⤿ starter for the little nugget › @darklodge .
sits behind the wheel of his truck. engine a low, violent rumble that matches the sour friction of the whiskey still burning in the back of his throat. has spent the last hour at the bar nursing a temper that feels like a coiled rattlesnake in his gut, and all he wants is the heavy, desolate silence of his own acreage. the road ahead is choked by a plume of white, acrid smoke billowing from the trunk of a stalled vehicle. a sight that makes the muscles in his jaw tighten until the bone feels like it might snap. doesn't see a woman in distress or a person in need of a hand; only sees a jagged obstruction in the path of his own exhaustion. a tether holding him back from the sanctuary of his ranch.
kills the engine and steps out into the cool night air. boots crunching against the gravel with a heavy, rhythmic gravity that feels like a warning. ignores the frantic look on her face and the way she’s clutching her phone like a lifeline. gaze fixed instead on the hunk of metal bleeding steam onto his blacktop. “ i don't care how you move that car, sweetheart, but you’re on my time now, ” growls, his southern drawl thick and pissed. carrying the weight of a man who has long since run out of patience for the world’s inconveniences. steps closer until the heat from the dying engine rolls off the hood and brushes against his skin. pulse a steady, aggressive thrum against his ribs. “ either you push that heap into the ditch yourself, or i’m gonna run right over it and you along with it. ”
