"What was that?"
Emily clutched her seat belt tightly as the adrenaline still flowed through her like a white water rapids current.
She was panting a little bit as well.
Leo took his hand off the shifter and pressed it around her knee.
"Car jackers," he said quietly.
"I won't let anyone touch you. Those poor boys were likely to die tonight had they tried to open the door."
She relaxed a little bit as he rubbed her knee assuringly.
They sat in silence for awhile, Emily falling asleep, easing into rest from the sensation of the moving car. Leo drove along, eyes forward, occasionally looking over at her beautiful face while she slept.
Close to 10:00, only 60 miles away from the resort he had booked, the engine began to make a rattling sound.
"No...," Leo whispered.
"Absolutely not..."
"What is it?"
Emily's sleepy voice sounded in the quiet, aside from the engine.
"My engine is rattling....I think this is the end of the line for this car."
"Oh no," She said, very clearly awake now.
Sure enough, a loud BANG from the engine bay, and the car simply rolled.
"Well fuck," Leo growled.
"We are an hour away. And it decides to break down...."
He slammed his fist against the wheel as he pulled it off to the shoulder. He flipped on his emergency lightbar in the back window.
The amber and white lights lit up the highway like daylight.
He shifted it into park and attempted to start the motor.
Dead...
Nothing.
Just all the lights on the dashboard flashing, lighting up like a control board at a missile base.
He dropped his head onto the steering wheel to think.
The realization that his Black Beauty had finally served her term finally set in.
His frustration with the situation nearly caused him to break his hardened character.
He picked up his phone and started looking for tow services.
After about 30 minutes of them sitting there, Emily's anxiety rising, a tow truck finally came and got them.
Now they were sitting in the tow truck awkwardly with the driver, middle and passenger seats taken, on the way to the resort.
"It's okay," Emily said.
"We are going to have fun, right?"
"Yes baby," Leo nodded.
Deep down he was panicking.
He'd need to get a new car and soon.
At least he had the bike. But that was all the way back home.
He sighed.
"Of all the days, it just had to be tonight."