It was early into 2024, Leo had moved from one company to another due to illegitimate business running by the company owner.
Before he could potentially get involved in a serious case that had nothing to do with him, he moved to a new company that was true to their mission and paid higher.
Spring had come along and Leo wanted a motorcycle. It would be his first.
"That would be cool," Emily said as he brought it up to her.
"But I don't want you dying on it."
Leo chuckled as he scoured the web on his phone looking at pictures of different bikes.
Of course, Harley bikes called out to him. Cruisers were just his thing.
Those sport bikes....nah. He could never.
And so, he went out to Clarksville, to the Harley-Davidson store, and bought a bike.
A gorgious blacked out 2024 Soft tail Streetbob for nothing down. Thanks to a good credt score.
He soon had to go and pull his car out of the shop a few towns over. Reason being that it was her birthday and he wanted to bring her on a special trip.
Universal Orlando. He had already booked a reservation at a beautiful hotel and resort.
They made their way to the shop via Uber.
Right off the rip, Leo knew there was something wrong. When he attempted to start it, the battery was dead.
"Thats strange," he commented.
"I drove here just fine. Battery is practically brand new. Only a few months old...what the fuck did these guys do?"
He went and questioned the guys that had worked on it and they shrugged before jumping it for him with a charger box.
Keep in mind these men were all hispanic.
"Will it make it through Florida and back?"
"Si! Yah it drive across the country like new!" The guy told him.
Leo wanted reassurance...but he let himself drop his usual ability to read people....
He drove home and when they pulled into the driveway, he shut it down.
He and Emily packed their things, ready and excited together about the trip they were about to take.
Well when they got back downstairs and went to jump in and start it, it refused.
Dead.
No power.
Now Leo was seething thanks to being lied to.
So he grabbed his backpack, took the battery out of the car and stuffed it in.
He rushed to the auto parts store and bought a new battery, exchanging the old one.
That new battery dug into his back with every bump he rode over. When he finally got back to the house, he hurriedly installed it so that he and Emily could hit the highway....
Hours of driving and sharing music with each other, Leo shifting gears and cruising along...
Everything was great.
After the sun had gone down they pulled into a gas station and Leo went in to pay for fuel.
He was also aware of the luxury SUV with the tinted windows that had been following them for the past 20 miles or so.
Even though the tint was quite good at hiding the occupants, he could still see the masked men inside.
He reached for his concealed holster and clicked the safety into the off position.
He stepped back outside and began to refuel the car. After about five minutes, it was full.
So far nothing crazy. The SUV turned out to be a BMW X3. Blacked out.
He wasnt going to stick around to find anything out.
He got in and locked the doors.
But when he went to start the car, the security light turned on.
His key had been reprogrammed.
A stream of cusses left his lips.
Luckily he already knew how to fix it.
Holding down the panic and the lock button apparently reconnected his fob.
Well as the car rumbled to a start, thats when the men all got out as if on queue.
Leo jammed the shifter into gear and they screamed out of the lot as the men tried to approach their doors.
After giving the tires a proper enough burning, they took off in a cloud of smoke and into the dark.
They lost the men once they had jumped onto the highway and wove through the traffic.