After months with Yara, I settled into the fact that this was my life and I would never find love. But then today when I rescued Yara from those three men and took her into my arms, I felt a spark inside me that I thought I’d never feel again.
And it’s not just her looks either…her flowing, dirty blond hair, her sea-green eyes or her tits that belong on the chest of a fertility goddess. No, it’s more than that. It’s the way she made me feel when I first set eyes on her. Like something inside me had suddenly been unlocked by her gaze. What something? I couldn’t say. But whatever it was, the town of Tangerine Forks feels a whole lot bigger now with her in it.
A whistle jolts my senses, and I blink to see Delilah gawking at me. “Hello? Lyle? Are you with me?”
Yes, unfortunately…
I realize this whole time I’ve been thinking of Yara I’ve been staring vacantly off into space like an idiot, probably completely missing out on whatever it was Delilah just said to me.
“Huh? Sorry,” I reply. “I was…thinking about something.”
“Thinking about something?” she snorts. “Thinking aboutwhat?”
Now for whatever reason, Icannotlie to Delilah. Maybe Clint taught her some kind of incredible perceptive abilities or something when she really young. It’s like if I was to try and bluff her in poker, she would win every single time. So, I either come clean and tell her the truth right now, which will result in her going to her father and me ending up with several broken bones, or I tell her another truth right now that will satisfy her. And I have about two seconds to come up with one.
“Well, I saved this girl today from being assaulted by three guys in a pickup truck.”
Delilah’s jaw drops, and her eyes go wide as dinner plates. “What!?” That worked. “You didwhat?”
“Yeah, I was coming home from the shop, and I saw this truck pulled over and these guys…”
I proceed to explain the whole story to her, leaving out key elements like Yara’s name, my insane attraction to her, and the fact that at the end I brought her home and put her up in our studio apartment. Because after all, leaving out some of the truth isn’t lying, and I’m still able to pull that off.
Once I’m finished, Yara is just staring at me. I already know what’s coming next.
“Are youkiddingme, Lyle!? You could have been killed!” I don’t know where Delilah got the idea that she could speak to men this way, but it must have been from being raised by Clint who she knows would always step in to protect her if anything ever happened to her.
“Well, I wasn’t,” I reply, biting the inside of my cheek.
“You did all this for some girl you don’t even know? What if those guys had guns? You could have gotten your head blown off!”
“Imagine what those guys were going to do to that girl,” I reply. “What if it wasyouin that truck—”
Delilah shakes her head. “I never would have let myself get into that situation to begin with! Don’t even go there with me, Lyle. Now you still stink from work. Go into the house and take a shower. And don’teverdo something like that again.”
She brushes past me and goes into the house. I can see from the way she has her shoulders hunched and how she practically kicks the door open on her way in that she’s pissed off.
“Oh, well,” I sigh and glance up at the clouds drifting slowly above as I wonder what my life would have been like had her father never come to me that day.
There has to be a way out of this, I think. But Clint and his goons run all of Tangerine Forks and all of the towns around here. I’m one guy and he’s got an entire organization working for him. Hell, I can’t even imagine what he’d do to me if he even heard I pissed Delilah off, let alone tried to leave her.
It’s like being held hostage from a distance and not even being able to confront your hostage taker.
A minute passes and I follow her inside and go into the bathroom. One thing Delilah’s right about though; I do still stink of work. Being a mechanic means constantly getting your hands dirty, getting covered with grease, oil, all kinds of industrial cleaners that I’ve gotten used to at the garage but don’t want to bring home and end up covering the house in.
I strip down and climb into the hot water and start to scrub myself down. I use the shower downstairs, not the one connected to our bedroom, as we like to keep that one nice and uncontaminated by whatever crud I bring home from the garage.
I tilt my head, embracing the heat, and lean against the tile as I start soaping myself up.
Yara…
I can’t stop thinking about her, and somehow standing here naked is just driving the image of her even closer to the front of my mind.
I haven’t let my anger get ahold of me like that in a while. Alongwhile. But seeing those men on top of her like that just brought it out in me - the rage…the fire…the side of me I’ve worked for so long to suppress. And until today I was sure I had.
But then I sawher, and something inside me shifted. The next thing I knew I was slamming on the brakes, out of my car and tearing those men to pieces.
And I don’t feel one sliver of remorse.