Page 25 of Shelter for Tanna

There was a chugging kind of sound and the car lost power. The dark-haired man had to struggle with the steering wheel to get it to turn enough that the car could be steered to the shoulder of the interstate.

“Wayne, what the hell is wrong with this thing?” the red-haired man asked.

“I don’t know! It’s got plenty of gas!” As soon as it came to a stop, he switched it off, then slammed it into park and tried to start it again. Nothing happened. “Well, shit. I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Now what do we do?”

“I guess we’ll have to walk back to the exit. Good thing we’re not too far from it,” his friend said.

“That’s a pretty damn long walk, Beau. Besides, we can’t just leave it here. All of our shit is in the trunk. It’s taken us three days to steal all that. We can’t just walk away from it.”

“Well, what do you suggest we do? Let’s walk back to the exit and see if we can get DimSum to pick us up.” Beau opened his car door. “Be careful when you get out. You’re barely out of traffic.”

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Only me. This could only happen to me. Hey, that slut, PennyAnn? The one you were pounding into last night? Call her and see if she can pick us up. The less DimSum knows about our business, the better off we’ll be.”

“All I gotta do is promise her some H and she’ll be right here. Got any?”

“Yeah. I think I’ve got a little. I’ll give it to her when she gets us back to the apartment. Tell her that,” Wayne said as he started to walk. He could hear Beau on the phone behind him. “Tell her we’ll be waiting at the gas station down here.”

As they walked, Wayne fretted. DimSum was an asshole. He was going to be pissed as hell when he found out what had happened. They were supposed to have the ice ready for him by Friday. Surely they could get the car back to the apartment by then and get all the cold medicine and solvent out of the trunk to start a cook. They couldn’t leave it on the side of the road.

He’d figure something out. He always did.

* * *

Where the hell was that damn patrol car? Tanna sat in the wrecker, wondering if the house’s inhabitants had spotted her yet. If they did, she was sure they’d know why she was there. It seemed to take forever before a dark blue city car pulled up behind her. “Which one is it?” an officer named Murphy asked, pointing around.

“That one right there,” Tanna answered, pointing to a small, gray Nissan sitting by the curb.

“Okay. Hook ‘er up and I’ll watch.” Climbing back into the truck, she positioned it right in front of the car and hit the lever to send the truck’s wheel lift out.

She’d no more than popped the truck door open when she heard shouting. “Hey! Get the fuck away from my car! What the hell are you doing?” a large man screamed, running toward her with a ball bat.

Quick as a flash, Murphy stepped in front of her. “Your vehicle is being repossessed.”

“You can’t do that! I need that car!” the man yelled, glaring at Tanna.

Tanna held up both hands in an attempt to calm the guy. “Sir, I’m just following orders to pick it up. If you think there’s been an error, contact your bank and?”

“Oh, there’s gonna be an error, all right! You better get your ass away from my car!” the man yelled again, brandishing the bat, and Tanna felt a wave of panic wash over her. He was getting really aggressive, and she feared Murphy alone wasn’t enough.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to step back. I don’t want to take extreme measures to make sure the driver is safe, but I will if I have to,” Murphy warned, holding up a hand to the irate man.

The man stepped closer yet, and Tanna took a step backwards. God, she hated doing fucking repossessions! Nobody wanted their vehicle repossessed. She hated seeing women cry as their minivans were towed away or watching men see their only transportation to work dragged away behind her truck, but it was part of her job.

Murphy took another step between her and the man. “Sir, last warning. You need to?”

“Y’all motherfuckers get out of my way! You ain’t takin’ my car!” he screamed, but that scream was replaced with shrieks when Murphy fired his Taser. Two more patrol cars were pulling up as the man writhed on the ground, and Tanna used that as her opportunity to rush around and get the car secured on the wheel lift.

A woman came running out of the house, screaming. “What have you done to him? You!” she yelled, rounding on Tanna. “It’s your fault, bitch! I’m-a gonna?”

Another patrol officer stepped between the woman and Tanna. “Ma’am, we don’t want to have to do the same thing to you. You need to go back inside and calm down. We’ll be gone in just a few minutes.”

“You takin’ him in?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. That’s a call for OfficerMurphy. ‘Bout got that all wrapped up, ma’am?” another officer asked Tanna.

“Yes, sir. Ready to go.”

“Okay, we’ll handle this here. Sorry about all of it. Glad we could help.”

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