Heat Wave

by Jill Marie Landis

  She was never scared racing, but her stomach had hurt all day, right up until she got the Ferrari started. Her heart rate didn’t slow until she put the car into gear and was a couple of miles away from the crowded, upscale residential area where she’d picked it up—right where their contact said it would be.

  There was a big party going on in one of the mansions along the winding hillside drive where the Ferrari had been parked. Party-goers celebrated inside the house, too busy snorting coke to worry about whether or not their cars were getting ripped off right under their runny noses.

  She’d memorized every turn in the route to the warehouse, and the closer she got, the more her confidence came flooding back.

  She blew through a red light at a deserted intersection, slid around a corner, and shot into the industrial park where the guys were waiting.

  NEW MOON. It was dark as pitch behind the corrugated-metal garage warehouse, uncomfortable as hell atop the shipping container parked beside the back wall.

  As she climbed and crouched on a container with a great view into the warehouse through one of the high, open windows, Kat was thankful she’d kept up her workout routine in Twilight. The place was a chop shop, well supplied with automotive tools and a lift. Car exhaust mingled with the odors of grease and gasoline. Heavy rock music pumped from a boom box on a workbench, competing with the scratchy sound of a police scanner.

  Jamie Hatcher paced in front of the closed garage door, pausing to listen to the scanner and check his watch every few seconds. From her vantage point, Kat had already seen him open the huge garage door twice to let in two cars, a Porsche Boxster and a Mercedes, one right after the other.

  As soon as they were inside, the young drivers jumped out of the cars, slammed the doors. Then the men jubilantly high-fived each other.

  The metal warehouse was cavernous; the echo of music, the scanner, and their words bounced off the metal walls, but the sound of their voices carried over the other noise.

  “Sunny’ll be here, Jamie.” The slim Hispanic kid who’d driven in earlier walked over to a stained and rusty refrigerator in one corner of the room and helped himself to a beer. He wasn’t one of the guys she’d seen at Hatcher’s that first time with Ty.

  “So where is she?” Hatcher paced to the door and back.

  “Nothing on the scanner.” The youngest of the three, a lanky blond in baggy jeans and an oversized T-shirt leaned casually against the silver Porsche he’d driven in. He accepted the beer the other driver handed him and took a long swig, intent on the scanner broadcast.

  Twisting away from the window, Kat pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and hit Fred Westberg’s number. She prayed he’d answer, thankful when he caught it on the second ring.

  She spoke in a near-whisper, though it was impossible for the men inside to hear her over the noise in the warehouse.

  “Fred, it’s Kat.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Jamie Hatcher has two stolen cars in his possession right now and I think he’s waiting for more.”

  “Where?”

  “I need a deal first, Frank.”

  “I told you I’d do everything I can.”

  “Not good enough.”

  “You want me to put my job on the line?”

  “Nothing less.”

  She heard him sigh. Tension ratcheted up the knot in her stomach, feeding a rush until he finally agreed. She had no finalized plan for getting Sunny out of this if Fred and the cops didn’t show up.

  “Okay. Where are you?”

  “Nothing goes on the scanner, Fred. They’re listening in.”

  “Got it.”

  She gave him the address. Before he hung up, he warned, “Stay safe, Vargas.”

  “Right.”

  As she shoved her cell phone into her pocket, a car horn sounded one sharp hit and she heard a powerful engine amplified by modified pipes. Turning, she grabbed the bottom of the window frame, pulled herself up, and watched Jamie Hatcher hit the garage door button.

  A low, sleek red Ferrari purred into the garage. As the door shut behind it, the driver pulled up alongside the other two cars. The door opened and Sunny stepped out. She tore a black knit stocking cap off her head and tossed it on a nearby workbench. Then she threw the keys at Jamie. He caught them in midair.

  “Okay I delivered. Now I’m out.” Sunny glared at him, shoving her hair off her face.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “You said just one time and that was it.”

  “So I lied.”

  “Damn it, Jamie, if Dodge was here—”

  “He’s not here. I’m running things now.”

  “Yeah? You’re running things right into the ground and all of us into jail. The money we made off parts scams and racing was enough. We don’t need to steal cars.”

  “It wasn’t enough and you know it. Thanks to you there’s never enough.” He crossed the floor, headed toward Sunny.

  Even from afar, Kat felt the tension and anger in Jamie’s every move as he bore down on Sunny.

  But Sunny didn’t back down. “I want to go to Alice.”

  “So you can disappear again?”

  “I was coming back, just as soon as I had Alice settled.”

  He took a menacing step closer. They were nose to nose and still Sunny wasn’t willing to give an inch.

  “Were you, Sunny?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Yes, I was.” There was such a wistful sadness in her voice that Kat believed her.

  “I don’t think you would have ever left the kid, but we’ll never know for sure now, will we?”

  “You knew I’d come back. You know why I can’t leave yet. Why screw everything up like this?” She shook her head, held out a hand in appeal. “Just let me take Alice to my dad’s. I promise I’ll come back and race every night if I have to. We don’t have to do this, Jamie.”

  My dad.

  Kat had never heard Sunny refer to Ty as anything but Chandler. She was stunned to hear Sunny had shown up in Twilight looking for a safe haven for her daughter.

  Knowing the girl had been willing to give up Alice in order to keep her out of harm’s way made Kat ache for her. Her heart went out to her and made her even more determined to help.

  In the cavernous room below, Sunny and Jamie’s argument quickly escalated into a shouting match.

  “You think I’m stupid enough to let you walk out of here with the kid? As long as I’ve got her, I’ve got you. Get over thinking you have a say anymore. I’m running things.”

  Sunny’s face mirrored her disgust. “You aren’t capable of running this crew. That’s why you still need me so bad.”

  “Just as much as you need us,” he shot back.

  Kat’s hands tightened on the sill when Jamie lashed out and slapped Sunny across the cheek. The girl reeled but didn’t fall. She reached out and slapped him back hard enough to rock him on his feet. Then without a word, she turned and walked across the garage.

  “Where are you going, bitch?” Hatcher yelled.

  Sunny didn’t look back. “Out to cool off, you prick. Don’t worry, I can’t walk back to Hollywood.”

  THE AIR OUTSIDE the warehouse was thick with the heavy, greasy smell of a dirty cooking grill. The odor from the twenty-four-hour hamburger and taco stand a block away drifted on the night air. The 101 Freeway was so close that the constant hum of tires against the pavement sounded like the ocean’s roar, but only if Sunny closed her eyes, imagined real hard, and didn’t inhale.

  She opened them and glanced around. Cloaked in darkness, she fought her tears, wondering whether Chandler had given her a second thought after he discovered she’d left. Surely he missed Alice by now.

  She reached into the pocket of her jeans and touched the earrings she’d hidden ther
e. She’d fast-handed them and kept them out of sight when Jamie followed her upstairs to gather up some diapers. She didn’t want to part with them, but if she got away somehow, she could pawn them and get a one-way ticket out of L.A.

  As she fingered the opals, she pictured the old house on the point, Ty and R.J., and even the great-grandmother she had never known.

  Tears stung her eyes and she cursed. Blinking hard, she looked up at the night sky. No stars here. Too much light, too much smog and overcast. The glow of streetlights glistened off razor wire wrapped around the fence behind the salvage shop next door. Twenty-first-century starlight. Shining, deadly bands of sharpened steel.

  She closed her eyes, pictured Alice’s sweet angel face, the way her baby’s smile reflected Dodge’s.

  Why did you have to crash that night?

  If he were still here, there’d be no worries. She wouldn’t have to make life-or-death decisions. It was too much for her. Way too much.

  Now Jamie was using Alice as a pawn.

  I’ll never get out.

  She took a deep breath, wishing she didn’t have to go back inside, when she heard the soft scrape of a step against the paved parking lot. Jamie had followed her.

  Her heartbeat accelerated. Away from the others, there was no telling what he’d do.

  Before she could turn around, someone grabbed her from behind. A gloved hand covered her mouth.

  Her first reaction was to struggle, but she couldn’t break the intense hold.

  “Sunny!” It was a woman’s voice in her ear, not Jamie’s. The low warning came with a shake. Sunny felt the softness of a woman’s body against her back. She fought harder.

  “I can get you out of this if you’ll hold still and listen.”

  Sunny thought she recognized Kat’s voice and tried to glance over her shoulder, but she was pinned tight. She tried nodding okay. Anything to get Kat to ease up.

  “You won’t call out?”

  She shook her head no and Kat slowly uncovered her mouth but didn’t let her go.

  “The police are on the way,” Kat whispered.

  “No!”

  The hand was back across her mouth, hurting her bruised cheek. Kat whispered against her ear, “All you have to do is testify against them and you’ll be okay. You’ll be out of it.”

  Sunny struggled. The woman had no idea what was at stake here. She didn’t understand. Sunny tried to wriggle free.

  “I can get you out of this.”

  As if Kat somehow knew. As if God actually answered prayers.

  Fat chance.

  “Where’s Alice?” Kat whispered, and eased her hand away from Sunny’s lips.

  “At a motel on Sepulveda. Callie and Butch are with her.”

  “Then let’s go get her. Before the police get here. Before all this comes down.”

  Sunny glanced at the warehouse a few feet away. If Jamie found out about the police, if he had time to get a call off to Butch, no telling where Butch would take Alice, or what might happen.

  Sunny nodded. Her heart was beating so hard it was ringing in her ears. She thought for a second that she might faint. If Kat was here, then Chandler couldn’t be far behind. Maybe he was waiting in the car. Surely they’d both come after her, just like that first time. Kat and her dad.

  He does care.

  He’d cared enough to find them again. Maybe this time it would all work out. Maybe things would be just fine.

  She glanced back at the warehouse. Acid Folk Display was rocking on the boom box. The police scanner hummed steadily beneath the heavy folk-rock. Her stomach knotted. She had to take a deep breath before she could get a word out.

  Kat’s hand was still wrapped around her arm.

  “Let’s go,” Sunny whispered. “Now.”

  Let’s go before I change my mind.

  Chapter 34

  NOTHING SUNNY had ever done, not racing, not meeting Ty Chandler for the first time, or walking into the E.R. the night Dodge crashed—not even stealing the Ferrari tonight—unnerved her as much as the idea that Alice’s safety depended entirely on her playing her part.

  “You know what to do.” Kat wasn’t asking. She made it sound as if she had faith in her, as if she was sure there would be no problem.

  They waited for the police in Kat’s car in the motel parking lot, directly across from the room where Butch was guarding Alice.

  Though Sunny hadn’t taken her eyes off the door, she could feel Kat staring at her profile through the darkness.

  “Why isn’t Chandler here?” She couldn’t stop shaking.

  “He doesn’t know I’m here. I wasn’t sure I’d find you, so I didn’t tell him.”

  “Is he pissed?”

  “He’s worried sick.”

  Sunny swallowed the tears choking her, rubbed her eyes, and wondered what was happening to Jamie and the others.

  On the drive over from the warehouse, they’d passed a convoy of police black-and-whites headed in the opposite direction. No flashing lights, no sirens.

  Kat told her that she’d alerted her contact at L.A.P.D. to the fact that Jamie had a scanner on. As she drove, she explained the situation. All Sunny had to do was testify in court and provide the D.A. with information about the insurance scams and anything she knew about the auto theft.

  “All you have to do . . .”

  Kat made it sound so easy. Just get up there on the stand, and in exchange for her freedom betray everyone she knew—anyone who ever meant anything to her. Rat on the only family she’d ever had, for the chance to see her daughter grow up. For a life with Alice.

  “As soon as the police get here, you’ll be going in,” Kat reminded her. She’d been talking to someone named Fred on her cell phone, working out the details. “Leave the door unlocked when you walk in. Leave it open if you can.”

  “Butch will ask about Jamie.”

  Kat nodded. “Right. You know what to say. Give the police time to get in position. Stay calm, stay cool. Just get in, grab Alice, and get out.”

  She was to tell Butch she was going out to the soda machine. She’d have Alice in her arms. She didn’t have a car, so he wouldn’t have to worry about her taking off on foot. The only catch was that she was supposed to have come back with Jamie.

  “What if he doesn’t let me out?” Her palms were sweating. She wiped them on the knees of her jeans. Getting behind the wheel of a car and hitting over a hundred miles an hour was a thousand times easier than this.

  “You just keep that door open and be ready to run with Alice.”

  Kat’s contact had told her the raid at the warehouse had gone off fast and easy. No one had been hurt. They’d taken Jamie and the others by complete surprise. Sunny had begged Kat to get Alice out without police help, but Kat refused. She was adamant about having backup.

  The longer they sat, the more the jitters took over, until Sunny thought she was going to crawl out of her skin.

  Visions of film shoot-outs flashed through her mind, one worse than another. She wanted Alice out of the motel room before the police arrived, before Butch caught on to what was going down and did something desperate.

  All they needed was for him to look out the door and notice anything he thought was suspicious in the parking lot. Who knew what he’d do?

  Sunny took a deep breath, and on impulse, without a word of warning, hit the door handle and jumped out.

  “Sunny!” Kat hissed.

  Sunny took long strides to quickly eat up the parking lot, until she was almost jogging. She’d intended to knock, but ended up pounding on the motel room door. The sound echoed the frantic beat of her heart.

  It was Callie, not Butch, who cracked the door open. Sunny prayed Kat wasn’t right behind her. She couldn’t risk turning around to find out.
<
br />   “It’s me,” Sunny whispered, then added a bit louder, “let me in.”

  Callie opened the door barely enough for her to slip in. The television was blaring, tuned to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Marg Helgenberger was watching someone dissect a cadaver. Across the room, French Fry was wide awake, balanced on Butch’s knee. As soon as she saw Sunny, she started clapping and laughing.

  Sunny knew the guys loved French Fry, but Butch, like the rest of them, was totally loyal to Jamie. They’d been raised at River Ridge, taught not to question leadership. They shared and shared alike.

  Butch, more than any of the others, was a follower. He never questioned Jamie, just as he’d never questioned Dodge.

  Sunny stepped inside, immediately started talking, and pushed the door almost shut. As Sunny crossed the room toward Butch and French Fry, Callie walked back to the bed and flopped down on her stomach to watch television.

  “So, how’s my little French Fry?” Sunny reached for Alice, who mirrored her, laughing joyously.

  It wasn’t until Butch handed Alice over that Sunny noticed the gun lying on the Formica phone table beside him. She forced herself to look into Butch’s eyes and casually smiled. She had to convince him nothing was wrong.

  “Where’s Jamie?” He glanced at the door.

  “He got hung up. I talked him into sending me back in a cab.”

  It was a lame excuse, but the only one she and Kat could come up with.

  “Alone?” Butch was the least likely of any of the guys to jump to conclusions. Leaf was always as nervous and twitchy as Jamie was suspicious. She was lucky she was dealing with Butch.

  “Sure.” She shrugged it off as no big deal and nuzzled Alice’s neck, inhaled the clean baby powder scent, closed her eyes, and promised herself everything would be all right. That they’d make it out alive.

  “He said he’d call me when you two started back.” Butch slowly pushed away from the chair and stood up, his thick forehead furrowed into deep lines. He swung his head toward the door. Sunny held her breath.

  “He changed his mind when they had trouble with the Mercedes. The ignition is touchy.” Her arms tightened around Alice and she turned toward the door. “I’m thirsty I’m going down to the soda machine.”