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“What in the holy fuck was that?” Race pushed off of e of his chin where the back of my skull had connected

I put both ofhands to ize, but the words were lodged in my throat

“Didn’t Dovie tell you I was gonna swing by after your shift?”

He sounded irritated, and I couldn’t blame him

“Sorry I’ lot this late”

He looked up at the broken light and then back at me and scowled “Why are you out here this late alone in the first place?”

“Everyone was busy trying to close for the night You kno it goes, everyone is in a rush to head ho time”

The look that crossed his handsome face said he didn’t like that very olden and elegant Tonight, in the harsh shadow of the broken light and with the cracked asphalt under his feet, he looked more like a Nordic warrior, both fierce and unhappy It wasn’t a look I would have ever figured he could pull off, but intiht at ho, he was going to do so in his eyes

I reached out a hand and clamped it on his thick wrist

“Don’t worry about it, Race I really just need you to help me with the computer, or else I’m totally screwed”

He consideredto decide which , my safety or my current electronic crisis Thank God the coruff and scratchy when he told me, “Not the end of this conversation, Bry”

I nodded stiffly and bent over to get my laptop out from under the seat where I’d stashed it When I turned back around, I felt heat rush into iven Race the opportunity to check reen in his eyes had turned to soulped nervously

“What’s wrong with the computer?”

I held it protectively againstto be the sole focus of a guy like Race I felt like he was trying to get a look inside ure out all the bits and pieces that made me tick

“I don’t know I turned it on and the screen was just blue I know it’s bad, but everything I need for school is in there, so I have to do so”