Good morning again... I'm happy to see everyone's liking Christian and a strong Lissa.
As I've told some of you, this story was looking to be about 13 chapters... then 15... but now it's looking closer to 17 or 18...
This probably won't come as that much of a surprise to some, but if I end up doing more chapters than I can post daily before the voting deadline,
then I'll just do a massive dump! :-) Will that be a problem?
Anyway, on with the show...

Chapter 11

"So, what exactly did you do to his computer? And in 'my' speak please…"

"I uploaded a program so that I can remotely gain access to it anytime I want and he won't even know I'm there... I knew I wouldn't have time to go looking through the whole computer for things to mess with, so that was the best option."

Rose caught the slight smile that Lissa tried to hide. "What was that smile for?"

"Nothing." Lissa said a little too quickly.

"Yeah right, spill!"

Lissa let out a sigh, knowing she couldn't keep it in any longer. "I may or may not have had a little look around while he was in the shower."

"And…."

After only a few seconds, Lissa blurted out everything in her excitement. "I found a file, a file with my name on it… He had photos, lots of photos… And I know that to some, that's kinda stalkerish, but they go right back to when we were young. He also had… letters; letters that he'd written but obviously never sent to me. Rose… he's liked me for as long as I've liked him; he just always thought that I was out of his class and wouldn't want anything to do with him, that his parent's reputations were too bad… I sort of thought the same thing, that he wouldn't want me because I came from money, that he would hold my parents views against me… We've wasted so much time, Rose…"

Rose could only smile. She'd never seen her friend so flustered over a guy before and she was happy that she finally knew why Lissa never connected with anyone else… she was pining for Chris!

"Well then, we'd best get this job finished so we can both get on with our lives. Where are the cars and when do we leave to go get them?" Rose said getting down to business.

"Right!" Lissa said grinning like a fool. "Right… Well, there's a Hemi about two hours away from here that I can get to fairly easily and the closest Stang is about the same distance away but in the opposite direction… some rich guy's new toy."

The last two cars were a '71 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible; a car that was almost as rare as hen's teeth as Dimitri once said and the other was a car that almost had Rose salivating more than a naked Dimitri… a GT 500 Mustang. The movie 'Gone in 60 Seconds' was Rose's all-time favourite just because of 'Eleanor'… In the movie, she was Nicolas Cage's unicorn, but to Rose, Eleanor was the Holy Grail… something she wanted so very badly but knew she'd never get. This car was one of the reasons why she accepted the job so easily… Out of all the cars they'd been hired to acquire, the Stang was the one Rose coveted the most, even if she only had it in her possession for a matter of hours.

"That's fine… are you sure you can get in and out easily enough with the Hemi?" Rose asked. Even though the girls had been doing this for years now, this would be the first car that Lissa will have personally boosted completely by herself and Rose could tell she was equal parts nervous and excited.

"Yeah, I'm all good. I'll need a while to upload the things you'll need to your PDA; I don't want to miss anything and not be there to help. But after that, we should be good to go."

"So what exactly are you going to do to Chris's computer?"

"Well, I had a quick peek into his computer this morning, as I've already said, and unfortunately he already knows where the two cars that we're going after are, he could choose another Mustang, but they're further away, so I doubt he'd target those and as you know, Hemi's are few and far between… The only thing I can really do now is throw up roadblocks, which I have a few in mind. But, he's not stupid; I'll only get a few roadblocks in before he twigs onto the fact that someone's screwing with him."

"Okay, well… don't worry too much, just do what you have to do so that we get to the cars first, okay?"

"I will." The girls looked at each other and smiled.

Bad!

"How far away are the cars?" Dimitri asked.

"Two hours from here, give or take… Which one are you going after?" Christian asked as his fingers flew over the computer keys.

"The Mustang." Adrian answered, smiling at Dimitri. His friend was almost pulling off the 'disinterested' look... almost. "It'll be the one Rose goes after."

"Really…?" Chris asked looking between his two partners. "Then who will they get to go after the Hemi?"

"There's only the two of them Chris," Dimitri said raising his eyebrow, "…who do you think it'll be?"

"But she's never… Oh, they want to beat us, don't they?" He said with a smile.

"Yup, but we're gonna get there first, right?"

"Oh yeah…" Chris smiled as he pulled up the files where all the info on the last two cars was stored, but he smile soon started to fall… "What the hell…?" he mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Dimitri asked. He could see the confusion on his friends face and at this stage of the game; it was a look he didn't like to see. "Christian!"

"Sorry, um… some of the info isn't here. I know I put it in this file…" His voice tapered off as he concentrated; going through files where he thought he may have mistakenly put it. After five minutes of looking, he was starting to get angry.

"We don't have time for this Chris, just think of what's missing and go… find it again like you did last time."

"Are you kidding me? It's not that simple Dimitri. It's going to take time, research… It'll be faster if I just look for the missing stuff than to do… that!" he said waving his hands towards his friend.

"And if after looking for said file… you still can't find it, then we'll be even further behind. Just get the bloody information so we can leave." Dimitri growled. He couldn't help but think back to the night before, at the teasing Rose gave him over her getting both of the last two cars. There was no way he would live it down with the other guys if he only came away with one of the five they'd been hired to boost; plus, the guys wouldn't be the only ones to never let him live it down… Rose wouldn't either and that just wouldn't do! Not after everything that happened between him and Rose three months before.

After an hour of legitimate business, Dimitri went to find Christian, he wanted to know how far away things were as he needed to organise transport for the cars, there was no way the Mustang could drive on the road and not be noticed, let alone the Hemi… no, they'd have to be trucked as soon as possible. By the look on Christian's face once he found him, Dimitri didn't need to ask if he'd found the missing information so he just walked back to his office.

That afternoon and with still no word from Christian, Dimitri looked at the clock and knew that they wouldn't be going anywhere that night so he opened his desk draw, pulled out his cell phone and fired off a quick message to Rose.

Yours or mine?

Now that he had her back he wasn't about to give her time to rethink things. It had taken all his will to let her go and not to carry her off to his apartment that morning but he wanted to get things moving on the last two cars. He was under no illusion that Rose was doing the very same thing and he had to admit, it made the thrill of the boost all that more exciting.

Rose and Lissa were still busy planning when Rose's phone started to vibrate in the rear pocket of her jeans. She smiled when she read the message.

"I gather that's a message from Dimitri?" Lissa said smiling.

"Maybe…" Rose said. She quickly typed out a reply while she continued to talk. "… You'll have the apartment to yourself tonight babe, unless of course you pull a rabbit out of your hat and we have to leave tonight."

"Well, that won't happen." Lissa said with a snort. "I know I'm good, but I'm not that good babe." She had a long night ahead of her. Organising entry and exit points, finding codes and duplicate keys and getting the trucks to their destinations, all in two different locations where but a few of the things she had to accomplish, all while keeping Christian confused and at bay…

All this had to happen before they could even attempt to go after the last two cars, so she needed privacy. In a way, getting to the Hemi would be more difficult than the Stingray. Only eleven Hemi convertibles were made in 1971, and only seven of them were sold in the US, one of those seven is still unaccounted for and soon it would be two. She had a lot to organise considering they were going to split up for the first time and she needed to be sure that everything was in place.

Dimitri's phone chimed with an incoming text… just as Adrian walked into his office. He smiled as the one word came upon the screen… Yours.

"If you plan on keeping that smile," Said Adrian, "…don't go near Chris. He thinks someone's hacked his computer."

Hacked? Dimitri thought to himself.

;-) Our favourite Russian God is thinking... This chapter was longer than I thought... hehehe

See you all again tomorrow! Sandy