“Damn it,” I muttered as I climbed back into the car. “I think I forgot to turn it off.” When nobody responded I realized the others were focused on Kyle. Still in the driver’s seat, he was dialing a number on his phone—which had obviously not yet been destroyed.
“Calling Rachel,” Kyle said. “Giving notice.”
I shot a baffled look at Naomi but she simply gave a helpless shrug in response. Philip appeared equally confused, so apparently I wasn’t the only one operating without a clue.
“Rachel?” Kyle said. “Griffin here.”
Kyle must have turned the volume up because I had little trouble hearing Rachel’s voice. “Griffin,” she snarled. “You need to come in so we can discuss this situation.”
“That’s not happening,” he replied. Calm. Assured. “You have an insider. It isn’t me. It could be you. Griffin out.”
“Me!” Outrage and fury filled her voice. “Griffin, this isn’t over. I swear I’ll hunt you down and—” Whatever else she had to say stopped as Kyle crushed the phone in a zombie-strength grip.
There was a moment of silence. “Nice finish,” I finally said. “Kind of like dropping the mic and walking off stage.”
Kyle and Philip turned bewildered looks my way, but Naomi gave a snort-laugh. “So,” I continued. “New York City. We flying there?” I kept my tone as light and casual as possible, though my level of inner freakout climbed a few more degrees. Not only had I never set foot in an airplane, but I didn’t even want to think about how much something like that would cost.
“We’re not flying,” Naomi said, to my relief. “It would be too easy to nail us on arrival. We’re driving. We were deciding where to pick up a vehicle since we have to ditch this one.”
They’d already discussed this, I realized. When I was off mailing my phone. Not that I had anything useful to contribute, but it still bugged me. “You gonna buy a car?”
“No time for that,” she said, “and it could still be traced. We’ll have to ‘borrow’ one.”
The look I gave her was nothing short of dubious. “You intend to steal a car, and then drive it to New York?”
“I have vehicles stashed in long term storage in a few cities—including New York—for emergencies, but not here,” she said, totally matter of fact about having excess cars she didn’t use. “None of us have any here,” she went on, “so yes, we need to steal one.”
My level of dubious went up a couple of degrees. “Let me get this straight. You’re going to steal a car. And then drive it on roads and through intersections and on highways—”
“Jesus,” she interrupted with a scowl, “not a car that’s going to be reported any time soon.”
“How do you know?” I shot back.
“Because we’ll pick it up from an impound lot or long term parking at the airport,” she said. “Chances of it being missed over the next week will be miniscule. We’ll obey all traffic laws and not give any cop a reason to pull us over.”
“But what if it does get reported?” I pressed. “What if we do get pulled over, or get in a fender bender? Hell, what if we go through an intersection that has one of those cameras that’s linked to the stolen car database, and the cops get notified?” Jeez, I did not want to once again experience the joy of being arrested for possession of stolen property.
Philip glanced my way. “It’s a definite risk, but I don’t see that we have any other option.”
I fell silent and stayed that way for a couple of minutes. I had an idea, but I knew damn well everyone would think it was really stupid. Screw it. “I know where we might be able to get a car.”
“Where, Angel?” Kyle asked, without a trace of condescension or impatience.
“My ex-boyfriend,” I said. “He fixes cars.”
Chapter 10
It was true, Randy did fix cars. Of course, he also dabbled in various illegal activities related to cars and parts and that sort of thing, but that wasn’t worth mentioning. It didn’t really matter at the moment, and they could probably figure that part out on their own.
Naomi’s eyebrows lifted. “Randy?” she asked, disbelief thick in her voice. She’d heard a few of my tales about my ex. “Why would he help you?”
But Kyle lifted a hand. “Give her a chance to tell us,” he said to Naomi, eyes on me.
I shot him a grateful look. “I don’t know for sure that he would,” I said. “I’d have to feel him out first, but, well, we go way back.” I shrugged. “We dated, like, forever, and if we could get a car from him, then we wouldn’t have to worry about getting hooked for having a stolen car.”
“It’s worth a try,” Philip said, and Kyle gave a nod. “Where do we need to go?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s Friday, so he’s probably at Pillar’s Bar, on Kapp Street.” That was the bar where we used to hang out the most. It was also where some asshole put a date rape drug in my drink, which led to my becoming a zombie in the first place.