The remains of the stores were all filthy and covered with debris. The layers of dust and grime, the broken down counters, and wrecked stairways made the place look like it had been abandoned centuries ago, not just a few years. Scraggy grasses and brown ferns grew around the edges of the floor. What had been a glass domed roof was now just a jagged hole. What glass there was left had thick, green moss growing on it.
It didn’t take me too long to spot Tynie’s check shirt. He was crouched behind the remains of the Sunglass Hut display. We used to go there to try on Oakleys and Ray-Bans. It always seemed weird that Sunglass Huts rarely featured walls or doors, or even a roof. Funny kind of a hut.
Still looking left and right, and keeping low, I ran over to where he was. My phone rang. I crouched in front of Tynie and looked into his eyes. Held up a hand toward him. He raised his hand and held it just an inch away from mine.
The display on my phone said “Slave Girl,” and I pressed the button on the screen to answer.
“This Gregor,” she said, “what does he look like?”
Chapter Eight
Hayley
CALLING HIS NUMBER, HEARING his voice did something inside of me. I pressed the phone tight to my ear.
“Two of them,” I told him. “They followed you in through the same door. They can’t be far behind you.”
He said, “Can you drive a stick shift?”
My chest fluttered. I told him that I could. I could hear he was breathing hard. He said, “Get the engine started.”
“Okay.”
“Then keep it revving and in gear. We’re coming right away. Be ready.”
In the driver’s seat I fired the van up, then leaned across to open the passenger door. With the engine in gear, I opened the driver’s door, too. Ryan would be driving, I thought. But then, not if I’ve already got it in gear. My heart leapt and I felt a chasm open inside me.
He expected me to drive.
He must have been in one hell of a hurry if he thought my driving could be a better bet than his. He was an expert, and he had no idea if I had any skill at all.
I moved the van closer to the ancient mall and backed it toward the doorway.
For a lumbering van, it was pretty responsive. Nervously, I waited, watching the mirrors.
Ryan came out of a different doorway about fifty yards away. He was running toward my side, but I only saw him. Then out of the same door, I saw the two men who had followed him in.
In the side mirror I watched a big man with shaggy dark hair run from right behind the van. He loped with his feet and hands flat, like running was something unfamiliar. He stopped by the front of the van and scowled at me. He must be Tynie, I thought. Reaching across, I opened the door for him. He didn’t move. He was sullen, looking down at his knees.
From the other side, Ryan ran toward the van, the two big men shouting and running after him. Right behind him, the shorter of the two men, the stocky, bullet-headed thug, caught sight of Tynie and aimed a huge pistol at him.
Ryan stopped and turned to face him. They faced each other and a chilling leer spread across the other man’s face. Ryan swung the side of his fist into the crook of the man’s neck.
A gasp froze in my chest. I thought, Didn’t you see the big gun in his hand? The man sunk to one knee, turning the gun at Ryan as he did. Ryan hit him again, on the other side of his head, sending him toppling, forehead first to the ground.
Without waiting, Ryan ran to the van, and shouted at Tynie to get in. I moved to get out, to let Ryan drive. As he ran, he waved to tell me no.
Tynie climbed in and I said, “You must be Tynie.”
He didn’t speak and he didn’t make eye contact with me. Not once.
Ryan ran. He was almost at the van. Gregor dragged the other man up by his collar. I moved to get out, still hoping that Ryan would drive. As he ran, he waved to tell me no.
The engine whined as I revved it. It was still in gear and my leg was starting to get tired from holding the clutch. Ryan ran around the front of the van.
He jumped in beside Tynie, and shouted, “Drive,” before he even had the door shut.
But I was moving already. I let the clutch out fast and shoved the gas pedal down hard. In the mirrors I saw the guy with Gregor raise his gun at us. Gregor restrained him. Tugged at him and they ran for a car.
I guessed he didn’t have all that much choice, but I was somehow kind of thrilled that Ryan seemed to put such confidence in me.
His sullen friend beside me said, “Ryan, you should drive. She shouldn’t drive.”
My door drifted wide open as I swung the van out of the lot, turned us back the way that we had come. Changing gear right in the curve, we surged forward and the door slammed shut without me having to pull it.
Ryan said, “Hey, you’re not so bad.”
“I knew a boy in school who wanted to be a NASCAR race driver,” I told him, “He tried to show me some stuff. Stops and starts was about all that I really got.”
“Those are the important parts,” Ryan said with a grin. “And you took that curve pretty well.”
“Ryan, you should be driving.” The guy still hadn’t looked at me. I thought he was a lot like the boy in school who showed me how to drive. The boy the other kids stayed away from. The boy who could draw.
“Tynie,” Ryan said, “be nice.”
“I don’t know who she is.” He turned his shoulder toward me.
“Tynie,” I said, “I’m Haley.” And I lifted my hand with the palm facing toward him. If he was like Gerhard, he wouldn’t want to be touched. He would like gestures that suggest contact, but don’t actually connect skin on skin.
He came as close to looking at me as he had so far. By reflex, he lifted his hand but then snatched it back.
Ryan said, “Tynie, say hello to Haley.” Then, looking at me, “It’s a nice name, Haley.”
Tynie’s head sank lower into his shoulders. “It’s an old lady’s name.”
Just like Gerhard, I thought. It seems like he doesn’t know how to be polite, but he sure knows how to be hurtful.
“Well, this is fun and all,” I said, “but those guys in the big SUV are getting a lot closer.”
“Take the next turnoff,” Ryan said, “It goes to Berkdale.”
“That was a big commercial district, right?”
“Yeah. Block after block of deserted buildings now,” Ryan said, while I steered us into what must have been the old Main Street. “Get down the street as fast as you can, then make a hard left. We’ll make a J-turn.”
“I can’t do a J-turn.” My school-friend tried to show me how to do that once. It didn’t end well.
“You can,” Ryan said. “You just do what I tell you.”
The way he said it, I believed him. His confidence made me straighten up and focus. The strength in his voice made me think I could do it. As long as I didn’t allow myself time to think.
This whole thing was so exciting that somehow, I forgot to be scared. Or maybe there just wasn’t time. With my foot hard on the gas and the pedal all the way down, we must have got nine or ten blocks down before the black SUV appeared in the mirror behind us. I was about to make a turn, but Ryan said, “Not yet. Let them catch up just a little.”
My heart banged against the wall of my chest.
“Okay, now.”
As soon as he spoke, I shifted down a gear, and just touching the brake, I turned the wheel hard. The van felt like it would tip over. We were no more than fifty yards into the side street when Ryan said, “Stop hard. Fast as you can, sling it in reverse and stand on the gas.” I did as he said and turned to look out the back. We shot backwards frighteningly fast.
Almost immediately, Ryan said, “Pull the handbrake and turn the wheel. “ He said it slowly, like there was all the time in the world. “Neutral, clutch out, clutch in, then first gear. Clutch out and accelerate as hard as you can.” It seemed so obvious and natural. So I did it.
We spun, sickeningly fast, all
the way around. The van trembled and rattled. As I let the clutch out in first gear, I thought the engine would stall.
The bulky van lurched like it was going to hop, but I gave it more gas and eased the clutch just a little more slowly. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but it was working. It made me feel amazing and powerful.
We bolted forward with a kick like a bullet from a gun. Straight at the black SUV as he turned into the street right up ahead.
We were on the wrong side of the road. He was going to get out of the way, though. I was certain. He was going to get out of the way. Because I wasn’t.
The big ugly guy, Gregor, was driving. He had a hard, mean, determined scowl, and his eyes blazed like fire.
He left it until the last moment and he had to steer the SUV so hard the two wheels on the nearest side left the ground. The tires squealed and smoked as he slid in a long, sideways drift. I drove back the way we came and turned back onto the main street.
“Go about two blocks fast and take a left.”
As I did what he said, I asked him, “Do you know your way around here?”
“No clue,” he said, brightly. “Okay, take the second right, then turn around and park.”
I kept the motor humming as we sat about halfway down an empty street, watching straight ahead. I wanted to shut the engine off so that we could listen for the big SUV, but of course, if he found us, we’d be too slow to get away.
The three of us were silent. I could hardly even hear the motor over the drumming of my heart. My breath was thick and heavy, so was the air inside the van.
Ryan drew a breath. He was about to say something like they’re long gone or we lost them—I knew that he was, I could feel it—when the black SUV shot straight across our view in the windshield and away down the street we’d turned off. Quickly, just in case they came back, in case they’d spotted us, I reversed fast about twenty yards then backed us into a smaller side street. Ryan looked at me and nodded with a smile.
As soon as I pulled the parking brake on, I began to shake. It was like I was freezing cold and shuddering from deep within. I looked over at Ryan. “I can’t drive now. We have to change places.”
“Ryan, you should have driven. You’d have done it better.”
“Haley drove like a pro,” Ryan said. Looking at me with a twinkle and a look that could even have been admiration. He said, “The J-turn, the way she chickened Gregor out? There’s no way I would have done any better.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but still it felt good to hear.
I fumbled with the handle and had to lean against the door with my shoulder to get it open. Ryan climbed out the other side and skipped around the front of the van. He could see how much I was shaking.
He was close. His heat warmed the front of my body. The strong, dark, musky scent of him filled my head. He wrapped his arms around me, just to stop me shaking, I think. But I swatted them away.
His grin made me furious.
“You bastard!” I shouted. “You lowlife thug, what have you gotten me into?” I grabbed his collar with both fists tight and I drug his face to mine. My lips fastened on his and my arms went around his big, hard, hot body. I pressed and rubbed myself against him, as hard as I could.
The kiss that I ripped from him was so hot it made me growl. I grabbed his hair in my hands and yanked.
My breath heaved as I tugged his head back to pull his face from mine. His eyes still had a sardonic glint and a grin tugged at the sides of his lips. I slapped his face as hard as I could.
How did all of that happen? I had never done anything like that before in my life. I’d never driven that way and been chased by dangerous criminals before, either, but that wasn’t anything I’d want to do again.
“What have you done to me, car thief? Jacker? You ripped a hole in the side of my life, and I feel like everything is spilling out.” I slapped him again.
He tried to catch my hand. I beat the sides of my fists on his chest. He was going to say something, but I cut him off.
“You’d better get in and drive,” I told him. “Before your friend comes back for us.”
When I got back in the van on the passenger side, I started to shake all over again. Sitting next to Tynie wasn’t much comfort, either.
“Why don’t we leave her here, Ryan?” Tynie said.
~<>~
We threaded through the dusty, deserted back streets until we got back to the highway.
“We going to have to lay pretty low for at least a day or two,” Ryan said. “On the other side of Greenacre, there’s a commercial district with a couple of motels.” He looked over at me. “Remember to turn off your phone?”
Reluctantly, I did it. Spending the next few days holed up in some dingy motel, hiding out like a fugitive—like a criminal—didn’t hold too much appeal for me. And not letting anyone know—I understood, but it seemed hard. Aileen was not an easy person to work for, but she deserved to know where I was. Whether my mom deserved to know or not was probably moot, but I wanted to let her know all the same.
The prospect of a couple of days cooped up with Ryan’s friend, Tynie, was not a happy one. Then my thoughts raced around the idea of spending time locked away with Ryan. He was a bad man. He was a criminal. What was I thinking?
I was torn, driven by an urge, and resisting as hard as I could.
In the back of my nose, I remembered the heat of his scent. As the memory of it faded, I wanted it back. I wanted to feel my breasts up against him again, press against the strength of his hard body.
It was wrong. Bad. Dangerous and stupid, too. But the longing I felt to have him hard against me, pulsing hot—just to feel him and breathe his air, to ball my fists with my fingers locked in his shaggy black hair again—at that moment, I would have given anything for that. Everything.
“She won’t be staying in the motel with us, though, Ryan, will she? She can go home now, can’t she? She could get out here. We can let her out here.”
Ryan’s voice was low and strong, and it sparked a vibration deep down inside me. “She’s staying with me. I’m going to keep her safe.”
And in that moment, I believe that he would. That he could.
~<>~
The motel was a three-story U-shaped block with a pool in the middle.
In the glassed in corner office, the bright-eyed receptionist plainly would have loved to please Ryan in any way that she could. “We do have deluxe family suites, sir, and those are available with either a double bed and a single, or with three single beds. Unfortunately, none of them are available for booking at this time.”
She wore her dark brown hair closely cropped up to the crown, and from there it was longer and scraped up to the top of the head. It all came out in a little pineapple sprout explosion of blonde and platinum highlights from a top-knot. Her eyebrows were precisely arched and they pointed down to make her look like a scowling cat.
It wasn’t a style that would suit me, but I thought it was cool and I liked it on her. The white plastic badge that rose and fell on top of her left breast said “Melissa.”
Ryan asked her if she had a double and a single room next to each other.
She touched the back of her neck as she smiled at him. “We don’t have single rooms, sir. We do have three of our deluxe double suites available, though.”
Dirty Driver: Dark Crime Romance Page 7
