Deep down, I knew it was most likely all in my imagination. That a girl, a woman like her, would never be interested in anything serious with a criminal like me. My background, my history, my life choices—I had a better shot at being president.
But I also knew I wanted it. Whenever I looked at her, I wanted to hold her close, to protect her. To be a better man for her. To be the man that she wanted. How dumb can a fool get, huh?
It was starting to dawn on me that the way I felt, the way that I was starting to act, that all looked a lot like what fools call “Love.” It was beginning to look like I “loved” her.
It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. Only, if I did, I knew that it would wake her.
“Love.” I couldn’t remember using that word about anyone before. Perhaps I might have used it about my mom, if I’d ever had the chance, but certainly nobody since then.
~~~~
For breakfast the next morning, I said that we’d go back to the diner. Life in the motel was getting ragged. It was obvious that Tynie wouldn’t have Haley in his room for a second, and I didn’t think Haley would want him to be in ours, so there was no easy way to get the three of us together.
When I was out, I’d gotten three tiny, cheap cell phones. Pre-paid, no contracts, and brand new. Burners. One for each of us, and I’d put the numbers for the other two into each one. I planned to give them to Haley and Tynie over our meal.
Haley went to fix her face. I told her I couldn’t see anything wrong with it. Her eyes sparkled, but she gave me a wrinkly smile. I said, “Well, not too much, anyway.”
I called to her in the bathroom, “Hey, there’s your Dragon Lady on the TV.”
She called back, “I know. They showed that clip yesterday.” There was something in her voice, but I let it go. She said, “You want to go to the same place, or stop at the IHOP? It’s almost the same distance, either way. Maybe Tynie will come with us this time. Maybe the thaw has gone deep enough.”
“You want him to come?” I asked her.
Haley was quiet a few moments. Maybe she was doing some of the fixing that she felt her face was in need of. Then she said, “Good question. I can’t really say for sure.” She came out of the bathroom. “Seems like one of those things, whichever way I go, I could end up regretting it.”
Looking hard, I couldn’t see what she’d done. Still, I told her, “You look great.” Which was true, but it got me another wrinkly smile.
“If he wants to come,” she said, “then I want him to come. How’s that?”
“Good.”
At the diner, she told Tynie about the waffles, but he didn’t seem too interested. Maybe because it was her telling him. But at least he didn’t fuss.
She was also trying to persuade me that I needed to take a chance. Try to live out my dream. Get away from this criminal life. It didn’t suit me, she said. “This seems like it could be such an opportunity, Ryan. Tell me why this isn’t the perfect time for you to go to LA and set yourself up as a stunt driver. Tell me.”
And she looked across the table at me, wide-eyed and innocent. Tynie was hunched over his gamepad, doing something with the radio transponder. He was pretty still, though, so I could see he was listening.
“Sure, Haley. I could go right after we eat. Before Cheryl comes back to ask if we’d like some pie, even. Why not?” She looked like someone had slapped her. I couldn’t tell her what I was planning to do, but her seeming not to care whether I went or I stayed gave me a kind of a hollow feeling.
It was for her that I was doing this. To keep her safe, mainly. Her and Tynie. But if it weren’t for her, then me and Tynie would just do the job, there wouldn’t have been any of this complication and misunderstanding with Gregor, and afterwards, it would be done.
Then, when that was all over, that could be the perfect time to go to LA. But as I’d thought about it, I had started to wonder if Haley might want to come along. She wouldn’t, of course. As soon as she could get away from my low-life ass, she’d be gone. As fast and as far as she could get.
Who was I trying to fool? That was how it would be. Maybe she thought of this as a little bit of fun, maybe it was some kind of a distraction or something, but there was nothing serious going on here for her.
I said, “Anyway, before too long, your Dragon Lady is going to bring all kinds of shit-storm down on us.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Like I said, that clip was from yesterday.”
“Looked like she was enjoying the limelight, though. Waving her little golden Buddha, making big doe eyes at the camera.” Something was going on in Haley’s eyes. “I think she’ll be milking that story as much as she can.”
She shook her head again. “She won’t be giving any more interviews.”
My mouth must have been open.
“Say it’s not true, Haley. Please.”
“What?” she said, “I called her.”
I pressed my lips tight. I didn’t want to hear it. I couldn’t trust myself to say anything.
She told me, “While you were out, I went a few blocks down the street and called her from a payphone.”
“No, Haley.”
“Sure. It was far enough away.” She looked into my eyes, “It must have been.”
“A few blocks?”
Cheryl said, “Now, what can I get you folks?” She looked at Tynie, “Are you the one who’s been chained to a radiator? You look hungry enough.”
Tynie’s neck sank into his shoulders. Cheryl’s eyebrows raised. “Suit yourself.”
Now I was worried.
We got to the van and I opened the passenger door first. She was about to climb in when I heard the voice in the darkness behind me. I knew who it was straightaway.
“Hope the waffles were good.” Gregor stood by a black Hummer. “Ryan, you don’t look happy to see me. Well, if you don’t want to be followed around, you got to stop driving that big black van.”
He moved towards the SUV and two men got down from the back. “C’mon,” Gregor said, “we’ll take my car.” He gestured to the open door. “This way, kids.”
Chapter Fourteen
Hayley
RYAN SAID, “THIS WASN’T the deal, Gregor.”
“So there was a deal.” I felt stupid blurting it out like that. Of course there was. I knew that. What was I thinking, anyway, putting my trust in a thief like Ryan? Really, I was astounded that I could have been such an idiot in the first place. Now here was his master. The man who gave Ryan his orders.
It seemed he had come to claim Ryan, and Tynie. Me too, judging by the look in his eye.
“Ryan.” Gregor’s grin was wide like a boa’s, like one of those snakes that opens its jaws so wide it can swallow anything. “I’m just looking after my investment. Watching over my precious assets.”
Three big men climbed down out of the Hummer. Gregor waved his arm in a mocking “your carriage awaits” gesture. “You will all be my guests at the Hotel Gregor. Your every need will be catered to.”
When Ryan didn’t move, two of the men reached into their jackets.
“Okay,” he said. Then to me, “I think it may be best if we accept Gregor’s hospitality.”
“We?” I said. “Do you think that because ‘we’ made a deal with Gregor here?” I couldn’t see that I would have much of a choice. If I tried to run, I wouldn’t get far. But I was sure as hell not going to go with Gregor quietly.
“Was this the plan all along?” I shouted in his face. “Or did I just turn out to be a handy bargaining chip, Ryan?”
Ryan’s jaw clenched.
Gregor sat next to me and a guy with his arm in a sling drove us. We went out to what looked like a disused warehouse in the middle of nowhere. We drove straight inside, across the dark expanse of slick, wet floor, and parked by the heavy metal gates of a freight elevator.
The clanking elevator took us up, to the top of the building, I guessed. The whole floor was just one room, and about two-thirds of it was take
n up by a massive black box with a door in the side. Its sides stretched from the floor to the roof. A small light shone over the single door.
Gregor took us inside. We walked through a room with a low ceiling, furnished with some wooden packing crates. The walls were all gray. A blue building material logo repeated everywhere, usually upside down. The long, far wall had four more doors.
Single file, we shuffled along a cramped, narrow corridor with doors along one wall. Two of his goons followed behind us. The whole place had the odors of burnt sawdust, stale beer, and sweat.
At the end of the passageway was another room, exactly like the first. Gregor followed us in. The other two men came in after him and stood on either side of the door.
The room was just large enough for half a dozen square packing crates. A few beer cans were strewn around, and on one crate was a pack of cards. Two thin, gray mattresses lay along each of the short walls. Blankets were folded on them.
There were three doors on the far wall. One was open and it led to a small, dark bathroom.
“We’ll put you in the guest room.” Gregor reached for Tynie’s arm. Tynie jumped away, fast like a well-practiced reflex. Gregor held up a hand. “Okay, sorry.” And he moved toward me. “Would you be kind enough to take your stateroom, my lady?” And he held his arm out to indicate the second door.
Ryan stepped in front of him. They were close. Gregor was taller by two inches or more. Bigger all over. The look in Ryan’s eye was hard and sharp, like a glint of steel. Gregor’s jaw tightened. Ryan’s chin tilted up a fraction.
Gregor stepped back. “Okay, kiddies, I tell you what—you can have the whole presidential suite here and you can do whatever the fuck you like. This will be your palace for the next thirty-six hours. You’ll have everything you could wish for. Beer, soda, and pizza.”
I said, “That isn’t everything I could wish for.”
“Forgive me,” he said, and he laughed. “Maybe we can find some chocolate cake.”
My cheeks stung. My face must have reddened. He held up his hands. “All I meant was, you look like a girl.” And he made what he probably thought was an endearing smile. Or maybe he didn’t care that it was just a sharp-toothed leer. “You look a lot like a girl, in fact. And all the girls I know love chocolate cake.”
A goon by the door sniggered. His eyes were all over me. “Ratke!” Gregor reprimanded him. Ratke’s eyes rolled and he shuffled his feet. But he looked away and he was quiet.
Pleased with himself, Gregor nodded to me like he had made some grand gesture. He told all of us, “The day after tomorrow, after the score, we celebrate.” He grinned wider, looking around us. “Then we have burger.”
~~~
As soon as Gregor left with his henchmen, Ryan came close to me. I flinched and I wanted to say, Now look what all of your brilliant schemes have got me into. He held up a finger with a look of urgency in his eyes.
Furious as I was with Ryan, I was thinking the same thing he was. There could easily be small cameras and microphones in the room.
With his head near to mine, Ryan looked in my eyes as he spoke. His voice was low and very quiet. “They can probably see us and hear us.”
I said, “We should assume so.”
He nodded, almost imperceptibly. “We should be careful what we say, too.”
Instinctively, I looked at Tynie. Acting was not a natural skill for him. Even he seemed to be adapting to the situation. He looked up from his tablet and across to us. His movements were contained as he came over to Ryan and me. His face was still, although his eyes blazed, like all his anger was routed through them.
He leaned in so the three of us had our heads together. Very quietly he said, “They’re not our friends, Ryan.”
Ryan shook his head, just enough so we could see.
Tynie spoke under his breath, “They will be watching and listening.”
Ryan and I nodded.
Tynie said, “I acquired their Hummer on the way here.”
~~~~~
Ryan and I sat on a crate, side by side. The square crates were all the furniture there was to use as seats and as tables. Our legs pressed against one another. We sat with our heads low. We spoke only in low murmurs and whispers.
We’d already searched the corners of the room, looking for cameras. We went around the walls, checking for wires, for anything that could be a watching or listening device. None of us found anything, but that didn’t give us much reassurance.
Ryan and I needed to talk about how we were going to work together. How we were going to get through this. What to expect in the next thirty-six hours.
Not that any of that was what I wanted to talk about. We hardly moved, thinking that we could be observed the whole time. Not knowing made it even more agonizing.
Instinctively, we both knew not to make any visible signs of affection towards each other. If Gregor thought there was anything between us, it would just give him more leverage, a weapon he could use against us. He must have suspected it, but the less he knew, the safer we thought we would be.
Even while we were Gregor’s prisoners, locked away and miles from anywhere, still the thoughts in my head were occupied with the memory of the touch of Ryan’s lips, of his hair, and the weight of his head against my thighs, of his tongue and the strength of his hard torso.
Everything I tried to think about, I saw it and felt it through the filter of his lips on mine, of the taste of his breath, and of how I needed him.
I said, “What about when it’s darker, maybe? They’re bound to put out the lights sooner or later.”
His voice rumbled, making a vibration like scratching on velvet, and I felt it in the wood we sat on. I felt it rise up through me.
“You’re right. Gregor isn’t going to want Tynie to be tired tomorrow. Or me.”
“So it will be dark later.”
“Haley, I want the same thing you do.” The side of his finger grazed against mine. My whole body was focused for that instant on the little strip of my flesh that was connected with his.
The corners of his eyes tensed. “I want it so badly. But I want it when we’re free. When you’re free.” My lip tightened between my teeth and I listened, nodding. Inside, my spirits rose to hear him talk like that. He was serious. Committed. Like it mattered.
The bravado and swagger, it was thrilling. I could admit that to myself now. I did love the thrill of it, but this was a stronger man. He even looked bigger to me.
And I gulped. He’d always looked pretty big.
But at that moment, I wanted him so very much. So much it actually hurt. Inside my panties, I was unbearably hot. My clit ached. My lips were swollen and stung. My whole body wanted to climb him, wrap around him. Fold him up in my arms and press my flesh, all of my flesh, against his until he was inside me.
His eyes searched mine. From his scarred eyebrow to his trembling lip, my eyes took in each part of his face, as though if I looked hard enough, somehow I could keep him. His lips parted. I wanted so badly to tell him something.
The door swung open and Gregor strode in.
“Pizza! Pizza and beer.” Ratke followed, carrying two pizza boxes, and Gregor put a carton of beer onto the crate in the center of the room.
Dirty Driver: Dark Crime Romance Page 13
