Page 8 of Tandem

“What’s wrong, Rosalie?”

“I-I came home b-but there was this g-guy and… and… he umm… he took…” I sobbed again, the tears pouring down my face as I tried to breathe in air fast enough to talk again. I felt like I was suffocating.

“A man? Rosalie, calm down. Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay, hun.” Dad's voice was full of tension and fear.

“I-I’m f-fine… but he… he took… y-your car.” I finally got out before I fell under another assault of hyperventilating and tears.

“You stay right there. I’ll be right home, okay?” Dad tried to make his voice sound calm as I could hear him rushing around the shop, grabbing his things. “I’ll be home in a few minutes, all right, sweetheart? Just hang tight for me.”

“O-okay…” I barely got out before I heard him yell something, most likely to Reece, before the line went dead. I walked to the door of my Viper and opened it, sliding into the driver’s seat. I sat there, taking slow breaths and trying to calm down again.

Time went by slowly as I waited for Dad to come home. I kept staring at the empty space where his car used to sit and replaying everything. Maybe I should have fought back harder, or tried to get to my phone to actually call the cops. Maybe I should have begged him to not take it or told him to take my car instead.

I shook my head before more tears could form.Stop it, Rosalie! You can’t think like that!I berated myself. There was nothing else I could do to change what happened now. I just had to do whatever I could to try and make it right.

Soon, the sound of Dad’s car pulled into the drive. I slipped out of my car and closed the door, taking a deep breath. I walked to the front of my car and leaned my butt against the hood. As soon as I saw him pull into the garage entrance, my body relaxed. I didn’t even realize how tense I had still been as I watched him not even park it where it needed to go. He stopped it at the entrance and got out, running over to me. He barely glanced at where his Impala used to sit before tightly pulling me into his arms.

“Thank God you weren’t hurt,” he mumbled next to my ear as he squeezed me tight. My arms wrapped around his back, gripping his jacket in my fists.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop him, Dad. I tried, but I was too scared to do anything.” I swallowed back a sob, tears threatening to spill down my cheeks as Dad shushed me.

“Don’t you dare beat yourself up over this, Rosalie. My girl was so brave, but you must have been so scared inside. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to protect you from this.” Dad pulled away just a bit and caught the tears that were just about to stream down my face and wiped them away. “I’m just so relieved you are safe. I can replace a car. But you are the one thing I can’t replace, baby. Don’t ever put yourself in danger for something like a car.”

I nodded. I knew he was being completely honest with me about that, but it still didn’t make me feel much better. Maybe if I hadn’t been so caught up with thinking about other things when I drove into the driveway, I could have seen him slip inside and never even open the garage door.

Dad rubbed the hair out of my face. “Stop blaming yourself, Rosalie. I can see it in your face. Things happen, baby. This is not your fault. Let’s get you inside and clean up, okay? A warm shower will help you feel much better, I promise.”

I let Dad lead me inside and up to my room, promising to meet me downstairs with some hot coffee and snacks when I was done. I shook my head and gave him the smallest smile. “That’s the spirit. See you downstairs, hun.” With that, Dad disappeared, and I stripped out of my clothes, leaving them in a pile on the marble bathroom floor as I slipped into the shower. Turning the water on, I let it shock my body with the coldness before it warmed up, making my entire body feel alive again.

However, as I washed up, my mind wandered. I knew what Dad said was true, but I couldn’t keep shaking the feeling that I could have stopped him and the break-in from happening. I knew I couldn’t let Dad down again, I couldn’t handle the thought of it. So, as I dried off, I decided I would do everything I could to make up for it.

The rest of the night was spent with Dad and me, talking over coffee and snacks until Mom and Jayden came home. Then Dad explained to them what had happened and said that he didn’t want them to make a big deal of the car. I could tell by the look Jayden gave me when I saw him that he was annoyed that my parents were seemingly babying me over it, especially because, just like me, he probably thought it was my fault, too. But he and Mom still joined us on the couch to watch a movie together that night.

I would do better,I silently promised myself.

CHAPTER 7

AJ

My mind fadedto black as I walked over to the lowrider that had caught my fancy, a custom-painted and heavily detailed Chevy Impala. Iopened the door again and slid in, this time slipping the keys inside and turning her on. I threw her in drive and pulled out like I owned the bitch because, as of now, I did. And I pushed the petite brunette who sat against the car on the floor to the back of my head, soon to be forgotten.

By the time my brain mainly became clear, I was almost back to the low part of the city, where criminals and scum lived. At least, that was what most of the city thought. They weren’t exactly wrong to an extent. As I sat at some lights, I noticed the car was starting to get some attention, someone even snapping a photo. Fuck, I needed to offload this car. I drove toward the warehouses on the other side of the river, making a lot of eyes turn my way as I slowly cruised down a back alleyway. Fuck, he better be open. I pulled up to a roll-up door that was cracked slightly at the bottom, and I leaned out the window and slammed my fist a few times against it until I saw some shoes appear at the bottom and they rolled it up to see who was out here.

When the scrawny kid who goes by Clay saw me and looked at the car, he turned his head. “Pops! Looks like someone is here to see you!” He hollered into the shop. After a minute, a man in his sixties walked over, but don’t let his age fool you. Pops was ripped. He was probably the fittest old man I knew, and it wasn’t just from the gym, it was from years and years of chopping cars.

He walked around the car and whistled. “All right, AJ, I’ll bite. What gang did you steal this from?” He waved me forward to drive the car. I laughed as I started to drive it into his shop.

“Would you believe it if I said some rich bastard in the Hills had it just sitting in his garage?” I put it into park and hopped out, and Pops leaned in and opened the hood and trunk. This ride was out of this world. Highest level hydraulics you could get, probably worth $30,000 alone, and the engine was perfectly restored and brand-new-looking. Pops looked at me and then spent the next twenty minutes checking out almost every detail of the car as possible.

“I can move it. I’ll cut you twenty percent, which, looking at this whip, will probably be around 15K.” I crossed my arms, flexing them and shifting a bit in my place. Fuck, he was going to try and pull some shit.

“Pops, we know this car can be moved for close to eighty grand if you parted it, 20G’s, or I roll out with it.” I stood my ground, folding my arms over my chest. Pops knew I meant it, too. He was my favorite chop shop, but he wasn’t the only one I knew of.

He stared at me, then back at the car, then back at me. “CLAY!” he shouted, and that scrawny boy came running back. Pops turned to him. “Grab twenty from the safe and give it to our client here, then drive this into the back.”

The boy’s eyes glanced at the car, then back at Pops, then at me. Then he nodded and ran, and a few minutes later, returned with a wad of money in his hands.

I counted and nodded in approval. “Good on doing business with you, Pops.”