weekend for the meet in Buckinghamshire.”
“You cover two counties?”
“No, but we help out when we can, share skills and resources.”
“And you think you can chase down quad bikes like this?”
Irritation flashed through me. “What do you think? But if I don’t do it, who does? Meg? Fletch?”
“You won’t be around to do it if you take another hit like the last one—”
“What the fuck do you care about that?” I snapped. “About any of it? You’ve given me a van, and a bed for the night, but I’m pretty sure you made it clear to Meg and Fletch that there wasn’t anything else. They think you’re some kind of legend, but I don’t see it, so what is it to you if I get myself killed?”
Cash absorbed my rant with a neutral expression, then he rose and walked out of the room, only to return a moment later with my clothes and the keys to his van. “Whether I care about you or not is irrelevant. The point is you have a cause relying on you, and responsibility to stay alive to serve it. I wrote my number on the back of that note. Call me if you have any problems with the van.”
He walked out again, and a moment later, his front door banged, leaving me alone with a pile of clean clothes and regret.
***
Cash
Dom rarely came to the garage, and if he did, it was to see Lucky, so I was beyond alarmed when he came looking for me later that evening. “Something was wrong with your mate.”
I crawled out from beneath the SUV I was working on, gripped Dom’s arm with grubby hands, and hustled him into the empty staffroom. “What do you mean?”
Dom shrugged. “I mean he could barely walk, let alone drive. I offered him a lift, but he left anyway.”
“Fuck.” I automatically reached for my phone before I remembered I didn’t have Rae’s number. “Did he look hot to you?”
“What?”
“Not that kind of hot. I mean—never mind.” I searched my contact list for the unnamed number Rae’s crew leaders—Fletch and Meg—had given me last night. “When did he leave?”
