This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

to go on. “I need to be here when they pick my car up. Thanks anyway.”

And they continued on.

Another car stopped later. This time a man in an SUV. He seemed nice enough and offered to help. But Audry gave him the same information and he, reluctantly, continued on his way.

But then a low rider rolled up. The two men inside cat called and asked if she needed a lift. Their music boomed from inside as they ogled her.

“Come on, just get in,” one of them said for the umpteenth time.

“No, thank you,” Audry replied firmly.

“Stop being so stubborn,” the driver said.

The one in passenger side started to open his door.

“I have a tazer,” Audry replied, lifting it out of her purse.

With one look at that, the man from the passenger side shut his door and the car zoomed off.

Then one more car stopped.

“Do you need help?”

Audry recognized the car. It was the one that had been following her. Inside it was that hooker Barbie.

Audry stiffened. “Why are you following me?”

Pulling the car in front of hers and getting out of the vehicle, the leggy blonde straightened out her pink bodice and adjusted her matching acrylic clogs, walking over the curbside gravel towards Audry. “I suppose you already know the answer to that. My name is Danna—”

“I know your name,” Audry snapped. “Danna Groves. Jessica told me.”

“How do you know Jessica Mason?” Danna asked, curious.

“You mean Cartwright,” Audry shot back. Her fingers wrapped around her tazer in her purse. “She’s married now.”

Nodding, Danna merely smirked, her glossy pink lips twisting in amusement. “Alright. Though you still did not answer my—”

“She’s a friend of mine,” Audry said. “I met her in New York when I was dealing with an ex-boyfriend. She was the policewoman who came to my apartment when he broke his restraining order.”

Danna nodded more to herself, sighing. Changing tack, Danna said, “So how do you know Silvia Lewis?”

Rolling her eyes, Audry said, “We were part of Green Club together. And Silvia and I share the same ex.”

Danna laughed, nodding. But then she asked, her voice taking on a threatening timbre, “So do you know where Silvia is?”

Rolling her eyes, Audry replied, “No. I have no clue where Silvia is. She hasn’t been home for three weeks now.”

Gazing wanly at Audry, Danna opened her mouth to make a snarky remark, but before she did, a large towing truck pulled up.

“Which one of you needs the tow?” A thick, not quite muscular sort of man called through the passenger side window.

Audry waved then patted the roof of her car. She then looked to Danna. “You need to go.”

Danna shot her the dirtiest scowl. However, with a glance to the tow truck, she turned on her clogs and marched back to her car. As soon as she was out of the way, the tow truck driver pulled ahead of Audry’s car and began to work the flat of the truck and then the wench, quickly coming out to make sure he could hoist it onto the bed of the truck and take it in for repairs. Once it was up and safely secure, he let Audry ride in the passenger seat next to him.

“So, where do you live?” the driver asked, grinning at Audry. His eyes were saying he liked what he was seeing. It made Audry uncomfortable, and yet it was also secretly flattering.

“Near NYU,” she said.

He hummed to himself, grinning as if mentally taking note of that.

“My boyfriend lives in Queens,” she added.

Though he flinched a smidgen at that very clear warning, he seemed to continue to grin with hope. “No kidding? Is he big?”

Audry laughed, wondering if the man intended to fight him for her. She shook her head and said, “He’s man enough for you.”

This time he laughed, nodding.

It was all in fun.

When they pulled off the highway and into the city, the driver took her into an area near China Town. Audry did not go into China Town but rarely—mostly for the dim sum, if they had vegan options. The problem with Chinese food was that they always mixed their vegetable with their meat—and they used lots of oil. The auto shop itself was on one side road in towards the Chinese area.

He let Audry out before he lowered her car down.

Stepping out of the shop, Audry saw a stocky Hispanic man with a thick mustache and bushy eyebrows. He was dressed in a mucky tee shirt and was rubbing his greasy hands. He called into the shop, “Eh! Gringo. Your date’s here!”

Audry rolled her eyes, but then she saw whom he was talking to. Coming out from under the hood of a truck along with a punk kid with orange hair, was Tom Brown. When he set eyes on her, he grinned.

Raising up his greasy hands, a wrench in one of them, he called out. “Audry!”

It took everything for Audry not to roll her eyes. Of course, a friend of Rick’s and Jessica’s. But a mechanic?

Approaching him, Audry shook her head and wagged a finger. “I thought you said you were a CIA agent.”

Tom rushed up to her, laughing. “Shhh! I’m undercover.”

But it was impossible to imagine Tom ever going undercover. Tom Brown stood out from everyone—from his spiky platinum blonde hair and pale face, to the entirely crooked grin he always, always, always had.

“Right,” Audry said. Then her eyes turned to the skinny kid following Tom. Punk really was the best description for him. Olive-skinned, his orange hair was in a spiky thick fauxhawk. He had holes for multiple earrings in his ears, and he walked as if in rebellion to everything. He just gave off the aura of trouble—much like Tom. But the most striking thing about him, the more Audry looked at him, was his orange eyes.

“Are you related?” Audry pointed from the kid to Tom.

Tom grinned and slung an arm around the teenager. “Distantly. This is my protégé, Roddy. Roddy, this is the brilliant Audry Bruchenhaus.”

Audry blushed.

Roddy stuck out a hand to shake. And though she had the feeling Roddy would have something like a joy-buzzer in his hand, she gripped his open palm and shook it.

Roddy grinned, glancing once to Tom.

“He’s going to help repair your car,” Tom announced. Then he hopped over to the vehicle, prying open the already popped hood. Yet as he stared at it, Tom’s face went kind of blank. He then looked to Audry. “Uh… Not to be mean, but maybe you should just sell this for scrap and get Rick to buy you a new car.”

Audry colored. “No! I love this car!”

“It’s…” Tom peered around it. “…dying.”

She groaned, closing her eyes. “Come on. I’m sure it’s just something loose in the engine that you just need to replace or tighten.”

Shrugging, Tom hopped around the vehicle. He poked his fingers into it. “Well, yeah, I suppose so. But why bother? I’m sure if you bat your eyelashes at Rick and put on a whole helpless damsel act, he’d buy you a new hybrid with all the accoutrements.”

Coloring more, especially when that kid Roddy stared with an open mouth, almost laughing at an unspoken secret, Audry vehemently shook her head. “No. I am not using Rick Deacon for anything. I don’t want his money. He’s an annoying acquaintance—”

“Who is paying for your apartment,” Tom said, lifting an eyebrow.

Now totally red in embarrassment, Audry protested loudly. “Not for me! For Silvia! His friend Daniel—” but in that instant she could see Tom was only teasing. Of course Tom knew the circumstances. He was CIA. He also seemed to gesture with his eyes to the road.

Audry looked.

And sure enough, Audry caught sight of Danna in her car quickly leaving the area. Her face was pale. Apparently Danna knew Tom Brown as well. Audry wondered how and where.

“That got rid of her,” Tom muttered. “Lousy witch.”

Breathing heavily, Audry nodded.

Then Tom whispered, “Hey, if they keep bugging you, let me know. I’ll take care of them.”

Audry turned and stared at him. Hearing an admitted CIA agent say: “I’ll take care of them” never boded well.

“I won’t shoot them, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Tom laughed.

But that left Audry uneasy. Tom reminded her of Matthew, who was admittedly psychic. Was Tom similar to that? Audry always got the impression he could tell what wicked things other people were thinking.

“Ok…” Tom said, rubbing her hands together, his eyes back on the car. “This will be good practice.” He then slapped Roddy on the shoulder. “Are you ready? It’s a stick—”

“Automatic,” Audry said.

“That’s what I meant, automatic.” Tom then pulled Roddy in towards the engine. “Let’s find out what’s wrong with this sucker.”

“Will this take all day?” A punkish woman stepped from inside the garage. She was wearing sunglasses—which in the dark was weird. But she seemed to be doing it to either look cool or to mask her eyes like Tom usually did. She seemed to be taking Audry in with criticism, though her voice sounded more critical of Tom.

Tom grinned back, almost beaming at the gal. “Yes! Maybe!”

The woman’s eyebrows lifted as she delivered a perfect eye-roll.

“I should call Hogan.” Audry pulled out her cell phone.

All three heads turned, listening in as if they had heard the terse thought Audry also had about calling Rick Deacon to chew him out over not warning her about the likes of Danna Groves. Or maybe it was her terse thought that Hogan should have called her when he got her text, still angry over Charlene stalking her and sending Cara to spoil the chance that Hogan was going to propose.

Hogan picked up on the second ring. << Audry! I was just going to call you. You broke down? Did the tow truck arrive yet? >>

Relief washed over her. Everything was going to be all right.

“I’m fine. The shop is in China Town. Let me text you address.”

Fixing Things

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Six

 

 

Hogan really was the best. It was easy to forgive him for all the stupid things of his past when he was always such a gentleman. He took Audry out to dinner and decided to come clean about the darker parts of his past in case any other exes came around to try to disturb their relationship.

“I have to confess, I didn’t care about much of anything when I was younger except the heat of the moment,” he said. His eyes were averted as he held Audry’s hand across the table. But this was something she had already known about him. “So yes, I had gotten Cara pregnant without thinking of the consequences. Most of the women I had dated really hadn’t been interested in having a family. It was just us living for the moment, you know. I was a stupid YOLO yeller.”

Audry lifted her eyebrows wryly. Again, something that she had already known.

“So was Isis,” he said with a shrug and a sigh. “Or so I thought.”

It annoyed her that he sometimes referred to his exes by their goddess names. She honestly preferred to know their real names.

“Most of the women I was with were like that,” he said. “Just in it for the fun. Hela was. But Hera… well, she wanted a family.” Shaking his head, he sighed. “I know it’s bad. We shouldn’t have messed around like