Chapter 5
Ashley and Brian raced to their cars and were well on their way to Little Haiti. The rest of the crew wasn't too far behind them. They were racing each other obviously. Ashley and Brian were playing cat and mouse as they raced down the speedway. Ashley was following Brian in her Spyder.
"Come on, Bri." She said as she switched gears.
"All right, let's see what this thing can do." Said Brian. Ashley was switching gears. She lived for this. The speed. She almost lost control. She hasn't driven like this in awhile. But she regained control without a second thought.
"Why must I chase the cat?" she laughed. She pulled up next to Brian and gave him the finger. She then blew him a kiss and cut in front of him.
"Smart ass." Said Brian.
Ashley and Brian drove between two semi trucks. Luckily, the semis moved in closer which prevented any more cars to go through. Ashley turned around and laughed at Brian.
"Oh, yeah? You think you're the bomb, Ash?"
They kept driving for awhile. "Let's see if you still got it, Brian." She said as she looked behind her.
"All right, Ash, I got something for your ass." Brian pulled in front of her.
"What the hell is he doin?" she said to herself.
"Watch this." He did curved outward and pulled his emergency brake sending him backwards. He then proceeded to drive backwards down the freeway.
"Shit." She said. He beat her, again. He flicked her off, "Yea, Ash, how do you like them apples!"
"Show off!" she screamed.
"That's the Brian O'Connor school of driving right there baby."
"Crazy ass hooligan." She screamed
"Oh, shit!" He turned his car around just in time for the exit. Ashley was soon on his tail. She just laughed. Leave it to Brian. They took the exit to Little Haiti. They sped through the streets right next to each other. They made it to Little Haiti and broke through the gate. They were driving around lookin for the cars. All you could see were boats.
"Cars. Cars. Where are the cars?" Ashley said to herself.
"Stinkin boats. Where are the cars?" said Brian. "Come on I need the cars. Where are the cars at?"
Finally they pulled into the car lot and spotted the red Ferrari. They pulled their cars to a stop and got out. The car had to be locked so Ashley removed her black tank top. She had a sports bra underneath so it was okay. Brian just stared after her as she walked up to the car.' Damn.' She punched her hand through the window but the car was indeed unlocked. Brian opened it and got in. Nothing in the glove box.
"Look in the center. Look in the center." Brian opened up the center console and there was the package that they needed.
"Chi-ching! Now put your shirt back on."
"You know you want it." And oh how did Brian want it. She walked back to her car and put her tank top back on. Just then more cars showed up. It was Fonzie and Fabio, as Ashley liked to call them.
"Shit." Ashley laughed as they got out. "Sit on it, Fonzie." Just then, cops came in from the other direction.
"What the hell?" said Brian.
"What the hell they doin' here?" Ashley pulled out her gun that she was packin.
"Ash. No!" Ashley started shooting at the cops. She knew she wasn't shootin at them, but it scared them anyways. If she wanted to shoot them, she would have. Ashley smirked and got back in her car. They were on the road back to Verone's house. When they arrived, Verone was waiting outside. They got out and Brian took the package to Verone. Ashley sat on the hood of her car. She was starving. She hadn't eatin anything in two days, pretty much.
"Hey, man, you got somethin' to eat up in there? I'm hungry." Verone just smiled as Brian looked back at her. He told Monica to take them to the pool.
"Nice. Come on." They followed her back to the pool.
"Hmm."
"What you checking her out for?" Ashley was a little jealous. But he wasn't hers so it was fine. 'Was it?'
"Im not checkin her out." They were sat at the pool. Ashley was still starin at Brian.
"Yes you were."
"No I wasn't."
"I saw you checkin her Bri."
"Okay I was now shut up."
"You shut up. Don't tell me to shut up."
"Both of you shut up. Unbelievable." Monica sat down as did Brian and Ashley. Ashley was lookin over at Monica. 'Ugh! I hate this woman.'
"You sure are cozy in this big ol' mansion. Sleeping with the enemy." Brian just laughed at her. Verone came over and sat down.
"Nice Ferrari you got in the driveway." Said Brian. Leave it up to him to talk cars.
Verone just laughed. "I'm glad you like it." Ashley just glared at him.
"We did all that for a damn cigar?"
"No. You did that for a job. Do you really think that I would let somebody impound my car? The boat yards mine. Oh, by the way, you two owe me a gate. But I'll just take it off your cut."
Ashley just laughed. "Off our cut. I like that." She said as she looked over to Brian.
"Good."
"So what's this job you got for us anyway?" she asked.
"Come with me." They all got up and followed Verone as he began to discuss what they were supposed to do.
"The house has ears in it. I have something I want you to carry from North Beach to the Keys."
"What is it?" asked Brian.
"Just put in the car what I tell you to, and drive it to me and don't let anyone stop you, understand?"
"Yeah. Any chance of cop trouble?"
"No. I'm buying you a window of time, but it's not gonna be open very long. You make it, and I'll personally hand you 100 G's at the finish line."
"Make it 100 G's a piece, papi." Ashley said. Carter just laughed. He turned to face Ashley and Brian.
"I got an idea. Why don't you two join us at the club a little later tonight?"
"Yeah. Pearl at midnight?" said Monica.
"We'll get to know each other a little better."
"All right. Sounds good." Brian shook his hand and they both left.
"Same old Ash doin the same old stupid shit."
"Get off of me."
"What, runnin your mouth? Insultin people?"
"Think I'm gonna let somebody stare me down? I didn't let nobody stare me down in jail, Bri, think I'm gonna let it fly on a beach?"
"And you're packin!"
Ashley just stared at him. "Like you ain't?" silence. "Exactly."
"From here on our, I do the talkin'."
"Looks to me like you wanna do a little more than that."
"Oh, and what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're always getting in trouble over a female, Brian! I know how you are."
Brian didn't say anything. He just got in his car and took off.
They arrived at Tej's Garage where a party was being thrown. They got out of the cars and started walkin to the back.
"Man, Tej's garage is ridiculous. He's got the best of everything. Snap-on tools. All these lifts are brand-new. They're only maybe a couple months old. Hey, yo, Jimmy. What's up, man?"
"What up Bullet?"
That's Ash right there. When you get a second I want you to check out the Evo and the Spyder and make sure everything's copasetic."
"Evo? Where'd you get an Evo from?"
"Well, it's a long story."
"I got you, man."
"All right, thanks, Jimmy."
"Man, it's so hot and humid out here, I can't even wear any clothes."
"Yea. Tell me about it."
"Well, look at all this potential out here." A tall buff man walked by Ashley and eyed her. "Damn!" Brian just laughed and walked over to Tej.
"Hey Tej Parker? Ashley Johnson."
"Hey baby." He turned back to his game. " Come on baby…"
"Basically, he's the man to know in Miami. He's got his finger in absolutely everything. It's just the way it is. What's goin on Suki?"
"What's up baby?"
"How you doin?"
"I'm good. How you doin?"
"What's this? What's the latest?"
"It's a work in progress. It's not finished yet."
"Damn girl, that's good. You got talent." Tej won his bet and went to collect. Brian and Ashley went over to him to talk.
"Not too bad."
"Whoo!"
"Hey Tej, check it out, she's gonna be in town for a while. Is there anyway he could use that cot?"
Tej gave him a knowing look. He knew who Ashley was. Brian never shut up about her. " What's wrong with your place man?"
"No, I don't wanna stay with him. He got bad habits."
Tej and Brian just laughed. Brian knew she wouldn't stay with him. "Alright man, whatever man, show her around real quick a'ight? I'll be up there in a minute."
"Thanks." They walked up back to the front where their cars were.
"What's up Jimmy? So you ever seen anything like this before?" asked Brian.
"No. Both of them are wired up like I never seen before."
"What?" asked Ashley.
"Yeah, they got us wired with G.P.S. that's why Markham knew we were gonna be at that impound lot."
"Yo you the master mechanic why don't you just yank that shit up out of there then?"
"I'll try but this aint LoJack. The D.I.D. box, the engine management system, hell, the main harness, the G.P.S. is spidered into all of that."
"Hey tell me somethin', man. Do I even want to know where the Skyline is, dawg? Or where you been the past couple of days, or where the hell you got these rides from?"
"There hot." Said Suki.
"Yea, they hot. They wired so hot that whoever's trackin these things will know every time you don't where your seat belt." Brian just looked around. "All right, Jimmy, just see what you can do bro."
"I got you."
"Thanks man." They walked towards the street. Ashley was lookin at Brian. He knew something but wasn't telling her.
"Hey, Ash, check it out? You see that Cadillac across the street over there?" Ashley looked over to see dumb and dumber sittin and watchin them. She nodded.
"Yeah."
"Yeah, well, they've been on us ever since we left Verone's house." Brian just looked at Ashley and she just nodded. A plan forming in her head. She walked sneakily over to the Cadillac.
"Elian and Fidel!" She said something in spanish. "Hey man, I'll clean your windshield for you. Uno, tres, cuatro, "fourto," taco. Everything's copasetic homey. Kiss my ass putos." And with that she took a lighter and lit their car on fire. She laughed and ran over to Brian's car. As they drove off, she flicked them off. They arrived at the place where they would meet Bilkins and Markham.
"He's gonna blow our cover before we even get started." Said Ashley.
"Hey, Bilkins, can you tell me what went wrong?" asked Brian.
"That's what I wanna know."
"Show me your hands! Come on. Keep 'em up!" Ashley raised her hands while Dunn searched her.
"What's this about, man?" asked Ashley. "Watch your hands man!" she said to Dunn.
"Hey what's going on?" asked Brian obviously upset about having a gun pointed at Ashley.
"Hold this. You think you can shoot at me? I'm a goddamn federal agent!" screamed Markham.
"What are you talking about? Get your damn hands off me! Get him away from me! Just because you wear a badge doesn't mean you can come in and mess shit up! You're lucky I didn't shoot you!" she yelled as Bilkins held her back.
"Shut up Ash!" yelled Brian.
"Don't tell me to shut up Brian! You almost blew our cover old man!" yelled Ashley.
"You shouldn't have shown up like you did. What, you didn't know Verone was testing us?" said Brian.
"No. I thought you punks were running."
"Running!" yelled Ashley.
"That's great. That's real great. Oh, and if Ash wanted to shoot you, you wouldn't be here right know."
Ashley paced back and forth until she saw a bag of food sittin on the table. She was starved. She started eating it.
"Hey, that's mine!"
Ashley looked up at him. "So?" When everything was under control, they were finally able to discuss what was found out.
"So tell me what you know." Said Bilkins.
"Well, Ash and I will be making a run for Verone. I'm not sure when and where. But he did say he bought us a window. I'm assuming from the local cops."
"I can't talk to some of the guys at the Local P.D." said Dunn.
"No, no good. If Verone's got some of them on the payroll, then we can't let them know our operation."
"Exactly. In addition, Verone told us that he himself would be waiting at the drop."
"That's good news. If you're gonna be delivering drug money to him, we can get him for laundering."
"There's only one problem. Fuentes? Verone's tappin here." Said Ashley.
"Tappin her. Tappin her how?"
"That is crap." Said Markham.
"What you talking about man we know what we seen." Said Ashley.
"What do you think O'Connor? You think she's compromised? You should know." Said Markham.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Ashley.
"What your old love toy didn't tell you. He flipped on Bilkins in L.A. Gave his mark his car keys and let him disappear. That's why he's not a cop anymore." Ashley just looked at Brian. Why would he keep all of this from her? "So what do you think expert?"
"Man, I dunno." Said Brian with a death glare towards Markham.
"All right. We'll keep an eye on her."
"We're out of here." Brian and Ashley left. Once outside, Ashley couldn't help but ask.
"You let your man go huh?"
"Drop it. I don't wanna talk about it."
"Drop it hell. I wanna hear about this Bri."
"I said forget about it Ash."
"We got Fuentes in with Verone. Markham trying to blow our cover. And we got two wired cars that are no better than that damn ankle bracelet of mine. I'm a tell you Bri, you let your man Markham do that shit again in front of Verone, that's gonna be our ass."
"I know I know it's just getting thick real quick. We may need to come up with some kind of exit strategy."
"Exit strategy huh? I like the way that sounds what you got in mind?"
"I don't know. But we need two more cars." Brian started the car and they drove back to Tej's. Ashley decided to take a shower while Brian hooked up with Fabio and Fonzie for a race. Ashley got out of the shower and put on a pair of low cut flare jeans, a red t-shirt and her black boots. She left her hair down and went downstairs to see Brian already done. He had his Tej's garage work shirt on and a pair of jeans. He looked hot! They made their way to the meeting place along with Tej, Suki, and Jimmy. They waited until the cars pulled up. Out stepped the two men and their women.
"Fonzie and Fabio. Glad you could join us."
"No problem baby. We hear you wanna get rid of those cracker jack toys."
"No. Actually we just figured those cars you got deserved better drivers which is why were gonna take em off your hands."
"You know, why don't we settle this now?"
"Wait wait. Why don't we settle this on the blacktop, huh? Each car does it down and back, tag-team style, for slips."
"Loser walks home." Said Ashley.
"We came here to race."
"Well load em up then." They walked back to the cars while Brian took Ashley.
"Come on girl, let's get these cars. All right check it out, there's no way we gonna beat these guys straight up. That Hemi's putting out about 425, and that Yenko will snap a speed on a bout 5 seconds flat so, I mean we're gonna have to pull something out of our ass. Only thing I can think of is save the spray for the way back, the return trip."
Ashley and him did their little handshake that they only do. "Done deal."
"All right. Let's do this."
"I'm getting that orange one." She said with a smile on her face and a hint of flirtation. Brian just continued to stare after her when she got into her car. "You ain't ready Fabio."
The cars lined up waiting for Tej to give them go. Ashley and Fabio bantered with one another for a little bit. She looked over to Brian to see him nod his head. She nodded hers and gave him a wink. She prepared to race. Finally, Suki came out.
"Gotta smoke em. Gotta smoke em gotta smoke em." Ashley said to herself. Suki prepared them for the race.
"Ready and….go!" Both cars peeled off and raced down the road. The Hemi smoked her on the way down there, but on the way back, she caught up with the spray. It wasn't until the bastard pushed a sign into the road causing her slow down. When she finally came back to the starting line, Brian took off. She was pissed. They were waiting around for Brian and the Yenko to cross the finish line. Finally, Brian crossed with the Yenko not far behind.
"Two knew cars. That's all my man!" screamed Ashley. They got the keys to the cars and drove off. "Use them bus tokens partner!" screamed Ashley as they drove away with two knew cars. They made it back to the garage and put the cars into the garage. Ashley got out and jumped into Brian's arms.
"Woohoo! Good job Bri!" Brian swung her around and placed her back on the ground. He looked into her eyes and just stared. He started to lean in when Ashley pulled away.
"I better go get ready for the club ya know?" She wiggled out of his grasp and went into her room to get ready.
'Damn!' thought Brian. 'I messed things up big time.' He went into the boathouse and got ready for the club.