Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
sierra
Iwaited for five minutes before cracking the door to make sure Hayden was in his room. I didn’t know if I could face him after our little run-in in the hallway.
“Nothing you haven’t seen before, Skip!” His teasing echoed in my head as I paced the floor.
My phone had buzzed with some texts from him apologizing, but how the fuck was one supposed to respond to seeing their childhood best friend turned lover turned stranger turned roommate naked in the hallway?
It wasn’t like I could just say, No big deal. You’re right, I have seen it before.
I mean, I could, but I didn’t think that was the appropriate response. So, instead, I did what any normal person would do and reacted to the messages with a thumbs-up.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t a great response either, but I panicked.
The coast was clear, so I snuck out of my room, tiptoeing down the hallway. I peeked around the corner to double-check he wasn’t in the kitchen or sitting on the couch.
If that was the case, I guess I would be camping out in my room for the foreseeable future. I could always sneak out the window like I was fourteen, but I was all for practicality these days.
The rest of the house was empty, so I slipped on my boots and went outside, making sure to shut the door louder this time so Hayden would hear me leave. Not that he was going to be walking around naked again, but just in case.
I intended to drive into town to grab groceries for the house and run a few other errands, but about a mile down the road, an incessant tap, tap, tap against the pavement caught my attention. Turning down my radio, I strained my ears to figure out where the noise was coming from.
It almost sounded like a clicking, a consistent and steady rhythm as the vehicle moved forward. When I slowed down, the clicking also slowed.
I pulled over onto the side of the road to investigate, not wanting to keep going in case something was wrong and the noise wasn’t all in my head. After turning on my hazard lights, I carefully hopped out of the pickup, walking around to inspect the body.
I rested my hands on my hips as I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of my tires had deflated.
A flat tire shouldn’t have caused that noise, but I couldn’t drive long distances with a tire in that condition anyway.
Luckily, I had a spare in the bed and a tire jack in the backseat.
I came prepared for these types of things.
As often as I was on the road, I didn’t have the time to wait around for a tow truck or roadside assistance if I got stranded.
I fended for myself, and I fixed things myself.
My eyes narrowed and brows pinched together when I opened the tailgate only to find that my spare tire was nowhere to be found. In its place was just a half-smoked cigarette, the butt still smoking, with a depiction of a blue camel on the label.
What the fuck?
Panic shot through my chest, my eyes darting around even though I was in the middle of an empty highway.
I squatted down to look at the tire, hoping my suspicions were incorrect.
Sure enough, there was a shiny, silver nail sticking out of my tire. If I hadn’t caught it now, it was very possible that my tire could have blown out, leading to an accident.
I’d have to tell Hayden about this, but maybe I could swing it as an accident. I drove over a nail somewhere.
Unlikely.
As I thought more about it, a tingle ran down my spine. Nausea crept into my stomach, and my heart began to pound in my chest.
I only knew one person who smoked Camels.