Luke arrived at the school to pick Skye up. There was already a group of parents standing outside the door. Class must not be over yet.

  So far, Luke was the only man waiting. He noticed a few of the women whispering to each other while glancing at him. Somehow he didn’t think it was because he was a good-looking single father.

  He pulled out his phone to look at the background. After all these years, it was still a picture of Hazel. How much better would his life be if her father had given him permission to marry her? Skye would have been in Kindergarten from the beginning. It would be Hazel taking her to and from school while Luke worked a better job. Maybe they wouldn’t even live in Gilran. They would have moved to the ESA, like they always fantasized about.

  The door opened. Several children walked out to meet their mothers, while other mothers walked inside. Luke didn’t see Skye run out, so he walked into the classroom.

  Skye sat at a table in the corner, fiddling with a crayon while staring off into space. Luke waved at her, but she didn’t seem to have noticed him.

  He walked over and tapped her shoulder. She jumped.

  “Hey, it’s time to go home.” Luke held his hand out, and she took it. They headed for the door, but Ms. Garland called Luke’s name. So they walked over to her desk instead.

  “Was there a problem?” Luke asked.

  “Yes. A big problem.” Ms. Garland folded her arms on her desk. “Skye doesn’t know how to follow directions. Or do what she’s told. I don’t know whether she’s doing it on purpose, or if she doesn’t understand me.”

  Luke wished he was more surprised. Skye ignored him more often than not. “Really?”

  “She hasn’t done a single thing I told her to do. I tell the class to come sit for story time, and she keeps playing with toys. I told her to stop, but she wouldn’t. I told her to sit in the corner for not listening, and she didn’t. I took all the toys away from her, but she still didn’t get up. She just sat there, staring at the wall.

  Always with the cursed walls. Luke sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ll have a talk with her when we get home.”

  “At least she’s quiet. She hasn’t made a peep all day.”

  Luke walked Skye to his truck, and got in. Before he started the car, he turned to Skye. “Why didn’t you do what the teacher asked?”

  Skye stared at the dashboard.

  “When a teacher asks you to do something, you need to listen. She’s trying to help the class learn, and you not following directions makes that hard.”

  After a few seconds of silence, Luke continued. “Same with at home. Whenever me or Grandpa ask you to do something, you need to listen to us. We haven’t been punishing you for it, because we know you need time to adjust. But you’ve had time, and we’re going to start punishing you if you don’t do what we ask. If I hear you haven’t been following directions in class, you’re going to be in trouble. Do you understand?”

  Skye nodded.

  “Good.” Luke started the car. “Do you want to stop and get pizza on the way home?” Did she even like pizza was another question.

  Skye didn’t answer.

  “Well, I want pizza, so we’re stopping at Pieway whether you want it or not.” Luke backed out of his parking spot, and away they went.

  Axel hadn’t been working on his next car for very long, before a young, blonde woman wandered over towards the garage, and called for his attention. He set his wrench aside, and walked over to her, ignoring the smirk on Ian’s face. “Can I help you?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Yes.” She tucked her wind-blown hair behind her ear. “My car broke down about a quarter mile away. Can you help me?”

  Ian let out a snort. Axel tried not to roll his eyes. “You’ll have to get a tow truck to bring it here.”

  “It’s not that far. It took me less than ten minutes to walk here.” She batted her eyelashes, and had her chest pushed out, revealing more cleavage than any woman in Jefferson should. For fuck’s sake.

  Ian snorted again. Axel actually rolled his eyes. “Let me check with my boss.”

  “Thank you so much!”

  Axel had hoped Ralph would say no. That he would insist the woman bring her car to the actual shop one way or another. That he would want to charge her for using one of his employees on the clock. Instead, he gave him permission, in hopes of making the woman a future customer. “Maybe she’ll even leave us a five star review if you show her your boyish charms.”

  “My what?”

  But Ralph just shooed him back outside. With a sigh, Axel returned to the woman. “How did your car break down?”

  “I was driving it, and it died.”

  That sounded like a battery problem. Hopefully a quick jump would do the trick. Axel walked over to the work bench to grab his car jump starter. “Did any warning lights come on?”

  “Well... The check engine light has been on.”

  Axel stopped mid-grab. “How long?”

  “A couple weeks.” She paused. “Maybe a month.”

  “You should have taken it in right away. No wonder it broke down!”

  The woman flinched. Ian shot Axel a disapproving look. Like Axel cared about offending someone so careless with their vehicle maintenance.

  Axel apologized anyway, and grabbed the starter. Hopefully a jump would get it moving, so he could at least drive the car to the shop.

  Axel followed the woman for what felt like more than ten minutes, catching sight of her checking him out every so often. It reminded him of when he first met Jake. But at least he enjoyed the attention from Jake. The woman, who introduced herself as Jenny, made him uncomfortable.

  “Are you married?” She eventually asked. “I don’t see a ring, but someone as handsome as you must have a woman.”

  Axel stifled a groan. “I’m not married.”

  “Do you have a girlfriend?”

  “Something like that.” His eyes landed on a beat-up gray sedan on the side of the road. It might have been older than Jake. “Is that it?”

  “Yep.”

  Jenny handed him her key as they approached it. Axel got into the driver’s seat, and attempted to start it. Nothing. He popped the hood, and got out to fully open it. “Get in, and start it when I tell you too.”

  “Okay.”

  Axel turned on the car jump starter, and clamped the clips into place on the battery. “Try now.”

  She did, but it just made a sputtering sound.

  “Again.”

  It didn’t start.

  Axel gripped the sides of the car as he slumped over the engine. It probably wasn’t the battery after all. But even so, he had hoped the car would at least start. Now what would he do?

  At first glance, everything looked fine. “Try starting it again.”

  Jenny did, and Axel searched the insides for anything unusual. “What happened right before it died?” he asked her. “Any jerky movements? Sputtering sounds?”

  “It was hard to brake and steer.”

  Axel nodded, rubbing his jawline. Definitely not the battery. Pair that with the check engine light being on, she probably had a serious problem.

  “Oh, I just remembered!” Jenny got out of the car, and walked up to Axel. “There was another light that was on when it died. A red one shaped like a tank. It showed up yesterday.

  Axel chewed his lip. “It wouldn’t have happened to be next to your gas gauge, would it?”

  “Yes! That’s exactly where!”

  A string of curse words and insults coursed through Axel’s head as he turned to look at Jenny. She looked up at him with doe eyes that made him sick.

  He sucked in a breath. “Did that gauge happen to be on the E?”

  “Maybe? I never look at that.”

  God was really testing his patience today.

  “I fill it up every other Sunday. I just filled it up last Sunday, so I don’t need gas until next Sunday...”

  Axel ignored her ramblings. “We’re gonna need to go back to the shop and get some gas.” Thankfully, there was a station next door to them. “Your feet must be tired from all this walking. Do you want to sit here and wait?”

  “No. It’s too dangerous for a woman to be in a car by herself. I need to stick with a big strong man, like you.” She beamed up at him with clasped hands.

  Axel nearly gagged. At least Ian wasn’t around to hear that. He turned around and started walking back.

  Jenny followed closely. “Where are you from?”

  “Here.”

  “I mean, your ethnicity. You’re, like, so exotic. It’s sexy.”

  Jesus Christ. It took everything in Axel to not hit her in the back of the head with the car jump starter in his hand. “Uh-huh.”

  “I’m guessing Mexico. Am I right? Or are you perusian? Or is it peru-ian? What are people from Peru called?”

  “Fuck if I know,” Axel muttered, hand tightening on the starter. It would be so easy. Just a few whacks on the head with it should do it. But what would he do with her body?