Bingo.
She smiled slow and tapped a wrench against the palm of her hand, the cool metal stinging her skin. “Nothing. I swear. But I’d think a guy like you who wants to control every detail would want to be sure. Let me check the engine.”
“What? Nah.” He brushed off her suggestion. “I don’t like the idea of you poking around under the hood.”
“Why? You still don’t trust me?”
“No more than you trust me.”
“Touché.” Damn, he was sexy when he got all worked up like that. She shoved aside the errant thoughts and focused on her objective—getting a fair price, selling the car, starting her new life. No matter that niggle of unease that was starting to form the more she got to know Cam. She liked him, more than was wise, but that didn’t mean she ought to throw her future away over him, right? She stepped closer to him and resisted the urge to run her fingers through his short dark hair just to see if it felt as soft as it looked. “Listen, we can sweep up in here first and make sure nothing will hurt the car’s paint job. Then you can sit and watch me while I work. I promise nothing will happen to the car. I just want to look under the hood and make sure everything is as it should be. That should put your mind to ease.”
“Nothing about you puts me at ease, Everly,” Cam growled, exhaling loud as he walked past her to pick up a broom. “But you put that idea in my head about another tracker and now I can’t get it out. So yeah. Help me clean this place up so we can pull the Aeon inside.”
She snorted. “Good to know. Honestly, it’s good you’re letting me look. After all the shots fired by those two thugs, I can check to make sure there’s no damage we didn’t see.”
Cam rolled his eyes and grabbed two somewhat worn looking brooms from where they rested against the wall. He handed one to Everly then began to clear out the center of the large open space.
“You know,” Everly said a few minutes later, swiping her arm up to scratch her itchy nose. Her dust allergies were not happy. “Fixing cars is a lot like coding computers.”
“How so?” Cam asked without looking at her as he tossed some debris out of the way.
“Well, when you write your code, you’re telling the computer what parts to put where to get it all to run as a cohesive whole, yeah?”
His gaze flickered to her before darting away again. “Yeah.”
“That’s what I’m doing under the hood of the Aeon. Tinkering with the individual parts, removing some, inserting others, all to get the car to run at optimal performance. I love it. It’s like a big puzzle, just waiting for me to solve it.”
“Hmm.” He rolled an upright piano that surprisingly still looked in decent shape against the far wall of the factory floor. “I suppose I can see tha
t. About the similarities between the two things. Didn’t know you were into engineering though.”
“I’m into all sorts of things,” she said, then wishing she hadn’t at his heated look. She hadn’t meant that to sound dirty, it just came out that way. Everly shrugged it off and finished sweeping the debris from the floor into one big pile. “That’s another reason I want to open my own garage. To show people that women can be mechanics too. If only I didn’t have to worry about the office side of things.” She used a flat piece of plywood to help scoop up the dirt and rubble and dump it into a big steel barrel. “Accounting has never been my strong suit.”
“Really? I love the number side of things. It’s my specialty.”
“I thought tech was your specialty.”
“Both.” Cam emerged from the shadows, gritty and grimy and so gorgeous her toes curled inside her sneakers. He smiled, slow and sexy, then swiped his hand through his short dark hair, leaving it adorably mussed. “Math and coding go hand in hand, since it’s all binary—based on ones and zeroes. Anyway, once you get your place going, let me know. I can help you set up a system to handle your inventory and accounting for you. All you have to do is type in the numbers and it’s done.”
“How much would that cost me?” Everly asked warily.
His gaze narrowed on her. “Nothing. I write crap like that in my sleep. All it would take me is an hour or so to set it up. You’d have to get the computer and stuff is all.”
“Wow. That sounds awesome. Thanks.” Everly blinked back the unexpected sting of tears. In her family, nothing came for free. Someone offered to help or do something nice for you, they damned well expected the debt to be repaid. She’d never met anyone who’d offer a gift like that without guaranteed return. Then again, she’d never met anyone like Cam. Period.
On the heels of that thought came a fresh wave of guilt. Sure, he was being generous now, but that was only because he thought he had the Aeon in the bag. Little did he know that she planned to use her time under the hood to do some recalibration of her own and get a message to her buyer. The idea of double-crossing Cam made her stomach turn, but if she didn’t get the money for this job, she had no future. Besides, after he discovered what she’d done, he’d never want to talk to her again, let alone help set her up in business.
8
A few hours later, Cam stared around him at the various vehicle parts strewn about the cement floor of the old piano factory. Perhaps agreeing to let Everly tinker with the Aeon wasn’t the best idea after all. Beside his feet her legs stuck out from beneath the vehicle, where she was currently checking out the car’s undercarriage. Cam couldn’t resist doing some surveillance of his own, namely on the lower half of Everly’s fine figure.
Seemed his high-school crush had never really gone away. Despite their less than ideal circumstances, Cam had to admit she was still the most beautiful woman he’d seen up close—all smoldering dark beauty and sharp, quick wits. A lethal combination for a guy who tended to get more turned on by a woman’s brains than her breasts, although Everly’s magnificent rack didn’t hurt either.
His phone buzzed in his back pocket again, and Cam pulled it out with a sigh. Another text from Loki flashed onscreen wondering when he planned on arriving at the Norse Security offices with the Aeon. Cam shook his head and glanced out the open door of the factory at the setting sun. They’d been here for a whole day and there’d been no sign of those two mob goons, which was good. There’d also been no sign of anything more than corn, one gas station, and one fast food place for miles. He thumbed in a quick response then shoved the device back in his jeans pocket. Loki wouldn’t be happy about not getting the car until tomorrow, but dammit, Cam didn’t really fancy another run-in with those thugs tonight and beside, the car wasn’t exactly in working order at the moment.
He leaned slightly to see down the side of the vehicle, the smooth shiny paint marred here and there by dings and scratches from the bullets and gravel kicked up by the tires during their earlier escape down the alley. Loki wouldn’t be happy about those either. Then again, considering Loki was back in his office safe and sound, he’d just have to deal with it.
Cam nudged a nearby auto part with the toe of his boot and frowned. “Are you sure you know how to put all of this back together again?”