A Restored Man (46 page)

"No. Why?"

"Nothing." Cole squared his shoulders and walked with more determination.

"Can we get eyes on him?" he heard Aidan ask.

"Working on it," Geek said. "I'll check for local closed-circuit networks."

Cole had contacted Geek and Tracker the night before and asked them to be with Aidan to help if something didn't go as planned. There was no way he was ignoring Ty's gut feeling and he usually had a Plan B in place with any job. The two crew members' presence helped ease his discomfort. However, being in the same room with a twisted detective who happened to occasionally liaise with the feds didn't sit well with them one bit. So after a little begging on his part and pulling strings from Aidan, thankfully, he was able to secure them immunity from whatever happened that night.

"You want to abort?" Aidan asked Cole.

"No fucking way," Cole mumbled, cautious to not move his lips too much just in case someone was watching. "I want that bastard to go down. Let Geek do what he does. I'm at the lot next to the exit gate. How far?"

"The private garage is by row E. It should be up at the front on your right," Aidan said.

Cole walked past the row of cars, looking at the sea of luxury sedans and sport coupes, mentally ticking off how easy each would be to jimmy the lock and start the car. A smile tugged at his lips. Seconds. That was all he'd need to unlock and bail from the lot with most of these babies. He tipped his chin up and saw the garage enclosure. "I see it." He weaved between the cars and stopped almost immediately by a Lamborghini Huracán. "Fuck," he said, barely audible.

"What's up?" Aidan asked.

Cole's gaze traced each elegant curve of the bright lime-green toned fender, inching broader along the wide rear around the back to the sharply angled taillights that sliced through the rear spoiler.

"Cole? Talk to me," Aidan said through the earpiece. "Geek, how long before we can see what the hell is going on?"

He could hear Aidan argue with Geek and Tracker. He didn't care. He was in a trance, craving the feel of controlling that much power. He reached out a shaky hand and ghosted his fingertips along the angled rear, inhaling sharply when his skin touched the cool aluminum exterior.

"We've got eyes on you," Aidan said.

His pulse sped as his fingers followed the arc of the rear light housing. He closed his eyes. He could imagine the rumble of power echoing in his ears and the rough feel of the street vibrating through his body.

"Cole," Aidan said in a menacing tone. "Don't you fucking dare. Your immunity agreement does not cover this. I'll put your ass in a maximum security prison for the rest of your fucking life and you won't ever touch another car again."

"Give him a second. He's got a lot of things circling in his head right now. He won't do it."

Ty's voice faintly coming through the earpiece helped to channel his thoughts. He needed to focus on the task at hand. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to filter through the million thoughts, memories, and scenes playing through his mind. He'd never risk what he had with Ty. Period. He bit his lip to hide a smile.
My-Ty
. Being with Ty far outweighed the adrenaline rush of stealing an exotic. He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. He took a step back then another and finally turned away and walked through the row of cars. He worked his way around the lot until he stood in front of the locked garage door. He reached out and held the padlock in his hand, unable to control the chuckle that escaped.

"What's wrong?" Aidan asked.

Cole sighed. "You'd think they'd at least use a decent lock on this thing considering what they're trying to protect."

"Can you get through it?" Aidan asked.

"I'm insulted." Cole reached into his pocket and withdrew the lock pick kit Geek had given him. Within two seconds, he had the lock open.

"Do I want to know where you got that from?" Aidan asked.

"Immunity, man. This
is
part of the deal." Cole pushed up the sliding garage door high enough to drive out the car. Even in the dark enclosure, the elegance of the beast could not be denied. The hint of light that filtered into the darkness reflected off the flecks within the paint, glimmering like a precious stone. He reached under the rear driver side fender and found the box exactly where it was supposed to be. He withdrew it and slid open the top to reveal the key. Even the key fob looked elegant and sleek.

He felt the prickling behind his neck again and peeked outside the garage door.

Nothing.

"Cole, what's taking so long?" Aidan asked. "Was the key there?"

"Yeah. But I'm waiting a few seconds so it seems as if I'm actually stealing the car. Chill, man. You're going to get all gray and growly and Jessie won't want you anymore."

"Fuck you."

Cole chuckled. "You're too easy." He unlocked the car and slid into the driver's seat. He pressed the ignition button and the beast quietly awakened. He'd never understand the lure of the electric motor and their silence. It was the equivalent of castration.

He put the car in gear and eased out of the enclosure, driving down the aisle of cars to exit the lot. He made the right onto the street and worked his way to the Rickenbacker Causeway. "I'm out."

He looked in his rearview mirror. That damn prickling at the back of his neck was making him uncomfortable. Something wasn't right.

* * * * *

Ty stood alongside his brother staring at the monitor, watching the yellow car drive down the causeway. He knew how tempting that lime-green beauty had been, but he also knew Cole and where his heart was. Cole never said the words, but he
did
scream them with each of his actions. Ty should have known better than to second-guess that. He wanted to wrap this up and be done with Robert and the stupid dark cloud that hovered over him. Over them.

Aidan turned to Geek. "How long will we have eyes on him?"

Geek's fingers worked at light speed on his laptop. "I'm tapping into the red light and traffic cams now. I want to make sure we're covered just in case he needs to take a different route."

Ty turned to look at Cole's crew member, his pulse suddenly escalating. "Why would he need to take a different route?"

"My-Ty?" he heard Cole's voice come through the speaker.

Ty spun back to face the monitors, startled by hearing his nickname.

"Ty, talk to me," Cole said in his calm, focused voice. "I…I need to hear your voice."

"Why would you need to take a different route?" he asked Cole.

"Remember Geek and Tracker are my Plan B. They're my safety net if Aidan fucks up," Cole said.

"I'm in the room, asshole," Aidan said with a sneer.

"I know. Saves me the time of having to repeat myself."

Ty chuckled quietly. "How are you doing over there?" he asked Cole.

"My mind's wandering too much," Cole said with a hint of hesitation.

Ty straightened. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. It's been a while…I guess."

"Cole?" Ty said, trying to coax him for more information while trying to control the worry in his tone.

"I don't want to worry you," Cole said quietly.

Ty turned to look at Tracker, remembering Cole's earlier comment. "He thought he was being followed earlier. Can you check if he's got a tail?"

"On it," Tracker said moments before his fingers began tapping his laptop keys.

"My-Ty?"

"Yeah," Ty said, trying his best to keep his tone steady.

"Talk to me. Please," Cole said in a flat tone.

Ty's heart pounded wildly against his chest at the sound of that tone. Something was worrying Cole so much he couldn't lower the volume in his head enough on his own. For some reason, Ty's voice had become a system override, able to lower the volume on all the chatter.

"Remember the track?" Ty asked.

"Yes."

"Give me stats," Ty said. It was a mindless activity but this was exactly what Cole needed, something concrete to focus on rather than the worry and questions circling his mind.

"Barely fifteen hundred rpms, at forty. She thinks I'm teasing her. I can feel her wanting to hit me for not pushing her," Cole said with a muffled laugh.

"Read me the other gauges. Everything look fine?"

Cole responded to each of Ty's questions. Ty smiled, knowing Cole's focus was returning to the task.

Tracker grunted and pointed to the monitor. "There's a car on his ass. Far enough away but backtracking the closed-circuit feeds, it's been on him since he arrived at the lot."

As if on cue, sirens wailed.

"Aidan, I thought you said you weren't tailing me," Cole said. "Call your undercover dog off my ass. He's going to fuck this up."

Ty looked over to his brother, a veil of anger brewed in Aidan's hazel stare. "He's not my dog." His brother pulled his cell phone from the belt clip and immediately began placing a call.

"That double crossing son of a bitch," Cole hissed.

"Cole, you've got another one coming up on your right. It's a marked car this time," Tracker said. "Looks like he's waiting for you to pass."

"Got it," Cole said, shifting to the center lane.

Ty crossed his arms and rocked on his feet as he stared at the monitors.

"Cole, here's the deal," Aidan said, returning the phone to his belt clip.

"Go ahead."

"I spoke to my contact at the FBI. He checked with one of his buddies and Robert contacted the cops beforehand to let them know you were stealing the car. Some crap excuse about overhearing you or something," Aidan said with a sigh.

Cole blew out a breath loud enough to echo through the speakers. "I'm not surprised. He wants me out of the picture."

Aidan nodded. "My federal contact is itching to nail this guy on the trade secret charge because it can add ten more years to the current charges they can pin on him. However, all bets are off if the locals arrest
you
for grand theft, speeding, or whatever stupid shit they're going for. I don't want to alert them it's an undercover op because I don't know if it'll get back to him. So if you get busted, I'll work on getting you out, but that'll take some time."

"Got it."

"Cole?" Ty said, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat.

"Ty…don't worry. Now that I know what's going on, I can focus a bit more."

Ty laughed nervously. "Of course I'm worried. If they catch you, I'll lose you."

Cole muffled a laugh. "They have to catch me first."

Cole's firm, confident tone offered a sense of peace that enveloped Ty as if Cole's arms had wrapped around him from behind. He watched as the yellow car sped along the causeway, quickly joined by the waiting police car, which couldn't seem to keep up with Cole as he weaved through the light, late-night causeway traffic.

"That little fucker can drive," Aidan whispered.

Ty smiled proudly, mesmerized, watching the monitor. "You have no idea."

"I heard that, Aidan. You can't take it back," Cole said with a laugh that echoed through the speakers.

"You've got two more black and whites coming up on your left," Tracker said. He turned to Geek. "Can you hack into the radio band so we've got audio?"

"Already working on it," Geek said, reaching into his duffle bag for a black box and set of cables then handing them to Tracker.

Aidan stood and pulled over another table for Cole's crew members to use.

Tracker opened what looked like a mobile video player and propped it open while Geek set the black box and cables on the table. After connecting a few wires, and several key swipes later, the yellow car could be seen from a different angle on the secondary monitor.

"This will give us the camera feeds they're probably using for street level visuals. So we'll know what their blind spots are." Geek turned a dial on the box and police chatter squawked through the speaker. "And now we have audio too."

Aidan stood, arms crossed, shifting his gaze from one monitor to the other. "Yeah, I'd say this is a full-fledged car chase now," he said under his breath. "Cole?"

"Yeah, still here," Cole responded through the speakers, his voice calm and steady.

"You've got four black and whites behind you and two waiting for you on Brickell when you exit. I'm guessing we've got less than ten minutes before the news channels get wind of this and send in a chopper. Do you have a plan or are we playing this by ear?" Aidan said, his tone firm and focused.

Ty didn't want to read too much into Aidan's composure, but if he did, he could swear there was a hint of concern for Cole. He tried to focus on what he knew and the facts rather than dwell on the
what-ifs
. He knew Cole could drive and, if he was focused, had enough determination to get anything accomplished. He blew out a deep breath and tried to keep the worry at bay.

Just when he thought he might be able to stand idly by, his entire world shifted and the panic surfaced.

It started to rain.

Ty watched the monitor switch between camera angles, some video images were fogged with drops of condensation on the screen.
Damn rain
. He turned to the monitor and watched the car speed down the now wet and slick causeway. The light drizzle thickened, transitioning into a solid sheet of rain in a matter of minutes.

Fucking rain.

He struggled to inhale, the air more scarce than it had been just a few seconds before. His breath wheezed with each inhale, and the beating of his heart reverberated in his head.
Oh God, please
. He wrapped his arms around his midsection, needing to steady himself. He took a step back and another. His gaze was pinned to the monitor, watching the yellow car speed along. He quietly gasped each breath and twisted his fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
Oh God, please
.

The yellow car fishtailed from one side to the other then straightened within seconds.

He took a step back, then another. He couldn't hear past the hum in his head. He thought he heard Cole say something but he couldn't decipher the words through the buzz echoing in his ears. He screwed his eyes shut, trying to fight through the panic attempting to take over.