Boost or Bust
Part 2
PG-13
Serenity Sea
(Serenity_Sea@yahoo.com)
Author's notes:
See chapter 1 for the main notes.
Um, I was waiting in the Honolulu airport and got bored. So that's why this chapter is out now, instead of much later. I've got a sketchy plot for this—I know how I want it to end, I know who I want to be with who, and I know who the villain is. It's just a matter of getting there.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gone in 60 Seconds, someone else does. *sobs quietly* It's okay. I'll be okay.
PAIRINGS: Sway/Memphis… eventually. Until then, hang on tight, because with Jared around, it's going to be a bumpy ride. (Think Eleanor at the end of the movie.)
***
With a sigh, the door to her office creaked open, and she placed her keys on the thick mahogany end table to her immediate right. With a glance around the tastefully decorated studio/office, she had to grin. With all the art, expensive furnishings, and thick carpeting, one would think that they'd become civilized. And legal.
But no. They hadn't.
There was a buzz from the phone on her desk and she leaned over to hit the 'speaker' button. "Just a minute."
She took that 'minute' to pull off her duster, shake out her hair, and grab a cup of freshly brewed Starbucks blend from her coffeemaker.
"Okay. What's up?"
"Sway, Jared said you wanted to meet with me this morning?"
She nearly spit out her coffee. It was Memphis. She was expecting the call to be from Jared. And yes, she did want to meet with Memphis, and talk about Kip—and she'd even told him that—but she hadn't expected him to go and tell Memphis for her.
"Um, yeah. I did."
"Well, I have a briefing with Mirror and Sphinx… they have to go train another rookie… but after that, I should be able to fit you in."
There was once a time when there was no fitting in, she was just top priority when it came to him and the cars. She was practically a partner, for god's sakes. "That's fine." She clicked off, for some reason feeling disgusted with him and herself. Just exactly how had they come this far? Once, they would tell each other everything, and now, she found out Kip was leaving after Kip did.
Someone knocked at her door and she turned in her swivel chair. "Come in," she called to the person.
Tumbler strolled in. "Hey, Sway."
"Well knock me over with a feather," she mumbled, surprised that he was there, "Hey Tumbler." And the morning got weirder. Tumbler was new school—he didn't usually say much to the old school unless he needed something. "What can I do for you?"
The physically impressive man closed the door behind him and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. He sighed. Loudly. "Kip's leaving in four hours. Four hours, Sway, and then I don't see him for how long?"
"So go with him."
"You think I should?"
What was this, freakin' therapy? "Yes, why wouldn't you?"
He shrugged his powerful shoulders. "I dunno. Don't I have something to do with cars and boosting?"
Ah. So that was what he wanted to know.
"Tumbler, I'm gonna be straight with you here, because I've never lied to you before. I don't know what Kip told you, but it's bad. If he does anything regarding a boost or a job, his account gets severed. Anything that has to do with it… questionable. But, if you decide to go with him, you can't boost. Because if something happened to you… he'd no doubt jump in and get you out of it. He's a Raines. That's what they do. If you're willing to make that sacrifice, that'd be major. Because he could use someone to keep him out of trouble. I don't know where he's decided to go yet, but—"
Another knock on the door interrupted her.
"What?" She yelled at the door.
Kip walked in, carrying a box of stuff. "England." Tumbler glanced at Sway. "I've decided I'm going to England."
Sway had wisely refrained from drinking any coffee after he'd walked in. A repeat of nearly spewing her coffee everywhere had merit, but it would take a while to clean up. "May I ask what the hell possessed you to choose England?"
"It's far away." A pause, and he put the box down. Then he sat in the other chair in front of her desk. "I figured I could go to Australia, but if I want distance, and I do, then England is that way to go."
She nodded. "Memphis is paying for your plane ticket?"
"Yeah. One way. I think he wants me to stay where ever I go."
Tumbler groaned. "Dude, the chicks over there are…"
"Are what, Tumbler? Are you even going? No. So why do you care?" He got up angrily and slammed the door. Car keys that were hanging on display racks shook.
Sway coughed. "Well, he's not normally like that. And I'm sure he didn't mean to snap at you. But if your older brother told you that you had 24 hours to get out of Long Beach, what would you do?"
He looked at her, amazed. "I'm not mad at him. I know how he gets when he's angry, this is normal. I'm just hoping I'm making the right decision."
"And that is?"
"To go with him."
Sway smiled and brought her mug of coffee up to her lips.
He got up and picked up the box Kip had left by mistake. "Because if those chicks over there are not what we expect, I'm going to be very disappointed."
This time, she did spit out her coffee.
***
It was the very first time she had actually been anxious for a meeting with Memphis. Sure, there were times when she was anxious for the 'meeting' after the meeting, but other than that… nope. Nothin' doing.
There was the sound of his and Mirror's laughter, and then the door opened. Sphinx, tall man that he was, came out first and managed a smile for her. Mirror Man waltzed out and kissed her hand. And Memphis, smiling broader than he had in a long time, was sitting at his desk, patiently waiting for her.
"Sway." She took that as her cue, stepping into the office and closing the door. "What brings you to my office?"
She sighed and sank into a leather chair. "It's about Kip."
He groaned and threw his hands up in the air. "I had a feeling you were going to do this. Dammit, Sway, this is one thing you need stay out of! This is a family matter and—I can't believe he even told you."
"Tumbler wants to go with him." She ignored what he said.
"What? No. No way, absolutely not. If Tumbler goes, then Mirror, Toby, and Freb are gonna wanna go. We can't lose all of them in one fell swoop. They're not the rookies anymore; they train the rookies. Losing one of them would be like losing Donny, or Otto—if he was still in this business."
She but her lip and looked out the window behind him. "You're being completely unreasonable."
Memphis stood up. "I'm be—I'm being completely unreasonable! He's the one that wants to go to England!"
Sway finally stood up, looking at him. "He's only going there because he doesn't want to be tempted!" She cried. "All he ever wanted to do was make you proud! Now, he's going along with your wishes—as moronic as they are—and is going as far away as possible so that he doesn't have to even think about cars if he doesn't want to. You're asking the impossible, Memphis! This kid has grown up, living, eating, drinking, and sleeping cars, and now you want him to stop, cold turkey! It doesn't work like that!"
He cocked his head to the side. "It doesn't, huh Sway? Well how does it work? Enlighten me a bit. Does it work when he gets gunned down by one of Calitri's lackeys? Does it work when he hits the wall going 145 trying to out-run them? God! I had them coming after me when Calitri was alive—I can't imagine the connections he was now that he's dead!"
She gave him a long, hard look. "What's gotten you so scared?" She asked softly.
"What are you talking about?"
"Ultimately, nothing could shake your strength in the company's ability to protect our employees. Something's gotten you scared. What is it? What's happened that I don't know about?"
Slowly, as if he was debating whether or not to tell her, he reached into the hidden drawer under his desk and withdrew a letter.
RaInEs. GiVe Us ThE kId AnD No OnE GeTs HuRt.
Her face went pale. "When did you get this?"
"Last month."
"Last month?! And you didn't tell me?!"
Memphis shrugged. "You were busy training Blaze."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's bull. Blaze completed his training six months ago."
"Not that kind of training, Sway."
The implications of his statement sunk in. "I don't believe you. I honestly don't believe you. You are… a pig."
For a second, it looked like he flinched, but the calm demeanor was smoothly in place and he blinked. "I'm sorry you feel that way."
"And I'm sorry you want to alienate the little family you've got left." She got up and slammed the door behind her.
Memphis sat tiredly in his chair. "I don't want to alienate you or Kip, Sway. But with this," he pulled out three more letters, each bearing the more or less the same message on them, "and you with Blaze, I don't know what I have left."
***
"AGH! Those Raines men are going to be the death of me!" She ground the heels of her hands into her eyes, and leaned on them with a 'thunk' on her desk. Someone came up behind her and started to massage her neck.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"You're welcome," Jared said, "but I think we need to talk about Memphis and Kip. If anyone causes the death of you, I want it to be me, not them." Her back went rigid. "Sway, sweetheart, relax. I'm just kidding."
"I'm sorry. It's just that he gets me SO mad sometimes, I can't even think straight. He's putting me in the middle again. He used to do this when we were together the first time. He said he was getting out of the business; he was going straight—and he wanted me to come. To give it up for Kip. So I did. Not right away, but I did. And now, he wants Kip to go straight." She exhaled the breath she'd been holding. "Which one am I supposed to side with now?"
"Maybe you're not supposed to side with either of them."
Sway snorted. "Right. That could happen." She craned her neck to look at him before he righted it straight again. "Memphis has been getting these notes about Kip, you know, and that's why he's sending him away."
If Jared was surprised, he didn't show it. "There's more than one? I heard rumors that Donny had seen one, but…" He trailed off.
"Oh, he only showed me one, but there were at least three more. He might even have more at home, I don't know. But there's one thing I do know, and that's how to read Memphis Raines. I could write a book on him, I know him so well."
***
Kip sat in the plush leather seat, waiting for takeoff. It would be just like Memphis to miss this. At least Sway had already said goodbye. He'd promised he was going to be here—and they weren't going to hold the flight off too much longer. Was it too much to ask of him?
A stewardess walked by him and picked up the empty Corona bottle. Tumbler walked in front of him and settled in his seat with a thud.
And still, he waited. For a sign. For anything.
***
"Aww, come on, Eleanor! Of all the days to break down!" Memphis Raines yelled at his number one flame.
Yes, it was true. The lovely Eleanor had been in the shop for some repairs and Memphis—being Memphis—wanted to take her out for a spin to get his mind off things. So he had, and now he was paying for it, because she was broken down in the middle of nowhere.
And of course, he only had one option.
He reached into his black duster pocket and pulled out his cell phone, hitting the autodial for Sway; still number one.
"Sway? It's Memphis. Eleanor broke down. Yeah, she's fine. Yes, I know I'm about to miss Kip leave. That's why I'm—okay. Okay. Sure, 10 minutes is fine. See ya then."
***
"Of all the days, Memphis. Of all the days for me to pull your ass out of trouble. It just had to be today, didn't it. Couldn't just stay in the office like a good big brother, had to go driving around when you're not even in the right state of mind to drive. Smooth. Very smooth."
Nadine roared into the alleyway where Memphis was standing—alone. Sway leaned her head out the window, "Where's Eleanor?"
He met the car halfway and climbed in. "Donny called for a tow service. I pushed her behind that dumpster over there, and he's going to come pick her up later. Bye, Eleanor."
She rolled her eyes. To get sentimental over a car… what was she saying? She loved this car. Let him have his moment of silence. She was going to have to average 100 just to see the plane leave the tarmac, anyway.
"Let's just go, okay?"
Memphis nodded, staring bleakly out the window. He knew they weren't going to make it.
***
The stewardess came over to Kip's seat and kneeled, holding the armrest for support. "Mr. Raines, we're going to have to take off now. I'm sorry."
He waved a hand at her, going back into his thoughts. "Sure. Whatever."
A small red car pulled into the airport lot and shot straight for the plane. The boarding ramp went up. The pilot maneuvered the plane until it was ready for takeoff on the runway.
Tumbler saw the car, and he saw a man jump out. "Kip, look!"
Figuring it was just another airport crew—Tumbler didn't get out much—he looked away. "I don't wanna see it, man."
"No, I really think you should see this, Kip."
"I don't wanna see it."
Tumbler grabbed his head and forced it to look out the window. "LOOK." He commanded.
So Kip did. And all he saw was Sway, sitting on her car, waving goodbye. "Bye," he mumbled disappointed.
***
Sway watched Memphis as he ran after the plane. She didn't try and stop him. Kip hadn't seen him. It was pretty much a waste. But it made him feel useful, so what the hell.
He walked back over to her dejectedly. "He never saw me. Not once. I think Tumbler might have, but…"
Sighing, she slid off the roof of the car and stood in front of him. It took a while, but she managed to get her arms around his neck. "Shhh… it's okay. He knows."
He squeezed her back. "I just hope he does."
Sway prayed that he did.
***
Hope that's good enough for now. Can't wait until part 3! Don't forget to review!
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