The Last JoyRide

Part 40

Monday 10:28 PM

It was the cleanest garage I had ever seen. It was empty, of course, with no cars in there at all; no grease, oil, or coolant, no hint of any automobile ever being in there. The floor was brick and sealed. The three heavy wooden garage doors all had blackout curtains secured in place. There was a heavy wooden workbench at the back wall with a single heavy vise attached to it. Still, like the rest of the space, it was void of anything resembling the vulgarity of automotive work. Recessed lighting in the wood-paneled ceiling lit up the area and gave it a warm, almost cozy feel.

Wolf-man and Joy stood opposite one another in the center of the empty garage. Sasha walked in ahead of me, and I locked the door behind me. All you could hear were the shuffling of our footsteps and the muted bumps and thumps of the music outside. We all met in the middle of the room. Nothing was said at first. Everyone just passed suspicious glances. Joy was stunning, but her eye and face were badly bruised, and the makeup no longer hid what it had earlier. When Sasha got a good look at her, I thought she would cry. She looked Joy over carefully, then glanced at me.

"I'm so sorry," Sasha's Eastern European accented words were the first spoken and seemed to fill the entire space with sound.

"I'm sorry he hurt you so badly. I did not ask him to do that, Joy."

Sasha reached for Joy, but Joy took a step back to avoid her touch. Still, she said nothing.

Sasha withdrew her hand and stared at Joy's strappy black high heels.

"Okay," I said, moving to the center of our small group.

"First, who hurt her?" I demanded flatly.

"Billy. Rage, they call him. I'm sorry, truly I am," she said again, tears filling her blue eyes and spilling down her face as she looked past me at Joy.

"Okay," I nodded with the information I needed.

I glanced back to Wolf-man, who pursed his lips and nodded slightly.

"We can get this sorted out, but first, we'll have a little honesty. All interested parties are here that need to be here, and between us, we will get this shit-show hashed out before we leave—all truth here and now too. Everything comes out in the open. I'll go first."

"Nick, please," Joy started, but I turned my hand to her.

I was having none of it. Right then, I was determined to have it my way. For once in our relationship, I was going to call the shot, and it would work.

"Now Joy and I are interested in one car, well, two really, one Aston Martin DB5 and one Maserati somethingorother. The Maserati belongs to Ms. Winters here. Joy and I nabbed it a few days ago. It was up for repossession; rather, it was coming up for repo. We just took it for safekeeping until the order came through. The DB5 is another issue altogether."

I walked a few steps to Joy and put my arm around her shoulders. She stood still, rigid and uncomfortable.

"When this little adventure ends, Joy is giving it all up and moving on to bigger and better things. She's getting out, but not before we take that DB5 and pass it to its rightful owner."

I released Joy and moved to stand in front of Sasha. She was really something. She was in dark purple latex, and boy-howdy, did it fit just like it should. In her high-heeled boots, she had to be six foot two. Her bright auburn hair was braided pigtail style and hung down her shoulders.

"So our deal Ms. Winters is that we get your car back since it was a gift, and when that is done, you will tell us where the missing DB5 is located."

I then turned to Wolf-man, who hadn't taken his eyes off Sahsa since she walked into the garage.