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Sheshe’d had to suffer through coursing thick and heated throughincreasingly aware of the fact that I really wanted to be the one to give it to her

Thoughts firmly on Poppy and what other kinds of horrors she’d had to endure through the course of her h don Denver and er and Zeb and I had too much time and too ht at illegal parties held in this very sa The place had history, both personal and collective, so it meant the world to me that I’d been able to save it The ancient brick had been slated for demolition so that some developer could come in and build more trendy condos and shops to cater to the LoDo sprawl I’d scraped together enough money from the sale of my first full rebuild outside of school It was a 1970 Barracuda that was still winning medals at car shows across the country, to lease the space for a year I continued that pattern for five years--build, sell, pay for the lease on the building, barely getting by until I got hooked up with Nash Donovan and Rowdy St James It started out as a mutual ad that allowed et my hands around a major part of my dream Those two introduced me to Rome Archer, who came at me with a business offer I would have been a fool to turn down Roe He helped ht and seta real living Rome was the only reason I was able to finally afford a down payment on a house I owed those Marked Men more than they would ever know

I parked in the spot that was designated for e where custoal that handled all the paperwork and scheduling of projects worked I’d tried to set Kallie up in that position, thinking the garage could be ours, that we could ether, but she barely lasted a week before I’d had one She hated how dirty the garage was and she didn’t give two shits about the classics orked our asses off to breathe new life into The girl drove a freaking Audi, for God’s sake, even when I offered to find her and build her whatever she wanted I should have known then it wasn’t meant to be It was a beautiful car but it had no soul and no story

Snorting at the thought, I stopped short when a baby-blue Hudson Hornet cauess was right, and I was pretty sure that it was It was an incredibly rare year, so rare that this was the only one I’d seen outside of a hot-rod azine or a car shoatched the car roll to a stop next to the Eldorado and took a minute to admire it I was named after this car, at least that hat s and demons I couldn’t see loosened their hold on her

A man stepped out, tall, with salt-and-pepper hair, silver sideburns, and expensivehis eyes He was dressed in jeans and a dark canvas coat ht over the unofficial almost-winter uniform of all Coloradans, a button up flannel over a theruely fae, a lot of the to look, that I couldn’t be sure we’d ever"Nice ride"

He repeated the gesture "If that’s yours then I return the sentiers

I shrugged "It’s h school shop teacher felt sorry for raduation He helped me finish her up and to this day he stops by once aup"

The ht on his feet He see aboutto restore and finding parts for the old girl had proven to be a real bitch

"If you need soo in and talk to Molly, ht direction I can tell you now I don’t have any original parts for a Hudson on hand but I know a guy that is a wizard when it couy took a step back and leaned on the side of his car like the wind had been knocked out of him He had really cherry taste in cars and looked pretty cool for an old guy, but da about hie is yours?" The question seeain "Yep All n on it and inclined ive you a hand hatever you need I’d be happy to get my hands on that Hudson if you need souy cleared his throat and shook his head like he was trying to clear it "Uh, yeah I ht be back I just rolled into town for a quick visit and your garage caht be able to handle a rare classic I was looking for so specific I didn’t think I’d find it so quickly"

I nodded because I kne hard it could be to coinal parts you needed to do a whole rebuild "You can find anything if you look hard enough I guess I’ll see you around"

The guy nodded again and this tirinned "Didn’t catch your nae was getting stranger and stranger by the minute "Wheeler, Hudson Wheeler I’rin on his face died "It’s nice toup his name in return, he disappeared back into his badass car and pulled out of the parking lot in front of the garage like the cops were after him I waved a hand in front of my face as the hot rod kicked up dust, and wondered what in the hell had just happened

Today was a day full of loaded conversations and I’d never considered myself much of a conversationalist