Since I Don't Have You (Guns N' Roses - Duff McKagan)

Chapter Two

With my mechanic overalls, boots on and my canvas bag hung on my shoulders, I rode to work for my very first shift since moving back to Los Angeles. From what I had noticed when I had visited the auto shop previously during the week, Bobby wasn't spending as much time working as a mechanic, he seemed to have taken over the admin side as well, which seemed to calm him down from his anger spurts. Jason, who was the apprentice while I worked there the first time around and another guy were the main mechanics there now, I hadn't officially met the other guy yet, so I figured I would soon enough. I was just pleased to be working there again, as I loved it there.

Parking my Harley right outside of the shop, I made sure to keep it in gear and to lock my ignition. I didn't trust people, so there was no chance I would be leaving it unlocked and in neutral. Walking directly into the office, I spotted Bobby sitting behind the desk, already filling in paperwork.

"Morning Bobby." I greeted him with a friendly smile.

"Morning Shelia, you have good timing." He chuckled, turning around to the filing cabinet. Instead of digging into the cabinet, he snatched the piece of paper from on top of it, by the phone.

"Why's that?" I watch him turn back to me with the bit of paper in hand.

"You're on tow, here's the details of the car." He handed me the piece of paper as I stepped over to his desk. "The owner wants a ride back to town, so if you wouldn't mind bringing him back with you."

I needed to go out onto the Hollywood Freeway as someone in a 1972 Blue Ford Mustang had broken down in the emergency lane. The registration plates I needed to also keep an eye out for was 'R0S3662' and they were California plates. Well it wasn't going to be hard to spot the mustang, not when I was into old muscle cars.

"No worries." I nodded, walking out of the office and into the auto shop. That was where our lockers were located, as well as the tow truck keys. Placing my back pack and motorcycle helmet into the reserved locker for me, I snatched the tow truck keys from their hanger and headed out to the side of the building. Making sure I had everything before I left, I got into the truck and started it up. I wasn't very confident in driving the truck, but it wasn't rocket science.

Throughout the trip out to the freeway, I found myself listening to Metallica's album, Master of Puppets that was already stuck in the cassette player. I didn't mind, Metallica weren't a bad band and some of their songs were decent. By the time that I had reached the broken car down on the freeway, I was about six songs in and it was just finishing. Orion was the next song that began to play when I had pulled up in front of the car and shut off my engine. Leaving the keys in the ignition, I jumped out of the truck and began to walk over to the mustang. It was a good looking car and whoever owned it, kept it in near perfect condition. Not being able to see who was sitting in the driver's seat, due to the tinted windows, I knocked on the driver's door window and walked back to my tow truck to get busy.

"Thanks for coming out here." I heard the man speak as I connected the winch to his mustang. "Pretty fuckin' warm for this early in the day, ain't it?" The man comments as I walked back over to the truck. I hadn't taken a moment to look at the man yet, but something about his voice sounded familiar.

"I think it's nice, compared to my home town it's a little cool." I replied, pulling the lever for the truck to automatically start winching to car. "But in saying that, this is my second time 'round here in Los Angeles and I haven't been here for a bit over 2 years."

Turning around to face the man, I noticed him wearing a grey long sleeved top that had 'Cathouse' written on it in big letters. The man had strawberry blonde hair that was tied back with a hair band, a pair of almost black sunglasses on and he had quite a lot of facial hair. Even looking at him had me feeling like I knew the guy, but it was hard to tell since I couldn't see his eyes.