Page 12 of Lake
CHAPTER FOUR
Bridget
“Come on, sweet girl,” I said cooing at my car as she started to shake and sputter at me.
At least I had made it into the city.
Now if only I knew where the hell I should go because it was clear that I needed to give her a break soon. Deciding that I should at least find a side street to pull off on in case she did give out on me, I made a right turn.
“Oh, fuck,” I grumbled as smoke began to billow out from under the hood.
It was so thick and gray that I could hardly see through it. I feared this was the end of the road for my gal and me and I might have wanted to cry right now. Mostly because I knew I didn’t have the money to fix her. Or worse, replace her. So now it looked like I was probably going to be stuck here a lot longer than I had planned on.
I barely saw the amazing sign that was just in the distance up ahead. Amazing because it had an illustration of a car and what looked like some tools crossed in an X behind it. My first thought was it had to be a repair shop.
“Please let it be,” I practically prayed.
Just as I pulled over into the broken and uneven lot that housed the building, my car jerked, sputtered, and cut out on me.
With a heavy sigh, I made sure it was in park and pulled my keys out of the ignition. I sure as hell didn’t need her to go crashing through the side of the building and cause damage that I couldn’t afford to repair.
Since it was so late at night, knew that the place wasn’t going to be open. That was fine, I could survive a night of sleeping in my car. And as I stepped out of my car, I knew I was right. The place was closed up tight, not even a sliver of light was sneaking out from under the large bay doors.
That was when loud rock music caught my attention. I slowly pivoted on the balls of my feet, the loose gravel popping and crackling under my Chucks as I moved.
“Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a drink right now,” I said with a longing sigh as I stared at the front of the bar that was across the lot. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed that when I pulled over. It could have been that I could barely see over the huge puff of billowing smoke that was coming from the front of my car.
I had two hundred and thirty-two dollars to my name. Maybe another buck or two if I turned my car inside out and looked for change. As I glanced back at my old beast of a woman with wheels, I knew that I probably didn’t even have a penny to spare if I was going to try to get her fixed.
“Fine,” I mumbled and possibly even pouted a little.
Ducking back into my car, I pulled out my phone. I figured I could at least call and check in with Art. It was probably a good idea to let him know I made it, sort of. I also needed to figure out how far away I was from the place I was here to scope out.
But as I attempted to make my phone come to life, nothing happened. No amount of pressing the button made the screen light up. Since it wasn’t that old and it was actually one of the few things I’d managed to keep intact, I knew it wasn’t broken. A dead battery was an easy enough fix, just not right now. I supposed I didn’t really have much of a choice but to give up for the night.
A cold chill settled in the air around me and I knew it was going to be a long night. I just hoped I didn’t freeze to death in my car. It wasn’t like I had any other choice right now.
I cleared out the back seat and dug out a couple of blankets from my trunk. As I settled in, I did my best to cover my entire body, including my head. I knew it wasn’t the safest thing, especially with a bar right there. I just hoped that if someone looked in, they would think it was a bunch of crap piled up in the back seat. It wasn’t like anyone was going to try to steal my car. I mean come on, she was as old as dirt and beat up worse than a rag doll on a rollercoaster.
The backseat was as uncomfortable as one would imagine and I knew I’d be regretting this in the morning. Somehow the sounds of the faded music lulled me to sleep almost instantly.
The loud clink of something hard tapping against the window had me awake in the blink of an eye. I shot up, alert and ready to strike.
“Get out of the car,” a voice said.
I couldn’t really see much and though I knew it wasn’t smart, I started to reach for the door handle. That was when I saw the gun that was trained on me from the other side of the window.
“Oh, hell no!” I said as I pulled the handle with enough force to almost rip it from the door.
My feet hit the ground and before I could even identify my attacker, I wrapped my hand around the barrel and pushed the arm that held the handle away from me. At the same time, I brought my right hand back and let it fly forwards with all my power behind it.
“What the fuck!” my would-be attacker said as he doubled over and brought his free hand up to his eye.
“That’s what you get, fucker. Don’t point a fucking gun at me,” I said and resisted the urge to kick him in the balls. “Dick.” I couldn’t help but add that after the fact.
“Oh, shit!” someone else said somewhere in the background but I didn’t take my eyes off the guy in front of me.
Then there was a round of laughter and that was when I did look up. Which I knew wasn’t smart.
