Drive

by Sidney Bristol

  “You’re okay,” Lily said into her hair, clutching her tight.

  “I was worried about you.”

  “Me?” Lily leaned back, swaying slightly. “What about you?”

  Julian stepped behind Lily, clasping her shoulders gently.

  “Oh no.” Madison glimpsed the goose egg growing on Lily’s forehead.

  “It’s ugly, isn’t it? I’m going to have to get bangs to cover this up.” Lily pulled her hair to the side, but there was no hiding the bump.

  “You’re not going to be skating for a couple of days.”

  “Let’s go inside, we’ve got a lot to figure out.” Aiden grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the garage.

  Lily followed, sticking close to her side.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “I—don’t know.” Sure, Madison knew the gist of it, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think that was all there was to it. In the beginning she’d seen Aiden as this one-man powerhouse, but now she realized he wasn’t alone. For some reason, that made her feel even more alienated.

  * * *

  Aiden leaned against the red service bench in the empty bay. He could feel Madison’s stare, but he couldn’t look at her. Every minute she spent putting more of the pieces together put her life at greater risk. And he’d thought for a minute they could have something after this? What was he going to do? Disappear for weeks at a time? Tell her not to worry about the smell of gunpowder or a little blood? That was the stupidest thing he’d ever thought. Madison had lived with too many secrets to not be able to figure it out. And he couldn’t ask her to put herself at risk like that.

  That meant today was good-bye.

  Once they knew what was on the drive they’d know how to leverage it against Dustin. Put the prick away for a hell of a long time. It would make life safer for Madison, but only if he put distance between them.

  He could already feel the hole in his chest where she’d taken up residence.

  The last bay door shut, closing the majority of his team in. They were free to talk here, especially since CJ had swept for bugs.

  “What the hell is going on?” Lily glanced at him, then Julian. She seemed to be getting some of her fire back. Figuring out how to explain everything to that one was going to take some tact.

  “Lily—” Aiden squeezed Madison’s hand.

  “Your friend’s in trouble. We’re helping her. That’s what’s going on.” Julian was hovering around Lily, looking none too pleased about her presence. And yet, he hadn’t shoved the derby girl at the twins or anyone else to take charge of. Interesting.

  “That tells me nothing. Why did Dustin take my car?”

  “Dustin wants something from Madison, he thought he could scare her, or use you to get that.” Aiden didn’t like telling Lily anything. Hell, Kathy was scowling at him for saying that much, but the girls were going to figure some of it out. Besides, Madison would end up telling her best friend that much at least. Better if he controlled what she knew.

  “Lily, why don’t you come with me and we can get something for your head? Madison, can you help me?” Kathy stepped forward, a motherly expression painted on her face. She smiled at Lily.

  Lily glanced at Madison, who nodded.

  The three women exited to the office, no doubt where Kathy would evaluate Lily’s concussion and keep Madison occupied while he and the crew made a plan. There were serious upsides to having someone like Kathy around. Not only was she amazing with computers and surveillance, but she had more experience as a combat medic than Aiden had time in the service.

  “I think it’s best if Lily stays here.” Julian thumbed at the cinder-block apartment that was little more than a bed and a couple of lockers. “We can stick a TV in there, take turns making sure she stays awake and out of sight. Dustin won’t know where to look for her.”

  “Good. We can tell Madison she needs to stay here to watch Lily and for her own safety.” Aiden nodded.

  Truth was, he hadn’t spared Lily much thought. His world had seemed to end the moment Julian called to tell him the twins were going to pick Madison up from a botched kidnapping. He’d been calling her name, pacing through his barn looking for her. A bad feeling hadn’t helped things, but there you had it.

  “We need a plan,” Aiden said.

  “Let’s catch everyone up real quick.” CJ wiped his hands off on a rag. “The Miami-Dade PD is giving us some space. There are a few officers who have been informed about our operation, one of them is Detective Smith. I would not expect a lot of help from the boys in blue. They aren’t exactly happy with us.”

  “Was Kathy able to get anywhere with the DEA?”

  CJ shook his head. “They dug their heels in. Said they couldn’t get involved.”

  “Damn it.” The DEA always asked for favors, but were stingy on paying back their debt. The Eleventh should be a slam-dunk hit for them. Aiden put his hands on his hips. “What about the drive? We have it. Emery’s going over it now. In fact, let’s see what he says.”

  Aiden dialed Emery and flipped the phone to speaker.

  “I’m working,” Emery said.

  “Tell me something good,” Aiden said.

  “Good depends on what you wanted to hear.”

  “I’d like to know that the drive is full of doctored financial records and details of criminal dealings.” It was too much to hope that one job would put both Dustin Ross and Michael Evers away for good.

  “No luck then. You want to know what your girl was sitting on?”

  “You’re going to tell me.”

  “Bitcoins. Six million dollars in bitcoins.”

  “Bitcoins. Like the digital currency?”

  “Yeah. A lot of the more forward-thinking criminals are starting to do some deals in bitcoins. There’s no way to track them and no central bank regulating them, so it’s an anonymous currency. Makes sense why Dustin’s hurting for it. He bounced some checks yesterday. Guy’s desperate for money. From what I can tell, it’s his fault. Trying to live the life a little too big.”

  “So we’ve got ourselves a bag of money. How do we use it?” Aiden glanced around at the faces surrounding him. All of them were thinking, spinning the situation around to see it from a different side. If he wanted to give Madison the future she deserved, he had to figure out how to leverage the drive to help her. Except he had no idea how to do that yet.

  “What do you want to buy?”

  “That’s not what I wanted to hear. Shit.”

  “I figured. We still giving this to Dustin?”

  “Yeah, if nothing else then to just get him to pipe the fuck down for a minute. Who do you think he’s trying to pay off ? Who’s he owe money to?”

  “Right now, Evers and some Colombians. He had a wire denied earlier this week. What do you want to bet it’s for the drugs coming in tonight on those cars?”

  “Damn. This is making too much sense.” In the end, it all came down to money. Dustin wanted more of it, and when he got it, he spent it. Now, he was in deep with the wrong people, namely Evers and the Colombians. Both had a habit of terminating people.

  “I’m going to mirror this drive so we give him one that looks like it has his bitcoin wallet and all the currency on it, but when he goes to use it, the coins will be rejected.”

  “And I could believably tell him I have no idea what the problem is.”

  “Exactly. He’d have to know where to look to identify them as real.”

  “Dustin’s not that kind of smart. He’s a smooth talker, but he’s not all that bright. Probably why Evers likes him.”

  “I looked up that company flying product into Everglades Air. This is the first time they’ve used this airport. I’m working on getting the records, but I think this is how he’s transporting the drugs into the country. I looked up the last couple of shipments. I think he’s packing the cars with drugs, flying them over, and getting them taken out of the cars before they go through customs.”

  “That’s a prett
y smart theory. And what do you want to bet it’s not coincidence those cars are getting here today and Dustin needs those coins?” Aiden’s other phone beeped. He glanced at the screen and grit his teeth. “Mirror that drive. Fast. I’ve got Dustin calling me.”

  “On it.”

  Aiden switched calls, inhaling a deep breath. Not a soul moved. He’d like nothing more than to reach through the phone and punch the asshole.

  “Dustin, I was just about to call you.”

  “I need the fucking drive now, DeHart.”

  Putting Dustin away would be one of the highlights of the year, for sure.

  “Well, I have it.”

  “What? How did you—? That fucking bitch lied to me.”

  “Easy. She wasn’t actually lying. She didn’t know she had it.”

  “Where was it?”

  “She had a storage unit up in Deerfield.”

  “What? How did I not know about that?”

  “Not my problem.”

  Dustin paused before speaking again. This time, suspicion laced his voice. “How did you get it?”

  “I picked her up, played it smooth, she took me back to her place and I found the key in a drawer, so I took it. You use a sledgehammer too often when all you need is a light touch.”

  “Where are you? I’ll come get it.”

  “Not so fast. I can’t do that here. There’s also the matter of payment.”

  “I have cash for you. I need to know that you’ve kept this between us.”

  “As far as anyone knows, I picked up a girl at a bar. Your ass is covered.” The idea of reducing Madison to a nameless, faceless piece of ass made him want to retch, but Dustin couldn’t know the truth.

  “Good. Good.”

  “I’ve got some errands to run for the garage. I’ll meet you at Hallandale Beach in two hours.”

  “An hour.”

  “Hour and a half.”

  “Fuck. Hurry it up, DeHart.”

  Aiden hung up and blew out a breath.

  “Here’s what I’m thinking.” Aiden turned to face Julian and CJ. They were the two he had to convince. “We give the drive to Dustin. Have Emery stick a tracker in it. Evers has that shipment coming into Everglades Air tonight. That gives us time to put together the evidence to hand over to the FBI.”

  “Let the Hoovers do the pickup?” Julian’s brows drew down into a line.

  “You can go. This could be over.” Aiden would be in bed with Madison. She’d still be in danger so long as Evers was alive, but he could figure out something. Maybe it was time for a new start. Sell the garage to Julian or the twins, pack his shit up, and hit the road with his girl.

  CJ’s frown deepened. “Let me make some calls. Don’t plan on anything.” He headed toward the back lot and his car.

  “Let’s get some work done, but be ready to move.” Aiden strode toward the office. He needed to see Madison, to touch her. They had a lot to work through, but maybe, if everything worked out, they’d have time to do it.

  He headed into the offices, following the low voices until he found the three women. Madison glanced up, catching sight of him immediately. He crooked his finger at her and she nodded. Lily was already looking better. Her color was coming back and she smiled at something Kathy said.

  “What’s going on?” Madison stepped out of the office, sliding her hands into her pockets.

  “I want you to hang around here today.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Madison, Dustin just tried to kidnap you—”

  “If I don’t go to work today, you don’t know what will happen tonight. Besides, if I don’t show up Lily’s parents will go to her place looking for me, even if I call in, and we do not want them finding her like this.” She spoke quieter now. “I’m going to work. There’s security. I’ll be safe there.”

  “I don’t like it.” He pulled out his phone and texted John. His pickup truck would blend in better on the roads around Everglades Air than any of their cars.

  She studied him for a moment. “You guys have a plan.”

  “I might.”

  “Then you need to know the latest updates on that shipment. I’m it. Let me help. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I get the idea this is something you’ve done before. Please, let me help.”

  He wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her farther away from the office. “John follows you all the way to the gates. When you leave, you don’t leave alone.”

  “I’ve still got to get a ride to work. I won’t be alone.”

  “I got you something. Come here.” He pulled her toward an exterior door and pushed it open.

  “Is it long and hard?”

  She startled a laugh out of him.

  “No, you’ve already had that. I got you something else. Come here.”

  He took her hand and led her around to the spot where he’d parked her Honda Rebel that first fateful night when she went looking for trouble. In its place sat a gray Honda CBR650F.

  “Wow.” Madison stared at the sport bike, her jaw slightly unhinged.

  “It’s got a lot more speed and maneuverability than the Rebel. Just watch out for cops, they’ll think you’re out hot-rodding.”

  “I can’t accept this.”

  “Consider it on loan then.”

  “How did you get this so fast?”

  “I know a guy.”

  She glanced over her shoulder, gaze narrowing once more.

  Aiden held up his hands. “It’s all good, I swear. This guy only works on bikes and every now and then he has something he’s looking to sell. Lots of guys buy these things, their wives get pissed or they can’t make the payments and if he thinks he can flip it, he’ll do them a solid and take it off their hands. I was just lucky enough to hit him up when he had something suitable.”

  “I’ll use it today, but I hope you got a receipt,” she said.

  He stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He wouldn’t tell her he planned on keeping her. Yet. He had to be sure his plan would work.

  “Use it for however long you need to.” He kissed her cheek. “Text me when you get to work?”

  “I will. What about—the shipment?”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “What’s wrong with the cars?” Her voice was small, no doubt hurting once more by yet another deception. Dustin had kept her right where he wanted her. He hadn’t lied when he’d told Aiden that much.

  “It’s best if you don’t know.”

  There was the distance. It wasn’t a physical one, but in that moment he felt her pull away from him. That wasn’t about to happen. When this was over, when she was safe, he’d tell her everything. If she could accept his secrets, she could accept the truth of what his life had been like for the last couple of years.

  John’s pickup eased around the corner. He had a cap on with large sunglasses to obscure his face. Aiden was willing to bet he’d even changed the plates out.

  “I’d better get to work,” she said.

  “Madison.”

  Aiden didn’t let her go. He grasped her face in his hands and kissed her. She jolted at the first press of their lips, but in a matter of seconds her mouth softened and her hands came up to rest on his chest. He groaned. She kissed him back, throwing herself into it just like she did everything.

  God, he was going to miss her, but in a few hours, he would never have to part with her again.

  He lifted his head, staring down at her, and swiped his thumb over her cheek.

  “Get to work before I lock you up.” He let go of her face and patted her bottom as she pivoted.

  “You could try.” Her smile, it did things to him deep down.

  She put the new helmet on and got on the bike. She started the engine and sat there for a moment, studying the console.

  He wanted to rip her off that bike, kiss her until she panted, and maybe make use of a large backseat—but there was no time for that right now. Later, they’d have all the time in the world.<
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  Madison glanced back, her face obscured by the tinted shield. She waved then pushed off, easing through the parking lot before turning onto the street.

  He leaned against the side of the garage, staring at the last point he’d seen her. The last thing he wanted to do was let her go, but the work she was doing with them was going to stop a criminal. He loved her a little bit more for it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Aiden leaned against the hood of the loaner Shelby Mustang at the main parking area for Hallandale Beach. He knew this was a bit of a drive for Dustin, who preferred to be closer to central Miami and the high-rolling party people. But that was the point. Dustin was desperate if he was going to go after Madison himself. That meant this deal needed to go down in a very public place, with lots of witnesses around.

  “Aiden, what’s your twenty?” CJ said in his ear.

  “I am sipping a chocolate shake about twenty feet south of the Ocean Drive entrance. There’s a palm tree on my left.”

  “I see you. Any sign of Dustin?”

  “Nah, but I’m early. Any word from the Hoovers?”

  They had an opportunity to wrap this up tight. Between the information Emery was putting together and the impending shipment, they could nail Evers’s ass to the wall.

  “Yeah. You aren’t going to like it. They say it’s not enough. Do our thing. If we get more on them, they’ll back us up.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “No. I just got off the horn with Emery. Looks like the operation is split up Colombian-style. Evers is the warehouse. Ross is the sales hub. The shipment’s coming in through someone else, which is why we’ve never been able to sic the DEA on them. We got a couple of aliases for a guy who is a partner or shareholder in a couple import-export companies. They’ve been using another airport on the other side of Miami, but it’s undergoing expansion. The only other airport with the right runway length is—”

  “Everglades Air.” Aiden sipped his shake when all he wanted to do was punch something. This was a load of bullshit. Now they had to prove the connection? Their crew was agile, inventive, and very talented, but the scope and size of what CJ was proposing was daunting.

  Right then, Aiden hated the FBI. He was angry enough he might walk—except there was Madison. He had to make something stick to Evers for her sake. This wasn’t about revenge anymore. It hadn’t been for a long time. It was about justice. Doing the right thing, but sometimes that sucked.