The boys have a certain... charm, don't they! :-)
Now, I have one thing to say... I HAD to stop it there or else the chapter would've been huge!
Sorry... but you know you won't have to wait too long... :-)

Chapter 14

Lissa downloaded the pre-recorded footage from outside their building just before they left their apartment and then set it to play just before Rose punched in the code for the underground carpark gate to open. "Go." Lissa said through the earpiece.

"Good luck babe," Rose said back to her. "And remember, don't get caught, even the Hemi isn't worth that alright?"

"Yes Mother!" She said full of sarcasm. Once they were a good distance away from their building, Lissa reached over to her laptop on the seat beside her and turned off the feed. She had no idea how long it would take for Chris to realise what she'd done, but she couldn't help smile at the thought of how mad she thought he'd be.

A little over two hours later, Rose arrived at the predetermined spot to meet the truck driver, Ambrose. He was one man that was as loyal to Rose as one could get without wanting sex. Ambrose was the same age as Rose but as camp as a row of tents… The neighbourhood they grew up in was not the best place for a gay male and Ambrose learned quickly how to defend himself. He was absolutely gorgeous and built like a tank; his body, built from hours of weight training often made both males and females weak in the knees on a regular basis. He found the solitude of truck driving exactly what he needed to escape his past.

"Hey gorgeous girl," Ambrose greeted with a kiss. "How long do you think it'll be tonight?"

"Um… Not as long as it takes for anyone to catch on… how's that?"

"That'll do." Ambrose said chuckling. He loved Rose's fire and that she'd never treated him any different than anyone else, she accepted him right from the start. She even tried to change his mind about liking girls one time but he was pretty sure it was only to catch the eye of Dimitri. "Okay, here's the duplicate key you'll need; you're lucky this car was only recently at the auction house otherwise you'd be punching the ignition out."

"One day, I'm going to find out who your 'go to' guy is and go to him myself…"

"Whatever Hathaway, you know damn well you don't have the right plumbing for my 'go to' guy." Rose smiled, knowing exactly what he meant.

"Oh, I don't know, I could have had you if I really wanted to." Rose said referring to the time she finally made Dimitri see her as a woman instead of a kid. With that Ambrose let out a laugh that had him throwing his head back.

"You keep telling yourself that sweetie." He kissed the top of her head and pushed her back towards her car, his shoulders still shaking with his barely contained amusement. "Now, get your car in so we can be gone from here."

Rose quickly drove her car up into the rear of the truck and then joined Ambrose up front. Ten minutes later, they'd scouted pickup points and then he dropped her off a quarter mile away from the target house, "See you soon sweetie." He said with a wink. It was further than she would have liked, but they couldn't risk anyone seeing such a large truck anywhere near the house.

Rose knew that getting to the garages wouldn't be that much of a problem, getting across the treeless acreage would be. Without Lissa hooking into the home's security system like she did when they took the Stingray, Rose didn't have the luxury of knowing where everyone was this time and Ambrose was too far away and in a truck, so she had to rely on her wits more than normal.

She already knew that 'Eleanor' was kept in one of the five large garages that were at the rear of the house and by the plans each garage was large enough to house up to twenty cars easily. Security around them was intense because of the monetary value contained within. The guy who owned them all was a serious collector of rare and expensive cars and Eleanor was one car that he just had to have.

When Lissa did the research on the cars, she found that the Mustang was owned by some bigwig in the financial market and even thought the house wasn't crawling with security; there were a few 'Men in Black' as Rose liked to call them, on the payroll. The house had a near full complement of staff too, ranging from maids to cooks to gardeners but they weren't of any worry to Rose.

Sitting in a darkened area on the outskirts of the property's perimeter, Rose took in all that she could before pulling out her PDA. She went to the menu that would give her a rundown of all the cameras installed and quickly checked to make sure the list was still current and nothing new had been installed; then she hooked into the house's security system. Rose was rather pleased with herself and how quickly she'd picked up all this techno babble that Lissa had shown her. She was under no illusions that what she knew was only the tip of the iceberg compared to what Lissa knew, but she was still proud of herself.

The property was unfenced, but that didn't make this any easier to get into. The problem was that the estate was huge and with no vegetation around, it made getting to the house undetected almost impossible. Rose had to be smart and quick; she also knew that the likelihood of being seen was high and if that was the case, she'd need to do something about it.

Once inside the system, Rose turned off the security cameras, well she hoped she did. She couldn't see properly from the position where she was hidden, if she had in fact accomplished her task. So she waited a couple of minutes to see if anyone came out to check the cameras before moving tentatively out from her spot. She crouched into position and looked around one last time for any signs of movement before taking off at her top speed.

As Rose came within twenty feet of the house, her heart was pumping furiously, partly because of the effort of pushing her legs to the max across the vast expanse of manicured lawn, but also because of the man that she saw rounding the corner of house... She knew it was a high probability she'd run into someone so she quickly altered course; he hadn't seen her yet and she knew her best chance of taking him down was by a surprise attack.

The guard stopped and looked up from his phone at the sound of Rose's feet hitting the ground. He didn't do anything at first; too taken aback at what he was seeing… A woman, running… a woman he didn't know! By the time his brain kicked in, it was too late. Rose was flying through the air, feet first. The force of her feet ploughing into the guard's chest, threw him off his feet. Rose didn't waste any time once she found her balance on top of his chest. The force of him landing back first onto the concrete pathway had left him dazed and winded so when her fists made instant contact with the side of the guard's head, he had no chance at stopping the storm of fists raining down on him.

It took more hits than she would have liked, but the instant Rose felt the guard's body relax into unconsciousness underneath her, she stopped hitting. "Fuck…" she hissed out as she shook her hands. The soft, female skin over her quickly swelling fists was already red, split and bleeding but the adrenaline flooding her body was keeping the pain at bay. She needed to be quick; she looked around but couldn't see anywhere she could hide the man, her only option was to take him with her. "So much for fucking quick Rose…" she mumbled to herself.

She grabbed one of the man's arms and pulled… He was heavy fucker. She could see she was a good twenty to thirty feet away from the first garage so she put every bit of energy she had left into moving the lump of meat on the ground. By the time she finally made it to the door of the garage, her legs felt like jelly and her chest was burning as she tried to pull in precious air. Rose quickly glanced around the area before she pressed her ear up against the door, listening for any movement on the other side. Hearing nothing but her still frantic breaths, she slowly opened the door.

Don't kill me... *** Ducks and runs away giggling***

See ya's all tomorrow! :-)