The Art of Stealing Cars by Kara Tezla

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Acceleracers Characters. although I wish I did

Summary: The Teku and the Metal Maniacs go to LA to race, but what happens when their cars start disappearing?

Author's Note: Cool. This is actually got me going so much that I work on it during school when I can! Haha. So unusual.

Chapter Four: The Art of Blackmail

"Well, Mark, you have hands, answer it!" Kara said, starting towards the brunette that was standing by the phone.

Mark rolled his eyes and answered it. "Hello?" By then, Kara had come close enough to hear the buzz of a voice on the other end. "Yeah, hold on," Mark drawled, looking past Kara at Alex.

"It's for you,"

Alex brushed past his sister, grabbing the black, cordless phone out of Mark's hand. "Yes?" The buzzing voice resumed.

"Who is it?" Kara said excitedly, leaning towards Alex.

He gave her a dirty look and turned away.

"Alex," She complained, pushing herself around the table and running to face her brother. "I thought we had an agreement!" Kara hissed.

Alex glared at her, his eyes narrowing down to tiny slits. "It's not who you think it is!" He hissed back, covering the speaker with his hand. A puzzled look crossed Kara's face.

"Who is it then?" She asked, her arms crossing her chest.

The buzz could heard as silence filled the space between the siblings. Alex turned and spoke in a low monotone past his hand that had lifted from speaker, then he hung up.

Turning back to his sister, he grinned slyly. "I don't think it's any of your business." He walked around Mark's desk and out into the car garage.

Kara followed him, a blank look crossing her face. "I feel the need to pry information out of you... but maybe I'll just go have a chat with Adrianna for a minute, considering you don't want to talk to me." She grinned inwardly. Adrianna Anderson was one Mark's siblings, James Anderson was the other. Together they were almost identical triplets. Adrianna was Alex's current girlfriend, but Kara had many stories to make his life harder, and even his relationship much harder. She loved to watch a look of despair crawl across Alex's face when she told certain stories. Absolutely loved it.

"Wait!" Alex objected. "You do not need to blackmail me! That's just wrong, Kara."

Her lips stretched into a small smile. "But it works, doesn't it?"

Alex knew that he had been beat. There was no way that he was going to let Kara tell Adrianna things that were supposed to be kept secret, things people shouldn't know... for their own safety.

"Yes. It does," He admitted, before giving Kara a deadly look. "I hate you,"

"Yeah, whatever, you always say that," Kara grinned. "And you are such a bad liar."

Alex rolled his eyes, she was right.

VVVVVVVVVV

"So how much do you know about these guys, Kurt?" Asked Nolo. All the Teku were now outside the Cafe, standing around their cars.

"Actually," Objected Kurt. "This might come as a surprise to you, but their leader is a girl, age 18."

"Cool." Said Shirako. His headphones had slipped back down to his neck again.

"Really? What does she look like?" Asked Vert, immediately interested.

"I don't exactly know, she doesn't come out in public often. It's usually one of her flunkies, if you can even call them that. They are all experts in something to do with racing or car-stealing."

"You never answered my question. How do you know all of this?" Asked Nolo again.

Kurt sighed. "Okay," He stared off into space for a second, thinking. "You all know that Mar--I mean, Wylde was in jail, right?" Everyone nodded. "Well, he was involved with a gang right before he was put in jail. Right before Tone's race, they sabotaged everything; it was a chain reaction. They made sure that when Tork bumped Tone, which they knew that he would, that Tone would crash."

He paused. "Then, they left Ma--Wylde to take all the blame. Of course, I didn't know all this until I visited Wylde in jail. He said that there was a guy named Luke Tezla, and it was all his idea."

"Luke? I thought you said their leader was a girl," Said Karma, who was now sitting on the curb.

"She is, but Luke was her older brother. He died a year and a half ago in a shooting with two bullets to the chest. I heard that her and her twin brother barely got out of there alive."

"Twin brother? What? I am getting seriously confused now." Said Vert, puzzled.

"Yeah," Said Nolo. "But there is one thing that would really help us if you knew..."

"What's that?"

"Do you know where their hideout is?"

VVVVVVVVVV

"I wonder when they're gonna call." Said Mark curiously, fingering a string that hung off his shirt.

Alex and Kara were staring off into space, not hearing what Mark had just said. The rest of the gang was gone for the night, out clubbing or something.

The rumbling of a car could faintly be heard, then shouts. Kara looked towards the entrance; nothing. She absently went back to staring at the wall, until a voice jolted her out of it.

"Who's gonna call?" All three of them jerked their heads to the once empty entrance. There stood three figures, outlined by the headlights of a car.

YES! A cliffhanger! What now? laughs Sorry this chapter was a little short, I have tons of homework and I need to get it done. Now to my reviewers!

Nikki Wylde: Piano? Exam? Both aren't all that good in my book... probably because I don't play the piano! I'm looking forward to your update.

KawaiiYamato: To answer your question: No, you didn't read too quickly, and, no, you didn't miss it. I never explained how Kurt knew all of it, but that was kind of a 'hint' of what's to come. Your pretty good catching it, I didn't really think anyone would. But hopefully this chapter helped.

Wings: Thanks! Yay! I think I can put her in the next chapter. And of COURSE she can have Shirako! I wouldn't have it any other way. You can go ahead and have me read that chapter if you're not sure, but I just want you to update!