Ride Steady(34)

He dropped them in my palm and continued talking, “New tires. New tranny. New plugs. New shocks. New exhaust. Oil change. Oh, and new wipers. Boys filled the tank and detailed it too. You’re all good.”

I blinked at him. “Tranny?”

“Transmission.”

Transmission?

What on earth?

Those cost a fortune.

“Transmission?” I whispered.

“Yeah.”

“I… uh, asked about an estimate—”

He interrupted me, “On Ride.”

“Sorry?”

“No charge. Ride is covering it. Means Chaos is covering it. You don’t owe anything.”

How?

Why?

What?

He looked behind him, then to me. “Later,” he said, and without waiting for my farewell, or one of the many other things I could have said, he jogged down the open air walk that ran outside our apartment building.

I watched and was about to call out to him when my phone rang. He was already at the stairs at the L to the building and I had a phone ringing so I closed the door, locked it, and hurried to my phone on the kitchen bar.

The display said Unknown Caller.

I took it anyway.

“Hello?”

“May I speak with Carissa Teodoro?” a businesslike woman’s voice asked.

“This is she.”

“Right, hold for Ms. Howard, please.”

“Sorry? Who?” I asked.

“Ms. Howard. Of Gustafson, Howard and Pierce. Hold please.”

Oh no. I didn’t like this.

Did Aaron find a new way to make trouble for me?

Gustafson, Howard and Pierce sounded like an attorney firm. I didn’t need any more of those in my life, except the one selling off Aaron’s false tokens of love was going to buy me.

“Ms. Teodoro,” a more businesslike woman’s voice said.

“Uh… yes,” I replied.

“Right. Hello. I’m Angelique Howard, but my clients call me Angie.”

“Well, okay,” I got in before she kept speaking.

“I received a call from Mr. Allen this morning so I’m introducing myself before I send you back to my assistant. She’ll take the details of your last attorney so we can contact them to get your files. When we get them, I’ll go over what’s been happening with your former husband and construct a strategy.”

I didn’t know what was going on so I started with the easiest part first.

“Mr. Allen?” I asked.

“Yes. Mr. Allen. Kane Allen. Operating manager of Ride Auto Stores and Custom Design. We’re on retainer with them, and my specialty is family law. So I’ll be taking care of you.”

I didn’t speak because I couldn’t.

She didn’t need me to. She wasn’t finished.

“Once I see what’s going on, I’ll ask Leanne to contact you and we’ll set a meeting so we can meet face to face and talk about what we’re going to do going forward. Are you all right with that?”

No. I wasn’t. Mostly because I had no idea what was happening.

“I, well, I have to admit, Ms. Howard—” I began.

“Angie.”

“Right, Angie,” I said quickly. “I have to admit, I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Mr. Allen didn’t speak to you?’

He didn’t. I wasn’t even sure I knew who he was.

“Not really,” I replied.

“Okay, then, Chaos is utilizing their retainer agreement with us to look into what Mr. Neiland has been doing to you. I’ll say from the little I’ve heard that it sounds suspicious. To be honest, though I think this is something that won’t surprise you, Neiland and Belkirk have been around so long, they started the good ole boys network in Denver and they enjoy their status as founding members. Which, I’ll share, I find annoying. Thus, I’m going to enjoy digging into this one.”

“I—”

“So, to end, it’s all in good hands. Just tell Leanne where we can get your files and I’ll start.”

“Well—”

She spoke over me. “Nice meeting you, even on the phone. Have a good day.”

I heard nothing until I heard the first voice come back and say, “Hello again, Ms. Teodoro. I’m ready to take down the information about your old firm.”