Page 78 of It's Going to Be a Chrome Christmas
Lee nodded once. “I have your back.”
“I’ll need a reason to want to get more involved in Carver’s day to day business too.”
“You and Carver go way back, you should be able to use that. Find his motives, what he wants.”
Cayden snorted. He looked up and down the street, spotting a Mazda a teen who needed parking lessons just exited. “There’s always something a man like Carver wants. There’s always a job to be had.” No wonder Lee had been suspected of being a cop. He thought like one. “What have you learned during your investigation into Carver? Have you heard anything while working on Massey’s crew? What’s something he’s been after since I went in?”
Lee watched wordlessly as Cayden got them into the Mazda and then unlocked the passenger door for Lee. Cayden disabled the car’s GPS by shorting out the circuit. There were other ways to do that, but not ones as fast. He wasn’t planning on keeping the car, so he didn’t have to worry about falsifying the signal readings.
He pulled out towards the highway. While he didn’t know exactly where the safehouse Carver was giving him was, he knew the general location.
“There’s this motorcycle,” Lee finally said. His voice was bland, no excitement whatsoever that he was able to answer Cayden’s question. “I don’t know what it is or where it is or why he wants it. I’ve only overheard Massey’s people talking aboutthemotorcycle, like it’s special. Carver’s name’s been linked to it more than once.”
A little more information would have been helpful but at least Cayden knew the score Carver was after. He also now knew why Lee was so emphatic that it had to be Cayden who helped him. “Any idea how long he’s been after her?”
Lee didn’t comment on Cayden’s choice of pronoun. “For as long as I’ve been with Massey.”
Cayden frowned. “Means she’s new then, likely hasn’t hit the market yet. Might be the only reason he doesn’t have her yet is because she wasn’t manufactured yet.”
Lee’s eyes narrowed as Cayden made an illegal U-turn and headed back east. “Where are you going?”
Cayden’s sigh was forlorn. “To get my armor.”
Chapter
Fourteen
In the two months since Lee had shown up on her doorstep shot and Cayden had broken his parole, Trixie had been a shell of herself. She felt numb. She worked, she ate, she slept, and then she repeated the next day. Christmas was next week, but there was no holiday spirit to be found within her. If Peggy didn’t stop by with food, she wouldn’t have even bothered with that. Jeff had taken it upon himself to come to the shop late at night to verify that Trixie was in her apartment instead of tinkering in the bay.
Her employees stopped talking to her because she stopped talking back. Business was down, but the truth was that was likely more to do with Trixie than the news of the theft. Their Black Friday sales last month were the lowest they’d ever been since herabuelohad opened their doors.
Roughly a week after Cayden had stolen the Spyder, a manila envelope was found locked in her Firebird. When she reviewed the security tapes, she saw a small glitch and then the envelope’s appearance. Why exactly had she hired Cayden to be a security consultant if he was just going to prove her security was useless regardless of the expensive upgrades?
Inside the envelope was a written note in Cayden’s handwriting.
Keep this and my heart safe for me, C.
It was his criminal informant agreement signed by the District Attorney and the Police Commissioner. Even knowing that Cayden was working on the right side of the law did not bring her any satisfaction or closure or even comfort. She still felt…empty.
Trixie remembered the months following Marco’s murder. She’d been sad, but she’d been functional. WhenPapáhad passed,Abuelohad distracted her with cars and her birthday trip. She’d tried to do the same afterAbuelo’s death, but she had really only made it through that dark time by leaning on Jeff, Peggy, and Greg.
Maybe it was because Cayden wasn’t gone, and he was just…not here. Maybe that was why she couldn’t stand their helicoptering. So why wasn’t working on her cars helping? Why couldn’t she remember something as simple as how to change a gasket?
Insurance was still fighting her on the Spyder theft. She honestly didn’t care if they paid her. She just wanted the police out of her parking lot.
Last Tuesday was so slow she sent her employees home and closed shop. They didn’t want to be there anymore than Trixie wanted them there. She was useless to the point of beyond pathetic. When had she become so reliant on a man to be functional? How had Cayden become so important to her in four short months?
Trixie meandered around the showroom for a while. Someone had meagerly decorated, but nothing like they usually had up.
She still hadn’t figured out how Cayden had bypassed the security system without using his employee access codes. L and S also didn’t have an answer. They still called daily to assure her they were working on updating their system. Not that Trixie cared.
Trixie needed to make some decisions soon. Business couldn’t go on this way.Shecouldn’t go on this way. It had been two months. Lee and Cayden had never told her how long their partnership to take down Carver would take. Cayden could be gone another two months. Or like Lee, he could be gone two years.
Tears ran down her cheeks, surprising her. She thought she’d cried herself out long ago.
Romero’s didn’t deserve to suffer because she didn’t have her shit together. Everyone thought she was feeling guilty over Cayden’s betrayal. They had no idea how terrified she felt every day, not knowing if he was dead or alive, or where he was, or what he was doing, or who he was with.
He’d made his decision to help Lee. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t allow herself or her business to suffer because of that decision.
