THIRTEEN
“Crank her over,” Jo ordered.
Nic turned the key, and the engine turned over but didn’t start.
“Stop.” She reached down and made some more adjustments. “Okay, again.”
This time, when Nic turned the key, the engine rolled over a few seconds before it roared to life, filling the garage with the crisp deep growls of the rebuilt Hemi engine block. With all the main pieces together, Frankie had turned into a beast of a car. She would do well on the track.
They let the engine run while they went through the checklist, making sure everything was working as it should. The sound of the engine was sexy as it filled the small garage and excitement finally hit Jo.
They were doing it. This was it. They’d managed to piece together a race car in a few weeks. Granted, they still had to put all the weapons systems and things inside of it, but that would go faster than putting together an engine. The weight on the car was already getting on the higher end because of all the steel they’d reinforced the body with, but it would even out. The inside of the ‘Cuda was practically gutted except for two aluminum racing seats and the roll cage. They were going to be fine.
It was functional and as light as they could get it despite the metal. The weapons would add weight, but it wouldn’t be bad. They’d stand a chance of winning for sure with the tank of the car. Those weapons would have to be relied on heavily in the Games themselves, at least to gain any traction, but luckily, Jo knew enough about all the weapons to use them. They’d be better protected against attacks with the reinforced sides and the extra weapons.
The engine practically purred, a beauty of a thing that focused more on the old school ways than adding any of the bullshit magic into the works. They didn’t need any of that stuff for speed. The capabilities of an engine could be tapped into with mechanics.
She’d do nicely.
Nic turned the key back off and the garage fell back into silence. For a moment, Jo forgot that she was supposed to be angry with Nic, that he’d hurt her long ago, and so she grinned up at him over the engine compartment.
“We did it!”
His answering smile made something inside of her flip, the twinkle in his eyes so much better than his normal expression, and it reminded her why she needed to be careful.
“You did it,” Nic countered. “I was just the glorified tool fetcher.”
Their eyes lingered, focused on each other as they were, and in the end, it was Jo who broke the contact, her heart throbbing in her chest in a way she wasn’t prepared for. Just because they’d pulled this off didn’t mean she could forgive the past. There was too much to heal from, too much to talk about that she couldn’t bear to bring up yet, too much to overcome. She didn’t know if she could ever forget the hurt, if she could rescind her rejection without thinking about the risk of doing so.
“We can go over the weapons tomorrow and figure out a plan of where we’re going to mount each one. There will probably be some finagling we have to do to make some of them work, but for today, she runs. So that’s a win in my book,” Jo said, wiping her hands on a shop rag.
Nic climbed from the car and grinned. “I’d say this calls for a celebration.”
“We still have work to do,” Jo pointed out.
“Tomorrow,” Nic urged. “We’ve worked our asses off. We can afford one night for a drink. What do you say we go down to the Howling Wolf and grab a drink?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No strings attached?”
“A burger,” he said with a grin. “A drink and a burger. No other strings attached.”
She looked at Frankie again and shrugged. “Sure, one night won’t hurt. I need time to get cleaned up.” She eyed him. “You can use the shower inside if you want after I’m done.”
Which was a big step. Jo hadn’t allowed Nic to step inside her safe place. She didn’t know where he went to sleep every night, but he never complained when she said it was time for bed. He simply climbed into his truck and drove off with a wave every single night. Today, she felt as if she could let him inside, if only to use the bathroom.
It wasn’t anything big. Just her being nice. Besides, she didn’t want to have to wait around for the wolf to go wherever he was staying to get ready.