AN: A few chapters ago I said the story was going to move into that really larger than life set of scenarios soon? Remember? Ok, well, this chapter sort of marks the start of that. But it's all in good fun.
To the reviewer who wondered what day it is…The days of week one sort of blend together. It's Friday, in this chapter. I might have gained a day in there somewhere, or lost one. I guess the point is that I lost track of how many sleeps vs. how many days in a week there are :D. Let's just pretend now it's Friday of week one and pretend too that my whole melding of days concept worked out better than I even hoped, ok:D
It's funny too. I like Mia. I always did. I feel bad for her because I know so many guys like V, and when they get something in their heads it's like a pittbull with a bone. They're not giving up until they get their way. And he's her bros best friend so he's not going anywhere. And she lives with Dom, so neither is she. She can't get away from him, and he's so doggedly determined to have her. I understand where she's coming from. I tried to write her as a good person, who just makes mistakes. Who's gotten used to a certain level of attention to make her feel good about herself when she has a shitty day or whatever. I never intended to write her so that people wouldn't like her. But so many people who read this story comment on how much they would love to see Temp take her into the ground, LOL. It'd hardly be fair to put miss girlie girl up against Temp. :D
On with the show, thanks for the reviews. Anything you don't want to say in a review, email to me. My addie is in my profile.
The Funeral of a Good Girl
By – TempestRaces
Chapter Forty-One – Of Falling and Shady Requests
When they arrived at the store, Jesse had her park around the back. They found Harry there, leaning into the open engine compartment of a long red convertible. As soon as she had the car in first and the parking brake on, Tempest was out of the Skyline. "Holy shit," she said with a grin. Harry stood up when he heard her voice and returned her grin.
"Funny, I think the same thing when I see you getting out of that," he said, walking forward.
"That is the finest thing to ever leave Japan," Tempest answered, gesturing backward at her Skyline almost absently. "That," she began, pointing at the car Harry was still standing in front of, "is one of the most beautiful things to ever leave Europe and you somehow got your hands on one."
"I have my sources. It's rough."
"It's a fuckin' Lotus Elan! It can be as rough as it wants. This is what, a '95?" she seemed destined to take her question as already answered to the affirmative. "Last year for the Elan, one of only 800 made, front wheel drive, turbocharged engine. Holy shit. The only way you could shock me more was if you told me you had an Elise 111s sitting in the garage at home."
"Now that you mention it," Harry's mouth slowly formed a smirk.
One of Tempest's eyebrows cocked slowly as she waited for Harry to admit he was joking. Jesse watched their exchange with a smile.
"What can I say? I like Lotus."
"You have a brand new Elise 111s?"
"Yeah, but not at home in the garage. I drove it to work today so it's sitting in the second bay right over there. After you guys help me look this over, I'll let you take it for a spin. The Elise, not this hunk."
"Seriously?"
"Sure. Cars are meant to be driven. In fact, why don't we leave Jesse to start taking inventory just how big a hunk this thing is and take the Elise for a run? From what I've heard, you'll show me what it can do a little better than I can myself."
"Let's do it!" Tempest spared a look for Jesse. "You don't mind, do you Jess?"
"No. But I might need your help to check some of this car out, so if you could be back in about half an hour—" he trailed off as he got involved in the engine of the Elan.
"Sure. Half an hour should be enough time to take the Elise for a pretty good run," Tempest answered happily. She turned to Harry. "Let's go."
Harry tossed her a set of keys and clicked something in his pocket. One of the bay doors on the back of The Racer's Edge began to wind up. Tempest started toward the open door after sparing Jesse a glance to make sure he was entertained. He was just a set of legs sticking out of the engine compartment of the Elan, so she was sure he was happy. When she got to the bay door, it was fully open and a bright blue Elise was perched under the florescent lights of the spotless garage bay. The top was down and the leather interior glowed with a black satin lustre. To many, it would be one of the hardest looking cars they'd ever seen. To her, it was a marvel of design and engineering. Just looking at it sitting there, the tingling started. She itched to drive it. She craved it on many levels.
Tempest slid behind the wheel with a blissful sigh and slid the key into the ignition. The seat was almost perfect for her already. She let the back recline slightly more. While Harry was taller, she was always more comfortable sitting farther away from the wheel, so the distance to the pedals was already perfect for her. Once Harry had made himself at home in the passenger seat, she started the car and pulled carefully out of the garage. After a sedate trip around the store, she pulled onto the road and let rip.
For the first while Harry didn't seem too bothered by her driving. That was when she made it her personal mission to make him gasp, or flinch, or grab the door handle. Given his occupation selling parts to people so they could turn their street legal cars into road rockets, she figured that he had a penchant for speed himself. Or at least had, at one point in his life. So she pushed the envelope a little harder than her norm. He seemed unaffected. She took a corner so hard they almost went up on two wheels. She thought she saw a small grimace on his face, but she figured she also could have imagined it, so it didn't count. She still laughed at the feeling of the little car taking the tight corner so precisely.
She finally got her wish when she drifted down an off ramp when leaving the coastal highway. Harry's hand darted up and grabbed the top of the windshield as the tires squealed and smoked going down the winding exit.
"You trying to scare me?" he asked once he had his breath back, after they had levelled out on the street she had chosen.
"Maybe just a little. This is a really fun car to drive. Hard to drift though. Not a lot of weight to play with to start it off."
"Yeah, and that means not a lot of metal stopping us from dying if we flip over, either." Harry took another deep breath. He had another reason behind asking her to go for a drive with him that had nothing to do with getting to watch her drive. Now that he knew she had the skills to back up the reputation behind the wheel Jesse had built for her, he had a question to ask, and not one he could broach in front of her over protective cousin. "So," he started. "You like how this car drives?"
"Yeah, of course. It's a Lotus! Who does suspension better than Lotus?"
Harry laughed. "I guess you have a point." He looked around at the scenery for a moment to collect his thoughts. "So," he began, sparing a glance her way. "How would you like to make a couple thousand bucks tonight?"
"Come again?" At her incredulous question her head snapped around to look him in the eyes. She quickly returned her gaze to the road, knowing that taking her eyes off it for long at the speed she was going wasn't very smart. She really hoped he wasn't offering her a chance to make a couple thousand bucks taking her clothes off for him. Her impression of him still wasn't that he was that kind of man, but the words of Vince, Leon and Jesse still swam around in her head.
"I have an errand that needs running tonight and I'm really not equipped to deal with it myself. I don't drive this well anymore, and I don't have the skill Jesse says you do with a firearm."
"What kind of job are you offering me here?"
"I need someone to go and pay for as well as pick up a shipment of parts I've arranged to buy."
She looked at him askance. "Does buying stock always require a getaway driver who's armed?"
"No, but the stock I'm buying isn't exactly coming direct shipped from HKS and Veilside, if you get my drift."
She did, though she felt like maybe she should feel slightly bad she did. He was talking about receiving stolen property, so he was talking three to five if caught. "So how much money are we talkin' here, and what kind of situation will I be putting myself into? 'Cause while Jesse's right, and I did grow up around guns, I've never really aimed one at another human being."
"I would think the exchange will be made perfectly civilly. The people I'm dealing with have a good reputation for this sort of thing. Well, if anyone has a good reputation for this sort of thing…I've never heard of anyone having trouble with them if they dealt with them square. But when one does business with dogs, one goes in with the expectation he might get bitten. I have no talent in the areas we're talking about so I'm useless to go myself. But it would be worth five thousand dollars to me to have someone skilled go in my place. Someone I can trust, and someone who drives better than those with the merchandise likely do themselves."
She pondered that for a moment, her forehead and bridge of her nose wrinkled in thought. Why pick her? "Why not ask Dom, Vince or Leon? They know the area better, and at least two of them have more practical experience with the unsavoury side of firearms than I do."
Harry sighed. She asked a valid question and she would need to receive a valid answer. "Dom has turned to the moral high ground since his release from prison, and in all fairness, he's still on parole. Being caught street racing could land him back in jail if the right cop busted him for it. He's not likely to take on a job of this magnitude. He'd go back to jail and not to the minimum security vacation of Lompoc either. He'd do hard time in a maximum security pen if he was busted for receiving stolen goods. He was never into this kind of thing anyway. Dom had a good childhood. I don't think he'd even be street racing if he hadn't lost his dad and felt like he had no other choice. Dom's not a criminal at heart. Leon lacks the skill with firearms and I wouldn't send an unarmed person to a deal like this. It just sits wrong. Again, it's not really Leon's style. And Vince is far too volatile. I don't trust him enough to put a job like this in his hands." Harry grinned. "Using a female appeals to me. You'll be underestimated from the beginning and you can use it to your advantage."
"So I go, you give me the money to pay for your shipment, I make the exchange with these guys, then what?"
"I'll be sending a truck and driver with you. Their driver and yours will unhook the trailer from their truck and connect it to yours. You will check the merchandise before this step. Make them open the trailer and let Jorge—he's the driver—stand guard while you get in the trailer and make sure that all the parts seem to be real and that the trailer isn't full of empty boxes. Then you'll escort your truck back to the store and I'll have a team waiting to unload it."
"You expect me to blend in doing a deal like this with my car? Anyone who sees the deal going down will be able to pick my car out from a mile away if they ever see it again. Not to mention the Canadian tags on it."
"I was counting on you saying that. The Lotus will be at your disposal for the rest of the evening if you'd like to take the job on. I figured you wouldn't want to put the infamous 'Ray' in danger. And anything you need for the Skyline in the future and can't find, well, I'd be eternally grateful for the favour."
"So I get five grand, the loan of a Lotus Elise for the night, and someone to source Skyline parts for me when I can't do it myself and you get a female representative to pick up your truck. And that's it? Simple as that?"
"Simple as that." Harry confirmed, looking out the side window as scenery flashed by.
"Where am I supposed to get the gun? I'm not exactly packing on the average cross border trip."
"I'll give you something. You just have to show up at the 'Edge at twelve without anyone in the house knowing you're out, or at least not knowing where you're going or planning to follow you. I'll provide you with the car, gun and money when you arrive and I'll be waiting for you to get back with the truck. Again, I don't expect any trouble. You just have to follow Jorge to the drop point, check the cargo, exchange the money—which will all be in order for payment when I give it to you—and escort the truck back to the store. Should be the easiest money you've ever made."
Tempest shrugged. Sounded like Harry had put a lot of thought into what he was asking her to do. If he was that sure she could do it, she'd give it a shot. "Ok, I'm in." She headed toward the store again. "Sounds like a blast, really." And she really needed the money. And she was so tired of being the good girl. The girl who's only step out of line was drinking too much and using too many swear words. She had already started down the road to hell with her quick and elemental relationship with Vince. Why not finish the fall? She'd always been drawn just a bit toward the dark side. Had always contemplated jumping over to the criminal side of the law full time. She'd never been given the chance before.
"Good."
They pulled up beside the Elan, currently up on blocks with Jesse's legs sticking out from under it.
"What's the damage Jesse?" Harry asked as he got out of the Elise.
"Hot side turbine's got bent fins, rad's shot, rear brakes need pads, rotors and calipers, head gasket's leaking, downpipe's cracked and there's some sort of fucked up issue with the windows and the headlights. But the body and interior are mint, the car's never been modified and once the head gasket is replaced and the timing is set again, the engine will be in pretty good shape, considering."
"There's GM calipers that'll fit it," Tempest offered. "And the headlights and windows are a common problem. I can show you how to fix those up before I go home, if you end up buying it."
"How do you know so much about Lotus?" Harry asked curiously.
"I have a friend who likes them. When I visit him in Toronto we work on his Elan and it's in the same year range."
"Why's he like Lotus so much? From Europe?"
"Yeah, he is. But that doesn't explain it. Angelo's Italian. You'd think he'd have a soft spot for Ferrari."
Harry laughed. Jesse got up from the creeper he had been laying on. "You still know that guy?"
"Yeah, I still know that guy." Tempest shook her head at Jesse's question. "You knew that."
"I thought you lost touch with him ages ago."
"No. He was too busy for a long time for us to have much to do with each other but I never lost contact with him, exactly." Her tone let them know it was a subject they were going to be dropping, because she wouldn't be participating in talking about it any further. Jesse's dislike of Angelo was a running sore point between them. She didn't think Jesse had any right to hate one of her friends on principle simply because he was a better hacker than Jesse was himself, and Jesse figured that anyone who used his hacking skills to make a living and not to simply promote global sharing of internet information wasn't hacking for the right reasons. All Tempest knew was Angelo was the best friend she'd ever had, ever, and wouldn't tolerate hearing him bad mouthed.
"Well, whatever," Jesse dismissed the subject, knowing it was futile to pursue it. "If the price is right, I'd take it Harry. With a little work it'll be worth some good money and its fast enough to be interesting."
"Consider it bought. Think you boys can do the work at Dom's?"
"If Temp's that sure she can handle the electrical before she leaves then yeah. I don't know if Leon could handle tracking down electrical glitches in a car like this."
"Good," Harry said. "I'll haul it down there sometime tomorrow then."
Jesse nodded.
Tempest looked at Harry for a moment before she turned to Jesse. "Jess, you can drive back. Go start the car and I'll catch up with you in a sec."
"Ok," Jesse answered. He took the keys and started toward the Skyline.
"I'll be down here for twelve. I'll pick up the Elise then and I'll have to hide the Skyline back here while I'm gone. If I take the other car home now it'll make them all ask questions I don't want to answer."
"You won't have trouble getting out of the house?"
"They all go to bed pretty early when it's not race night. All but Vince. And I'll be able to work around him. It won't be a problem."
"I'll have the car and the rest of it ready for then, and I'll have the money too. Both yours and the payment."
"Ok. See you then."