Thank you guys, I'm glad you liked the first chapter... Here's the next one! :-)

Chapter 2

Not five minutes after Stan had left his office, Dimitri had called in his 'partners' to discuss the boost that he'd just accepted. Five cars, fifty grand a piece... Normally, those numbers would have him salivating and chomping at the bit, but at the moment, all Dimitri was chomping at were his own teeth...

He knew exactly how good Rose was at lifting cars and as Stan had said, she was as good as he was... not that he would ever admit to it. He knew that at the very most, he'd only get four of the five cars but that was a long shot. But he also wouldn't be happy with any less than three... Any less and that would mean that Rose had beaten him and that was something that didn't sit well with Dimitri at all.

Ten minutes later, he watched as his partners walked into his office and sat in the chairs opposite him. Christian Ozera and Adrian Ivashkov were the other members of the triad of friends, who also happened to be distant cousins.

Christian was the technical wizard of the three. He could wield any computer, whether it be on a desk, in the sky or under the hood of a car and that was a skill that came in very handy in their businesses, both the legal and illegal ones. But with his messy black hair and ice blue eyes, he was always catching the eyes of women and that really wasn't something he was comfortable with. He was a one woman man who hadn't met the right woman yet.

Adrian was the charmer of the group; he also funded the start-up of their auto restoration & mechanical shop. It was legitimate but it also served as a good front for the other side of their business. It didn't take long for their reputations, good and bad to precede them. His parents were killed in a car crash four months after his eighteenth birthday, leaving their sizable fortune to their only son; a son who also knew how to schmooze and party with the best of them. With his fortune, he was easily able to infiltrate that certain level of society that the men preyed upon the most... after all; it was no fun to steal a rust bucket off someone who could barely afford to run it.

He was also the polar opposite of his cousin where the ladies were concerned too. He loved women... all of them and as often as he could.

Dimitri was the muscle... the intimidator and also the head of the group. His name, his Russian accent and his size often had people shaking in their boots, too afraid that he belonged to the Russian mafia or KGB to stand up to him. But those who didn't shake in his mere presence knew not to take him on because of his other talent... Dimitri was strong, fast and mean; one of the best fighters around and considering his size, that was saying something. A lot of the time, the people on the wrong side of his fury didn't even see him coming... but they certainly felt it. While no celibate monk himself, Dimitri wasn't into the hordes of women like Adrian.

All three men grew up in the same neighbourhood, went to the same school and all had abusive fathers. They were as close as friends could be and they knew they had each other's backs no matter what. So, one night, in their mid-teens, they started jacking cars in order to piss off their parents... They soon realised that they had a real talent for it too, they never got caught. And so the 'Russian Triad', as they were known, was born...

"We need a plan of action in forty-eight hours." Dimitri said as he passed an unmarked folder containing the information on the cars their new client wanted, over the desk. "I want to get going on this as soon as possible."

The two men quickly flicked through the papers, each silent in their own thoughts. All three men knew that lifting these particular cars would be probably their hardest and most dangerous boost yet, but instead of dampening their spirits, it only enflamed them.

"We'll also have company." Dimitri said between gritted teeth.

"Oh really?" Adrian said with a smirk. "And who, pray tell, will we be stomping on?"

Dimitri returned his smirk as Rose's face flashed through his mind and waited for his friends to catch on. He knew it wouldn't take them long; they both were walking hard-ons for the girls in question. Adrian was first to catch on.

"NO..." he said hopefully. "Tell me it's who I hope it is..."

"The girls?" Christian asked, eyes darting between his two friends. Dimitri just nodded, knowing that the stakes had just got higher. "Alrighty then...! Have you picked out the one you want first or are we going to go on the research?"

"You know which one the girls are going to go after first." Adrian said; knowing exactly which one his friend wanted to go after... With a price tag of a cool $M5.5 when last sold at auction, it was the most expensive and would be the most difficult to lift. After being in this business for as long as they have been, they all knew once owners got wind that 'rare cars' were being jacked, security would tighten... They all knew which one of the cars had to be first...

"The Cobra..." they all said at once.

Oooow... Let the games begin! :-)