Bridging the Distance Read online

  “Spell that please,” Bob said, clearly ignoring the urgency of the situation.

  “Which part? Lorelei or Daniels?” she asked, feeling exasperated. “Look, can you just look it up by my date of birth? Or maybe you have a list of repos that happened today?”

  “Spell your name—first and last,” he repeated mulishly.

  “But—” Lorelei started to protest but she realized she didn’t have time. “L-o-r-e-l-e-i D-a-n-i-e-l-s,” she spelled rapidly.

  “Okay, okay…” Apparently Bob the repo guy was a hunt and peck typist and it seemed to take forever for him to laboriously enter her name, one keystroke at a time. Finally something seemed to pop up on his computer monitor because he leaned forward, peering at it myopically. “Says here…you have a Honda SD Spark?”

  “Yes, yes—that’s it,” Lorelei said quickly. She was already digging in her purse to fish out a dime and nickel.

  “Yep.” Bob peered at the screen some more. “Says here it was repossessed for overdue and incomplete payment.”

  “Yes, that’s what I said,” Lorelei held out the change to him. “Here you go—this is the rest of the payment.”

  But Bob the repo guy, as Lorelei was beginning to think of him, shook his head.

  “Sorry. Says here your time is up. The repossession is now permanent.”

  “What?” Lorelei exploded. “But this is ridiculous—I only owe fifteen cents! Look, here…” She tried to give him the coins again but he only frowned and shoved her hand away.

  “Sorry, lady. Doesn’t matter if it’s fifteen cents, fifteen dollars, or fifteen hundred dollars, once the repo is final, it’s final. Nothing I can do.”

  “But I’ve been paying on it for years—I only have three more payments on it before I own it!” Lorelei protested. “And besides, it’s old—a hunk of junk. It’s not like the dealership is going to be able to resell it or even lease it! What are you even going to do with it?”

  “Older model like that…” He frowned. “It’ll probably get sold to Rent a Heap down the road. They specialize in renting out junk cars to college kids looking to have a good time without spending too much.” He shrugged. “You can go over there and see if you could buy it back, I guess. They might sell it for a couple of thousand.”

  “Buy it back? A couple of thousand? But I just used all the rest of my money making the payments on it here!” Lorelei exclaimed. “Why do you think I was short only fifteen cents? Your damn payment interface sucked every last cent out of my bank account and then took the car anyway, which caused me to lose my freaking job because I didn’t have a way to get in to work! How am I going to raise several more thousand without a car to drive in order to get to a job?”

  “Sorry, lady—not my problem.” Bob the repo guy was already walking away but Lorelei reached over the counter and grabbed at his pudgy elbow.

  “Hey, stop!” she said. “You can’t do this! I would have been in time if you hadn’t been sitting in the back there, watching porn on your phone instead of doing your job. I want to talk to a manager!”

  Bob the repo guy shook her hand off irritably and turned to face her.

  “For your information, lady, I am the manager. I run this entire department. You might as well face it—your car got repossessed and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. If you want, I can call Leon down at Rent a Heap and let them know you’re on the way to see them and maybe make a deal. That’s all I can do for you.”

  “Wait a minute…” Understanding dawned on Lorelei. “You took your time on purpose—you wanted the repossession to be permanent,” she exclaimed. “I bet you have a personal deal with this Rent a Heap place. How much of a kickback do you get for every car you send their way?”

  “The fuck you talking about?” Bob the repo guy growled, glowering at her. “I think you’d better leave now, lady. I got better things to do with my time than standing here listening to your bullshit so fuck off!”

  “Are you disrespecting My Lady?”

  The new, deeper voice came from behind her. Lorelei looked back to see Bound looming over her shoulder, glaring at Bob the repo guy. He looked down at the other man, a frown on his handsome face.

  “Bound,” she exclaimed, not sure if she was glad to see him or not. “What are you doing here?”

  “It seemed to be taking a long time to make a simple payment. I decided to come check on you and have a look at some of the Earth vehicles,” he explained. “And then I find this.” He glowered at Bob the repo guy. “Do you know that swearing at a female is a flogging offense on my home planet? It’s verbal abuse and it isn’t tolerated.”

  “Well, we’re not on your home planet, Kindred,” Bob sneered, making the word into a curse. “We’re on Earth so why don’t you take your alien ass back where you came from? You and your little Earth whore. You’re not wanted here!”

  Great, Lorelei thought, Bob the repo guy was apparently one of those xenophobic assholes who hated the Kindred and thought they were robbing the Earth of all its fertile women when in fact, only about one in a hundred thousand women was chosen as a Kindred bride.

  “I don’t think so.” Bound’s big hand shot out and fisted in the front of the repo guy’s dark blue shirt. Gripping tightly, he actually lifted the other man, one-handed, and shook him.

  “Hey!” Suddenly the belligerent Bob didn’t seem quite so sure of himself. “What are you doing? Let me down you asshole!” he whined plaintively.

  “You may call me any name you choose,” Bound growled, shaking the shorter man like a Great Dane shaking a Cocker Spaniel. “But you will treat My Lady Lorelei with proper respect and the deference that is due to both a lady and a paying customer. Apologize. Now.”

  He shook the other man again and Bob the repo guy began to snivel.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” he whined sullenly. “But her repossession is final—there’s nothing I can do!”

  “Didn’t I just hear you say you were the manager of this particular department?” Bound demanded in a low, dangerous voice.

  “Well, yeah, but—”

  “And as a manager, you have a certain amount of power. Here’s what you’re going to do with that power, Bob.” Somehow Bound managed to make the common, dull name sound exotic and foreign when he spoke it. “You’re going to agree to take the last part of the payment and then you’re going to go get My Lady’s vehicle at once.” He pulled Bob closer, so that they were eye-to-eye, dragging him halfway over the desk to do so. The little silver bell fell, making a tinny ding as it hit the floor. “Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

  “Yeah, yeah—all right! All right, already!” Bob the repo guy exclaimed. “Just let me down—I’ll go get the car, I swear!”

  “Very well.” With elaborate gentleness, Bound set the other man down and straightened the wrinkles his fist had made in the front of Bob’s shirt. “I’ll be watching you.”

  “Fine, fine—whatever!” As soon as he could, Bob the repo guy turned and fled, hopefully to go get the car.

  Lorelei looked up at the big Kindred with new respect. Bound seemed like such a nice guy-next-door type with his chiseled jaw and intense blue eyes but when you scratched the surface, there was serious steel under the pretty outer package. Plus, he must be incredibly strong. There was no way Bob the repo guy was a pound under two fifty and Lorelei was betting he was closer to two seventy-five. Bound had held him up one-handed without any sign of strain, as though it was no big deal.

  “Wow, that was great!” she said, smiling up at him. “Thank you for standing up to that jerk for me.”

  “Of course.” He frowned. “I don’t like a male who disrespects females. That grubby little manager was just lucky my brother Torn wasn’t here as well.”

  “Oh, why is that?” Lorelei felt her heart pounding, considering what it would be like to have two huge Kindred warriors backing her up.

  Bound gave her a barely-there grin—just the tiniest quirk of one corner of his sensual mouth.