“You mean when I crashed into the mechanic shop and my car fell apart like every bolt threw up a white flag and surrendered at the same time?” I laugh. The memory’s equal parts mortifying and hilarious. I really liked that car—right up until the moment it coughed out its last breath at Casey’s feet.
I sigh. “I fucking loved that car.”
Getting to work would be easier with a new one, but I’m still saving. Casey’s promised to help me keep it running once I get it. That is, if I ever manage to afford it.
“I still don’t understand how you drove it for that long. You had duct tape holding the doors shut, Kal. Duct tape.” He laughs, full and unfiltered.
It’s infectious. I grin without meaning to.
“It had tires. It started when I turned the key.”
Casey scoffs at that.
I nudge him with my elbow. “Okay, okay. Fine.Mostof the time it did.”
He barks out a laugh, then throws an arm around my shoulders and leans in, breath warm at my ear. “We’ll even pretend it didn’t sound like a dying lawn mower when it did.”
I roll my eyes and start to shrug off his arm until I realize we’re standing in front of Fangerella’s.
“This is it.”
He opens the door, casting a skeptical look at the sign but staying silent. His hand brushes the small of my back as we step inside, the heat of it sinking into my skin. Once through the threshold, his arm drapes across my shoulders again.
I open my mouth to crack a joke about it, but I never get the chance.
Because we walk straight into a wall of tension.
Pizza Man.
He’s standing just inside, shoulders squared, spine rigid, like a live wire in human form. There’s something coiled tight beneath his skin, vibrating like he’s barely holding himself back.
I suck in a sharp breath.
What the hell is his deal?
Casey starts to speak. “Whoa, sorry man—didn’t see you there—” But his voice cuts off in a choking sound, strangled mid-word.
I startle as he’s ripped away from me faster than my eyes can track the movement.
One second he’s beside me.
The next, he’sgone.
My heart lurches.
Pizza Man’s hand is wrapped around Casey’s throat, lifting him off the ground like he weighs nothing. Casey’s feet dangle, his face turning a terrifying shade of purple.
My brain stalls.
That shouldn’t be possible.
Casey’s built like a brick fucking wall. A full-grown man. Yet Pizza Man is holding him up with one hand like he weighs less than a sack of flour.
Fury rolls off him in suffocating waves.
Then he looks at me.
And everything inside me goes cold.
