Page 6 of Tandem
He nodded, renewed enthusiasm in his eyes. “Thanks, AJ! You’re right. I was a little down lately and just doubted I could do it.” I gave him a nod and tossed him his towel before getting back to my routine.
While I worked out, I got some of the best views in the city, especially the Venice beach area, and I’m not talking about the beach. I’m talking about all the gorgeous bitches laying on it. Icould probably take home a few new girls a night, but once a woman had a taste of how I could make her feel, it was like they were addicted to their favorite fruit. I also knew how to work a woman’s body and enjoyed it. I just didn’t feel like putting in the energy for a different bitch every night. It was less of a hassle that way, plus once you had a few of the basic beach girls, they were all the same. Same kinks, same wants, same needs. All built the same, Botox in their face, fake tits, dyed hair, fake tanned skin, and fake ass. Like factory-made Barbie dolls, or sex dolls, whatever you wanted to call them.
I wiped my body off with the towel I had brought and lowered my head. I drank from the water fountain for a minute. Taking a handful of the water, I rub it slowly on the back of my neck, enjoying the feeling of the cool water pouring over my shoulders before falling onto the concrete below. Closing my eyes, I thought about what was next. I needed to get another car soon. My cash was drying up, and yesterday was a bust. I’d go back to the Hills again after I went home and change out of my gym clothes.
I strolled into the nearest public parking lot and over to my Lincoln, throwing the key into the lock. I opened it and chucked my backpack into the back floor before sliding in and turning her over. Such a beautiful sound her engine made as she came to life, I caressed the wheel as I threw her in reverse and pulled out of my spot. Driving in this car with my music turned up, Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” blared through my open windows.
About halfway to the motel, I heard a loud bang, and my car jerked suddenly to the left, almost into oncoming traffic. I swore and jerked her back right. Slowing her down, I parked on the side of the street. Walking to the back driver’s side tire, I groaned.
“Fucking great!” I kicked the flat tire hard, the pain in my foot afterward barely felt as I stared at the damage the blown tiredid to the rim. Anger built in my chest. I knew I didn’t have a damn spare, either.
I looked around the street. “You gotta be kidding me.” I breathed out through my nose as I saw my damn luck. My tire literally blew across the street from the alley entrance that leads to Kayden’s Customs.
I locked my doors and walked over, the noises of car work getting louder and “Window Shopper” by 50 Cent playing over some loudspeakers flowing around the alley. The street art that colored the walls was colorful, including one I did myself.
Kayden was pretty chill. He never treated anyone bad unless you did something to him personally. I happened to be on good terms, so when I walked in, Kayden’s head poked up out of the current engine he was building, and he gave me a nod. “Just one second, AJ, I’ll be right with you.”
“Yo, Wells, I need a new tire and rim. Caught a flat coming up the street.” I jerked my head toward the end of the alley I had just strolled from.
Kayden came over, wiping his hands on a shop rag. “Let’s go take a look. I probably have something that can work today.” We walked down the alley, and he jogged over to my car, checking the damage. Then he stood up and sighed. “Shame, man, but you’re in luck! I happen to have a set of rims that would look sick on this. I’ll give you a good deal for them because they have been taking up space in my garage and I need to make room for new inventory. I’ll even throw in four new tires for cheap, too.” Kayden walked with me back to the shop.
I tucked my hands into my hoodie pocket. “I don’t have much cash on me, Kayden. What kind of deal we talkin’?”
Kayden held up a finger and walked into the back of the shop. While I waited for him, I checked my phone. Maybe some dumb idiot tagged one of the popular places around LA’s hills with a car I could take in the background. But out of the corner of myeye, I saw movement, and it pulled my eyes away from what I was reading.
Shit, I thought as I watched a petite brunette with her long hair pulled up in a ponytail under her ball cap walk out of the paint area and into the back room. I leaned forward until her curvy ass disappeared from view, her voice was faint, but I was getting a hard-on from here.I’d tap that, make her make a lot sexier sounds coming from that delicate little throat of hers.I smirked to myself over the thought. A few minutes later, I heard footsteps again, but she had already walked into another mechanic bay before I could get a good look at her face. Too bad I couldn’t chill here any longer after I got a new tire, or I’d get her number for damn sure.
Soon Kayden came back out pushing a dolly with a stack of four gold fucking rims, shining in the studio lights of the shop.
“Fuck, that’s clean,” I muttered as I looked them over. And there was no fucking way I had the cash to buy a set of these. They were easily over 15K for them.
“Now I know what you’re thinking. These are in no way going to be cheap enough for you to buy, right? Wrong! It’s your lucky day. I think they would complete the look of your ride, and I have a soft spot for lowriders, so I’m going to throw in the complete set with new tires for two grand. Heck, you would be doing me ahugefavor by saying yes.” Kayden talked so fast that I almost didn’t catch the 2K part. I narrowed my eyes a bit as one of his workers towed my car into the shop.
“What’s the catch? There is no way two thousand would get me free and clear for these.” I stood there looking at him. I had the cash, I just didn’t believe him.
Kayden laughed, though I was being dead serious, so it was kinda fucking annoying to me. “Like I said, man, two grand cash, and they go on right now. You’re doing me a favor.”
Fuck it. I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Kayden smiled and had his worker put the jacks under the car, and they got to work installing the new tires and rims on my ride. After an hour, there she sat, just when I thought she couldn’t get any prettier. He was fucking right. The gold rims fit her like they were made for her and her only. I pulled out my cash, counted the two grand, and handed it over to Kayden.
“Thanks for the business. Always appreciate getting to work on lowriders. And getting these old rims out in the light was the right decision.” He held out my keys.
I nodded at him and took my keys back. I walked over to my car, still admiring her new look. I got in and back out of the shop, refocusing on my goal today: get home, change clothes, and go out and get a sexy car to sell.
Two hours later, I had been walking around the Hills for over an hour now with no luck. No cars parked out front that were worth taking, no unsecured garages, absolutely fucking nothing. I kicked a rock on the sidewalk, then readjusted my hood over my hat.
I was about to turn around and walk back to where I had parked my ride when I heard the sound of a turbo winding up. I looked down the street and saw a sexy blue Viper with white stripes coming up the road.
Now, that was perfect. I glanced behind me as it passed and I couldn’t believe my luck. It pulled into a driveway maybe a couple hundred feet away from me as an arm reached out of the driver’s side and punched in a gate code. I had to act fast to make this work. As soon as the car started to pull into the driveway, I turned on my heel and ran. I managed to slip into the yard just as the gate was about to close.
I quickly moved behind one of the evergreen trees next to the gate and took a look around. The car slowly rolled down the paved drive that wound through the most manicured yard I had seen. And the fucking house—there were mansions, and thenthere was this house. I hadn’t boosted a car from a place like this yet. I reached up and tugged the black neck gaiter mask up and over my mouth and nose. I did a final look around and didn’t see anyone else besides the driver of the car, which had stopped in front of a massive two-car-wide garage door attached to an oversized garage. I moved up the road as fast as I could without running as I watched the blue Viper pull into it. I took cover right outside the door and looked in.
Payday.
I rounded the corner just as the driver of the Viper stepped out. A woman with long, flowing hair cascading down her slender back.
Looking around the garage briefly before she noticed me, all plans I had of stealing her car were tossed out the window. My eyes raked from car to car, each more expensive than the last. Her Viper was, ironically, one of the cheaper cars in this fucking garage. Who was this chick? My eyes settled on a lowrider, worth at least 150K, with what I could already see it had on it. No one would come looking for this, and Pops would be able to part it faster than a supercar.