Envy the Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

of branches and broken glass in its wake. When she had the car on the flat surface of the road, she shut the winch off, went back and fussed with the chains for a few seconds, and turned to the car’s owner.
    “This thing’s all-wheel drive. We should use the dolly on the rear wheels to keep from hurting your axles or transmission. The thing about that is, we also charge an extra thirty dollars to use it.”
    The gray-haired man stared at her, mouth open about an inch. Didn’t see many women winching your fifty-thousand-dollar car out of a ditch.
    “Uh, yeah, sure.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “You’re okay with that?”
    “You think that the dolly will save time?”
    “It’ll save your transmission.”
    “Whatever. Faster the better. I want to get moving.”
    She went back to the Lexus, and Frank thought her stride was slower, almost as if she were screwing with the guy because he was in such a hurry. It made a wry smile build on Frank’s face, and he turned before the Lexus driver caught it.
    Once she had the wheel-lift under the front end of the Lexus—looked like a set of mechanical arms wrapped around the wheels—she strapped the tires to it for added security and disappeared behind the car. Frank and the gray-haired man stood together in silence, waiting. Eventually she walked back around to the front, gave the wheel-lift one last look, and then made a small nod of satisfaction and turned back to them.
    “Go on and get in. Short straw gets to sit in the middle.”
    Frank got to the passenger door first, pulled it open, and slid across to the middle seat as the gray-haired man climbed up beside him and the woman got behind the wheel.
    “What’s your name?” Frank asked her.
    “Nora Stafford.” She took one hand off the wheel and extended it. When they shook, he felt fine bones on the back of her hands, the skin smooth and cool, but hard on the inside, beneath her fingers.
    “I’m Frank.”
    “Good to meet you, Frank.” She put the truck in gear and checked the mirror. “Who’s your buddy?”
    “You know, I didn’t make his acquaintance yet, just his car’s,” Frank said.
    “My name’s Dave O’Connor. Sorry. Should’ve introduced myself earlier. I’ll be paying for this, which brings up a, uh, a question. I was wondering . . . see, I’m from out of town, and I need this done fast, but, well, I don’t have my credit cards on me.”
    “Credit cards?” Nora turned to him with surprise. “Sir, I think you’re going to want to make an insurance claim on that.”
    “No, we’re not going to do that.”
    “Um . . . I don’t mean to tell you your business, but this job is going to be several thousand dollars,” Nora said.
    Frank shifted in his seat. He’d hit the guy, and his insurance should be paying for the damages, but the gray-haired man had been adamant.
    “So what I was wondering was, I mean my question, well, could I give you cash? Because I’ve got some cash on me, see. And if I gave you that, you know, to get started, and then I could come back with a credit card or call you and give you the number . . .”
    Nora’s face hardened just a touch, barely noticeable, a little frost in her eyes even though she didn’t take them off the road. There was something about the edge she showed in that moment, like the way she’d slowed down just because the gray-haired guy was in a hurry, that Frank found damn appealing.
    “Two cars, both with substantial damage,” she said, her voice friendly. “Parts and paint alone are going to run up a decent bill, Dave. That’s without labor figured in.”
    “I could give you two thousand dollars today. Surely that’s enough to get started? You aren’t going to burn through two grand in the first day.”
    Nora kept her eyes ahead, and so did Frank, but in the few seconds of silence that followed he felt a shared curiosity with her—
no credit cards on you, but two grand in cash?
    “Well . . .” Nora nodded her head as if