“You said it was a different world. What good would stealing Shorty’s car do? That guy’s just a pontificating minor leaguer.”
“You and your big fancy words,” Mrs. Otis said, holding Dubs in a long stare. She clearly wasn’t going to elaborate on her earlier suggestion. She obviously didn’t trust Max’s presence, and probably wasn’t sure she should trust her either. Dubs knew the feeling.
“And you.” Mrs. Otis turned on Max. “I don’t know who you are, but you take care of her. Watch her back. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Dubs was amused to see how intimidated Max was. This woman worked for Holt Lasher, the most feared woman in Rhode Island, a bounty hunter whose reputation alone scared most criminals into keeping their court date. But here Max was, terrified of a grieving mother. At least Dubs knew Max was intelligent. Everyone should be scared of Mrs. Otis.
“I can’t bear to lose another child.”
Chapter Four
“Did I miss a wedding announcement? You two are so adorable. I think you’re taking the ‘til death do us part’ thing a little seriously, though,” Moose said when Max and Dubs walked into the full staff briefing back at the office. The handcuffs were hard to miss.
“You’re hilarious, big man. Jealous? No one to handcuff yourself to on the long, lonely nights?” Max felt much more comfortable here, among her friends, than she had out in the world, alone with Dubs on turf she wasn’t familiar with.
Poor Moose looked confused when everyone in the room burst into laughter. Everyone except Jose, that is. Lola had snuck up behind Jose and forcibly raised his hand when Max was teasing Moose about not having a special friend to share his handcuffs. Everyone in the room, with the exception of Moose, knew Jose was desperately into Moose. Apparently, it had been that way since Moose, Jose, Lola, and Holt were kids.
Max made her way, with Dubs following, to her usual seat at the table. Her laptop, and a sense of normalcy, were waiting. However, only one chair was in place. They were a crew of routine. Everyone sat in the same order around the table, and all the chairs were accounted for. Today they had to squeeze extras in for Jose, who was visiting from the mechanic shop he ran next door, and Isabelle. And now they needed one for the convict attached to Max.
The one chair dilemma didn’t seem to have escaped Dubs’s notice, either. Max wasn’t sure anything escaped her notice. “I’m happy to sit on your lap, Pretty Girl. I’d be real content.”
“You never stop trying, do you?” Max said. She wasn’t sure whether to be flattered, offended, on guard, or annoyed. Dubs was hard to get a read on.
“I’m not trying for anything. Just making a truthful statement. There’s only one chair, and I’m sure I could get real comfortable in your arms.”
“Can I get another chair, please?” Max said.
Isabelle gave up her chair. “It’s nice to meet you, Dubs. Holt said you’ll be joining her team for a while. I see you and Max will be getting to know each other.”
For all her earlier digs about Isabelle being the queen they all bowed down to, Dubs seemed to be at a loss for words. Which, from the limited time Max had spent with Dubs, seemed unusual.
Max gave Dubs a little handcuff wrist jiggle to get her talking. “Oh, yes, ma’am. A little time. Seems my skills are useful for something good. And anything is better than jail.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Isabelle said. “There’s no one better around here to look after you than Max. And Holt will keep you safe. Welcome.”
Isabelle retreated and took her seat on Holt’s lap, since there weren’t any more chairs. One could have been brought from the other room, but no one was going to suggest that. Dubs was right about everyone in the crew adoring Isabelle. They loved her for who she was, but also for how happy she made Holt.
“Oh, so she can choose any lap she wants?” Dubs asked, plopping down grumpily in her chair. “Did I even make any sense when I was talking to her? I’m not sure I put together a coherent sentence. What’s wrong with me?”
“Not any lap,” Max said, sort of enjoying Dubs’s discomfort. She hadn’t been sure Dubs was flappable until now. “I dare you to suggest Isabelle test out yours.”
“Is that when Hulk gets angry?” Dubs asked, smiling genuinely, or so it seemed, for the first time since they met. It was a beautiful thing.
Max squeezed Dubs’s hand in her own and returned the smile, feeling like maybe they were laying down the first tiny building block of connection. “Now you’re catching on.”
“All right, let’s get started,” Holt said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and limited intel. Max has a new houseguest I’m hoping can help us. This is a special assignment, so business keeps running as normal, but I’m going to pull a few of you in to work this too. Isabelle is on this one as well, but only behind the scenes. We all know what happened the last time she went in the field.”
“Yeah, boss, you got yourself shot and Isabelle had to save your ass.”
“That’s funny, that’s not quite how I remember it,” Holt said, smiling.
“We do,” the group said, almost in unison.
“Fine. I can see I’m outnumbered. I’ll be honest. I’m concerned about employing a group of individuals with such horrible memory.” Holt didn’t seem to mind the teasing. “This time, no one gets shot, okay? I really, really hate getting shot.”
“And I really, really prefer her in one piece,” Isabelle said. “That goes for all of you.”
“Enough,” Holt said. “Isabelle swears she’s staying, and I don’t need to give her a reason to lock all of us in a dark dungeonous room until our business goes under, just to keep us all safe.”
“This might not be the time,” Moose said, “but how did you end up crossing off two of our most wanted during a meet and greet with Max’s new houseguest? This is just a rumor, but I hear you were stripping down weapons again.”
“Who, me? Nah. I mean, I had to disarm the state troopers who were waving their guns all around the park. Maybe that’s where that rumor started. The bad boys were only armed with knives. And Max took care of them. I mostly just watched and waited with handcuffs. Right, Dubs?”
Max wanted to argue. That wasn’t at all how the encounter in the park had occurred. But she knew better than to challenge Holt in this setting. She was curious to see if Dubs did.
“Yep. Holt moved like the Flash, stripped the young cop’s weapon to pieces, and Max was awesome fighting both dudes. I was tied to a bicycle rack, so I had a perfect view.”
While it felt good to accept the congratulations from the rest of the crew for the captures, it was false praise. Holt had to swoop in and save her when the guy pulled the knife, and Holt was the one who subdued the first guy. If she ever had a free moment again, she was going to ask her about it.
“Why do you keep tying this poor woman up?” Isabelle asked Holt.
“She left out the part where she let herself out of the handcuffs when the fighting started. The bicycle rack was more of a rallying point. She just happened to be cuffed to it, but she could have left at any time. I’m glad she didn’t though, because then she wouldn’t be here now. But I’m still not entirely sure she’s not going to make a run the moment she gets bored with us.”
Max wanted to laugh. It wasn’t a good idea to challenge Holt so openly, especially not in front of her entire crew. Dubs had tried to play the sympathy card, insinuating she was being mistreated, but it backfired. Now everyone knew Dubs was a mini Houdini, if they didn’t already. They also knew she wasn’t yet a team player. Max wondered if Holt had been baiting Dubs a little, as she now understood she had been in the park. It was going to be hard being so close to someone, living with her, and not knowing if you could trust her.
“Back to business,” Holt said. “Let’s talk about what we know. A few months ago, there was a dramatic increase in the number of cars stolen in the Providence area. The pattern of thefts, and methods used, don’t match any that police recognize
from known car thieves in the area. The most notorious and well respected of those known thieves was cooling her heels in prison anyway.” Holt pointed at Dubs, who mimicked taking a dramatic bow.
“And then they went and pissed in your morning Wheaties. Right, boss?” Lola said. “No offense, Isabelle.”
“Why does everyone around here think I have these delicate little lady ears that need to be protected all the time?”
“They don’t know you like I do.” Holt planted a kiss on one of Isabelle’s “lady ears.” Sometimes, Max was totally infatuated by how much they loved each other, caught up in their current, hoping she too could find that one day. And sometimes, she wished they would keep it to themselves and not rub it in to all the rest of the poor fools in the office who weren’t so damned happy, and adorable, and in love.
“Don’t play all nice with me, trying to distract your crew. I think a few of them are wondering where their fearless leader went, by the way. We all know what happens when someone pisses in your Wheaties. Or in the general vicinity of your Wheaties, Cheerios, Grape-Nuts, oatmeal, Fruity Pebbles, or Cap’n Crunch.” Isabelle tugged gently on Holt’s hair.
“I end up handcuffed to Dubs,” Max said. The room cracked up. Holt shot her a look, but Max was getting better at reading Holt’s expressions. This wasn’t the look of death.
“Would you and your new BFF like to run us through the data you’ve been collecting? The state police, Providence police, and some of our informants on the street, all seem to think the uptick in thefts is due to a new power player entering the arena. The police don’t know who the new player is, and if our contacts know, they aren’t saying.”
“They probably won’t tell you,” Dubs said. “Some of the crews out there are mixed up in drugs, guns, sex. Some pretty nasty stuff. I’d keep my mouth shut, too. It’s a smarter way to stay alive.”
“So what can we provide you, from here, to help narrow down our list of suspects?” Moose asked.
“You said you have a list of all the stolen cars?” Dubs asked, looking at Max.
Their handcuff-necessitated proximity made everything they did feel intimate, but there was something about the way Dubs asked her about the list that felt like it was tickling her spine. Max knew Dubs was playing with her. She just didn’t know how she was doing it. She put on her best Holt style game face and focused on her computer.
“I’ll put it on the screen, then I guess we’ll tag team it since we’re a three-armed monster,” Max said. She clicked a few buttons and sent all the data she had been scooping up recently to the big screen hanging on the wall. The screen made her geek out every time she got to use it. Holt bought it for her after she beat her during the fundraising challenge last year. No one had ever beaten Holt, so it was a big deal.
“We’re up,” Max said, pulling Dubs to her feet.
“What are we going to do up there? Don’t you need your computer and your fancy fingers on those keys, Pretty Girl?”
“Do you do anything without talking about it first?” Max asked, hoping she didn’t have to drag Dubs to the front of the room.
“Nope. I even talk to myself when I’m relieving someone of their vehicle.”
“Fantastic.” Max didn’t think she would ever sleep again.
She tapped the large screen on the wall, and it came to life. The map of the greater Providence area she had sent from her computer was now displayed on the screen. The cluster of stolen cars was in the lower right-hand corner. She put her right index finger in the center of the grouping and flung the whole cluster toward the center of the map. They aligned with dots on the map.
Next she put her finger over a second group of data, this time vehicle makes and models. As she flipped them onto the map, the data points lined up, one each with the vehicles.
“What kind of voodoo magic are you doing?” Dubs asked, trying to back away from Max, but only getting so far.
“Just look at the screen. Tell us what you see. Please don’t tell me now, of all times, you’re at a loss for words.” Max liked Dubs being off balance for a change. Since they’d met, it felt like she was always the one on her heels.
Dubs studied the map. Max wasn’t sure the rest of the room could see the look on her face, but it looked as if Dubs was reading a really good book, or a letter from a friend. The map clearly meant more to her than it did to any of them.
“Okay,” Dubs said. “These two aren’t your new crew.” She pointed at two of the map dots. “Neither are these, or these.” Dubs identified a few more thefts.
“Any that aren’t related, put your finger on, and flick off the map,” Max said. “It will be faster if you do it.”
“Flick them off the map? Are you insane? It’s a television screen.” Dubs didn’t seem as convinced of the awesomeness of Max’s toy as she was.
Max demonstrated.
Dubs looked much more impressed after she saw it in action. “All right, I’ve got the idea. Move over.”
When Dubs was done sorting, about fifty-five percent of the thefts had been eliminated.
“Do those belong to the new guy?” Moose asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” Dubs said. “But they don’t belong to anyone I know. And from what you said, this new player has upped the total volume by a lot. This is a lot. Most of these cars are high-end, too. You’re chasing an enterprising little fireball. I mean, we’re chasing, of course. It’s just, I have some professional admiration for his balls.”
“Speaking of which, isn’t that your truck on the map, H?”
“Oh, you happened to notice that, did you?” Holt said, looking amused.
“So what’s the plan, H? Do we start causing a ruckus in the areas still lit up on the map? Lay down our own gauntlet?” Lola asked.
“Any luck on the money, sweetheart?” Holt asked Isabelle.
“Not yet. I need more time. Forensic accounting is new to me. I’d be much faster if these guys needed their taxes done.”
“Maybe you should stand on the corner in one of these neighborhoods in one of those Statue of Liberty costumes, you know, the ones for the cheap tax services. Maybe you can actually do their taxes.” Tuna laughed at his own joke.
“We’re not laying down any gauntlets just yet. And no costumes,” Holt said. “But we do have the best thief in the state.” Holt paused and stared at Dubs, who stood glaring at her. “What? You need your ego stroked? I can do that for you. I understand it’s been lonely in prison.” Holt was clearly enjoying herself. “Okay, I’ll start over. We do have the best thief in the country.”
Max heard Dubs let out a breath. When she looked over, Dubs was shaking her head, looking both entertained and exasperated.
“Too much?” Holt said. “Fine, you tell me how good you are.”
“New England, at least,” Dubs said. “Probably Eastern Seaboard.”
“Best east of Denver?” Max asked.
“That’s just bragging,” Dubs said.
“It’s okay,” Holt said. “You’re among friends here.”
“I don’t know that yet, ma’am,” Dubs said seriously.
“Well, friends at my table get to help plan the attack. What would you suggest our next move is?”
Max wondered if Dubs knew she was being tested. Max wasn’t sure if that was Holt’s intention, but it felt like it might be. Holt had said she didn’t feel confident about this new job, and none of them knew Dubs. Max had already gotten the impression she was moving to her own beat, which may or may not line up with what Holt wanted from her. Max wasn’t sure what was giving her that sense, since they’d only spent a short time together, but there was something that wasn’t sitting quite right.
“You want to find out who this new crew is,” Dubs said. Her voice sounded strong, but Max could see her hands were shaking slightly. Maybe Holt could even scare the pants off a cocky car thief.
“So I need to start stealing some cars. In my old territory. I saw my father and an old friend today, so everyone knows I
’m out. They also probably know I’m here. If you cut me loose and let me get back to work, I’ll have the new crew’s attention by the end of the week.”
“Not going to happen,” Holt said. “You don’t get cut loose. The rest we can talk about. What do you think, Max?”
Max didn’t expect Holt to seek her opinion on fieldwork. She thought the park demonstrated pretty definitively that she had a truckload of things to learn.
“Well, we need to find this crew. It’s been surprisingly hard. Dubs test-driving a few cars seems like the best, and fastest, way to do that. Besides, I’ll be with her. What could go wrong?” Her last statement got the laugh it was intended to elicit.
“I can’t steal cars like this,” Dubs said. Max thought she might actually be pouting a little.
“Start with something easy,” Holt said. “Make sure you still got your mojo. And Max stays by your side. Bring me back something pretty, and then we’ll talk handcuffs. And then you drop it off where the police will have no trouble finding it. No one gets hurt long-term in this, understood?”
“Damn, boss, talkin’ dirty to me and in front of your lady, too.”
Max noticed Dubs had her swagger back. She wasn’t sure if she should be happy about that or worried.
“Let’s go, Pretty Girl. We’ve got work to do.”
Chapter Five
Holt pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping it would either help clarify the day, or make her head stop hurting. It did neither. Instead, she ran her hands through her hair and let out a sigh. She relaxed when she felt Isabelle’s hands on her shoulders.
She was perched on the side of the bed, but now that Isabelle provided an alternative, she slumped back against her, resting her head against Isabelle’s chest.
“This seems a little dramatic,” Isabelle said, waving her hand at Holt. “Need a little help feeling sorry for yourself?”
“Hey,” Holt said, “I thought you were supposed to be supportive and understanding. You know, help me lick my wounds when I’ve had a rough day.”
Pedal to the Metal Page 3
