NINE
The ‘Cuda was sitting in the small garage on jack stands, well off the ground to allow for Jo and Nic to work on it and beneath it. They’d spent the better part of a week stripping it down to the bare metal. Outside, there was a nice pile of pieces that would be scrapped rather than redone. With all the parts gone, they’d started to reinforce the body as much as possible, making it heavier, but that weight was countered by the amount they’d taken out of the inside. They were going to leave it as bare boned as possible while filling it with pieces of other cars. In the end, the ‘Cuda would look more like a Frankenstein car than anything else.
The parts Jo had ordered were already arriving, the new pieces for the engine stacked in the corner for them to go through. Nic had come through with his friend, who was working on the engine rebuild. He’d reassured them it would be ready in another week and while there wouldn’t be any supernatural elements added onto it, Jo felt they wouldn’t need it when the engine would be pure power. She’d done enough research, knew enough about the parts, to make her own adjustments for speed.
Jo sat in the interior of the car, running some of the wiring she knew was needed once the engine arrived. The new steering wheel had been delivered, so she was working on putting that in while Nic helped attach the new dash they’d stripped from another wrecked Plymouth Barracuda. Luckily, the dash between the two models was interchangeable. There was so much that needed to be done, but Jo was confident they could get the car finished in time. At least, she hoped so. They just had to make sure everything was working properly. By the end of this, the ‘Cuda would be a true pavement queen, but be able to handle anything thrown her way.
As she cranked down another bolt, Jo lamented the amount of work they’d have to do. There would be less time to practice for them because of the build, but she knew Nic could drive. Once, before he’d settled down to start taking on his beta responsibilities, he’d been heavy in the local demolition derby circuit. While demolition derby was different from the Games, she knew he’d also been part of the illegal street racing scene. That experience was what would help them win. That and her skills with machines.
“If only we had enough money to send this baby out to the Dyer Shop,” Jo sighed. “I bet she’d have her looking fantastic in far less time. I’d love to work with Danica.”
Nic leaned up from where he was fiddling with the dash and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“I don’t know,” he said with a grin. “I kind of like getting to build Frankie with you.”
They’d started calling her Frankie the more pieces from other cars they picked. While some parts had to be new, a majority of them could be used as long as the items were in good condition.
Jo turned and narrowed her eyes on him when the tone of his voice washed over her. “Don’t try that charm on me. It won’t work,” she growled.
“Then why address it?” he shot back with a raised brow.
Scowling, Jo turned away and murmured under her breath. “Prick.”
“I heard that.”
“You were meant to,” she said, and despite her words, there was something. . .comforting about the banter. She hated it.
Long minutes went by without them speaking, both content to work in peace beside each other for now. Jo was extremely aware of Nic being so near. With both of them inside the car, his smell swirled around her, intoxicating in a way that made her wolf sit up at attention. If he were any other man, she would have thrown caution to the wind and flirted back. But every time she had that thought, the memory of Nic asking to be free while mated with her came to mind. It turned her thoughts sour each time.
“So,” Nic began as he latched the dash completely into place. It looked strange with it being the only thing inside the car at the moment even with Jo working on the steering wheel, but it was only a single piece of the puzzle. “MateFinder, huh?”
Jo shot him a look. “If you start insulting my—”
“No,” he interrupted. “I’m not doing that at all. I’m just trying to start a conversation.” When she stared at him, he continued. “The news has been saying it’s the next big thing. Congratulations.”
She hesitated, biting her lip. “Thank you. It’s taken a lot of work.”
“You did it yourself?” Nic turned so he could fully look at her despite the work that still needed to be done.
“I have a team that helps me,” she offered. “We’re practically a family now after working so hard on the project together.”
“So you just download the app, and it works like the human dating apps?” he asked.
The moment he started asking questions, Jo felt her excitement grow. While yes, Nic and her still weren’t on good terms, he was asking about her passion project, about her plans.
“Yeah, you download it and make a profile. There’s a whole long questionnaire you fill out and then you start getting matches. We’ve had a significant number of people find their forever mate in it, and even more who are happy with their results. The number of profiles has grown four hundred percent in the last year. That’s why we need the prize in the games. We need space and money without having to go through investors who would change everything about the app to suit their needs. We’ve already had a dozen offers to buy us out. We turned them all down.”
“That sounds like you’ve been working hard.”
Jo shrugged. “The idea that everyone has a mate out there is romantic to a lot of people. I’m just making it easier to find their other half.”
Nic was silent for a few seconds, absorbing her words. “Seems like you profited well enough from us not working out back then,” he commented.
The excitement died in her eyes. She felt it, the moment he’d been dismissive of all her hard work and brought it back to him. The audacity to make her success about him, as if she’d needed to be so insulted by her fated mate in order to reach her dreams. Her heart squeezed painfully, but the hurt morphed to anger so fast she could barely contain it.
Nic saw the look in her eyes disappear, saw her deflate, and immediately tried to backpedal. “Wait. Jo, I—”
“Fuck off,” she spit, shaking her head. “Maybe I just wanted to save everyone the trauma of having a mate like you.”
His face pinched in panic when he realized what a dick he was being. He reached toward her, but she jerked away, not wanting him to touch her. She could never want him to touch her, not after how he’d treated her.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Jo,” he tried, dropping his hand when he realized she didn’t want him to touch her.
“Yeah, well, that’s how it sounded.” She dropped the wrench she’d been using with a clatter and climbed from the shell of the car. “Next time, don’t ask me about my work if you don’t actually care.”
And then she stormed off, leaving Nic floundering in the car behind her. She needed a break from him, from the car, from seeing his face.
Before she did something foolish and either swung at him or kissed the asshole.
Both would be mistakes.