“Bella?” I hear my sister’s voice as I open my eyes. “Wake up. It’s 7:30 am. I missed the bus and I can’t get mom to answer her door and take me to school.”

“Shit,” I fuss as I jump out of bed. “I’m supposed to be at work at eight this morning to help open.”

I fly around the room, throwing anything on. I’m pulling on a pair of black leggings when Alba murmurs, “Sorry, Bella.”

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault I overslept.” I reach into the closet yanking a purple tunic off the hanger. “Meet me at the car. I’ll be there in a minute.”

She heads out of the room as I’m slipping on my black flats.

As I go past my mom’s bedroom I stop and knock on the door. She doesn’t answer, so I open the door and walk into the room. I find her with her legs curled under her, staring at nothing.

“Mom? You okay?”

She turns her head looking up at me. I can see a whelp the same size and shape of a hand print across her cheek and I gasp.

“What the hell, Mom? That fucker hit you?”

She doesn’t say anything. She just gets up, kisses my cheek, and walks out of the room.

“Mom, you can’t let him do this to you. It’s not right!” I plead with her as I follow her to the living room.

Grabbing her by the shoulders I make her look at me. “Mom, I need to run Alba to school, she missed the bus. On top of that, I’m going to be late for work. Promise me you’ll call the police if Lee comes back.”

Her eyes glazed over with unshed tears but I don’t get a response from her.

I lean forward and hug her. “I love you, Mom. You deserve better.”

I hate leaving her alone like this.

“I promise. I’ll call the police if he shows up,” she quietly whispers.

“Call me if you need to. Okay?”

I watch her slowly nod her head before I turn to leave.

I make a quick walk through of the house. Lee is nowhere to be found, so I head out the front door but notice his truck is still in the driveway.

“Bella, I really am sorry,” my sister whispers as I climb in my car.

“It’s okay. None of it is your fault. I’ll write your excuse and sign for mom. She wasn’t feeling well, that’s why you couldn’t get her to answer her door earlier,” I lie.

Once I’ve dropped her off at school, I continue toward downtown to the grocery store. I’m thirty-five minutes late already, and I just realized I should have called my boss, Travis, to let him know I’m on my way.

I go to dig my phone out of my purse and realize I don’t have it. I left it sitting on my nightstand at home.

POP. The car pulls hard to the right, but I managed to swerve off to the shoulder of the road. I cut off the engine and get out to see what has happened. Great, a flat tire.

“Fuck my life,” I mumble.

As I’m trying to get the tire out of the trunk, I hear the rumble of a motorcycle behind me. The guy pulls up, puts the kick stand down, getting off his bike.

He’s wearing aviator glasses and has sandy blonde hair. When he gets a little closer I can see the cut he has on. It reads SGT AT ARMS, on the top right.

“Darlin’, that tire looks bigger than you are. Let me help you.”

“Thanks, that would be great.” He carries the tire around to the front, leaning it up against the car.

“The Name’s Quinn.”

“Bella,” I say as I reach out to shake his hand.

“Well, Bella. Let me get your tire iron and jack from the back. I’ll get you fixed up.”

I watch him swagger back to the trunk of my car. “Feel free to check out my ass, pretty girl,” he says, making me smile.

Quinn brings everything needed to change the tire and gets to work. Me? I am just hoping like hell I do not lose my job today.

“Hey, darlin’?”

I look down at him as he’s kneeled down pulling my flat tire off.

“You sure have yourself a fine car or at least with some lovin’ it will be. A ‘68?”

I look at my car. It’s an Acapulco Blue 1968 Ford Mustang automatic. I saw this car sitting out front of the Pull-a-Part junkyard and stopped in one day to ask about it. For more than a year, I paid old man Roy every week. I also helped clean his office and sort his files from time to time. In return, he held on to this beauty until I could pay it off. After my last birthday, I stopped by to give him my payment for the month. He handed me the key, saying ‘consider it paid.’ I only got to visit a couple of times after that day before learning that he had died from a heart attack in his sleep. Sweetest old man I’d ever met. Thanks to him, I have this car.

“Yeah, ‘68. She may not look like much and runs like shit, but when I can do more she’ll be beautiful.”

I smile just thinking about cruising the mountain roads with the top down on it.

“How did you luck out and find her? I haven’t seen any good classics around this area in a while. I have a GT Fastback of my own.”

“A nice old man helped me out.”

I lean up against the car, watching Quinn finish tightening the lugs on the spare when some clouds start to roll in.

“Looks like I finished just in time. A storm is heading our way,” he says walking to the trunk, placing the flat tire and tools back in, and closes it.

“Thank you, Quinn. I would still be trying to change that thing if you hadn’t come along.”

He wipes his hands on a bandanna that he pulled from his back pocket. “Hell, my pleasure, darlin’. That spare will not last you long though. You come by the shop and I’ll hook you up with a tire, maybe look under that hood while we’re at it.”

I look at him contemplating his offer, which must show all over my face. He reaches in his back pocket, pulls out his wallet and hands me a card.

KINGS CUSTOM BIKES, printed in bold black ink with a skull wearing a crown and wings in the background.

“I work there, just a few blocks down the road. You come by soon and ask for me, I’ll take care of you. Okay?”

“Okay. I think I’ll do that. Thanks again, Quinn.”

“Not a problem. It was good to meet you, Bella. I’ll see you around, darlin’.”

I watch as he mounts his bike, pulls his aviators over his eyes, fires up the engine and cruises down the road.

It doesn’t take me long to get to the store.

“Shit. I’m so late,” I grumble as I pull into the parking lot. I hope that Travis will understand why.

He isn’t exactly a good guy. My boss can be a creep. Always staring at me and finding little ways to touch me.

Mila, one of my good friends, who also works at the store, sees me walking in and calls me over.

“Bella, where have you been?”

I sigh. “Everything has gone wrong this morning, Mila. Long story. I’ll tell you at lunch.”

Mila chews her lip before informing me, “Listen. Travis is looking for you. He said if we see you, tell you to head straight to his office.”

“Thanks, I’ll catch up with you later.”

Standing outside his office door, I’m about to knock when Travis comes barging out almost knocking me to the floor.

“Ah, so you finally decided to show up,” he sneers at me.

“Travis, I’m sorry. I had some family stuff come up and I got a flat on the way here too.”

Putting his hand up, he cuts me off. “Bella, if you don’t mind, I’m about to break for a smoke, step outside with me and we will discuss this.”

I follow Travis through the door that leads to the alleyway between the grocery store and the bakery, preparing myself for a lecture.

He lights up his cigarette and blows the smoke out, “I can’t have you being late, Bella. You’ve been working here for over a year now and you’ve been late many times.”

“Travis, I can explain—”

Interrupting me again, he says, “I don’t need to hear another excuse. You’re replaceable Bella, just like the rest of them in there.”

“Please Travis. I need this job. I promise not to be late again.”

Blowing smoke in my direction before dropping the cigarette to the ground, Travis reaches forward and places his hands on my shoulders. When he touches me, I instantly feel uneasy.

“I can overlook this and not write you up if we can come to some sort of...arrangement to help you keep your job.” He smiles, as his clammy hands run down my arm, completely catching me off guard.

“What!”

His grip tightens a little. “Come on. Put that pretty mouth to use and you can keep your job.”

I jerk from his hold, “Don’t touch me! I’m not putting my mouth anywhere on you!”

He grabs at my wrist as I try to pull away from him again.

“What the fuck is going on back here?” A deep voice booms from behind us, causing Travis to release his grip on me.

I turn towards the man walking our direction. He’s huge. Easily over six feet tall.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks me, not taking his eyes off Travis who has backed up a few feet behind me.

Coward.

My boss speaks up. “Everything is fine here. I was just firing an employee.” The tone of his voice giving away how nervous he is.

“Didn’t sound like you were firing her.” The stranger accuses then turns to me, his eyes go soft for a moment.

I realize I’m crying as I feel the tear run down my face.

“Sweetheart, go on inside.”

I look between him and my now ex-boss and decide not to question anything. I pull the door open and walk inside.

I walk back through to the front of the store, avoiding all the looks people are giving me. Mila has concern written all over her face but has a line of customers now. If it weren’t for that, she would be over to me in a second. I’m sure I look a mess as I walk out the doors of the store and out into the parking lot to my car.

As soon as I unlock it and get in I lose what little control I have left, letting the tears flow.

I had my boss proposition me in the back alley to keep my job, and now I’m unemployed. All I can think about now is how am I going to take care of Alba and myself now.

Lost in my thoughts and self-pity, I hear a tapping on my car window. I look up to see the stranger that helped me out in the alleyway. I roll the window down and he kneels to eye level. That’s when I get a much better look at him. He has light brown hair that’s peppered with gray and a thick bushy beard that I’m pretty sure hasn’t seen a razor in a long time.

But it’s his eyes that make me feel at ease. His dark blue eyes are kind, a stark contrast to the rough look that the rest of him has.

“Name’s Jake. I wanted to make sure you’re okay, sweetheart.”

I wipe my eyes and rub my hands down my pant legs. “I’m okay. Unemployed, but okay. Thanks for stepping in back there. I...” Sighing, I rein in my anxiety. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I really needed that job. I have a sister to care for.”

“You didn’t need a fucking job at the price he was asking, now did you?” Jake gruff out.

“No, I don’t.”

He looks at me a moment longer, then stands up and pulls something from his back pocket. He hands me a business card. Taking it from him, I look at it and realize it is the same card that Quinn the biker gave me this morning when he helped change my tire. KINGS CUSTOM BIKES.

I look up at him and notice he’s wearing a cut with a patch that reads PRESIDENT.

This is the second biker that has helped me out today.

“Listen, I’m kind of in need of front desk help at my shop. I’m not promising anything, but I’m willing to give you a chance. So if you can be here,” He points to the address on the card, “first thing Monday morning, then I’ll take you on and see how you do.”

I’m at a loss for words for a second before clearing the cloud from my brain.

“Yes! I’ll be there. Just tell me what time.”

“9:00 am.”

With that, he walks off towards the bakery next door.