Dad's Capos Swore to Guard Me, So I Made Them Break Every Oath novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Driver

On Monday, the eighth day, I found Quino in the garage with a chamois in his hand and his sleeves rolled to the elbow.

He had rolled my father's Lincoln halfway out into the sun, and the black paint threw back the afternoon.

He was polishing the hood in long slow strokes.

Nobody had told him to.

I leaned on the doorframe in a thin cotton dress and watched his forearms work.

He had said nine words to me since the cemetery, and every one of them had been a yes.

"Quino."

"Tina," he said.

"Put the cloth down."

He put it down.

I walked across the concrete until I stood a hand's width away.

I had given orders for eight days, and I was tired in a way I had not known a person could be.

"Take it," I said.

"Take what?"

"The lead. Tonight is yours. This afternoon is yours."

His eyes went over my face.

"You don't have to do that," he said.

"I know I don't. I want to see what you do with it, driver."

Something in him shifted.

He did not smile.

He straightened to his whole height, and his left hand came up and closed on my jaw.

"Miss Tina," he said, very softly.

My stomach dropped.

He had called me that for ten years, with his eyes on the road, and he said it now with his thumb on my lip.

"Turn around," he said. "Hands flat on the hood."

I turned.

The paint was warm from the sun, and it rose to meet my palms.

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