I squinted at my screen, and tried to force my thoughts back to the job. It was a simple piece of corporate espionage, made easier by the fact that the disgruntled employee who’d hired me installed a keylogger to swipe passwords right before security escorted him to the door.
It was the kind of job that I could do in my sleep… if I could only concentrate on it.
“Dammit.” I scraped my chair back and looking out the window again. I thought I’d heard the crunching of wheels on the driveway, but there were no headlights in the swirling mess of snow.
She still wasn’t home yet.
Where had she gone? Her parents’ house? Maybe. She’d mentioned Xavier, had she gone to his place? Was she staying the night?
Or was she stuck in some ditch somewhere?
The sound of squealing tires filled my brain. The sickening scrape of metal on metal as we slammed into the guardrail. The inhuman sound of Jesse’s wail the moment his leg was crushed…
I slammed the palms of my hand into my desk and stood up….
Then froze.
What was I doing? Going to look for her? On the same icy-slick roads that I’d spent three years hiding from?
I was already grabbing my coat, so it looked like the answer was, yes.
The end of the driveway was slick, but luckily I was the only idiot out driving.
So I sort of sliiiiid my way into the lane, pumping my brakes as I went.
I took a deep breath and exhaled. “Aria, where the hell are you?” I growled out loud. Somewhere in the back of my brain, I’d hoped I’d find her immediately, stuck at the bottom of the driveway, stymied by her snow-tireless car.
But of course, it wasn’t that easy.
Slowly, I navigated my way down Whaleback Mountain. I still hated this road, I could drive it now without shaking… in the summer. Now… the shaking was back.
The weather was the same. The exact same.
Was this really happening again?
As the road descended down the steep grade that hugged the cliff overlooking the lake, I concentrated on the yellow center line. But when I reached the turn where it happened, I forced myself to slow down and look.
They’d repaired the dent in the guardrail years ago. I was probably the only person who still remembered where it had sheared off in a twisted, mangled tangle.
Except for Jesse.
He didn’t know that the prosthetic leg he wore had been designed and printed by me. None of the amputees at County knew. If I told them, they’d be forced to feel grateful, when I was the one who was grateful.
I gritted my teeth and punched myself, hard, in the thigh to derail this particular train of useless thought. These were thoughts for the dead of night. Not now when I needed my wits about me.
I wasn’t going to let this happen again. I wasn’t going to let another person I loved get hurt when I should have kept them safe.
I sighed with relief as the road leveled out. Down in town, the plows were out in full force and the roads only had about two inches of freshly fallen snow on them. The flakes were falling less thickly down here too, allowing me to peer into the shut up buildings on Main Street, hoping for a glimpse of Aria’s bright hair.
When I didn’t see her, I started hoping to run into someone who had.
I was driving in a snowstorm, looking for people.
What the hell was I doing?
Sweat pricked at my hairline. I gripped the steering wheel tighter to still my shaking hands. I recognized the signs. Unless I did something, right now, I was on my way to a full-blown panic attack.
I yanked the wheel to the right and skidded to a stop in a gas station parking lot.
Right next to my brother.
The thing about small towns is that you're always running into people you know. So I wasn’t surprised to run into Cole at the gas station.
What surprised me was seeing my citified brother attempting to fit the wrong gas nozzle into the tank of a brand new pickup truck.
My hands steadied. I took in a full breath. Then rolled down the window.
“Is that thing yours?"
Cole stomped over to my truck, then rubbed his frozen hands together before extending one to me. My brother always lost his gloves. It was kind of his thing. "Thank God!” he huffed. "I was afraid I was going to have to go inside and ask the teenager behind the counter how the hell to work this thing. You saved me from looking like an idiot."
"I mean, you still look like an idiot. Let's not lose sight of this." I couldn’t let him see how relieved I was to have him here.
"What the hell's going on with this anyway?" he asked, stabbing the nozzle ineffectually.
I shook my head. “Did you just buy that thing or something? Is it really diesel?"
"Yes, it's diesel. And yes, I just bought it. I haven't been able to get any plowing contracts for the development, and I figured, hey, I live in town now with Autumn, why not do it myself?"
"Well, since you’re the proud new owner of a diesel pickup truck, you ought to know that you're using the nozzle that semis use. The regular nozzle is over on the other side.
"How do you know these things?"
"Because I pay attention."
"I thought I paid attention too,” Cole fretted. "But it's never to the right things."
I grinned. "So wait, you're really putting a snowplow on this thing? Do you know how to use a plow?"
"How hard can it be? And yes, I did buy a plow attachment. I’m bringing it over to the garage to have them put it on right now. We’re supposed to be getting ten or twelve inches out of this.” My brother successfully wrestled the right hose into place and started pumping. "Either way, the parking lot of the new place is going to need to be plowed out for sure. Is it weird that I'm actually looking forward to it?"
"Yes," I said solemnly. "It is very weird."
My brother gave me the middle finger, but I wasn't even thinking about that. I was thinking about Aria.
“Have you seen Aria Dolan?” I blurted. “She’s somewhere out in this.”
He turned off the pump and blew on his fingers. “Is she at her parents’?”
“No idea.”
“Maybe she’s back at the house now and you just missed her?”
Wouldn’t that be fitting? He was right. She was probably back in the great house right now, happy I wasn’t around to annoy her. “Maybe”
“You sure she wants you out here looking for her?”
“No, I’m sure she doesn’t,” I growled as I turned on the engine. “But I’m going to anyway.”