Page 72 of It's Going to Be a Chrome Christmas
“She won’t return to the house.” Trixie hadn’t said anything, but she hadn’t had to. His gut told him she planned on staying at Romero’s until he returned to her.
“They’ll be wherever she is.”
Cayden nodded once. “Good.”
They watched in silence as the cops walked back to their cruiser while Jeff pulled Trixie inside the building. Cayden had never been happier to have convinced her to increase her security. At least he knew exactly what was keeping her safe.
“You broke parole last night instead of this morning.” Cayden didn’t bother to defend that decision. He wouldn’t have given up his night with Trixie for anything. “Wasn’t as public as I was hoping for to get back in with Carver, but I guess it’ll do.”
Cayden snorted. “No wonder Massey thought you were a cop.”
Lee was silent for a second. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re methodical, man.” Cayden turned towards Trixie’s brother. He had his long black hair combed straight back and tied off at the nape of his neck. His mocha skin was slightly darker than Trixie’s, though that was likely from time in the sun. “You think like a cop, a soldier. All action and no flair.” The man’s dark eyes narrowed. Cayden rolled his in return, facing Romero’s again. “I broke parole last night to spend more time with your sister. I’m stealing a car to get back in with the MC.”
“What car?” There was a bit of curiosity lacing the ninja’s voice.
Cayden’s grin was malicious. “One he couldn’t refuse even if he wanted to.”
Their morning staff meeting took much longer than normal. By the time Trixie dismissed her employees from the meeting, she felt gutted and flayed. Their reactions to Cayden’s rabbiting ranged from anger and shock at Cayden to accusatory glares at Trixie herself. She had been too nauseous during the entire meeting to even take a sip of coffee. Throwing up was still an option for the morning.
It was the employees’ shouts that drew her attention on her way to her office. She really just wanted some alone time to sulk, but she couldn’t ignore their yells of panic. Trixie ran down tothe showroom, along with every other employee who had heard the sales team. Fear gripped her that someone had spotted Cayden. She didn’t even know if he was here or if he had already met up with Lee and they were on their way to wherever it was they were going. She had a feeling she would be jumping at shadows until he returned to her.
Trixie squeezed her way to the front of the gathered crowd of her employees and felt her stomach sink.
The lime green Porsche Spyder 918 that had sat in the center of her showroom was gone.
Her eyes went to the large garage doors on the left wall. They were the only way to get a vehicle in and out of the showroom. They sat firm and closed, just like always. Her alarms hadn’t gone off nor had she received a notification on the app on her phone that the doors were opening.
“Don’t touch anything!” she shouted when an employee went to reach for something lying on the floor where the Spyder had been. “Where the hell are those cops?”
Sutton and Hail came rushing into the showroom then. They had their weapons drawn but lowered. “What’s going on? Is everyone okay?”
“No, we are not okay!” Trixie shouted. What the hell was going on? “My fucking car has been stolen!”
“The green one? We saw it drive out.” Sutton holstered his gun.
“Why didn’t you go after it?” she demanded to know. “That’s an eight hundred and forty-five thousand dollar vehicle!”
The officers exchanged a sheepish look between themselves. Sutton cleared his throat, “Our cruiser was disabled. We couldn’t pursue.”
“We called it in,” Hail defended. “We have backup on the way.”
“We need all of your employees out of this area please,” Sutton informed her. His voice was deeper now, like he was trying to make up for their mistake by his current authoritative attitude. “This is an active crime scene.”
Cayden, what have you done?
“Officers.” Trixie and the cops turned towards Adam, who was standing the closest to where the Spyder had been. “You should see this.”
Trixie informed Jeff to get everyone out of the showroom and then followed the officers over to where Adam stood. He was the one who’d been reaching for something on the floor before Trixie had scolded him for nearly touching.
Her eyes narrowed. It was one of their service tickets. It was tented to stand up, the carbon copy on top. Hail quickly snapped a picture with his phone.
Sutton put on a pair of gloves, kneeling down in front of it. He picked up the note, only to find a small clear packaging underneath it. Hail put away his phone and then put on his own gloves to grab the plastic container.
Trixie knew what had been in the package before Hail said it. “Sparkplugs.”
She felt herself let out a long sigh. Of course, it was. And likely from her own stock in the motor pool too.Damn it, Cayden.
