Page 38 of Burn Bag (Owens Protective Services #31)

DAPHNE

“Are you supposed to be driving his truck?” Harper asked as I picked her up the next day.

“Um…I’m sure it’s fine.”

I let off the brake slowly, surprised at how fast the truck moved from the simple move. The thing was huge. Like, seriously huge. I felt like I couldn’t even see the front of the truck.

“Sure, it’s fine—like, you got permission?”

I winced, hitting the gas a little too hard. “Um…not exactly, but I am his wife. What’s his is mine.”

“I’m not sure that’s how this works.”

“Sure it is. Besides, I can’t call him every time I need something.”

“You could. And I’m sure he would come running.”

“Right, but he went out on a job today. It’s not like I can call him up and say, Hey, baby. Come home so I can run to the store.”

“Well, you could. It might even work out for you.”

“Doubtful,” I muttered as I hit the gas slowly. “Why do they make trucks so damn big? I mean, seriously, does anyone need to sit this high off the ground?”

“It has something to do with his penis.”

I snorted in amusement, glad that had been worked out. “It’s not. Trust me, I found out, and his penis is delightfully big.”

“Okay, so the truck is in relation to how big he is. I don’t get it either. Edu has a big truck, too. I think it’s so he can run other people off the road if he needs to. Either that or because they’re forced to drive minivans at work.”

“Really? Minivans?”

“He says you can stuff a lot of people in the back.”

“Well, sure, but you could fit the same number of people in a large SUV.”

“No,” she grinned. “Dead bodies. Not sitting up.”

I took my eyes off the road, sure I had heard her wrong. “Dead bodies? They transport dead bodies?”

“Look out!” she shrieked, pointing ahead of us.

All it took was two seconds. I saw the fence ahead of us and swerved hard to the right, but then I accidentally hit the gas with the spike of adrenaline, and before I knew it, I was headed right toward a building.

“Stop!” Harper shouted.

I hit the brake, which was actually the gas, and the truck lurched forward, straight toward the glass window and the man waving his arms wildly at me.

I screamed, trying to switch the brake, but panic took over and I could no longer make a decision to save my life.

The scream that tore from my throat was only drowned out by the crash of glass and the truck slamming into something hard.

The airbag exploded, slamming into my face with such a harsh impact that I felt like my nose broke. The truck finally stopped moving, but my whole body still felt like it was on an adrenaline high, running at full speed.

I slapped at the airbag, my head laying against the steering wheel as my heart hammered wildly in my chest. Harper was bleeding from the head, but otherwise looked okay as she waved away the dust. I closed my eyes, saying a quick prayer, thankful I hadn’t killed us.

At least, not yet.

I heard the door jerk open, but I was too busy trying to calm my racing heart to pay attention to anything else around us. I almost killed us. I panicked, and that was it. In a flash, I had sent us through a building. I actually drove through a freaking building.

I was going to puke.

“Daphne!”

Groaning, I rolled my head and stared at the man standing in front of me with terrified eyes. I recognized him, but didn’t know enough of the people to put a name to the face.

“Thank God! Is anything broken? Are you hurt?”

I shook my head slowly, though I wasn’t certain I was actually okay. I hadn’t bothered to take stock of how I felt. I just laid there in shock. Holy crap, I almost just killed us.

“I ruined his truck,” I cried, tears filling my eyes.

“That’s okay, sweetie. The important thing is that you’re okay.”

Was it really? That’s when I heard swearing and a man throwing stuff around. “My fucking shop is destroyed!”

Tears started pouring from my eyes as I laid there. Fuck, why had I gotten in his truck? Why hadn’t I called him? “Is Harper okay?” I asked, my breaths coming out ragged.

“Yeah, she’s fine.”

I cried harder, squeezing my eyes shut. “I don’t even know your name!”

“It’s Slider. We met at the wedding,” he said gently.

“Is that because you’re bald?” I cried harder.

I could have sworn I heard a huff of laughter, but couldn’t tell for sure over the sound of my own crying.

“Just sit still. The ambulance will be here soon.”

“Oh God!” I groaned. “He’s going to kill me. He told me not to do anything. He said no more hospitals. He said to call him!”

“Alright, alright,” he said soothingly, his hand rubbing up and down my arm as he tried to calm me down.

“I can’t go to the hospital! They’re going to arrest him for spousal abuse!” I cried. “They’re going to think he beats me!”

“Not when the paramedics get here, okay? They’ll know you were in an accident. ”

“You swear?” God, I couldn’t stop crying. Or shaking. My heart was racing and I was pretty sure something was dripping down my face. And all I could think about was that I had ruined his truck and he was going to be so pissed at me.

“Hey, just calm down, okay? Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Everything is not fine! I ruined his truck. I destroyed his life with cats and litter boxes! And I can’t cook without burning food!” I wailed. “He’s going to regret the day I walked down the aisle!”

“No, he won’t. I swear.”

“You can’t swear because you don’t live with a hundred cats!”

“Neither do you. And you know what? I heard him telling Red the other day that he secretly loves those cats.”

“No he doesn’t.”

“Yeah, he does. He said that one curls up on his chest and purrs the whole night. Is that true?”

I sniffled, remembering how one of the cats did that just last night. “Yeah.”

“See? He loves them. How could he possibly be mad at you for those cats?”

“But what about his truck?”

“He never liked this truck anyway,” he smiled.

“You’re sure?”

He scoffed. “Oh yeah. He’s gonna be happy you gave him a reason to get a new truck. Trust me. It’ll all be fine.”

The panic inside me eased slightly, but the adrenaline from the accident was still pounding inside me. I just wanted a do-over. To pretend this day never happened and I was back at home, not driving his truck.

Maybe if I closed my eyes, that would happen.

I squeezed them tight, said a prayer, and opened them. Nope, still in a fucked up truck with a bald man staring at me.