Taking Mine Read online

  “Justin.” His name is the only thing I can muster as we swerve in and out of traffic. He doesn’t bother to acknowledge my ramblings, only accelerates through the intersections with zero disregard for oncoming traffic.

  He slams on the brakes, making a ninety-degree turn onto a side street. I brace my hands on the dashboard to prevent my body from jerking forward. Justin’s sole focus is on the road in front of us, his jaw clenched as we fishtail. He straightens the wheel, glancing at me for a split second; we’re heading down a one-lane in the wrong direction. I alternate between wanting to see where we’re going and wanting to close my eyes from terror. Risking a short glance over my shoulder, I spot the cop’s flashing lights a good distance away. When I turn back around, we’re approaching a four-way, all stop lights red in our direction. Justin doesn’t waver.

  “Hold on,” Justin says a millisecond before he whips the car left. We barely managed to scrape past a van, pulling into an alley.

  We park behind a dumpster and kill the engine, both of our eyes trained to the entrance, waiting for the familiar lights to pass. It takes a few minutes, each longer than the last, before the sirens approach and pass without incident. We simultaneously let out a breath.

  I drop my head back against the headrest, hand clutching my chest. “What. The fuck. Was that?”

  Justin eyes me from his side of the car. “You tell me.”

  “Me? I’m not the one who instigated a high-speed car chase.”

  “I’m not the one committing grand theft auto,” he retorts, throwing his hands up.

  For the first time in my life, I’m confronted by somebody catching me. And it’s a person I know, a person who helped me not get caught. I take a breath to calm my temper, allowing some of the adrenaline to phase out.

  “Why’d you help me?”

  His eyes are directed out his window as he takes his time to respond, running a hand over his face. “I don’t know. I saw the panic on your face and reacted.”

  His words leave little to discuss, and he’s obviously feeling more conflicted about it than he’s letting on.

  “We should ditch it,” I say, reaching for the door handle.

  “No. They’re going to be patrolling, no doubt a dispatch is out. I say if we don’t see anything in an hour or so we can go. Dawn is probably their shift change, so we’ll wait until then if we need to.”

  Great.

  Silence descends and it’s stifling. There’s a weird animosity between us, and I don’t even know what for. We’ve now committed a felony together, and neither one of us wants to be first to break the standoff. It’s not like I stole his car.

  Minutes pass and all I can think about is all the food I didn’t eat today. Being so stressed about meeting with my adviser and work, I skipped lunch and dinner. As if on cue, my stomach rumbles. Justin looks over at me and I start laughing.

  “I can’t help it.”

  He reaches for the floorboard and pulls out a crumpled white bag. My stomach growls louder at the sight of the bag and he laughs, halving the burger and handing it to me. He folds the bag down, shaking the fries out. I sigh in contentment as I chew my first bite.

  “So.” Justin swallows his before finishing. “You steal cars for what…fun?”

  “No,” I snap.

  He raises his eyebrows.

  “Sorry. I have no right to get defensive.”

  He nods once, accepting my apology. “Want to explain why you do it?”

  Not particularly. “It’s a long story.”

  “We have time.”

  I pull the baseball cap off and readjust my hair. “For now, I’m just trying to pay for school. This is the only thing I’ve got.”

  He finishes his half of the burger and wipes off his hands. “By stealing cars and doing what with them?”

  My laugh is dry as I shake my head, at a loss for words.

  “Lilly,” he says, sensing my hesitancy. “I’m sitting in a stolen vehicle with you. I’m not going to judge you.”

  I can feel his eyes on me as I fidget in my seat.

  “Do you sell them?” He’s persistent.

  “For parts,” I clarify. “We break them down and sell them on the black market. They’re worth more that way.”

  “We? Who’s we? Kaley?”

  I laugh. “Kaley is the least stealthy person I know. No,” I say, my laughter dying off. “She doesn’t know about what I do.”

  He looks surprised. “Then who is we?”

  “This is how Kip supported us after our mom left. She left, not a word, in the middle of the night. At the time I don’t think I quite understood the implications of her leaving. Kip did a good job shielding me from it. From my understanding, he went to a few local businesses, asking to work for cash. He ran across Toby’s, and Taylor’s dad gave him one.”

  “He gave a sixteen-year-old a job to steal cars?”

  “Fifteen.”

  Justin blows out a breath, leaning back in his seat. “How come no one alerted the authorities?”

  “About my mom?

  He nods.

  “She wasn’t known to be mom of the year. It was normal for her to miss parent stuff at school, and neighbors knew she was a recluse…a drunk.” I pause, surprised by the lump in my throat. “For me, life went on as normal.”

  He lets me finish my food in silence, even offering me the rest of the fries. It’s when I prop my feet on the dash that he gives me a strange look.

  “Where are your shoes?”

  I laugh, forgetting I’m barefoot. “Got ruined at work.”

  He shakes his head, offering nothing up as to what he’s thinking.

  “What?” I implore.

  He releases a breath and smiles at me. “Considering your history, you’re surprisingly…”

  “Not who’d you expect to be a criminal,” I finish for him.

  “Yeah,” he says, smiling. “You’re….”

  “You can say it, sheltered.”

  “Protected,” he reiterates.

  “Kip doesn’t know I’ve been stealing again.”

  “Again?”

  “I quit when I started college. New beginnings and everything. I guess old habits die hard.”

  “You’re out of practice.”

  I throw my head back, laughing. “You can say I’m a little rusty. Or desperate,” I add at the end.

  “Because you lost your scholarship,” he clarifies.

  “I need half of my semester’s tuition paid by Monday. If it’s not, then all my hard work will have been for nothing and I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life. I’ll be working at the shop changing brake pads and oil pans for twelve dollars an hour.”

  Justin breathes in deeply, like he’s taking in the stress I’m letting out. I can physically see the pressure building up inside him and wonder if that’s what I constantly look like. No wonder Kip’s been in my space lately. I must look like shit.

  I laugh.

  A confused smile kicks up the side of his mouth. “What?”

  “You’re such a conundrum.”

  “I’m the conundrum,” he says, pointing at his chest.

  “Yes.”

  I don’t elaborate.

  His laughter gives me pause, the realness of his smile. I forgot how much I’m attracted to him. Okay, I was distracted. But he’s looking at me like I’m interesting, and it sets a burn inside my chest. I have a weird urge to slap him. It hasn’t escaped my awareness that whenever I can’t handle my feelings toward him I become internally violent. It’s like he sets all of my insides on fire, and I’m still not sure if it’s a good or bad thing. Not knowing how to handle my irritation, I lean over the middle console and kiss him instead.

  The second my lips meet his, his laughter dies in my mouth. There’s a light hum in the back of my throat. It’s a sharp, quick kiss before I pull away, stunned by my own audacity. We’re both not breathing. I watch his eyes dip to my lips and he reaches to the nape of my neck, pulling my mouth back to his.
>
  This time the kiss is edged with tension but more control. Justin’s tongue meets mine, creating a deeper connection. The hand clutching the back of my neck gets tighter the closer my body draws to his. He wraps his other arm around my lower back, pulling me into his lap. It happens so quickly I don’t even question it. Air hits my waist as his hand trails up my spine, drawing up my shirt along the way.

  My hands frame his neck, feeling the muscles I’ve fantasized over more than I care to admit. There’s a tug on the hair at the base of my skull, pulling my head back enough to angle my neck toward his mouth. The second I feel his open mouth place a kiss at the curve of my neck, I don’t falter, instead gliding my hips over his, feeling him through the rough fabric of his jeans. Justin sucks in a shudder, his mouth open against my throat, pulling me farther down onto him.

  A loud bang startles us apart. Two feral cats are fighting on top of the dumpster behind us, causing the lid to fall open and hit the metal side. After we realize we’re safe, we untwine from each other. Justin’s hand slips out from under my shirt, leaving a cold imprint of where it was. Tucking the loose strands of my hair behind my ear, I ungracefully scoot back over the console, straightening my top and trying to gain control of my breathing.

  I force myself to look at Justin even though a huge part of me wants to ignore what just transpired. His hand is covering his mouth as if he’s hiding the evidence. He runs his fingers over his lips a few times before he looks at me. My heart stalls.

  “Lilly, I’m…shit.” He closes his eyes and opens them again. Trying again, he says, “I’m in a bizarre place right now. If we, us, became more than friends…it would completely derail me.”

  I try to calmly, rationally digest his words, but I can’t stop my feelings from being hurt. My ego, at the very least, is a tad bit taken back.

  “We’re obviously very attracted to each other,” he says, stating the obvious.

  It’s easier to clear the air now. Get it out in the open and rid ourselves of the uncomfortable place that we’ve been in since the night we left Chuck’s. My eyes focus on his lips for a split second before I realize what I’m doing. My brain isn’t very quick to keep up.

  “I get it,” I say, not getting it at all. “We’re both focused on school, right?”

  He gives a hesitant nod. “Right.”

  “We’ll stay friends, just like we have been, and pretend this entire night didn’t happen.”

  Justin straightens, placing his back up against the door. “I get the feeling this isn't about our kiss.”

  “Kiss is a mild term for what we just did, but whatever way you want to look at it,” I say.

  “Are you going to continue doing this?”

  “You mean stealing cars?”A logical part of me knows I should just say no, lie and go on about my business, but for some god-forsaken reason I don’t want to lie to him. “Yes.”

  “Then I want to come with you.”

  I jerk my head back, confused. “What?”

  He heaves a sigh. “I know that you’re still going to do this even if I try to convince you otherwise. If your brother can’t even stop you, I have no hope, but I want you to be safe.”

  “Contrary to what you saw tonight, I’ve done this for a long time without being caught. I got careless tonight. It won’t happen again.”

  “It’s not only that. You’re in a bad part of town, by yourself, doing something incredibly stupid. As your friend, I can’t let you do this by yourself.”

  “As my friend,” I repeat.

  “Yes.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see him adjust himself through his pants. The sexual tension is still there. A lot there. And he wants to be friends. Yeah, this isn't setting us up for disaster.

  “We should be safe to leave, huh?”

  He checks the rear-view mirror even though he can only see a tiny portion of the street from where we are. “Where to?”

  “Toby’s. It’s the automotive shop off of Dupont.”

  “A certified chop-shop.”

  THE BACK ENTRANCE to Toby’s is open for us when we arrive fifteen minutes later. Taylor is already waiting as Justin parks the Toyota in the closest bay. His gaze is perceptively cool at the sight of Justin driving.

  “Who’s he?” Justin asks.

  I don't get a chance to respond, as Taylor’s already opening my door. “Who’s your friend?”

  “Justin,” I say as Justin exits the driver side. “This is Taylor. Taylor, this is Justin. He's a friend from school.”

  “Care to explain why he’s showing up in a stolen car with you?”

  The whole lying thing with Taylor never goes well with me. “You wouldn’t believe the coincidence.” Taylor’s attention doesn’t waver as I stall. “So, he kind of happened to be passing by when I was popping the lock.”

  His face tells me he doesn't believe me.

  “It’s not like I invited him along, okay? I’m just as thrilled as you are that I got caught.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why he’s here, with you, in a stolen car.”

  This is the part of the story that I’m less than thrilled about telling. If Taylor thinks I’m a risk, he’ll revoke my privileges. He’ll refuse to sell for me anymore.

  Justin answers for me. “I didn’t give her an option. I figured if I let her go, I was already an accessory, so I went along for the ride.”

  Taylor glares at him. “This isn’t a fucking merry-go-round. You don’t get to hop on and off for fun and then decide you’re getting sick of going in circles. You’re either in or you’re out.”

  Justin holds Taylor’s attention steady as he replies, “I’m in. Lilly knows I’m in.”

  I can see the metaphorical noose being strung around Justin’s neck. Taylor can see it too, and his smile says it all.

  A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER, Taylor corners me in the break room, asking if I can speak to him in his office. Ethan gives me a questioning look and I shrug. Taylor watches me approach from the other side of the glass window.

  “Shut the door.” Reluctantly, I take a seat, already annoyed by how often I’m finding myself in his office lately. “I need your help.” The seriousness of his tone sets me on edge. “Jimmy has come through with his compromise. We have an order coming up and it’s going to make us big money.”

  “Which is?”

  “It’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done before and it’s different from anything we’ve ever done before. But I need your help to convince Kip to do it.”

  “Why? Kip doesn’t deal with this stuff anymore. And it’s not like you exactly need his permission. Technically, Toby’s is yours.”

  “Kip is who Jimmy dealt with when he ordered from us years ago. He reached out to Kip about this new deal, but Kip directed him to me, said he doesn’t handle this side of the business anymore. It put Jimmy on edge. He wants Kip. He trusts Kip.”

  “You know I can’t convince Kip of anything.”

  Taylor twirls a pen around his fingers. “I’m hoping the money will be incentive enough to get him on board, but if not, I need you backing me. Two against one is better odds. And you’d be surprised how hard of a time Kip has telling you no.”

  “That’s debatable, considering how many times a day he says it to me.”

  He chuckles. “I’ll go over the logistics with the both of you at the same time so he doesn’t feel like we’re ganging up on him. That way, we’re all on even playing field.”

  “And how do you know I’ll even think this order is a good idea? If you’re saying it’s out of the norm then it might be too big of a risk.”

  Taylor smiles and buzzes Kip into his office. “Because, Lilly,” he says, pausing to lean back in his chair. “The kind of money Jimmy is paying is more than worth it.”

  Kip pauses at the door when he sees me sitting across from Taylor. “Everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine,” Taylor says. “I have something I want to discuss with you.”

  Kip looks
to me for answers. “What’s this about?”

  I shrug.

  Taylor mimics Kip’s tone, sitting up tall, losing the unperturbed Taylor and replacing it with business-savvy Taylor. “I want to talk to you about Jimmy’s proposition for us.”

  “I don’t do orders,” Kip says.

  “And you won’t have to. But Jimmy wants to know that you’re okay with our arrangement before he’ll give us the job.”

  “What job?”

  Taylor pulls out a manila folder and hands it to Kip. I lean over, peeking at the eight-by-ten glossy photos of cars he’s pulling from the envelope. These are not the kind of cars we deal with. My eyes bug out as one shiny new car after another runs through Kip’s hands.

  “What the hell is this, Taylor?”

  “Jimmy wants us to transport these cars for him.”

  “He wants us to steal them?” Kip says, incredulous.

  “Hear me out,” Taylor says, gearing up to get defensive.

  “He expects us to successfully pull off stealing high-dollar vehicles? We’re a chop-shop, Taylor. Not fucking criminal masterminds. All of these require transponder keys.”

  “Jimmy has someone that will supply us the resources we need to access the cars. He has a tech guy he uses all the time.”

  I pull a picture of a 911 Carrera out of the folder. “How will we know if they’ll be legit? A lot of the new Porsches have motion detectors inside the cab. If the key doesn’t match, whoever is in the car is screwed.”

  “We’ve been guaranteed that the keys will work with the transponders. Once the car is unlocked, everything will disable.”

  Kip tosses the folder on the desk, making it skid to a stop in front of Taylor. “Why would a millionaire pay someone to steal cars? He can pull up to any car dealership and buy a car out right.”

  “It’s not finding the car that’s the issue. He doesn’t want to have to file them with the IRS. He wants to pay cash and not be taxed for it.”

  “How much?” I ask.

  “How much is he going to pay us for our services?”