“I’ve stolen cars.” Arash pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders and Stephanie next to him, bringing her naked body closer to his. “Before I went straight, I stole bicycles, car parts, food.” They sat on a long couch in the bedroom, facing the tall windows. The landscape was black and gray, like torn pieces of paper laid on each other. Reno glowed far away. There wasn’t another person for miles around them. “Right now I’m trying to figure out how to steal a house.”
“Rich people steal houses. People in power take land.” She stared out the window. Emotion shimmered in her voice. “It almost happened to a friend of mine. It was the reason Frontier Justice was formed in the first place. Nineteenth-century people in the West having their lives taken, just for money. Someone had to protect them. And that fight hasn’t stopped.”
“I guess someone’s living in the house my parents had to run from.” If he could steal this house it would be for his folks. He could always find another one nearby. “They had just enough money to get out of Tehran, but they had to start from almost zero in the States.”
“I’m glad they’re safe.” She ran her hand down his arm and held his wrist. “Glad they raised a good man.”
“I wasn’t always.” He shifted the blanket to reach into the half-eaten package of cookies. “But my folks had been lawyers, and if I understood anything back then, it was that I couldn’t be as bad as I’d been once I reached my eighteenth birthday. That’s when the real consequences showed up.”
“I never had consequences. We had money to take care of that.” She took some cookies but just held them.
“So where’d your conscience come from?” He ate the cookie and brushed the crumbs from her bare leg.
“I got a job. My dad was furious, but I thought that if I was going to go into the family business, I had to look at all aspects.” Her words floated in the dark, as if lighting more corners of her to discover. “I finally started to see that the people who took care of everything all around me were actually people. I got out of the family business and everything fell into place when a stranger who’s now a friend showed up to tell me the history of my ancestor, Li Jie, and Frontier Justice.”
“Sounds like a wild ride.”
“It has been.” She pulled closer to him and he twined his leg in with hers. “It still is.”
“My friend in high school, Marcos, he didn’t get out of the game when I did.” None of Arash’s new social circle knew about Marcos. His parents had met him back when he and his friend were teens but had dismissed him as being unreliable. Arash had never given up. “Kept trying to get him to go straight, come to trade school with me or just get a steady job at a garage. But the addiction was rough, any treatment plans were too expensive and he would just go for the fast money. He was a good driver and people were always willing to pay.”
“I’m really sorry.” She stroked the back of his neck in a slow, soothing rhythm.
“As soon as I had enough money, I was going to open my own garage.” All of those plans were now further away than the distant dark horizon below. “There was going to be a place for Marcos there.”
“What will you work on there?” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Sport tuners? Street racers?”
“It was going to be like a neighborhood walk-in clinic. With a sliding scale for payment. People rely on cars for their work, for their lives. We would be keeping them moving.”
“Like the woman with the bad piston pin in the parking lot.”
“Exactly.” Sadness sank into him, knowing this would probably never happen now. He might not live through the next few days. “I could make deals with parts companies to subsidize the work. And we’d have a whole training program, getting kids in there to learn.”
“Training the next generation.” She kissed his shoulder. “I love your idea.” Her gaze rose to his and he didn’t need the blanket with all the warmth in her eyes. “You have an amazing heart.”
“It’s just dreams.”
“Some people have dreams of wielding the power to destroy and hurt people.”
“I joined Olesk’s gang to hurt him.” How pure was his own heart?
“Because he’s the one whose dreams are polluted by money and dominance. You’ve seen what that makes him do.”
“If my ancestors had created a vigilante group, I would’ve joined it.” Arash would never forget the stained asphalt and concrete.
“Join ours.”
He stared back at her. She was serious, unwavering. He didn’t doubt her heart as much as he did his own. The group she belonged to seemed so focused and organized. They reached out to help people. His only thought had been revenge. What had started as a drive to let his friend finally rest now felt selfish. But how could he shift from that when it had been his sole motor? “I’ll watch your back and help how I can, but I’m not joining up with a team like yours. You’re following a different set of rules.”
She nodded and remained next to him. No hard sell. She wasn’t just trying to make him an asset in her fight. And he couldn’t think of her as that, either. Though he didn’t know how to define her. He only knew that his chest felt fuller when he saw her, and his blood ran hotter when she was this close to him.
But this night with her was only a brief gasp for air before they both had to dive back under again. Where, if he wasn’t careful, any second the pressure could crush him. He couldn’t let that happen. Not for Marcos. Not for Stephanie, who was in as much danger, if not more.
The atmosphere on the other side of the blanket chilled and sank heavier around them. Slowly, they parted and arranged themselves. The lithe curves of her naked body disappeared under her clothes. She holstered her pistol and covered it with her jacket. He took on the armor of his jeans and boots again. It was all cold, and he could only hold on to the warmth from Stephanie deep in his core.
They collected anything personal or that could identify them, left the bed and couch in disarray and left the house through the same window they broke in. The wilds of the hills seemed closer during the walk to the car. It was late and quiet in the winter night, perfect for predators. He handed her the keys to the minivan and they climbed back into the machine.
Stephanie’s face was unreadable as she started the car. The engine blasted the silence to the far corners of the valley.
“Turn it loose,” he said, and braced himself on the door. She threw it in Drive, stepped on the gas and rocketed them forward. They plunged into the twisting roads of the development, and she remained incredibly calm while the tires squealed around corners and the minivan devoured the curves. The fishtailing still bothered him, but they had a solution to fix it. Though thinking about working on the car back in the space with Olesk and the STR turned his stomach.
A means to a deadly end.
“We’re good.” A small smile graced her face as she put the minivan through its paces.
“Yes, we are.” And he didn’t want to think that they were also doomed. She would survive all this. He might not, but even if he did, how could the two of them fit together in the future?
The roads straightened and the minivan shot out of the small valley. He wanted to keep the darkness all around them, like the blanket that had kept their naked bodies together and safe. The lights of Olesk’s compound appeared in the hills ahead. She drove closer, the smile long gone from her face.
By the time they arrived at the house, there was only one window lit, high up in the master suite, where he supposed Olesk was with Ellie. Stephanie parked in the work area around back and they entered the house through the kitchen. Everything was quiet, the air still. After replacing the keys in the garage, he walked up the stairs with her.
They stood in the hallway between their rooms. He knew her now, and had shown her himself. They were secrets to everyone else. Reaching forward, he took her hand. She was warm and curled her strength around him. They stepped together and shared a kiss. It was brief to anyone looking, but lasted long enough for him to tell her that he would never forget her.
IT WAS A terrible night to sleep alone. Her body had rested so heavily next to him on that couch. Drifting off would’ve been so easy, but nothing was that simple. They’d been able to find enough safety to feed some hungers. But the need to soak in this connection with Arash and let it remind her that there was some comfort in this world couldn’t be met.
The mattress on the floor in her bare room was not how she wanted to finish this night. She turned her mind to the memory of the two of them naked beneath the blanket and slowed her breath until sleep finally came.
She awoke before the dawn, startled to be so chilled and not warm in Arash’s arms. Sunrise wouldn’t come fast enough, no matter how much she tried to will it. Once the day started, then she could get her work done on the minivan, then maybe the gig would commence and she could wrap all this up.
As soon as the sun crested the eastern hills she was cleaned up and brewing coffee in the kitchen while arranging her breakfast. Bittersweet pain stabbed through her chest when Arash came down. This morning should be theirs. Slow. Quiet.
“Up early.” His face was hard when he first arrived, but a smile creased his eyes when he looked at her.
“You, too.”
He pulled out a bowl and a box of cereal. “Slept like hell.” His gravelly voice tempted her back to bed all over again.
“Me, too.” She poured them both coffee and they ate standing at the island.
The other members of the gang slowly came downstairs and gathered in the kitchen. Hector and Thom didn’t make eye contact with either Arash or Stephanie. Like adolescents unable to process the adult world. Olesk was business as usual, but Ellie shot a sly smile at Stephanie, who returned it before hiding behind a sip of coffee.
As everyone woke up, Arash explained to Olesk about the planned fix for the minivan. There were some other logistics discussed for the other builds, and the light workday grated at her patience. She wanted to be centered on the builds and how the gig was shaping up. Too much downtime would create pockets where she would get lost in wishing for circumstances with Arash she knew could never exist.
She was the first outside, Arash quickly behind her. It took too little time to replace the spare tire in the minivan and they stood staring at the vehicle. Everything else had been dialed in and tightened down. Her hands itched to wrench on something because they really wanted to be warmed under Arash’s jacket while she asked him more questions about the garage he dreamed of opening.
Hector and Thom were too protective of their builds to let either her or Arash touch them, even though she knew the work wasn’t up to her standards. Olesk and Ellie were under the hood of the Subaru. There’d been no new information about the job for the Seventh Syndicate and the clock wound tight in her.
She turned to Arash. “Should we take it out again?”
“We know it’ll handle great now.” Sadness shadowed his face and she understood they couldn’t race into the darkness again.
“There’s always more—” Distant thunder rolled toward the compound. The sky this day was a clear blue. No clouds for a storm. But it was coming. The growl grew louder, metallic. She recognized the rumble of an American muscle car, tuned to intimidate.
The sound drew her and Arash away from the minivan and along the side of the house. Thom and Hector followed until the four of them stood among the parked cars in the front, watching the road. A classic Chevy approached.
Arash spoke first. “1970 Chevy Chevelle SS.”
The car appeared black until it turned up the drive to the house and sunlight glinted on the angles, revealing purple iridescence. Specialized tires on custom rims moved it with sure stature. From the way it quivered going slow on the dirt drive, she saw that the car was intended for speed. Dark tinted windows hid the driver and passengers, if any.
By the time the car arrived at the front of the house, Olesk was approaching it. Ellie held back with Stephanie and the others. The Chevy stopped and the engine shut down, taking the rumble from the air around it.
The door opened and an Asian man in his twenties stepped out. Sunglasses worth at least two hundred dollars hung in the collar of his black T-shirt. Over that was a bloodred bomber jacket. His dark hair was styled in a slick wave. Olesk stepped to him and shook hands. They exchanged some quiet words while the unknown man glanced at Arash and Stephanie.
Trouble prickled up the back of her neck. The man was smooth and maintained casual confidence, but she saw the smallest twitch around his eyes when he looked at her. It was gone in a blink, but her dread remained. The man recognized her.
She tried to smooth her exterior, but Arash must’ve been tuned to her, or he’d seen the man’s tell. Arash asked, low, “Know him?”
“No.” She waited for Olesk to react as the two men continued talking, but if this new guy was outing whose daughter she was, Olesk remained perfectly neutral. “You?”
“Never seen him.” Arash shook his head.
“That’s David,” Hector explained. “A better driver than you’ll ever be.”
Arash kept his gaze on David while talking back to Hector. “You’ve never seen me drive.”
Hector spat back, “I don’t need to see any of what you can do to know this guy is better.”
Olesk walked David toward the others and said, “You know the old crew. But these are our latest additions, and working out very well. Wrenching, driving. Arash and Stephanie.”
David stepped to Arash, hand extended. “David.” He didn’t speak with an accent and she was sure from his mannerisms that he was born in the States.
Arash shook his hand without hostility. “Sweet Chevy.”
“Thanks, bro.” David flashed a friendly grin and turned to her. “Stephanie, right?” He said it as if trying to remember what Olesk had said. She didn’t buy it, but did shake his hand. He held on a fraction of a second too long.
Trip wires and traps were being set and she had to be more careful than ever. No one except her friends within Frontier Justice knew of her work there, but if David knew about her father, things could still complicate way beyond her control. Olesk had Arash steal from her father in order to prove himself, positioning her family as Olesk’s rival. If he thought she was spying for Eddie Shun, she’d be dead.
“Let me show you the fleet.” Olesk slapped David on the shoulder and walked them along the side of the house. The others trailed after, unmoved by the worry Stephanie felt pounding through her.
Arash, though, was right at her side. They hung back a moment and he leaned close to her ear. “Trouble?”
To keep herself and Arash alive, to keep her mission on track, she had to navigate through the next set of deadly, blind curves. “Definitely.”