Jack - Perfect Burn: Hot Crime Romance

by Alice May Ball

  Her face actually flushed. Her scent was sweet and lovely. Did she get lines like that every day? I wondered. She certainly could—she was gorgeous enough. An urge to protect her washed over me. That may have been due to the thoughts of what Gregor was going to do to her.

  Here, in this car, she was in more danger than she could possibly know. More than I wanted to think about. But I had to figure a way to get her out of this without putting her in even more danger.

  The cop was moving out and pulling alongside. Smiling, I made eye contact with the driver, looked at the traffic jamming up all around, then looked back and gave him a ‘what’re ya gonna do?’ shrug. His partner glared at me, gesturing with his fingers for me to get further over to the right. The guy in the Volvo wouldn’t have liked that.

  “You’ve stolen the car!” the lovely slave girl hissed. She could sure pick her moments. “You’ve stolen Aileen’s car!” Just a little louder, and the cop would hear her. Still smiling at the cop, I watched as he nudged his way forward.

  All around, the traffic was getting thicker and slower. Red and blue lights sparked behind me and in front.

  She shouted, “I’ve been kidnapped!” A jolt of adrenaline pulsed through me.

  I turned in the seat, looked around, and gave her the nicest, most confident smile I could. “Nobody’s been kidnapped. You going to be perfectly fine.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be fine?” Her eyes widened further still. “What are you going to do to me? Let me go! Let me out!”

  “Relax,” I told her steadily, “you’re going to be perfectly safe. You’re going to be fine. You’ve nothing to worry about.”

  “You’re a car thief! I’ve been kidnapped by a car thief!” She turned to the window and started to bang on it with the side of her fist. “Help! Help! I’m being kidnapped!”

  “I haven’t kidnapped you. If I had, if I were a kidnapper, what you’re doing would be the worst thing you can do.” Oh, brilliant, Ryan, I thought. How could that fail to calm and reassure her? Make the possible dangers a little plainer, why don’t you?

  She stopped a moment. Then she banged on the window some more. Her face was getting red. I had not the first fucking clue what I was going to do with her.

  “Where the hell are you taking me?” she demanded again.

  Good question. I knew I couldn’t take her to the gang. Gregor would see her as a ‘loose end.’ Her fate would be short and dire, and mine could go the same way for bringing her. There was no way that I could simply let her go. She was bound to call the cops if I did, and then we would all be fucked. Her included.

  Most of all, I needed to have her stay somewhere safe while I delivered the car and figured out what to do.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get you somewhere safe.”

  “What are you talking about? Last thing I knew, I was somewhere safe. What’s going on?” Her little fists banged on the seat and she started to reach forward.

  “We’re stuck in some traffic,” I said. “I’m going to take you somewhere safe, and it’s all going to be fine.”

  She turned to the window, pressed against the side, and banged her hand on the glass.

  “Help! Help!” She shouted at the top of her voice. “I’m being kidnapped!”

  “Would you stop that? You’ll attract attention.”

  She stopped and looked at me. “Well, duh!”

  “Nobody’s been kidnapped. Stop saying that. Just… chill out a second.”

  And I had to get the car to Gregor. Like, now. I could take her to my apartment but she would just bust out. Probably call the cops. And she’d know where I live. No, that’s no good. I’d have to keep her somewhere else.

  But wherever it was, she’d call the cops anyway. Good point. Whatever I did, wherever I left her, I’d better take her phone.

  The lock-up garage would be a fine place, but it was just too far away. Besides, there was too much stuff in there. Too many tools. She’d have been able to break out too easily. Either that, or she’d do a whole lot of damage. I banged on the steering wheel.

  “What is it, Ace?” There was an edge in her voice. “You look like you don’t know what to do. Have you even thought this through?”

  “Look,” I growled, “I’ll think of something.”

  “Yeah? What with?”

  I glared at her face in the mirror. Now she had a smug gleam in her eyes. God, she was gorgeous, even more so when she was being a pain in my ass. No, couldn’t think about that now. I’d got too much to worry about already. This was going to take some figuring out.

  There was a cop car with its lights on just one car to my left. She flung herself across to the corresponding window. I swerved to the right. There was an exit just up ahead.

  She shouted, “Help!” and slapped the window with her palms.

  I braked hard. She lurched forward. There was a gap in the traffic to my right, hardly enough space to slide through. I gunned the engine. She was thrown back in the seat and we were halfway to the exit ramp.

  I had no idea what part of town this was going to dump me out in, but I had to get away from all of those cops.

  The cop riding shotgun watched and pointed. We were on the ramp and heading down. He was too far away and too deep in traffic to do much about it.

  As I was making it down the off ramp, the cop car’s door opened. The cop on my side got out and stepped along to speak to the guy in front of him. And I was gone. Heading straight for a mess of cloverleaf interchange, but we were moving. Slave girl was still banging on the window. A little kid in the back of a yellow SUV made a big ‘O’ with his mouth and pointed his finger as I passed on the inside.

  His mom was on the phone up front and not listening to him at all. She even managed to bat her eyelids at me as we slid by and didn’t notice slave girl hammering on the window.

  Still, there was the problem of what to do with her. Whatever I did, it would have to be fast. Time was burning away like a fuse.

  ====

  •

  She reached into her bag. Going for a phone or a gun, it didn’t make any difference. I looked hard in her eye. Directly. Not in the mirror. She froze. I held my eye on her like that for a few seconds.

  I said, “Nu-uh,” and held up a finger. She gulped. I took the bag and dropped it in the passenger footwell. She was shocked. Before she had time to collect her thoughts, I took charge.

  “What’s your name, beautiful?” I asked her. In haste, I may have overcooked the smooth charm.

  She took a breath and said, “Is this going to be one of those cheesy, ‘so I know what to call you in my dreams,’ lines?” Man, I liked her recovering like that, I can’t deny it. I had her attention at least, and for a moment she quieted down.

  •

  ====

  Chapter Four

  MY HEART HAMMERED IN my chest as I looked in the mirror and caught a sardonic gleam in his eyes.

  I shouted, “Stop the car! Let me out!”

  He chuckled. He actually chuckled. “Soon enough.” He spoke slowly as he drove, slower and more calmly now we were moving out of the traffic jam. “There are some things I have to do first.”

  Although his driving was way too fast and aggressive enough to flip your stomach, he handled the car like a professional. And it wasn’t even his. This guy obviously knew what to do behind a wheel, but it was clear that he hadn’t expected me to be here.

  The look on his face when I’d asked him what he was planning to do with me made me damn sure he didn’t have the first clue.

  When he turned in his seat, I got my first proper look at him. All of my insides boiled in a storm of confusion. I was afraid. He looked like a man who could do anything. But my first eye contact with him was also a thrill. He had the look of a very bad man. And in way too many good ways.

  He gave me the searing smile, and then turned back to drive. He pulled us into a quiet, leafy little low-rise neighborhood.

  He had the kind of gorgeous, thick black hair that your f
ingers would just be clawing for. They’d want to sink into it and tug. He was big. Built. Muscled, by the look of him. Tattoo ink snaked up his neck from under the soft, white linen collar of his shirt.

  His dark, hooded eyes had a look that was somehow arrogant, sarcastic, and shy, all at the same time. And the longest eyelashes I’d ever seen. Little dimples appeared when he grinned, which he did a lot, and a scar ran through his left eyebrow, a perfect imperfection.

  His soft, supple, black leather jacket had a dark scent like something you’d want to stretch out across. Or maybe something you could get tied up with.

  What did it take to hook a man like this? Being kidnapped by him obviously got us off to a pretty bad start. The fact that he was a criminal, that was going to be an obstacle, too. Just my luck. This whole thing was all just so perfectly wrong, it made me want to laugh.

  It was like a cruel joke. Although, really, I was certain that he wouldn’t have been interested in me in any situation.

  He drove a short distance, slowed, and stopped to park up under a shady tree.

  When he turned again and extended his hand to me, I stared back at him. My mind told me to bang on the window some more. Maybe there was somebody nearby who would hear me.

  “These aren’t really ideal circumstances,” he said softly, “but I really am very glad to meet you.”

  “Well, I’m not glad to meet you, asshole.” I put everything I could into it. I was, though. I wasn’t going to admit it, but parts of me were so pleased to see him, they ached. Not for the first time, I cursed my treacherous body. “I don’t exactly fantasize about being kidnapped.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that.” He looked down, and then back up at me again. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.” And I wasn’t supposed to be charmed by the grin on his boyish lips.

  “What,” I said, “you meant to kidnap somebody else?”

  “No,” he chuckled, and it set my stomach quivering. “I only meant to steal the car.”

  I pressed my lips together and drew a breath in. At that moment, I wasn’t sure if I could trust myself to speak.

  “It’s all going to be fine,” he told me. “Nothing bad’s going to happen.”

  “You’ve stolen Aileen’s car.” I reminded him. “You kidnapped me. And you didn’t even know you were doing it.” I was shouting again, but I was starting to have to put an effort into it. “I’ve been kidnapped by an idiot. So from where I’m sitting, boy-genius, something pretty damn bad has happened already.”

  But then recognition dawned in me with a surge of ice through my veins. “I’m collateral damage,” I gasped. “I’m going to be an innocent bystander, caught in the crossfire.”

  “There isn’t going to be any crossfire,” he said, shaking his head. His eyes softened just a little when he added, “You’re going to be fine.”

  Even though I fought it, I couldn’t stop a little smile from thinning my lips.

  “The thing is,” he said, “I have to get this car to someone pretty damn fast.”

  “That’s it? You’re just going to shove me out and abandon me in some random suburb, miles from anywhere, with no clue where I am?”

  His voice was gentle, but firm. “No, I’m not going to do that.” His hand was still extended toward me, but now he turned it palm-up. “I need you to wait for me. Just a short while.”

  My eyebrows lifted. “What, here? In the middle of fucking nowhere?”

  “No.” He smiled again. “No, I’ll take you somewhere. I need you to wait for me there. It’s not far, and I won’t be long.”

  It was hard to keep my focus away from his golden-brown eyes. His voice set off vibrations in my stomach. I got caught up a moment, forgetting to speak.

  When I hesitated, he said, “I need to deliver this car right away. The guy that I’m delivering it to, you don’t want to be in the car when I give it to him. So I need to take you somewhere safe.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be safe?” My throat tightened.

  “You will,” he said. “That’s the whole point.”

  “But why would I not be?” I was anxious and angry. “What is there that could make me unsafe now? Hmmm… oh! I know! How about a car thief who’s too dumb to know how many people are in the car he’s stealing.”

  He looked at me.

  “Like I said,” his voice lowered. Something plucked the strings of my insides when he said, “you don’t know the guy I’m taking the car to. And trust me, you don’t want to.”

  Now I felt a panic begin to rise. Even I could hear it in my voice when I said, “But what has any of this got to do with me?”

  “I’m going to take you somewhere to wait.” My lips parted slowly. I felt my head start to slowly shake. This was confusing like a dream. A dream where you can’t tell if it’s a really good dream, or a really bad dream.

  I felt more than heard a deep ‘thud’ and I didn’t know if it was a bass drum or a bomb.

  “Look, I’m not going to hurt you, really. I just need to make sure that you’re safe and I’m safe. Trust me, okay? I’m a professional.”

  “Architecture is a profession,” I said. “Medicine is a profession. The Army is a profession. You’re just a cheap crook.”

  Under the scar that ran across his left eyebrow, his eye flinched. He didn’t look like the kind of man to be hurt by a bit of rough talk. Maybe it made a difference who called him names. A girl can dream, right?

  In a rush, I said, “Wait, what do you mean, you’re late? You steal cars to order? Do you punch in at seven fifty-five in the morning? You got dental plan, health insurance? Can I get a word with your HR department?”

  My heart was pumping hard. Babbling is something I do when I’m panicked. He saw how nervous I was, and he smiled so very gently, with that thrilling twinkle, that playful glint, in his eye. My breath caught as he reached back and took my hand.

  When his skin touched mine I felt a shock like a thunder flash. My whole body shook so hard that for an instant, I wondered if there had been an earth tremor. Looking in his eyes, they opened so very slightly at the same moment. He must have felt it too. Surely he must have.

  But after that, the panic was gone. He squeezed my hand, and for some reason, I trusted him. I even smiled.

  Then he drove us through more commercial subdivisions, past vacant and decaying lots. Then through an almost deserted district of empty stores and broken buildings. I didn’t recognize my own city. These places were completely unfamiliar to me. We drove into a multistory parking garage and up the spiral ramp to the fifth floor, maybe higher.

  He parked, helped me out, and slid open the side door of a black van.

  “You’re going to lock me in a van?”

  “I won’t be long, I promise,” he said again. I was so ready to believe him, it made me want to cry. A complete stranger steals the car I’m in, drives me to some sketchy neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, and tells me to wait in the back of a van, which he is presumably going to lock me in—of course I should trust him. A great-looking guy like him couldn’t be anything but good, obviously. What could possibly go wrong?

  He held out his hand to help me into the van. I shook from head to foot. Like an idiot, I was noticing how beautifully dressed he was. His big, well polished boots with jingly silver buckles, and his lovely white shirt under the soft black leather jacket.