There was a loud echoing ring that rung through a large, spacious mechanic's shop as a voice penetrated loudly over the noise, "Max! MAX! Get the damn phone, will ya?!" growled Tess as she wiggled and squirmed from underneath the car she was working to fix as she tried to get to the phone herself. There was a gas leak under the body of a blue Cadillac as she wiped off some of the grease and oil onto her dirty shop overalls. She wore a faded green shirt with a few holes on the sleeves underneath the overalls as well as a pair of steel-toe boots that were also smeared with grease and oil. It wasn't that she wore the boots out of fear that she might drop something dangerously onto her feet; the reason was more based on the fact that the boots provided her feet protection when she used them as a non-lethal weapon when she was mad. She worked day shifts at a local and popular mechanic shop owned by one of her father's long-time business partner and friend, Eddie Penton. The mechanic shop was a medium sized warehouse that had a three-story office built to the right of the building that housed Eddie's business and company work in car dealing. She stood up quickly looking around for where the phone was on the wall to her left as the phone rang its last and silence engulfed the shop. Scowling and swearing under her breath, she glanced around for the tall, slightly heavy built of a dirty-blond man named Max. She found the target of her anger leaning on one of the entrance doors into the shop with his back turned to Tess as he was flirting way with someone out front. She stalked over to them with grim determination. As she got closer, the more she could hear the conversation they were having and it only made her angrier.

"…so, like, what time would you like me to pick you up, hun?" Max said in a sweet-talking, cool voice as he flirted up a storm with the brown curly haired hooter girl who had her boots in a somewhat strangely hold as they were forced into smaller, more revealing clothes. The lady was a C-cup or a D-cup as well as an oblivious blond in the way she smiled at him and giggled as she flaunted her boobs and hips underneath her Shorty-McShort shorts-skirt. She flashed her pearly white teeth at him, until she noticed Tess coming towards them and it started to disappear. Max, sensing who was approaching, rolled his eyes and said aloud, "What is it now-"

He never got a chance to finish as the sound of a steel-toe boot and flesh connecting sounded throughout the entire room and everyone instinctively flinched. Max stared cross-eyed in front of himself as he crumpled, slowly but indefinitely, to the ground and started making a high-pitched whimper of pain and agony. "THAT's," Tess snarled angrily as she planted her foot down on the ground again, "what you get for ignoring an important business call! Next time I catch you pulling a stunt like this; I'll cripple and smash your twig and berries into processed hamburger meat!" Without pausing in her anger, she glared up at the bimbo in front of her and growled, "BEAT IT." The girl ran without a second thought as she headed up town and around one of the buildings; disappearing for good. Several of the guys in the room shook their heads at the cocky attitude that Max had displayed towards Tess. Most of the guys and gals who worked in the shop knew two fundamental rules about the place: Firstly, as much as Eddie was the owner of both buildings, he was no mechanic and he rarely ever stepped inside the shop to give orders; and secondly, even though Eddie was the owner of the entire business, Tess was firmly in charge of taking care of the chaos that went on inside the auto shop. And Eddie preferred to keep it that way. Tess spun around smoothly as she stalked away towards the phone inside a small, sound-proof office lounge room with a couple leather seats, a couch, and a 23" plasma T.V. She closed the door shut and walked over to the phone, punched in a few commands, and a phone ID popped up as she stared hard at the number, recognizing it instantly as her Aunt Marge's number. Although the number wasn't a customer's, she didn't think twice with regret to nailing Max in his privates, seeing that lately he had taken to being aloof and lazy while on-duty at the shop and she wasn't going to tolerate any idle hands in a continuously busy shop.

She hit the "Send" button on the phone and instantly redialed the number back. A couple of beeps passed before someone on the other line answered, "Hello?"

"Aunt Marge, it's me, Tess. You called a few minutes ago?" Tess asked.

"Yeah, I was calling to see if Adrian had stopped by to visit you." Marge asked; a tone of concern in her voice.

"No, Grandma Karen had him over at her house before he left a while ago." Tess replied; careful not to mention too much of what happened at the house over the phone.

"Oh really? Did he leave anything while he was over at Karen's house, like his cellphone maybe? He said he was going to be swinging by my place and dropping off something he wouldn't say over the phone and I haven't seen or heard from him yet…" Marge said with worry in her tone. Tess blinked a couple times as a feeling of edginess crept into her mind. Adrian was known for many things, but being late wasn't one of them. Come rain, hail, sun, tornado, or radiation, he'd be somewhere on time, as if his life depended upon it. So, for him to be late to see Marge, that meant several things at once and none of them were good.

"What time did he say he was going to be at your place, Marge?" Tess asked warily.

"Four thirty PM. Sharp."

Tess glanced at her watch. It was five twenty-three PM. Yep. That pretty much meant that all of Tess' internal alarms were blaring out and flashing as she turned from being edgy into mildly paranoid. "Marge," Tess said as she tried to think calmly, "I want you to do me a favor. Call around and see if Adrian had made any other plans to stop by and visit any of ours other relatives and/or his friends in the area. If not, call the cops and put him on the missing persons' list. And if they blow you off, tell whoever's on the phone that Tess from Penton's Auto-shop told you to call in. I've got to go now. I'll see about heading over to Rachel's house after I get done with taking care of work and such here at the shop, alright? And remember: stay calm. A panic attack should only happen after we've done our best to contact and find out where he is or where's he gone."

"Alright, if you say so. I'll talk with you later, Tess." Marge replied quietly.

"Talk with you later…" Tess mimicked. She pressed the end call button and placed it back on the coffee table in front of her. She stood for a moment, her mind unmoving as she tried to think about everything that was happening all at once. First a visit from her creepy cousin, then the box and the weird message he had left behind, and now he was missing, all-in-the-same-day? She glanced out to the shop and bit her lower lip. She had to get rid of the box, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If what her cousin had said was true, then the sooner it was out of her life, the better off she would be. The safer she would be, in fact… She shook her head, hoping to clear her paranoid mind that was screaming for her to leave right now, with the box, and bury it somewhere hidden and unreachable. No, she thought, I need to think about this clearly. After Rachel's house, I'll head home, and… wait a moment. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her wallet, diving in to find a small piece of paper that was hiding behind her driver's license. Pulling it out, she unfolded the small piece of paper and looked down at the three letters in bold on the paper: C - O - D. Smiling with a grand idea already scheming in her head, she re-folded the paper back together and slipped it into wallet, grinning. Tonight was one of the drag races up near the mountains and she knew the best place to put that box before tonight's big race.

Without a further ado, she marched right back into the shop again and headed straight for Dan, who was the second-in-charge mechanic of the shop. "Hey Dan! I'm gonna have to leave early tonight. Something's going on with one of my family relatives who, we think, has gone missing so I need to see if I can go track him down." Tess said, half-truthfully. Dan looked up from the 1984 Cadillac he was inspecting for a leak in the engine.

"Sorry to hear. And yeah, I'll take over the shop from here." Dan replied as he went back to his inspection.

"Thanks Dan, you're the man." Tess smiled sadly, dramatically playing with her emotions to seem distressed about the loss of Adrian. She turned and walked towards her truck but not before turning back around again and shouted, "I owe you one!" Dan grunted and labored over the Caddie without bothering to look up. She turned one-eighty and marched over to her truck, popped right in, and let the engine roar to life as she exited the parking lot as she headed down to Rachel's house; Adrian's older sister.

X X X

By the time Tess had finished visiting and talking with Rachel at her house, it was already seven-o-eight PM and she was in a rush to get home. Tonight's race started at nine and she couldn't afford to be late to another race. She cut through a couple back-roads to get to her place, which happily enough was somewhat near the edge of town, in a small rural area that didn't have a lot of people nearby so that she and her friends could go out without getting caught by the cops.

"Ugh," she said as she sniffed her arms, "I need a shower before I leave tonight." She turned left at one of the last intersections before entering the highway and smiled at the sight of her shared house. It was an old three-story firehouse that dated back to the 1980's with two giant glass and metal fire-truck doors that reached a good twenty feet height and a total thirty-two feet from one edge to another on the left side of the house. It was remodeled after her best friends and roomies, Dylan and Gloria, bought the abandoned place five years ago with some help of Gloria's parents from overseas. All three of them had gone to middle school and high school together, with cars and racing being the one common love child that they spoke about often and enjoyed immensely. Tess pulled into the driveway on the right-hand side as she put the truck in park and hopped out. Slamming the door shut, she didn't bother to lock up her truck, knowing that it would be unlikely for anyone to be able to steal anything of value from an old rusty looking truck. There was a small door to the right of the right garage door as she walked up to it and punched in her five-digit code and walked in. The garage was extremely large and spacious, with dimensions of the entire room being forty-seven feet high with a length of thirty-three feet and a width of twenty-nine feet. On the right side of the building was a two story house built into the garage that could be accessed from both the top story and the bottom story with ease, though you had to take the stairs built into the side of the wall of the garage to get to the second story of the house as well as the third story floor that was built above the first two floors of the garage room. The third story room was the "man-cave" where everyone got to hang out on the computers and game equipment that decorated the room. It was built heavily and structurally safe to the point that it would take an earthquake of an eight-point-five magnitude to make the third floor come crashing down on the first floor of the garage, not to mention it was also built to be sound proof.

Four cars were lined up side-by-side in one corner of the garage and in the other were three pairs of motorcycles; every last vehicle being a custom made and alternate design to its original, done up by both Tess and Dylan. The garage or the multi-purpose room (MPC Room for short) was designed as everyone's special place of downtime to hang out and spend some time with everyone to help make new drag racing cars. Though drag racing was illegal, none of them cared because it was a favorite past-time hobby and it mostly kept Tess, the race car tester, and her mind busy.

"Yo, whadup girlie? How was work at the boy-toy shop?" Hollered a voice from above at her. She glanced up to see her guy friend Dylan leaning over the second floor stair rail as he smiled and gave a mock salute in her direction. He was African-American with blond dreads decorated in large, colorful beads and hair ties. He was easily six-foot-seven with a heavy football build from his long-over high years as line-backer and four-years of Marine Corp Boot camp training. He would have gone on for longer if it hadn't been to the fact that he had gained foot tendinitis and had to be medically discharged for a couple good reasons.

"Not much, Dyl. Had to leave a mark on Max today and had an incident with a missing family member. How about you?" Tess said back.

"So I heard from Dean at the shop earlier. He even sent me photos too…" Dylan grinned some more. "So… Who's gone missing this time and were you involved? Or was it Karen?"

Tess rolled her eyes as she walked over to the cars on the right, just past the star rail. "Cousin Adrian. I saw him earlier but now he's gone missing and we can't find him at all." Tess replied coolly. Her cousin may have changed to be a nicer man, but that didn't mean she had to give him an instant, overnight pardon from the last twenty years of his thievery and treachery to his own family members.

"I can tell how mentally beat-up you are about this." Dylan sarcastically as he descended the stairs to meet up with her next to the cars.

"So," she said as he stood next to her, "did you finally finish putting in the new sound system for BlackLights?" BlackLights was the name of Gloria's favorite car, which was a highly decorated 2000 Mitsuki Eclipse GT. It was a well invested car, with money, time, and blood used to make it as beautiful as it was. From the customized paints and trims, to shiny spinning rims, to the color of the rims and the leather seat interior as well as the heavily electronic radio system and sub-woofers that had been installed in; it was one heck of beauty to behold on the inside and the outside, but that wasn't the reason it was called BlackLights. At a first glance, the body of the car was painted milk-white with dark-silver and black flames around the sides of the car, but sadly, what most people could see (especially in places with lots of light) that the entire car was coated in a full-body tribal tattoo art painted in glow-in-the-dark paint. Not to mention, that under a UV light, anyone could see that the car had another tribal tattoo underneath the first one as well. Hence, the car's name.

"Yep. All six subs are installed and sounding epically wicked!" Dylan reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He grabbed one of the phobs on it and tapped in a code, pointing it at BlackLights. In an instant, the car came to life as the sound of popular hip-hop and R&B music blasted its way into the garage, causing Tess to wince at first before she recognized that sound and grinned. It was "Hips don't lie" by Shakira, one of Tess' all-time favorites from when she was a little girl. Without so much as caring, she began to sway her hips and dance to the beat of the sound as Dylan grinned happily at the sight of a pleased Tess. It was about to hit the chorus when Tess heard the sound of Gloria's voice from overheard:

"Oi! Shut that damn thing off! I'm on the phone you guys!" Dylan immediately clicked the phob and the car, as quickly as it came to life, powered off with the dying music.

"Sorry, G. Tess just wanted to take a look at the new sound system in BlackLights." Dylan shouted back, not seeing Gloria but knowing that she had left the door upstairs open. Tess grinned from ear to ear as she leaned against the door of BlackLights, staring at Dylan who was shaking his head. Dylan and Gloria were gearing up for a visit to Gloria's parent's house in Rome, Italy and the person Gloria was most likely taking to was the Airport personnel in Las Vegas.

"Well, next time be more considerate that someone might be on the phone…" Gloria replied back as the door upstairs slammed shut. By the way and the sound the door had been slammed, Tess could easily identify that Gloria wasn't really mad at them, just slightly irritated.

"So, Dyl-pill. Tonight's the night for the race over on the highway mountain. Which car can I use in the race tonight?" Tess asked as she watched Dylan for an answer. He reached up and scratched his head, pondering in thought.

"Mm… None of them, I'm afraid. I still have to get them all ready for the show next week and I can't constantly worry about which car might come home with a bashed up hood or punctured tires… Why don't you take one of the bikes?" He said as he gestured over to the three motorcycles in the other corner. She bit her lower lip with a pang of worry in her eyes. No way in hell was she going to a drag race on a motorcycle. That was like a stunt driver taunting death in the face like a naked hooker on the side of the street. Ten to one, she had a higher chance of destroying the bike, or dying, or both, all in one shot.

"Dylan," a voice said above them as both of them glanced up, "we only need two cars for the show in Reno. Let Tess borrow a car for the night. Besides, Tess has a higher chance of injuring herself and/or dying if she rides a motorcycle to a drag race with more vehicle drivers than motorcycle drivers. Also, you of all people should know very well how nasty those drag racers get when it comes to competition…" Gloria said as she descended the last of the stairs and walked over to the both of them. Dylan frowned slightly as Tess smirked.

"See? You want me dead, Dylan?" Tess teased as she played her favorite game of guilt tripping on him. Gloria caught the undertones in Tess' voice and winked at her.

"She might or get badly injured, Dyl, because you're hogging all the cars to yourself, when we only need two of them not three." Gloria hit Dylan hard with that last comment and he finally gave in.

"Alright! Alright, Tess you can borrow BlackLights or Queen of Hearts, but not Millennium or R-n-R, okay?" Dylan sighed as he glanced over at Tess. She innocently smiled, keeping a straight face as she walked over to BlackLights and gave him a meaningful look.

"Thanks Dyl-pill~!" Tess said sweetly as she looked back at the car as she carefully inspected it to see if there were any problems on the outside that she needed to know about before taking it out for a drive. "I'll take Blackie here out for a spin and test her speakers. Don't worry," she flashed a serious face at him, "I promise not to get her seriously scratched up if I can avoid it. Scout's honor." Dylan rolled his eyes and smiled, while Gloria wrapped her hands around his waist as she beamed a mischievous grin at Tess. Eying Gloria suspiciously, Tess raised an eyebrow to the ceiling. "Alright, spill it G, what's going on…?"

Dylan looked down at Gloria as she smiled sweetly at Tess. "So, I finalized that tickets and everything so Dylan and I are a-go for our trip to my parent's place. You'll have the place to yourself for a couple months, but don't worry. We've already set it up so that the rent and such will be paid for and taken care while we're away." Gloria said happily.

Tess crossed her arms in front of her as she leaned against the car door behind her. "Go on." Tess said with a smile, knowing that there was more to the tale then what Gloria was leading on. Dylan blushed slightly and smiled at Gloria.

"Well, if everything goes accordingly, Gloria and I are planning on getting married to each other over in Italy in a few months. So, in a sense, you might be home-alone for about three or four months…" Dylan said as he glanced meaningfully at Tess and then back at Gloria. Tess smirked and chuckled lightly.

"Swee~t! No more contesting for the remote control with Dylan for three months. Wow, I don't know what to do with all that extra excitement…" Tess said thoughtfully; planning and thinking about all the things she could do without her roommates around. Not to say that she didn't love being with them, but sometimes even she needed to take a break from her besties and their romantic "downtime".

Gloria rolled her eyes to the heavens above while Dylan just grinned. "Don't get your hopes up. Remember, this is supposed to be more of a two month trip rather than a three month trip and it will only be a three month trip if we decide to get married in Rome. First, we need to check it out after we get settled in at Gloria's parent's house." Dylan commented, giving his love a sideways glance.

"Whatever you say honey…" Gloria replied smoothly. Tess smile smugly as she took the phob in Dylan's hand and aimed it at one of the two large garage doors as she walked over to her truck.

"Where are you going now, Tess? You just got here, girl!" Dylan shouted after her. She smiled as she popped the truck door open, grabbed the box, and hauled it out of the vehicle as she slammed the door shut with her other hand; tucking it underneath her arm. "And what's in the box?"

"I dunno. Eddie asked me to do a run over to a dealership on my way over to tonight's race, since he trusts me not to muck up an important job." Tess said smoothly as she transferred the box into BlackLights and shut the door. Dylan's eyebrows raised a fraction but he seemed to buy it. Gloria, however, was a little more suspicious.

"How come it's so big? What's inside?" Gloria questioned innocently. Tess shrugged as she stared at her friend.

"Like I said, I dunno. He didn't tell me what was inside, he just asked me to deliver it. Though, if it was my guess, it's most likely a bunch of car-owning licenses that Eddie wants to see about fixing up and selling. I hear he's been in the market looking for a new business partner so he can expand his shop and business out into L.A. or something." Tess commented back. "Though, personally I'm just doing my job and I don't mind helping out Eddie when it comes to minor, on-the-way-to-a-drag-race deliveries." Tess kept up her best poker face she had while she turned and walked up the stairs to the second floor living quarters. "Hope you guys don't mind, but, I need to take a shower before tonight's race." She said loudly as she opened the door and closed it shut as she headed off to her room and personal bathroom shower. She shrugged off her dirty jeans and t-shirt before going completely nude and hopping right into a cold, soothing shower after a ninety-four degree day. She groaned pleasurably under the water as she tidied herself up in the shower. Fifteen minutes later, she was out of her room and heading down the stairs wearing a blue spaghetti strap tank top under a white with red and black tribal dragons design, button up shirt. She wore her light, but sturdy cut up blue jeans with rips and tears that went all the way down to her shins. She dawned on her M.J. baseball cap, a pair of large golden hooped earrings, and her father's and her grandfather's dog tags from when they served in the military. As she touched the garage floor, she made her way quickly over to BlackLights while yelling out, "Alright guys! I'm heading out! I'll see yal' a bit later. Wish me luck!"

"Drive safely!" Tess heard Gloria yell back from up above. A couple seconds later, she was in the car with the windows down and backing up to exit the garage when Dylan came into view in her mirrors and she put the car in idle as he walked over to the driver's side window.

"Hey, Tess…?" Dylan mentioned as he leaned against the frame of the door with an arm as he glanced around for a moment or two.

"What's up, D?" she asked.

Dylan was silent for a few moments before he finally spoke up in a low, serious tone, "Word on the street is that the 'European' is back on the roads again and has been seen at some of the races…"

Tess blinked a couple times as she processed the information. She remembered hearing about the "European", as everyone around here seemed to call him or her. Back several months ago, an extremely dangerous incident occurred on the road during a drag racing event, not once but twice. The first incident happened when some idiot driver decided to trash on another driver's car, the European's car, and as a result, the same idiot got bumped off the road onto the mountain side, but thankfully the guy survived but not before explaining that he had pissed off this European car and that it was the same car that had bumped him off the road. The second one involved a huge speed-way shooting at another drag race between a yellow and black mustang and the said European car and driver again. Not to mention, nobody knew who he or she was because they always showed up out of the blue and always in a red Ashton Martin. Ever since then, the idiot driver and some of his buddies had been looking for revenge against the European car and driver by asking around for him or her, while also heavily looking around at every single race in the entire county. Tess sighed and looked seriously at Dylan. "And you think that he or she is going to show up tonight, don't you?"

"I don't think they're going to show up, but my gut is telling me that something might go down tonight involving that European…" he said in return. She nodded in understanding, knowing that Dylan's "gut feelings" were as good as a blood hound's nose.

"Alright, then. I'll be extremely careful about driving tonight." She said as she put the car in reverse again. Dylan moved away as she backed out of the garage to the driveway and waved goodbye to him. He waved back and smiled as he watched Tess back out in the street and head off towards the mountain highway race; music blasting out of the speakers as she disappeared down the street.

X X X