by Nico Rosso
“Whose side are you on?” she quipped, hoping no one would ever ask her that question.
“Cash money.” His mouth thinned. She locked a snapshot of the moment in her memory, to be pulled out every time she felt herself being drawn toward this man.
The cube van continued up the wide boulevard, and she started to predict the route. “They’re heading for the highway.” A police patrol car pulled quickly onto the street. “Cruiser.” There was no sign of Olesk or the unmarked car.
“On it.” Arash broke out of the normal flow of traffic but held two car lengths back from the police car. She surged forward in her seat and put her foot down like she had her own gas pedal. He shook his head. “We’ve got to know what they know. If they’re onto the truck, it doesn’t matter how many distractions we throw at them. Helicopters, roadblocks, highway patrol will come down hard.”
She knew he was right. Whatever intel the police were acting off must’ve been vague, because the patrol car seemed to be searching rather than following the truck directly. Even when it had a free lane to slide up behind the truck, it held back, and other cars filled in the space. “They’re hunting blind.”
Arash rolled his shoulders and snugged himself into the racing seat. “Let’s give them something to chase.” He downshifted and the car lurched forward with power, then it sped when he threw it into the next gear. Instead of sweeping past the patrol car, Arash steered off the boulevard and across the corner of a strip mall parking lot.
“Looks like you suffer from premature acceleration.” She watched in the side-view mirror as the police car disappeared up the boulevard.
Arash laughed and slowed the car. “He saw us,” he reassured her. “Didn’t want to make it look like we were deliberately distracting him from the real target.”
“That was Olesk’s move.”
“Exactly.” He pointed in the rearview mirror and she turned to see the patrol car coming after them along the residential street. “Too cocky.” He stepped on the gas. The cops didn’t hesitate to give chase and they were soon blasting past parked cars and winter-bare London plane trees.
It seemed like the police would catch up to them. Blue-and-red flashing lights were close enough to color the interior of Stephanie and Arash’s car. A voice came over the loudspeaker between siren blasts. “Stop the car. Stop the car and pull to the right.” Arash was only in third gear. “Stop immediately.”
Arash hung back another second, then stepped on the gas. The car shot forward, leaving the police voice a jumble behind them. The patrol car sped to catch up, but its engine could already be heard straining. She spun to watch the police, seeing the passenger on the radio. “Backup will be incoming.”
“Anyone who wants to get embarrassed is welcome to show up to this party.” Arash downshifted around a corner and put a full block between them and the pursuing police.
“You got your wish.” They pulled back onto the main boulevard just as two more marked police cars hurried into the area. The cops were quick to turn on their sirens and clear a path to Stephanie and Arash.
“Any sign of the truck?” Arash upped their speed but maintained a calm approach that never felt reckless.
She searched over the street and saw they were right by an on-ramp for the highway. “No truck. They must’ve hit the highway.”
“What the hell’s our next move?” Arash bared his teeth as he made another hard turn off the boulevard and into another neighborhood. The police had to stack one in front of the other, limiting their tactical maneuvers.
Stephanie looked over the map on her phone for any areas where they could lose this kind of pursuit. “Train tracks four blocks ahead and to the left might lead to a depot or warehouses we could lose these rollers in.” Her phone buzzed in her hand. “Text from Olesk. They lost their tail. We’ve got to do the same and hit the highway east. Clock’s ticking before the police scramble a chopper.”
Arash muscled the car around another hard turn, gritting out, “You know, this would go a lot better if that freaking mastermind let us in on the plan beforehand.”
“Don’t go right,” she called out after looking at the map. “Cul-de-sac.”
“I can work with that.” He veered right and slowed enough for the police cars to catch up.
“I’d have tried a different approach.” She tensed in her seat and braced her hand on the door panel.
“We can’t agree on everything.” He sped forward again, then yanked up on the emergency brake and jammed the steering wheel to one side. Tires screamed as the car’s rear swung an arc in the cul-de-sac to bring them one hundred eighty degrees around. Once they were facing the oncoming police cars, Arash released the brake and hit the gas. “That would be boring.”
The cops knew better than to play chicken and slammed on their brakes. The two cars staggered, blocking the way out. Arash charged forward, a small smile on his lips. She clenched her jaw and wrapped her fist around the handle above the side window. A hard impact could come any second. They were going fast enough to kill. At the last second, Arash swung the car off the road and into a driveway to the right. They bounced onto the sidewalk and paralleled the street for a second, sending the police cars to scramble into reverse.
Arash turned hard again, taking them over the curb and crossing onto the street between the two cop cars. One car slammed to a stop. The other swerved and fishtailed before jamming its rear into a parked car, blocking the first car from the action. Arash drove back off the street and onto the opposite sidewalk, which was clear enough to get them completely away from the cul-de-sac.
They cruised back onto a normal road, free from police. The engine calmed, but her heart still pounded. She gathered her breath and navigated Arash to the freeway on-ramp. He let out a long sigh once they were moving with the flow. But when they both spotted a highway patrol car stalking about a quarter mile ahead, the atmosphere tightened again in the car.
“Use that semi for rolling cover.” She pointed to a truck hauling a tall load of cargo. Arash nodded and eased the car alongside, between them and the highway patrol.
He kept pace with the truck, even though they had plenty of lane to pass and speed ahead. He grumbled, “Goes against everything I know about driving next to trucks.”
“I feel you.” She always gave the rigs a large halo of space. “But it’s working.” From her perspective, there was no sign of the highway patrol, meaning they must be parallel with them. “I think we’re good to get up front.” Arash added speed and merged into the semi’s lane. She checked all around and couldn’t see the police, so they couldn’t see them.
After two miles of staying within cautious cover of the truck, Arash moved into the faster flow of traffic. She stayed alert for highway patrol, but allowed her body to calm in waves. Her legs ached as she drew her feet back from being braced hard on the floor. The slowing of her heartbeat allowed for a new elation to take over through her limbs. Damn it. It was like good sex.
Arash leaned more casually in his seat, one hand on the steering wheel, jaw relaxed and mouth less severe. She stared at the cords of his neck too long, wondering if she’d be able to feel his pulse match hers. He kept his face forward and put out a fist to her. “Job well done.” But there was a minor note in his voice, barely detectable.
“I guess you can drive.” She bumped his fist with hers.
He sneered a small smile. “Ask those cops.” Through his bravado was that dark thread. She tried to follow it, but the trail deeper into him dissolved before she could grab hold. For the best, she convinced herself. Keep him at a distance. But she still wanted to know.
A text came through on her phone. “Olesk,” she reported. “Next stop—Reno.”
Miles farther away from any safety. Deeper into the danger. Exactly where she needed to be going. Though, traveling there with Arash at her side shook her compass. She knew she would not waver in h
elping the victims in need, but she now questioned who she would have to become to get this mission accomplished, and how far her hunger for Arash would take her.
Chapter Five
“It’s beautiful.” But he didn’t feel it. Driving through the mountains like this, with a crisp blue sky, a noon sun and a tailwind pushing him forward, should’ve made Arash breathe easier. He’d taken this route before, just for the sake of the strip of asphalt among the trees, with the Truckee River flashing below in the cold sunlight. This trip, the threat of danger around every turn robbed him of his peace.
“It is.” Stephanie stared out the window, her eyes invisible behind stylish aviator sunglasses. All the times he’d driven this road to escape the city for a day or two, he’d never had a passenger. If he wasn’t driving one of Olesk’s cars, if they hadn’t just evaded the police during a job for the STR, if Stephanie wasn’t part of that same gang, he’d allow himself to enjoy this with her.
They’d covered many of the miles in alert silence. Highway patrol had been quiet, and there’d been no more texts from Olesk with last-second directives to chase down. Drive-through food would’ve slowed them down too much, so he ate his candy bars and drank his water just to keep his mood from crashing.
“You know where you’re going.” Stephanie’s gaze remained on the scenery.
“I know the road.” But he had no idea what his final destination would look like. If he’d had the chance, he could’ve taken Marcos out here, maybe after the first snow so they could see there was more to the world than the underside of a Chevy or the engine bay of a Honda. Marcos would never see these mountains, even though it was he who got Arash onto the highway for this trip.
“Running goods across the lines?” she asked dryly.
The question stabbed through his ribs and held with cold barbs. She thought he was a crook. But why wouldn’t she? “I only work in Cali. I’m not on the Feds’ radar.” Half-truths. His criminal days had ended before his eighteenth birthday. The few things he’d been caught for prior to that had been sealed. And why should he care what she thought of him? She was a crook, too. “Am I riding next to someone with active warrants?”
“Do you think I ever get caught?” She turned to him and smiled.
“Never.” He shook his head.
Her attention shifted back to the window. “So how do you know this highway?”
“I come out here to test handling and suspension.”
“Long way from the city.”
“That’s the point.” Someday he might be able to afford one of the lodges or hotels in the mountains, instead of finding one of the cheaper rooms down in Reno.
“I’ve done it on a motorcycle.” She turned forward and tilted her head to match a wide curve.
“Sexy.” He wished he could stop flirting with her, but the two of them seemed to flow so easily. Imagining her in the seat behind him as he drove a motorcycle, wrapped around him, the insides of her thighs against his hips, thinned the air more than the altitude around them.
“The route.” She shot him a frown. “I’ve done the route on a motorcycle. SF to Tahoe, I-80.”
“I know what you meant.” He stared at the road ahead instead of her black-jean-clad legs stretched out in front of her. “And it’s still sexy.”
“I could be married.” She held up her left hand, though it had no ring on the ring finger. “What would my wife think about you saying that?”
He slowed the car as they passed a small mountain town. “I don’t tread on someone else’s territory. Tell her I’m sorry and from now on you and I are going to stick to talking about the weather and onboard diagnostic codes for troubleshooting air/fuel efficiency.”
“Now that’s sexy.”
“Damn it.” Sometimes she could be so dry that he had no idea if she was joking or not. “What’s your wife going to say?”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not married.” Hearing that lit more of a thrill in him than he wanted. “You?” she asked.
“I’m too greasy for that.” He’d just gotten into a steady groove wrenching at a new garage, and he was thinking his social life might open up when Marcos hit his rough patch. There’d been no time for dating. After Marcos’s death, it took weeks for Arash to develop any stomach for company.
“Slippery while all the girls are trying to catch you.” She turned one of the new rings around her finger.
“You’ve seen me drive a getaway.” Of course the first woman he felt attracted to was part of the whole problem he was messed up with.
She chuckled. “That’s how you leave all your dates in the morning. Redlining and drifting around corners.”
“Morning?” he scoffed. “I can’t have them reading my license plate.”
The road curved and brought a stand of jagged mountains into view. Winter had barely begun, yet snow dusted some ridges to create stark contrasts between dark and light. He and Stephanie fell silent. The mountains were so much larger than his troubles. They were timeless, unlike his thirst for revenge, which would be extinguished if he died. He felt like he was hurtling toward all their sharp edges.
The quiet continued through the high pass. When the road started the descent toward Reno, Stephanie spoke. “We’ve got to ditch this car.”
“Feel like a target.” A bigger city meant more police presence. They had no idea how wide the description of the car had gone. “And I could use a hot meal.”
“I know a good pizza in Tahoe City.”
“What do you know in Reno?”
“Nothing.” She swiped through her phone.
“I’ve had a couple decent burgers out here.” But it was a big town, and their destination could be miles from anywhere he knew. “No address from Olesk yet?”
“You know how he likes to play it.” She released a frustrated breath.
“It’s almost like he doesn’t want us in the STR.” Aggravation dug into him like a headache, shortening his patience.
“Just making us jump through hoops to prove ourselves.” She waved her hand dismissively and smoothed herself to seem untouched by Olesk’s antics.
Arash steered with tighter fists. “It’s not professional. And I’m a professional.” People knew his name in the garages of San Francisco and Oakland. He worked hard and was respected. That reputation might be wrecked now that he’d taken time away from his current shop to chase Olesk’s blood. Arash had known as soon as he’d answered the man’s first text that there was probably no going back. Ever.
The mountains loomed in the rearview mirror like a passing storm, soon replaced by the buildings of Reno. The little calm that had come with the natural surroundings was erased by the growing anxiety of being in the city. More eyes watched them. Traffic swirled. Security cameras hung high on power poles. The police patrolled.
A cold, inhospitable wind swept over it all. Arash stayed on the highway, where he had the best visibility, though if trouble did come for them, his evasive options were limited. Stephanie sat up straighter, her phone clutched in her hand and her awareness constantly swiveling to take in the surroundings.
“If we don’t hear anything, I’ll pass through west to east, then double back.” He calculated what he knew of the layout.
“Sounds good.” Her voice was tight. “I’ve been looking over local news between Sacramento and here but haven’t found anything about any police chases or busts.”
Frustration ground his nerves down. Was this it? Olesk got what he needed from Arash and now cut him off? But Arash wouldn’t let it end that way. He nearly swerved into another lane when Stephanie’s phone buzzed. She sighed with relief and reported, “Olesk. Freaking finally.” She read out an address he didn’t recognize, then started navigating them into the northeast fringe of the city.
The highway only took them so far. They exited to a two-lane road that slipped quickly through suburbs and in
to less populated areas. Fewer services were seen and the territory seemed appropriate for homesteaders and apocalyptic preppers. There wasn’t much blood flowing to this part of town. The houses that could be seen from the road were set back behind expansive dirt lots, complete with large propane tanks, oversize television antennae and opaque plastic-covered greenhouses.
“They’d better have lunch.” Stephanie watched it all with an impassive face.
Food was the last thing on his mind. He was on high alert, trying to play those eight moves ahead. Anger and frustration swirled through him, tightening his neck and shoulders, and he didn’t know if he should work through them or let them fly.
The properties on the side of the road spread out farther. Acres separated the mailboxes and the transitions in the types of fences. “Less than a mile.” Stephanie watched her phone. “On the right.”
The next plot of land emerged and Arash turned up a long dirt lane toward a large stucco house. Cars and motorcycles collected in the curved front driveway, some of them looking fresh, others broken down. An RV was parked on the side of the house. Beyond it, he glimpsed two metal barns with closed doors. Skeletons of cars and trucks lay around those structures, as if they’d died before reaching an oasis.
Once Arash and Stephanie were within fifty yards of the house, two figures emerged from the front door. Olesk and Ellie walked down from the porch to the driveway, then over to the left of the house. Olesk motioned Arash forward and pointed toward the barns.
Stephanie gave them a wave and casually pulled her bag from the back seat and onto her lap. Arash sensed a flicker of extra tension in her. Did she have a gun in that bag? All he was armed with was a folding knife and a flashlight. If Olesk wanted them to disappear, this would be a perfect place to do it.
Rounding the house, Arash saw the white cargo truck from Sacramento parked next to one of the barns. Two men, one white, one Hispanic, he recognized from the cab of the cargo truck watched Arash’s and Stephanie’s approach, then went to the front of the barn and opened the doors.
