by Nico Rosso
He chuckled. “Matte black, completely murdered out.” A hint of warmth cracked through his stony face. “That car...it’s what my parents would’ve driven if they’d had any money once they’d settled in the States after getting out of Iran in the late ’70s.”
She kept reminding herself to hate him, or at least that she couldn’t trust him, but hearing his softer tone when talking about his parents, or seeing the way he’d gone out of his way with the woman in the parking lot, Stephanie started to recognize that her job seeking justice was going to be way more complicated than she’d anticipated.
* * *
ARASH CURSED HIMSELF for helping the woman in the parking lot. He couldn’t make any more mistakes like that. Not while Stephanie or anyone else from Olesk’s gang was watching. She’d said he had a soft heart. Usually, he’d take that as a compliment, especially after all he’d seen growing up in the city. But a conscience had killed Marcos, and Arash had to stay alive to get revenge.
He hadn’t been able to read Stephanie when she called him out. She wasn’t directly looking down on him, or complimenting him, either. Her conscience remained a mystery. Under different circumstances, he’d try to trace her wiring, find out more of who she was. If this was just a simple road-trip fling, it would be different between them. So far there hadn’t been much friction. Neither was trying to pull too much leverage over the other.
As they walked past the sliding glass doors to the mall, he wanted to reach out and take her hand. Maybe they could rush away from Olesk and this mess together. Or he could convince her to run while she still had the chance. Then he could find her once it was all over. He kept his hands in his pockets. The urge was impossible. She’d wanted to join up with Olesk. How the hell could he convince her to break that? One wrong word to her and she’d go to Olesk, putting a target on Arash’s back. The only chance he had was to surprise the gang when they were all in one place. The big gig Olesk mentioned. He hated to think that he’d have to take Stephanie down, as well.
The morning people at the mall went about their business, wrangling kids, hurrying for last-minute items or strolling aimlessly like they had all the time in the world. None of them looked at Arash and Stephanie as if they were criminals. He navigated through the ordinary world, very much outside of it.
“Department store.” Stephanie pointed to a multilevel store that anchored one side of the mall. “That should set you up, and I need some things, as well.” She cruised forward, like she was completely comfortable in her skin.
While he was edged with bands of tension around his joints. Helping the woman in the parking lot was a lousy attempt to collect karma, and it hadn’t offset that he was a bad guy again. It didn’t matter if he had the best intentions. For the first time since running with burglars and car thieves in high school, he was part of a bad crew about to do bad things.
Stephanie stopped walking and stared at him as if waiting. He blinked at her and she spoke slowly. “Menswear.” She moved her gaze deliberately to a sign off to their right. “That coffee hasn’t kicked in?”
“Gonna need a gallon.” Not true. He was fully awake, mind buzzing between guilt and revenge.
“Rally,” she said. “Olesk could text any second and we have to be ready to burn.”
“I’m on.” He rolled his shoulders to move his blood.
“Do you need me to wait outside the dressing room?” she sassed.
“You can help me decide between boxers or briefs.” He was a breath away from inviting her into the dressing room and testing how well they really balanced.
She took her time looking him up and down, giving him the sensation of cool river water running along his body. A shiver shook him and he was left thirsty for more. She finally gazed into his eyes and blinked slowly. “Split the difference. Boxer briefs.” And she was gone, before he could answer or see if there was really a hint of heat in her eyes. She cruised easily toward the up escalator. He stared too long and she knew it, waving without turning around.
He turned and walked toward menswear. If she was watching from the escalator, he didn’t give her anything except a casual strut. But inside, he stormed. He barely paid attention to the clothes he was grabbing. T-shirts, spare pair of jeans, sweatshirts, all of them dark colors. It didn’t take long for his arm to be full, making his search through the socks and underwear more awkward than it should have been. Stephanie had called his bluff and identified his preferred underwear choice. No doubt she’d gloat if she saw the packages of boxer briefs on top of the rest of his pile of clothes.
A division of the menswear area had sport clothes and shoes, where he picked up a backpack to contain everything. In his normal life, he’d have been watching the price tags closer, but he had an envelope full of dirty cash in his jacket and wouldn’t miss it once it was gone.
Arash peeled some hundred-dollar bills out of the envelope and pocketed them before walking his clothes to the cashiers at the front of the store. The young black man manning his station was cheerful and bored. They went through the requisite small talk, Arash saying he didn’t need a bag because of the backpack. The cashier didn’t blink when Arash handed over the crisp cash to pay, then took his change.
While Arash was stuffing his new clothes into the backpack, he could see out the front windows of the department store and into the mall. On the floor above him, Stephanie walked out the doors of a cell phone carrier and disappeared up the walkway. She wasn’t moving too fast or looking over her shoulder, but it was still sketchy. He packed faster and hurried out of the department store with a thanks to the cashier.
When he hit the walkway in the mall, Stephanie was nowhere in sight. He got up to the second floor via a flight of stairs, trying to figure out all the justifications that she could’ve been at that store after not mentioning it before. And if she was doing something that wasn’t in the best interest of Olesk and the gang, would Arash tell them? The convolutions knotted around him.
“Did you get your tighty-whities?” Stephanie’s voice unfurled behind him.
He spun with surprise, unable to see how the hell she got there without him seeing her. He gathered his composure as quickly as possible. “Decided to go commando.” That got a little laugh out of her and the convolutions complicated into a deadlier web. He pointed at the black bag she always carried and looked in her face, not at the cell phone store behind her. “Get what you needed?”
“I did,” she said more cheerfully than he expected. “I’d forgotten a phone charger.” She opened her bag and showed a DC charger branded with the store name she’d left a few moments ago.
A clean alibi, but maybe too deliberate. “Seems like something a planner like you would’ve thought of.” He kept the tone casual.
“Not for the car.” She started walking toward the exit of the mall and he strode next to her. “Didn’t know we’d be on the move this much.”
“Good point.” He hadn’t even thought to bring along a wall charger.
“Don’t worry—it’ll charge two phones at once.”
“You do think of everything.” But he wasn’t entirely convinced she wasn’t sketchy. But then again, in the light of day, they were both crooks.
“Even had some time to buy some jewelry.” She held up her hand to show that two of the fingers were encircled with fine gold bands. One formed an X, the other crisscrossed, like the tracks of a planet orbiting her. “And...” Her hand disappeared into her bag before he stared at it too long. “I found something for you.” She produced a box containing a burly sport watch.
He took it as she offered it, but he didn’t open the box. The watch was definitely his style. But he couldn’t figure out what the endgame was for her. Part of him burst with a small flare of pleasure at her gesture. “I can’t take this.”
“It’s not from me,” she explained, holding out her palm in refusal to take it back. “It’s from the woman with the f
aulty piston pin.” A warmer light shined in her eyes, pulling him closer to her. “I know you didn’t do it to get paid.” Neither spoke for a moment.
“Thanks.” He opened the box and put the watch on his wrist.
Stephanie backed off a bit. He wanted to reach for the connection again, but he didn’t know if he could trust it. She fixed the edges of her hair. “Besides, Olesk has us on a tight schedule. I can’t have you driving and checking the time on your phone.”
“Always planning.”
“Exactly.” She reached into her bag again and produced a pair of black sunglasses, which she held toward him.
He backed away, shaking his head. “But I’m all out of good deeds.” Yes, he didn’t have any sunglasses and she took the time to notice. Any pleasure in her thoughtfulness was overshadowed by the complex and deadly maze he found himself walking blindly within.
“These are from me.” She stepped to him, sunglasses still extended. “If I’m riding shotgun, I can’t have my driver squinting into the sun.” Her face was serious, without a wry smile or irony in her voice.
The labyrinth around him shifted and spun. He’d steeled himself with heartless resolve for this journey of revenge and hadn’t expected to find any good here. But Stephanie wasn’t good. He had to keep reminding himself that to combat the lightness in his chest she could evoke with the smallest gesture.
“I’m your driver.” He took the sunglasses.
For a moment, they seemed exposed. He was free from the lies and the crime and faced her as a man facing a woman. She stared back at him boldly, without artifice. And there was a heat in her eyes, a reflection of the attraction that pulled him closer to her. Her lips parted with a breath, and he wanted so much to know what she tasted like. What she would feel like slammed against him.
Then the moment was gone. She stepped back and pulled her buzzing phone from her back pocket. “Olesk,” she explained, a slight huskiness in her voice. She cleared her throat and erased the warmth in her eyes. “We’re on the move. He says to get a full tank of gas and head east. More instructions to follow.”
The labyrinth erupted all around Arash again. He strode with Stephanie into the parking lot, slipping his sunglasses on. “I’m your driver.” And he couldn’t let himself feel anything anymore because every turn ahead was deadly.
Chapter Four
Stephanie spun one of the new rings around her finger. She slowed her breath and tried to keep the building tension from breaking her apart. Arash pumped gas into the compact racer while she sat in the passenger seat. Her cell phone rested on her thigh, ready for the next move. She couldn’t read Arash’s eyes behind the dark sunglasses she’d bought for him, but she could see his jaw was clenched. Both of them knew something was coming.
Whatever she was about to rush into, she had a sliver of confidence now that Frontier Justice had been updated on her situation. It had been a mad rush to get through the department store, then up to the cell phone place before Arash had made his way through his shopping. Luckily the young white woman set up the contract-free phone quickly, allowing Stephanie the time to call in her “stolen” car to her insurance company for the sake of verisimilitude in case Olesk was looking hard in that direction.
Texting Ty and the others from Frontier Justice her flood of information while standing in a service hallway of the mall had tested all her composure. She was sure some words were jumbled or autocorrected improperly, but she had to get everything out before sending one last message: This phone is burned. She’d pulled the battery and SIM card out, scraped the SIM card against the wall until it was unusable, then threw it all out in a trash can behind Arash before he’d spotted her.
But the man was sharp. As soon as he’d turned to her with suspicion in his eyes, she’d known he’d seen her at the phone store. She’d had all the excuses lined up, but still he’d remained cagey. Neither of them was on solid footing.
Especially once she’d given him the gifts. What had started as an honest want to repay him for helping the woman in the parking lot, and Stephanie’s selfish need to have her driver not wrapping their car around a power pole because the sun was in his eyes, turned too damn intimate too quickly. His appreciation for the gesture gave her way more of a thrill than she’d expected.
It had felt like they’d been speeding without brakes toward each other. Sometimes she longed for a reckless crash. This one, though, could have deadly consequences. Olesk’s text had come at just the right time.
Arash finished fueling the car and leaned into the open driver’s-side window. “Any word?”
She checked her phone, even though she’d looked at it two seconds ago. “Nothing.”
“Food allergies?”
“No, but I hate coconut.”
“What a shame.” He sauntered to the gas station convenience store, shaking his head the whole way.
Two seconds later her phone buzzed. Olesk texted them an intersection and a time frame. She was about to slide over into the driver’s seat when Arash returned, faster than he’d left. He tossed two bottles of water and a handful of candy bars into the back seat and rushed behind the wheel. The car was already out of the gas station and onto the street by the time he asked, “Where to?”
She read him the directions from the map, then checked the time. “Seven minutes.”
“I saw you going for the driver’s seat, but I couldn’t let you have all the fun.” His grin was wilder than his driving through the flow of traffic. She knew it wouldn’t take much for him to turn it loose. He pulled his phone from his jacket and handed it over to her. “Can you throw this on the charger?”
She hooked him up, then directed him through the next intersection. Their destination was close and they were running early for a change. Pride at a job well done was quickly tempered by the knowledge that she was aiding criminals. The same went for the rush she felt from the coordination between her and Arash. It didn’t matter who was driving and who was shotgun; they handled their jobs and kept each other moving. Her brief elation dived quickly into a sense of loss for what could’ve been in a very different world.
As soon as he hit a straightaway, Arash pulled a hair band from his pocket and swept his hair back into that small ponytail, fully revealing his sharp features. “Good call on the sunglasses.” He looked over to her for a second before turning his attention back to the road.
“They look fly.” She’d considered a couple frames before settling on these and was rewarded by him looking sexy and severe.
“You have good taste.” He shook his wrist to flash the watch. A perfect fit.
“Except when it comes to men.” If she really had good taste, she wouldn’t be feeling small electric thrills raining up through her as she looked over this car-thief criminal with his rough hands all over the steering wheel and shifter.
Instead of shutting him down like she’d hoped, it evoked a quick laugh and an even wilder smile. When he stood harder on the gas, making the engine moan, the bastard knew she couldn’t look away.
She reminded herself of everything at stake, cooled herself and flattened her voice. “After the next right is our intersection. We’re one minute early. Circle until I hear the next move.”
“Understood.” Arash must’ve known better than to push her any further and matched the businesslike tone.
Her phone buzzed. She read, “‘Run interference for white cube van with Nevada plates. Draw any cops off.’”
“I’ve got eyes on the truck.” He tipped his head to their left, where a medium-sized cargo truck trundled out of a storage-facility parking lot.
“You know them?” She didn’t recognize the driver or the man riding shotgun.
“No, but there’s Olesk and Ellie.” They were in a sport-tuned Subaru that was clearly straining against its muscle as it cruised half a block behind the truck. Olesk drove and Ellie rode passenger with a cell phon
e in her hand. She acknowledged Arash and Stephanie with a brief nod before swiveling her gaze to take in the area.
Stephanie did the same. “If they need us for interference, then they know someone’s onto this move.” There’d been a couple of local PD blips regarding Olesk’s gang in the Frontier Justice control center she’d helped install in Mariana’s farmhouse. It pulled radio signals, internet leads and poached cell phone conversations from law enforcement and back-channel sources in an attempt to track the Seventh Syndicate and other organizations that were attacking anyone who couldn’t defend themselves. Fitting that the hub of all this information was the home where Frontier Justice had started over a hundred years ago.
And Stephanie knew that farmhouse was still in good hands. Mariana was the perfect fit for Ty, both determined as hell. Their strong wills extended out to their unwavering care for the other, something Stephanie knew was a rarity in this world.
“Unmarked car at seven o’clock.” Arash shifted his vision from the side mirror to the road ahead. Stephanie snapped out of her thoughts and spun to check behind them. The dark brown car had state-exempt plates and a nearly invisible flasher bar in front of the visors.
“He’s driving like he means it.” The police car slipped past Olesk and Ellie, on the hunt. Instead of relief arriving with the police, Stephanie’s pulse kicked faster. Olesk and the STR couldn’t get busted before she’d pierced all the way to the Seventh. “Run him off.”
“Olesk has him.” Arash held back amid the normal traffic. The Subaru separated out and sped forward. After passing the unmarked car, Olesk swerved hard in front of it and raced up a side street. The police car couldn’t resist the bait. The light bar strobed on and its tires chirped before propelling it after the Subaru. “No discipline. Those cops should’ve stayed on their mark.”