All Good Things

Chapter Seven

As seemed to be the norm for Ray these days, her troubles never strayed too far from her mind. Although no new texts from the unknown number had arrived in her inbox, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her every move. The only places she felt safe in were enclosed ones with a singular point of entrance; that way, she could know immediately the moment anyone entered the confined space. In doing so, she felt more than a little crazy, but she was helpless to stop the newfound paranoia from influencing her everyday life. As a result, her business dealings were taking a backseat for the moment - what little product she was moving was being dealt with through Max alone.

To some extent, having definitive proof that Joe was the culprit hiding behind the unknown number might have eased her mind in the slightest bit. If that were the case, she wouldn't have to endure the mental war she had with herself at least once a day, half of her psyche agreeing with her cautiousness and the other telling her she was taking dramatic precautions based on insignificant evidence. But as it was, all she had to rely on was her gut feeling - and her gut was telling her to err on the side of caution.

Because of this, Jaylen had fast become her favorite person to hang out with outside of the Little Seoul compound. He spent most of his time in the underground of H&O converting scratched cars. Provided that there were no gang emergencies with either Chang Gang or Street Team, once he began working, the only time he really left was to boost more cars for parts or to transport a collection of previously collected ones to the underground structure. Both of which, she felt comfortable helping out with since they usually only involved a group of Umbrella members in either task, and they never hovered in any one place for too long.

There was another perk to hanging out with her brother: even though he thought the new arrangement was strange, and although he knew she was hiding something, he didn't persist in questioning her once she made it clear she had no intention of revealing her secrets. Only once had Jaylen asked her about what was bothering her. It was on the second day she joined him at H&O, and Ray had lied and told him nothing was wrong, that she had merely wished to spend more time with him. And despite his dubious expression, he had simply nodded and left it at that. In fact, he even redirected the conversation, asking her questions about her G-Wagon instead.

Over the last couple of weeks, Ray had expressed a few times that she was considering selling the car, not seeing any point in keeping it when her original reason for the purchase was obsolete. The gang already owned a G-Wagon, and they had many cars that could seat large groups. In view of that fact, she'd inquired about selling it to Jaylen who, in turn, said he would find a good buyer for it, hopefully getting close to one million back out of it. Of course, his follow-up question had been about what type of car she'd replace it with, and he'd been helping her brainstorm ever since. So far, the only requirement she'd been firm on was that she wanted one she could race in - and that it had to look sexy.

When Ray wasn't assisting Jaylen - which was most of the time because she knew very little about tools and even less about working on cars - he let her test drive the S+ vehicles stored in the underground parking area. Being high-end cars, all of them performed nicely, and most were gorgeous to look at. However, when she drove them, she found several things about the handling that didn't work for her specific driving style. Out of all the cars she'd tested, the only one she kept coming back to was the Supra A80. Regrettably, the Supra didn't check off the 'sexy' box, though. In truth, the first thing Ray had said to Jaylen when he showed it to her was that the car resembled a foot: the nose of the vehicle was too long for the rear body shape, in her opinion.

Despite its unfortunate appearance, the Supra handled incredibly well, and its acceleration topped that of many of the other available options. The more she raced the car around the underground track, the more willing she grew to overlook its lack of attractiveness.