"Not the abandoned kind. Lights, parts inventory, lifts that get inspected, mechanics who get paid. A friend of mine runs it. She's as likely to throw me out as she is to let me use a tool without asking."
Leo glanced up. "She?" Sully grinned. "Rosa Marquez. Forty-eight years old, smartest businessperson I've ever met, and the only mechanic in three counties who can tell me I'm being stupid without making me want to argue."
Leo tried not to smile. "That sounds useful." "It is. You'll like her if you're smart enough to listen."
Rosa Marquez owned an independent repair shop on the outskirts of Phoenix, a large, well-run place with painted concrete floors and separate areas for motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Her relationship with the regional riders went back twenty years, but the shop itself was not a clubhouse and operated under its own licenses, insurance, and rules. She had two certified mechanics, an apprentice training program, and a reputation for returning work she considered unsafe regardless of how much the customer wanted to pay. Sully had asked her to meet Leo after hearing the boy explain the difference between starting an engine and making it safe.
The visit had to wait for approval and a transportation plan. When Leo finally arrived, he stepped from Nora's car wearing the clean sweatshirt Ox had brought and carrying his father's tools in a cloth roll. The building smelled of engine oil, heated metal, and a clean citrus solvent, and the sound of compressed air drifted from the far bay. For one dizzying instant, Leo was ten again in Reno, following his father between workbenches while the radio played. He stopped in the doorway, unable to take another step.
Rosa noticed without staring. She was a compact woman with dark hair threaded with silver and a pencil tucked above one ear. "You Leo?" she asked. He nodded.
"Sully says you rescued his Road King from an entire apocalypse with a piece of scrap." Leo looked embarrassed. "I told him it needed a real repair." Rosa smiled.
"Good. He told me that part too. Come inside."
She led him to the Road King, now parked on a lift in a bay near the back of the shop. The damaged components had been replaced and the engine properly inspected, but Rosa had kept the removed pieces on a shelf because Sully had asked her to show Leo what the accident had actually done. Leo studied them in silence. He could see where his emergency work had held long enough to matter and where it would have failed if Sully had mistaken luck for a permanent repair. He felt embarrassed by the roughness of it.
"You did what the situation required without pretending you could do more," Rosa said, correctly reading his expression. "That's a useful instinct. It is not a substitute for training, and it never will be, but it's a good place to start." She looked at his blue-handled tools.