Pedal to the Metal

by Jesse J. Thoma

  They pulled into the same downtown location they left the previous car they’d stolen and parked. They wiped down the car for prints and locked the doors on their way out. They took off at a good clip away from the car. Max texted Holt that they were safely away. Holt would probably call it in and give the cops a heads up where to find the car. She would say it was a tip she got when she picked someone up, but whether they believed her or not was another story.

  “I always feel like I could fly after I pull off a job,” Dubs said. “That rush is what I always imagined crack is like.”

  “I was just starting to come down,” Max said, “and then that cop started following us. That just shot the adrenaline back through the roof. You’re a bad influence on me.”

  “I hope you don’t mean that.”

  “Only in the best kind of way.”

  “How are we getting home?” Dubs asked.

  “In a hurry?” Max looked amused.

  “I’ve got my normal post job buzz, I’ve got you walking next to me, flirting away, and the whole time I was working, I had you sitting over there in the passenger seat, looking so good I considered pulling over and letting you drive, just so I could stare at you. So yeah, I’m a little eager to get home.”

  “I like that you’re the one in charge when we’re working like this,” Max said. “It’s hot as hell.”

  “Tell me more about that.”

  “Probably can’t really do that,” Max said. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

  “That’s too bad,” Dubs said. “I was really looking forward to hearing about it.”

  “Hmm,” Max said. “I wonder if there’s something else I could do.”

  “You’re brilliant, Pretty Girl. I’m sure you’ll think of something.” She was enjoying this back-and-forth so much she barely registered that they weren’t moving anymore. Max had pulled them to the side. They were stopped against the brick façade of one of the old mill buildings that littered the city.

  “Why are we stopped?” Dubs asked.

  “Well, we’re waiting for our ride,” Max said. “And I also figured out how I can explain just how damned hot it is to see you hot-wiring a car and driving like a boss.”

  “I can’t wait to hear it,” Dubs said. It felt like her whole body was pins and needles with anticipation.

  “Only way to do it is to show you,” Max said quietly. She leaned against the wall and pulled Dubs to her. She put one of her boot soles up, flat against the wall and wrapped her arms around Dubs’s waist.

  Dubs didn’t wait for Max to kiss her. As soon as Max pulled her close, she wrapped her arms around Max’s neck and initiated an aggressive, greedy kiss. She didn’t feel like she could get enough. Apparently, Max felt the same way, as she deepened the kiss and pulled Dubs even closer, cupping her ass tightly and holding her close.

  As their tongues danced together, their lips meeting and parting again, Dubs let her hands wander, first over Max’s short-cropped hair, then over her thin, strong shoulders. Max had her hands all over Dubs’s back and ass.

  When they took a second to catch their breath, Dubs nuzzled into Max’s neck. She felt the excitement of kissing Max throughout her body, but the sensation in her stomach wasn’t arousal; it was an emotion-driven feeling she had only ever felt one time before. It reaffirmed what she suspected. Max meant a lot to her. Maybe too much.

  Max trailed a line of kisses from Dubs’s earlobe down the side of her neck. It was all Dubs could do not to take this further. She almost didn’t care they were in public.

  “You ladies need a ride home? Or should I circle the block? I can see it wasn’t a hardship that I got stuck in a little traffic,” Lola said from behind them.

  Dubs tried to pull away quickly, not wanting Max to be uncomfortable in front of Lola, but Max didn’t let her go right away.

  “It’s okay,” Max whispered. “Lola won’t say anything.” Max kissed her lightly, and this time the kiss felt filled with affection.

  Dubs let her hand slide off Max’s shoulder and down her chest before she turned toward Lola and the truck.

  Dubs climbed in, taking the middle seat on the bench. Max followed.

  “So,” Lola said. “How was the job? Anything exciting happen?”

  “Easy as pie,” Dubs said. “Car’s at the drop spot, so our line’s in the water. Hopefully, we get a few bites.”

  “Well, you two…Oh, never mind, that’s just too easy,” Lola said. “Were you practicing your undercover work?”

  “Clearly,” Dubs said. “How’d it look? Convincing?”

  “Very good,” Lola said. “I think half the block will need a cold shower this evening. For real, though, I’m not telling Holt anything other than the official report. You know that, right, kids?”

  “Thanks, Lola,” Max said.

  “That’s not going to stop me from giving you my advice,” Lola said. “Which is, be kind to one another.” They were already back at the office. “And for this evening, remember that the walls in this place are thin, and I’m only one apartment away. I don’t own earplugs.”

  “Screw you,” Max said with a laugh as she got out of the truck. Dubs followed.

  “I didn’t know I was invited,” Lola said.

  “You’re not,” Dubs said, winking at Lola and slamming the truck door. She and Max walked hand in hand as fast as they could to Max’s apartment.

  Chapter Twenty

  Max had barely closed the door to her apartment before she felt Dubs’s hands wrap around her waist from behind and spread across her stomach. She braced her hands on the back of the door and let Dubs explore.

  First, Dubs moved over her stomach, then over her sides. When Dubs pressed her palms flat over Max’s chest, she turned around and took Dubs in her arms.

  “You’re not stopping this again, are you?” Dubs asked.

  “Only if you want me to,” Max said.

  Dubs kissed her, and Max took that as her answer.

  “You’ve been staring at my chest all night,” Dubs said. “You finally going to do something about it?”

  Max spun her around so Dubs was against the door.

  “Not my fault,” Max said, kissing a line down Dubs’s neck. “You wore that tank top to drive me insane.”

  “You’re still all talk, Pretty Girl,” Dubs said, although she sounded far more out of breath than she had before.

  Max bit down gently on the exposed skin just above the line of Dubs’s low-cut tank top, then pulled the tiny tank top over Dubs’s head and tossed it across the room. Before Max could focus any attention on Dubs’s bare chest, Dubs kissed her, hard and started moving them toward the bed. Max pulled Dubs close and enjoyed every naked inch of her back and lower torso that she could get her hands on.

  When Max’s calves made contact with the edge of the bed, Dubs pushed her back, forcing her to sit, and then straddled her lap. Dubs was taller than Max by just enough to provide Max access to her breasts. Max ran her tongue around them, without touching a nipple until it was hard and Dubs was begging her for more. She finally gave in and took the nipple in her mouth, teasing Dubs’s other breast with her hand. Dubs held on to Max’s shoulders and rocked her hips against Max’s stomach.

  Max held Dubs’s ass tightly, encouraging her. She switched back and forth between Dubs’s breasts until it became clear Dubs couldn’t take it anymore. She tried to push Max back onto the bed, but Max flipped Dubs onto her back instead.

  “You’ve got too many clothes on, Pretty Girl,” Dubs said. She pulled Max’s T-shirt over her head and off, taking her sports bra with it.

  “So do you,” Max said. She helped Dubs wriggle out of her jeans. As soon as they were off, Max worked hers off as well.

  Max took a moment to admire how truly beautiful Dubs was. She knew if she didn’t say it right now, she might not find the courage, so she blurted it out. “You’re incredibly beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  “And you, Max, are more than
I know what to do with.”

  Max saw real, true, vulnerable emotion for a moment in Dubs’s eyes. That alone was overwhelming. The fact that it was replaced by a hunger so strong it hit her like a wave pulse practically made her brain short-circuit.

  “Can you see how bad I want you?” Dubs asked.

  “Show me.”

  Dubs kissed her again, so intensely the kiss in and of itself felt like enough to send Max soaring. It was certainly enough to make her feel a frenzy unlike anything she had felt before. She had to make Dubs feel pleasure right now, in all ways she could think of. She reached between their bodies and dipped her hand into Dubs’s wetness.

  She rolled them both over so Dubs was now on top and slid her hand farther down. Dubs straddled her stomach, and Max slipped two fingers inside. She matched the rhythm of Max’s hand with her hips. She threw back her head and looked to the ceiling in pleasure as Max moved her thumb along her clit in motion with their movement. With her other hand, she worked from one of Dubs’s breasts to the other, making circles around first one nipple then the other.

  Dubs came hard, collapsing onto Max’s chest. She slowly withdrew her fingers, but kept a steady rhythm on Dubs’s clit, eliciting another orgasm.

  Dubs grinned at Max and moved down her body, kissing her as she went. Max bunched her hands in the sheets. She could barely stand what Dubs was doing, and she was only trailing kisses down non-sensitive areas.

  When Dubs reached the apex of Max’s thighs, she spread Max’s legs slightly and ran her tongue along the length of Max’s clit. Max thought she was going to come off the bed with pleasure. And when she did it again, Max twisted her upper body sideways.

  “Pretty Girl, you’re wound so tight,” Dubs said. “I bet I can help.”

  Max couldn’t even respond. She was helpless under Dubs’s touch.

  Dubs took Max’s clit in her mouth, sucking it in. Max was wound so tight she came almost instantly. Dubs continued to run her tongue along Max’s clit until she came twice more, until she was begging her to stop.

  “I’ve wanted to have sex with you since I first laid eyes on you,” Dubs said, nuzzled in Max’s arms. “It’s better now though, now that I know you, and care about you.”

  “I like you too,” Max said. “And this.”

  “Maybe after the case is over, I could stick around and we could still sleep in the same bed, and sometimes it could even be naked,” Dubs said.

  Max thought she sounded shy, which was very unlike Dubs, and was also completely adorable. “I would like that very much.”

  “Good,” Dubs said.

  They fell asleep in one another’s arms.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Dubs heard her phone text alert, forcing her from sexy dreams into the unpleasant world outside Max’s apartment. Dubs checked the text, although she knew what it was going to say. It was the same as the last six or seven she had received from various acquaintances from her past. The pressure to take up their challenge was getting more and more difficult to resist.

  This text was different. It didn’t give her the same options and reasons for why she should take the challenge and clear Levi’s name. This one simply said, “Last chance. It’s on in an hour. State House. Move your ass.”

  She considered waking Max up and talking to her about the text, but she knew what she would say. This wasn’t a problem for Holt. What could she do? This was her problem to solve. Her past to put to rest. She checked to make sure Max was still asleep and slipped out of bed.

  She dressed quickly, for the first time forgoing her makeup as she got ready to work. She was about to walk out the door when she paused. She felt guilty for thinking of handcuffing Max to the bed, but she also didn’t want Holt to think Max had let her go freely. She wondered if Max would forgive her for slipping out, or if she was fracturing the bond they had spent the last weeks building.

  She grabbed the handcuffs that usually tied the two of them together in the evenings and carefully slipped one end around Max’s wrist. She attached the other side to one of the rails on Max’s headboard. She stopped to blow Max a kiss before she snuck out the door, and tried to ignore the way her heart felt as though it were fractured glass.

  Once she was in the hallway, she moved as fast as she could out of the building. The last thing she needed was Lola spotting her and keeping her from getting to the State House. She texted one of her past contacts and asked for a ride. She wasn’t about to steal one of Holt’s cars. She wasn’t going to cross that line.

  Tony, the man who had found her at the beach what seemed like ages ago, picked her up. “Took you long enough, Dubs,” he said.

  “What’s it to you?” Dubs said. “You never cared about my reputation. Levi’s either. You didn’t even like the guy.”

  “Things change, Dubs,” Tony said. “And they’re saying nasty stuff about you. Besides, I want to see if you can do what they’re asking. They say you’re a pussy now. You’re working for the government and you’ve lost your balls.”

  “I don’t even know where to start with that,” Dubs said. “What do they want me to do?”

  “The governor is arriving in about thirty minutes in a caravan. You have to steal the lead car and deliver it to a group waiting for you down by the docks. The trick is not having a soul on your ass when you get there.”

  Dubs didn’t think much of the challenge. It wasn’t a challenge for a car thief. It was a challenge for a stunt driver. This felt off, but she didn’t say anything to Tony. The lead car in the governor’s caravan was likely to be a state police SUV, and stealing it was probably as hard as sitting in the driver’s seat and pushing the gas pedal. In her experience, the cruisers were usually either still running, or at the very least still had the keys in the ignition. This was nothing like what Levi had to do.

  When they got near the State House, Tony dropped Dubs off, wished her luck, and sped off. She saw a familiar face, Rich waiting for her on the corner.

  “Did Tony tell you what you have to do?” Rich asked.

  “Sure,” Dubs said. “What the fuck for, though?”

  “Because that’s what the challenge is,” Rich said. “You stepping up or not? You going to go down in flames like your boy Levi?”

  “Fuck you,” Dubs said. “You want me to prove to you I can put a car in drive and not hit anything on the way out of a driveway, fine. You want me to be able to keep a fucking car on the road, hey, I can do that too. Maybe tomorrow I can use a knife and a fork and fully masticate my food.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind, you dumb fuck.” She was thinking about Max, wondering if she had woken up yet and realized she was gone. Her heart ached when she thought about seeing her again, especially when she considered that Max might not want anything to do with her anymore. This hardly seemed worth it, but it was what they wanted from her. It was the code of the street.

  “You’re up,” Rich said.

  Dubs moved closer to the State House. She leaned on the marble railing surrounding the courtyard in front of the main entrance. She could see the caravan making its way up the street toward her. She waited until they pulled into the courtyard before she moved closer.

  As she suspected, the first car was indeed a state police SUV. The governor of Rhode Island was protected by the state police, so most of the vehicles in his caravan were marked or unmarked state police cars.

  The governor and his handlers, escorts, protection, and other staffers got out of vehicles and made their way inside. A few officers stood near the back of the line of cars, but for the most part, the caravan was unattended. Dubs found that strange, but she proceeded with her task at hand.

  She moved swiftly but stealthily to the first SUV and opened the door quietly. As she suspected might be the case, the keys were in the ignition and the engine was running. Once she was in the driver’s seat, she wasted no time getting out of the courtyard and onto the roadway. She glanced in the rearview and saw the officers who had remained with the ot
her caravan vehicles running to cars, flipping on lights and sirens, and coming after her. As a general rule, after stealing a car she drove slowly and calmly to avoid detection. Now she had the pedal to the floor.

  She flew along the surface streets around the State House, weaving in and out of what little traffic was on the road at this hour. She ran four red lights before she had gone a mile. She made three quick turns and circled back the way she came, effectively losing her police pursuit for the time being.

  She pulled into an alley for a moment and backed in as far as she could. The alley had outlets on both ends and an escape midway in, so she felt relatively safe taking a moment to plot her fastest, most effective route to the docks. She didn’t want to get into a high-speed chase with the police through downtown Providence if she could avoid it.

  Before she had time to fully consider her options two large, black SUVs pulled into the alley, one in front and one behind her. They were moving fast. Dubs’s heart rate jumped a few beats per minute. She knew aggressive, unfriendly driving when she saw it. She slammed the SUV in gear and headed for the mid alley escape route. She always left herself multiple outlets, but she was especially glad for it now.

  She hit the tee outlet hard, clipping the back bumper of the SUV as she made the tight turn. The two pursuing cars had to slam on their brakes and come to a full stop, as neither had yielded to the other, before they could follow. It bought her valuable breathing room and she didn’t waste it. She shot out of the alley, nearly hitting another car, and sped off down the side street.

  The gas pedal was almost to the floor, even on the surface streets, as she tried to get away from whoever was behind her in those SUVs. She didn’t think they were police. That meant her problems were compounded now. She considered the possibility she had been set up and thought about the bomb-laden SUV at Holt’s place. Her stomach turned.