Chapter 1
Any idiot can spot a window of opportunity, but it takes a unique brand of idiot to fall through one. And Veronica Ramirez was feeling pretty damn exceptional as she gave this particular window one final shove. The wooden frame flew open, the force of it nearly sending her tumbling back over the side of the trash can she’d been balancing on. The lid rattled under her as she worked her backpack free of her shoulders and tossed it inside. She winced as she heard it land on the floor with acrunch.Everything valuable she had left in the world had been stuffed inside that backpack, but the only thing inside it she still cared about had already been broken beyond repair, and there was no use thinking about that now.
Story of my life,she thought as she dangled there.Nowhere to go but down.It was like fate had bent her over its knee for yet another slap, just to rub in the absurdity of her circumstances.
She wriggled forward, shrieking as gravity took hold and the rest of her tumbled through the opening, landing beside her backpack on the cold concrete floor with a bone-jarring thud.
Vero held her breath, listening to a dog barking in the distance and the faint hum of cars on the road outside, relieved when she didn’t hear sirens… or worse. Apparently, this wasn’t the kind of neighborhood that was quick to call the cops.
She stiffened at a soft click, like a door being eased shut somewhere inside the building. She could have sworn she heard a pair of soft-soled shoes moving through the garage. A chill rolled up her spine as a smell caught the back of her throat, the sour tang of sweat. Shadows began to form into recognizable shapes: a dismantled engine, a car on a lift, the dark silhouette of a male figure coming closer…
Vero reached behind her, then up, groping the surface of her cousin’s workbench. Her fingers closed around a screwdriver. She gasped as the lights snapped on, all of them at once.
She shielded her eyes, blinking against the glare, screwdriver poised to strike. Her cousin Ramón was standing over her, a baseball bat clutched in his hands. “Jesus, Veronica!” He lowered the bat and put a hand to his chest. “You scared me half to death!”
“Me?You’rethe one with the baseball bat!” She fell back on her hands, dropping the screwdriver, her heart still jackhammering.
“You couldn’t have knocked on the door?”
“I didn’t think you’d be here,” she admitted, accepting the hand he offered and letting him pull her upright. She dusted off her behind, wincing at an ache in her thigh. “It’s the middle of the night,” she pointed out. “You should be home sleeping.”
“Tell that to the IRS. My quarterly taxes are late and I’m meeting with my accountant tomorrow.” Ramón tossed the bat onto the workbench behind her. She shuddered at the clatter that echoed off the walls. He scrubbed a hand over his face. His jawline was patchy where he hadn’t bothered to shave, except for the stubborn spots on either side of his chin, the ones he’d always hated because they refused to fill in. There was a heaviness in Ramón’s brow, a weight to the new worry lines she saw there. Ramón wasn’t yet twenty-five, only three and a half years older than Vero—a fact he lorded over her at every opportunity—but she hated how much older he seemed now. Only a few months had passed since she’d last seen her cousin, but he looked like he’d lived an entire lifetime since she’d returned to college eight weeks ago, at the end of her summer break.
“Why aren’t you at school?” he asked, rubbing his eyes, as if he already knew the answer would cost him some sleep.
She slung her backpack onto her shoulders and squared them. This was it, the moment of truth.
She could do this, she reminded herself. She’d practiced it in her car before coming here. After she’d snuck out of her bedroom window in her sorority house, she had turned off the music in her beat-up Civic and dragged down her rearview mirror, catching her reflection in it, holding it. The eyes in the mirror had been the same shape and shade as her cousin’s, warm and smart and sincere. Ramón would understand, she told herself as she’d rehearsed the words, over and over.I’m not going back to school. I know it’s my senior year and I’ve got only one and a half semesters left until graduation. I know I’m walking away from my full ride, my honors diploma, and my accounting degree. I know I’m abandoning everything I’ve worked for, but I’m a grown-ass adult and this is my choice.
Vero had practiced those words more times than she could count, the entire forty-five-minute drive from the University of Maryland campus to the bustling Virginia suburb of Herndon where her cousin now lived. She knew she couldn’t hide from her problems in her cousin’s garage forever. Or maybe she could, if she just happened not to mention to him that a warrant had probably been issued for her arrest.
“I am here…” She steeled herself, taking a deep breath as she looked at her cousin and said, “Because it’s midsemester break.”
Ramón frowned at her. Of the two of them, he was definitely the brighter. Sharp enough to take on his own towing and salvage business before he’d turned twenty-five. Growing up, Vero had believed her older cousin could solve anything. Even now, she knew without a doubt Ramón could repair any problem that got hauled into this garage, but she was certain he couldn’t fix this one. She hadn’t come here to drag him into her drama. All she wanted was a place to lie low for a while.
“What’s his name?” Ramón asked.
“Who?”
“The guy you’re hiding from.” His gaze dropped to her midsection. “Whose ass do I need to kick?”
She took a greasy rag from his workbench and threw it at him. “I’m not pregnant, you idiot!”
“You’re not on break either, so what are you really doing here, Veronica? And don’t tell me you missed me, because if you’d wanted to seemeyou would have come to my apartment at a reasonable hour instead of hiding in my shop. What kind of trouble are you in?”
“I’m not in trouble. I just needed some space.”
“From who?”
“My sorority sisters were driving me nuts.” The words seemed to come easier the closer she veered to the truth. “I needed to get away for a few days to think, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Your mom’s house is fifteen minutes from school. Why didn’t you just go there?”
Vero glared up at him, hands on her hips, her rumpled ponytail swinging over her shoulder as she cocked her head. “Because my mom would be all nosy and up in my business, and if I felt like blabbing to everyone about my personal problems, I’d sign up to be on a damn episode ofDr. Phil.So can I sleep on your stupid couch in your office, or do I have to go break into that crappy motel down the street?”
Ramón held up his hands, resigning himself to her stubborn streak, or maybe just the hour. “Fine, you can stay, but you’re not sleeping in my office. Wait here. I have to make a phone call before I lock up.” He shook his head, scrolling through the contacts on his phone as he walked away and left her standing in his garage.
She ran her hand along the underside of a car suspended on a lift. A rolling cart of tools had already been staged beside it, their thoughtful placement revealing both the nature of the problem and the necessary steps to repair it. Squeaky brakes? Replace your rotors or pads. Bumpy suspension? Check your shocks and your springs. Wobbly steering? Balance your tires.
