Just like when Dominic tried to give her that sofa, she squirmed. “I can pay for my own car repairs.”
Gage chuckled as if he found what she said highly amusing, but one look from Officer Spradley shut him up quickly.
“I’m sure you can, but let this be my way of welcoming you to town.”
He jerked his chin at Gage, and the mechanic pulled out a tester kit from under the counter.
Defeated, Erica gave in again, but a deep, unwarranted feeling of shame clenched her guts. She’d find some way to repay him back. Maybe she could give some money to Gwen and tell her to pay for the man’s coffee for the next three months or something. Alternators couldn’t be cheap.
“I’m guessing you two are related?” Gage questioned as he hooked everything up.
Both Erica and Officer Spradley gave him the same startled look. “What?” they asked in unison.
Gage’s mischievous eyes twinkled. “You two look so much alike. I just thought maybe you were related. But if—”
“No,” they both barked.
Erica looked up at the cop and tried to see what Gage saw. There was no resemblance, except that they shared an eye color, but nothing more. Plenty of people had hazel eyes, so it couldn’t have been just that.
The little machine hooked up to the alternator beeped to let them know the test was complete. “Yup. It’s dead as roadkill. You’ll need a new one. Probably a new battery too if jumping it didn’t do shit.”
Erica’s heart sank deep into her shoes. “Will you have to order a new one?”
“What’s the model?”
“A 2003 Jeep Wrangler X.”
Under Officer Spradley’s stare, Gage went to the old computer at the far end of the counter, punched in a few keys, and shook his head. “I don’t have one in stock, but I can get one here tomorrow morning.”
Erica frowned. “Tomorrow morning?”
“The jeep’s just off the main road coming into town,” Officer Spradley told Gage. “See that a tow brings it in, and you get it changed out as soon as you can.”
The mechanic grabbed a notepad and took down some notes from the bulky computer monitor before giving the thumbs up that he understood the directions.
“At least let me pay for the tow truck, Officer Spradley,” Erica insisted.
“No need to be so formal. Call me Cole.”
“You can also call him a jackass, but I don’t think he’d take kindly to it,” Gage quipped with a clever grin.
Through the dread of having to pay back the cop and the fact that she’d be without a car for a whole day, Erica muffled a smile behind tight lips. Cole gave a mocking laugh and flipped the mechanic the bird. It was clear they knew one another well enough that they could joke around like that without a fight breaking out or someone getting slapped in handcuffs.
“Let’s leave the grease monkey to his toys,” Cole said to Erica as he moved toward the door.
She wasn’t so neglectful as not to throw a huge thank you to Gage before they stepped out into the warm sunshine.
“Want me to drop you off at your house?”
Erica thought of a better idea. “Can you drop me off at Renewed Relics? There’s something I need to do first and then I can walk home from there.”
Cole gave her a puzzled look before he slipped on his sunglasses. “Are you sure?”
With more confidence than she’d had in days, she nodded. “Positive.”
*
The moment Dominic woke up that morning, he knew something was wrong. One look next door confirmed what he and his wolf both felt. Erica was gone, her black jeep missing from the curb outside her home. With the persistent ache of longing born from the strain on their mating bond, he had picked up the phone several times before noon with the intention to reach out to her.
