by Nicole Fox
“Cory, I’m gonna ask you one question—did you honest-to-fucking-God boost a car?”
While the first man, Cory, was unconventionally handsome, the second man looked like he’d been the inspiration for something carved out of marble and put on display in a museum somewhere. He was tall and all muscle, his tight white sleeveless shirt straining against his bulging pecs and wide, beefy shoulders. Tattoos snaked up and along his thick arms. If I hadn’t been scared stiff at that moment, the second man’s face would’ve done the trick. He was gorgeous, to put it lightly. His eyes were a bright sparkling blue set among a face of all straight lines, his jaw wide and chin cleft. His lips were full and sensual, and his nose was straight and strong. A shaved head completed the picture, and though the hair was shorn short, I could see that it was the same dark brown, almost black, as his brother’s.
“Cory, you stupid, stupid motherfucker!” shouted the second man, his voice booming, his icy eyes glowering hard down at me. “This kind of shit is exactly why we buy a used fucking car for these jobs!”
“I’m sorry, Russell. I’m fuckin’ sorry,” said Cory. “I had no fuckin’ idea that there was someone in the fuckin’ car.”
Cory seemed shaken to his core by his brother’s anger. I could already see a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead.
Right at that moment, I gathered enough presence of mind for my fight-or-flight instinct to kick in. Without thinking, I squirmed away, the rocks pressing hard against the bare skin of my arms and legs. It must’ve been a sorry display, since neither of the two men even bothered to chase after me.
“Damn, look at her go,” said Cory. “At this rate, she might just wriggle out of here in the next few hours.”
“Cory, shut the fuck up,” said Russell.
I struggled to my feet, rocks kicking out from under me as I did. But before I could even begin to prepare to run, Russell rushed over to me with incredible speed. He grabbed me hard by the arm, pulled it behind my back, and shoved me against the car.
“If you know what the fuck’s good for you, you won’t try anything like that again,” said Russell, leaning in, his breath hot against my face.
As fucked up as it sounds, I couldn’t help but take in his manly scent as he pressed against me. My face was smushed up against the glass, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that Cory still looked pretty damn worried about the whole situation.
“Cory,” said Russell. “Do you know what the fuck this is?”
“I don’t know, bro,” said Cory. “Um, a fuckin’ girl?”
“No fucking shit it’s a girl,” said Russell. “But what this really is, is a fucking major goddamn problem.”
“Listen, Russell,” said Cory, a pleading tone to his voice. “I’m really fuckin’ sorry. I screwed up.”
Russell held his hand up, silencing his brother. He continued to stare at me with those piercing blue eyes, his hard stare making me feel small and insignificant.
“Please,” I said.
Now it was my turn to plead.
“You can take whatever you want; take the care—I don’t care,” I continued. “Just let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone about either of you.”
Russell’s face stayed still and impassive. Cory and I both watched him carefully, both of us eager to see what kind of decision he’d make. His eyes flicked over to the bag of guns, and he seemed to be getting more and more pissed off by the second.
“This …” he said finally, “is exactly why I hate running with hot cars. Now, bro, I’m gonna ask you what you did with the money that I gave you to buy the used car; it better be an answer that I’m happy with. And I’m gonna know if you’re lying.”
Cory was sweating bullets now. Judging by how on-edge Russell was making Cory, it was easy to see just who was the dominant one in this particular dynamic.
“I … uh, um, you know. I got my stuff.”
With the same speed that he’d used to hold me down, Russell exploded through the air and grabbed onto Cory, swinging him around and throwing him back against the car, right where I’d been only a moment before. He slammed him against my car so hard that I wondered if he’d seriously hurt him.
“You got your fuckin’ ‘stuff,’ huh? Is that what you’re calling it now? Huh? Maybe even a little leftover to blow on whores later?”
“I’m sorry, Russ,” Cory stammered, appearing completely broken by his brother’s onslaught. “I won’t pull this shit again, I promise.”
Russell looked over his brother once again, his eyes moving up and down in one final, judging glare.
“Fucking disaster of a human being, you know that?” said Russell. “You’re goddamn lucky you’re my brother; any other low-life shithead pulled this shit he’d be going down there with this fucking car.”
“But,” offered Cory, his voice weak, “I just figured we’d have so much money from this job that me taking a little off the top wouldn’t matter.”
I shuddered at that. I’d just met Russell—if you could call this horrible situation a “meeting”—and even I knew that Cory was really pressing his luck.
Russell took a deep breath, and I got the sense he was calming himself down as not to fly into a rage that would end in him pitching his brother down into the quarry.
“The money isn’t the goddamn point. What is, is that I need to be able to trust you to follow simple, clear fucking orders. How the hell can I work with someone who I can’t trust, huh?”
“Sorry, Russ,” said Cory.
“I don’t want to hear your goddamn sorries. We got a situation to deal with, and that’s all I give a shit about right now.”
Russell appeared ready to let his brother go, but had one last thing to say.
“Consider yourself on fucking notice.”
Cory nodded weakly.
He let go of his brother, who scurried away. Then he turned his eyes back to me.
“Now, what are we going to do with this little thing? I mean, she’s seen both of our faces, heard both of our names, and knows just what kind of shit we’re getting up to tonight. Isn’t that right?”
He stared hard at me. For a moment, I considered lying. But judging by the harsh tone he had taken with his own brother, I thought better of it. If this was how he treated his own brother, I doubted he’d go too easy on someone like me lying right to his face.
“I … I do.”
Russell nodded in confirmation.
“But please,” I said. “Don’t hurt me. I won’t tell anyone; please.”
Russell appeared to be considering any number of options. I got the sense that he was the calculating type, the plans-on-top-of-plans sort of criminal, as opposed to his brother, who seemed to be anything but that.
Several long moments passed as he considered just what to do. I knew that my life was being weighed right then, and all it would take was a word from him and I’d be dead.
“Get your shit out of the car,” he said finally. “And hurry it up.”
“Are … you gonna kill me?” I asked.
“Just get your shit. That car’s going over the edge.”
I nodded, realizing that I’d just had a stay of execution. Opening the back driver’s side door of my doomed car, I was presented with the sight of what amounted to my entire life piled in the back. Nothing but some clothes, a few toiletries, a couple of pairs of shoes, and the little money I had. I sifted through my belongings, realizing that there really wasn’t anything here worth saving. And on top of that, if I didn’t have my car to stay in, I was sunk—I might as well just be dead.
Those last words lingered in my mind as I went through my things.
Might as well be dead.
I stood up and looked over into the black void of the quarry. With careful steps, I approached the edge and stared down. All I could see below was the shimmering purple of the water, and even that was tough to make out. Anyone who fell down that distance probably wouldn’t be able to be told apart from the wreckage of their car.
“Shut the fuck up,” said Russ, evidently not yet over his anger at his brother. “What the hell you doing?”
The thought of Logan finding me gnawed at me, even then. Even if these guys let me go, it was only a matter of time before he found me. Especially if I didn’t even have a car. And wandering around on foot … it was about as stupid as it got.
No, the only option I had was to start over, to toss my old life behind and try again with a new one, with a clean slate. And that’s exactly what I could have right now.
“Is there …” I started, turning away from the quarry and walking back towards the brothers, “… any way you could kill me?”
“What?” shot out Cory. “What the fuck are you talking about, lady? Man, I thought I was joking about you being into that car.”
Russell held up his hand again.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I mean, fake kill me,” I said. “My life, um, well, my life is kind of a disaster right now. It’s nothing I even give a shit about saving, really. But if you could make it look like I went down into the quarry along with the car ... it’d give me the second chance I needed.”
Then Russell flashed me about the sexiest smile that I’ve ever seen. It was a scheming smile, his eyes narrowed and his sensual lips pulled up at one end just a bit. For some reason, he seemed to be on board with what I was asking.
“You want me to help you fake your death?” he said.
“This girl’s fuckin’ crazy,” said Cory. “Fake your death? Why the hell would you want that? You already got a second chance with us not fuckin’ killing you.”
Russell ignored his brother and appeared to give what I was asking some serious consideration. Then his eyes moved slowly up and down my body, his gaze starting at my face and sliding down. Normally, I would’ve felt uncomfortable by what he was doing, but something about Russell … I couldn’t explain it.
“You want our help, then?” he asked.
“Um, yes.” I said. “Just to make it look like I went down with the car.”
Russell walked over to the quarry and took a look over.
“Fucking abyss down there,” he said. “Easy for a body to get lost forever. Connects to the river system, too. Cops would probably find out who you were from the plates and figure you got swept away. Dead on impact. Case closed.”
My hopes rose just a little with that. Was he considering what I was asking?
“I think I might be able to help you with this,” he said. “But there’s a price to be paid.”
I didn’t even think it over. Maybe I should’ve.
“Fine,” I said. “Anything.”
“This is such a bad fuckin’ idea, Russ,” said Cory. “Just send this bitch packing; we don’t need to get involved in all this shit.”
Russell ignored him again, instead flashing me another sly smile.
“Then let’s do it.”
He walked over to the back of the car and sized the situation up.
“Nothing in there you want?” he asked.
“Nope,” I said, not missing a beat.
Russell opened the driver’s side door and gave the parking break a pull. Then he returned to the back of the car and gave it a push. The car lurched a few inches, the gravel crackling under the weight of the tires.
“Cory, get over here and help.”
Cory shuffled over, and I could tell by his body language that he was still having major hesitations about what we were doing. The two of them placed their hands on the back of the car and prepared to shove. I watched with eager eyes, ready to see the only physical proof of my old life tip over the edge of the quarry and sink into the black.
“You know what?” said Russell. “You get over here and help too.”
My eyes went wide, and for a brief second I wanted to say something about him not being very gentlemanly. But I checked myself and did as he asked.
“You’re getting your hands dirty with this shit, too,” he said.
I nodded and turned towards the car, my hands on the cool metal.
“All right,” said Russell. “On three. One, two, three—””
We all gave the car a shove. It moved quickly over the gravel, and once it started moving under its own weight we took our hands off of it. It rolled down towards the edge and disappeared off.
Just like that, it was gone.
Seconds later, I heard a dull splashing sound. I rushed over to the side of the quarry and looked over. Barely, I could see the outline of the car in the purple water below, but only for a second. A few moments later, it sank into the water.
“Done,” said Russell, turning to me as he dusted his hands. “Now you’re dead.”
I felt a sense of relief wash over me. If this plan worked, then I was now a free woman. Logan would find out sooner or later that my car had been found in the quarry, and he’d have to assume that I was dead. His search would be called off, and that would be it. Sure, there was the issue of me officially no longer being alive, but I knew I could figure out the details later.
But as of now, I was a woman disappeared. My new life started right then and there. Little did I know what kind of life lay ahead of me.
Chapter Five
Alyssa
“Now what the fuck are we gonna do with this chick?” asked Cory. “We still got a job to do, after all.”
Russell gave the matter some thought, knowing that his brother was right.
“I’ve got something in mind,” he said, looking me over once again. “You’re coming with us.”
“What?” I asked. “Why? What do you want with me?”
“No questions,” said Russell. “I just did you the favor to end all favors. We’re about to do a sale. You come with us, stay in the car, and I’ll figure out what we’re doing with you after that.”
“Oh. Okay.”
What else could I say? He was right—he’d done me a favor that could’ve very well saved my life. ’I wasn’t sure what exactly I could help him with, but it was the least I could do.
“Jesus, bro,” said Cory. “You’re outta your mind with this shit.”
Russell didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he grabbed the bag of weapons off of the ground and headed off. He disappeared into the dark of the nearby trees, and Cory hurried after him.
My heart was pounding in my chest. What did he have in mind with me? Had I just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire? Either way, I didn’t really have a choice, unless I wanted to take my chances on my own. And with no identity and only a few dollars to my name, that didn’t sound like a particularly appealing option.
So, I followed the brothers into the woods. I soon caught up with them and we walked in silence.
“Where’s that other car?” asked Cory.
“You mean the one I bought used, like we were supposed to?” Russell responded, his tone sardonic.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Cory. “We almost there?”
But before Russell responded, we arrived at a small clearing in the woods. Parked there was a black truck, the bed covered with a large piece of tarp. Russell opened the back of the truck and heaved the guns under the tarp.
“Get in,” said Russell. “We’re running late.”
The three of us piled into the truck. There weren’t any backseats, so I was crammed between the brothers. And as Russell started the engine and began to drive down the unpaved road that led from the clearing onto the main highway, I couldn’t help but notice how hard and warm his arm was against my body.
Jesus, Alyssa, I thought to myself. This isn’t the time to be thinking about stuff like that.
But I couldn’t help it.
We drove in silence, the car rumbling quietly over the road. Eventually, we arrived back in New York, the glittering towers of Manhattan appearing in the distance. My stomach tightened as
we arrived; though I was probably a little safer with these two, I still couldn’t shake the idea that I was going right back into the city from which I had been trying to escape. Every pedestrian that we passed seemed to have Logan’s face.