Oh, I knew what one of those was, absolutely, but Bill and Hurst were in their seventies so I was trying to figure out an age relevant version of the type I was familiar with.
Tilting his chin up slightly, Hurst narrowed his eyes at me. “Yeah, guys our age have those and it doesn’t have to be playing Bridge or watching a black and white movie, ya know.”
Nothing wrong with black and white movies, I loved them. I also loved the dubbed over martial arts movies, too, but to the best of my knowledge, no one had ever wrecked their cars because of them.
Seeing that I was still waiting, he sighed, “Ok, so we got to watching this movie with fast cars in it, and there was a scene where they stole a safe from a police station and drove it through Brazil.”
Immediately my head dropped so that I was staring at the toes of my boots, knowing exactly which movie he was talking about. “You watched Fast Five, didn’t you?”
Fast & Furious 5 was my favorite out of them all, but it tied with the sixth one where they went to the UK and found Letty. The one he was talking about involved Vin Diesel and Paul Walker breaking a huge safe out of the police station in Brazil by attaching chains and dragging it out of a wall and through the streets with their cars. It was a fucking awesome movie and one of the smartest plots ever, but it was also impossible to do – as Bill and Hurst had apparently found out.
“That was the one,” Bill muttered, looking at the cars and wincing. “I wanted to add some Noz to them and build a ten second car so we could race for pinks, but he,” he nodded his head at Hurst, “wanted to do this.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, torn between laughing and losing my shit, I tried to picture them dragging a big safe behind them. “What kind of safe did you use and where did you tear it out of?”
“That’s irrelevant,” Hurst mumbled, looking around the garage again, no doubt for one of his grandsons.
Apparently Bill was in a sharing mood, though, because he pulled his phone out and brought a photo up on the screen. “This was it. I had it in my shed out back, hidden behind a wooden wall. Can never be too safe even if you live in a small town like ours, so I went all out. It cost a fortune and weighs a ton, but it’s good.” He told me, and then added, “At least it was good. I’m not sure about it now.”
The photo showed what looked like a standard safe, about five feet high and four feet across, obviously taken before they’d dragged it behind their cars.
“You got one that shows it now?”
Sliding his finger across the screen a couple of times, he stopped on one that showed that the safe was in fact still shut tight, but the outside walls of it looked like a supernatural creature had been at them.
Rubbing my face with my hands now, I muttered, “Jesus.”
Before I could ask any more questions, though, Cole Townsend walked through the side door of the garage and burst out laughing when he saw his grandad standing there. “I’d be hiding too if I was you, old man. Gammy is pissed, and when I say pissed, I mean the last time I saw her she was talking about staking you down so the bull could get at you.”
Hurst’s face went almost gray hearing this, and he swung around to face me again. “You’ve gotta fix the cars. If you do that, I can deny all of it.”
A disbelieving whistle came from the door, and this time Ren walked through it and headed in our direction. “You’re in so much shit, Gramps. I just came from…” he stopped as he saw the cars, his mouth opening and closing a couple of times.
Walking around to see what his brother was staring at, Cole made a choking noise when he saw it. “What the fuck?”
Deciding that the safest thing to do would be to make a break for it, Hurst got one step into his run when a big arm shot out in front of him, and Coleman snickered, “Oh no, not this time.”
Seeing that everyone was focused on Hurst now, Bill started inching toward the door, realizing that his path to freedom was wide open. Or at least it had been, until Tom Townsend stopped in the doorway with his arms over his chest, Logan Richards at his back giving his grandpa the same look the Townsends were now giving Hurst.
Apparently his solution to the look was to act like he hadn’t seen Logan in years, so that’s what he did. “Hey, son, you look like you’ve grown two inches since I last saw you. How’re your parents? They good? I should probably pop round and see them, you know. It’s been a long time.”