Page 11 of Getting Off

Dylan was already settled in the passenger seat when Lucas cranked Bubba’s motor.

Instead of the smooth turn over and low, familiar rumble he’d been expecting, the starter chugged along, and the engine coughed once before sputtering and quitting altogether.

To his credit, Lucas turned the key to off instead of potentially draining the battery, trying to start a motor that obviously wasn’t going to run.

“What happened?” Brooklyn’s voice sounded low and tense. “Are we stranded out here? Is something broken?”

Dylan gently put a hand on her knee and eased his helmet back off.

This time, he wedged the helmet into the cargo area of the Bronco behind the bench seat.

He had tools back there too, but it wasn’t easy to work on an engine in the middle of the night when you couldn’t turn any lights on for fear of running the battery down.

But this wasn’t a cause for panic. It was colder in the desert at night, but no one would freeze to death or starve or be eaten by coyotes.

“Pop the hood,” Dylan called to Lucas before climbing out.

Lucas obliged and got out of the Bronco. The two of them met around the front of the hood. Dylan reached up to release the hood catch. Of course, the Bronco had a six-inch lift kit, which didn’t exactly make it easy to work on.

“You carry a step stool in this thing?” Lucas teased.

Dylan chuckled. This he could appreciate. A guy who could keep his shirt on in an emergency and didn’t run around like his hair was on fire. “Actually, yeah. I do. It’s in the back. But we’re not going to need it.”

“No?”

“You feel the heat boiling off this thing?” Dylan almost cursed his own carelessness. “I should’ve thought about that when we got to the top of the plateau. We were rock crawling and the engine got really hot.”

“Hot enough to boil gasoline?” Lucas guessed.

Dylan nodded. “Yup. I can’t be sure without really digging in, but it’s my best guess for now. I’m not going to try and tear the thing apart up here in the middle of the night.”

“Good call.” Lucas turned and looked at the view. “I’m guessing there’s no cell service way out here.”

“Nope. Nothing.”

“At least we’ve got a nice camping spot, eh?”

“Camping?” Brooklyn said from a few yards away.

She was standing there with her cell phone in her hand.

She kept lifting it up as though she was convinced she could get a signal that way.

Dylan could’ve told her that was fruitless—they were a long way from any cell tower—but she probably needed to see that for herself. He smirked to himself. Doctors.

“Are we stranded?” Brooklyn asked tersely. “Can’t we call search and rescue?”

“That would be overkill,” Dylan told her gently.

He walked toward her, keeping his voice reassuring.

“We’re on club property, but decently far in the desert.

The club will be open tomorrow, with people racing the courses.

Hell, the maintenance crew always takes at least one run a day to check for debris and road issues.

They’ll find us if we haven’t gotten underway by then. ”

“By then?” Even in the darkness her blue eyes were huge and round. “What do you mean? Do you mean you can fix this?”

“Of course.” Dylan tried not to be insulted. “I’ve got an emergency tool kit in the back along with plenty of gear to get us through the night out here.”

“Oh, God.” Brooklyn sucked in a deep breath and put both hands atop her head as though she were panicking.

Then she turned to Lucas, her expression desperate.

“Lucas, you’re rich. Don’t you have a security team on standby or something?

Bodyguards? You know, for safety? Or a personal helicopter?

Or maybe your own dedicated satellite we can use to call someone? ”

Lucas looked highly amused, but there was also compassion in his tone. “Sorry, Doc. Nothing like that. But we’ll both be here for you.”

“Why do you say that? Am I in danger?” She glanced around at the darkness. “Are there wild animals?”

Dylan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Nothing that would mess with us.”

He threw a glance at Lucas. Lucas nodded to him, understanding in his eyes.

The guy might be rich, but he was nothing like Dylan expected.

Yeah, he wanted to fuck Lucas as badly as he wanted to screw Brooklyn.

But honestly, he really liked the guy too.

And her. Not that he’d set this up to happen so he could get laid.

God, he hoped she didn’t get that idea in her head.

Lucas approached her too. “Brooklyn, I know it might seem crazy, but the best thing to do is to just settle in, stay warm, and wait. At least until the vapor lock is over and the engine cools, or there’s some light for Dylan to work, in case something else is wrong.

There are three of us. And if there are a few blankets in the back of the Bronco, we’ll be fine. ”

“This is the desert,” Brooklyn said as if she didn’t get why they weren’t panicking.

Dylan gave her a gentle squeeze. “Yeah. But we’re not far from the club. And Las Vegas is kinda hard to miss. We’re not gonna wander in the wilderness for forty years.”

That seemed to reassure her somewhat. Her eyes were grateful. “It sounds like you’ve had this happen before…”

“Actually, I have. Twice. Once I busted a lower control arm on a rock.”

“What was the other time?” she pressed.

“Ah.” Dylan rubbed the back of his neck.

He should’ve kept his big mouth shut. “Welllll… The other time I wanted to get a guy alone out here. He was a racer from Utah. Cute as hell, gay, but not really out of the closet. I took him out here. We had a few beers. We spent the night out here because we were screwing around and the battery died.” He paused, remembering.

That had been four or five years ago. “We were together for a year before I beat him in a race and he dumped my ass.”

Lucas laughed, but Brooklyn was watching him like a hawk. “Is that what you’re doing tonight?”

He smirked. “It is suspicious, isn’t it? Especially after that story?” He glanced at Lucas. “Back me up here, brother. The engine’s really down.”

Lucas was very solemn. “I swear to you, Brooklyn, that Dylan’s not stranding us in the desert so he can seduce us. The engine’s dead. For now, we’re stuck.”

She nodded slowly, her eyes still on Dylan. “Are you gay?”

He winked at her. At least that story had taken her mind off their immediate problem and her panic. “Nah. I go both ways. Men and women? I love ’em both.”

Now Lucas was watching him as intensely as Brooklyn. He felt like he was under a microscope. But then again, he liked attention.

“Okay,” Brooklyn finally said. “I trust you.”

He felt honored by her trust. The feeling was powerful too. Deeper and stronger than really made sense for how long they’d known each other.

He grinned at her. “Thanks, Doc. But believe me, we’re as set up as we can be.

We have a vehicle for shelter, plenty of water, some protein bars, and blankets.

It’s going to be fine. It’s not like we’re out here where nobody will ever find us.

” He reached for Brooklyn and pulled her into his embrace.

He guessed it was a statement about how upset she was that she didn’t pull away.

Or knee him in the balls. A second later, Lucas surprised him by wrapping his arms around the both of them too.

The three of them embraced beneath the huge starlit sky.

“Brooklyn, it’s going to be fine. I promise,” Dylan murmured into the delicate curve of her ear. “And what a bonus, we have a doctor with us.”

“That is so unfair,” Brooklyn muttered. “Put all the pressure on me when I have no medical supplies or staff on hand.”

“Dr. Foster,” Lucas said in a gravely serious tone of voice underscored by a wry sense of humor.

“I have the utmost faith in whatever skills you have in your bare hands. Shall we make a pact between the three of us to never hold you medically liable for any permanent injuries resulting from this less-than-ideal situation? After all, you were basically a hostage.”

She smiled. That was a good start, but Dylan wanted a little more.

“Remember, Doc. If anything goes wrong, we get to sue Lucas and take all his money and boats and whatever else rich folk blow their wad on.”

Now Brooklyn laughed. That beautiful sound told him that everything was going to be all right.