Page 68

“Huh? What do you mean?”

It was getting harder to hear Robin when Jun got into the garage. The sheer number of people packed like sardines, so dense he could barely move.

He pushed past people, still keeping sight of the stranger’s gray hoodie, as he huffed into the phone. “I ran into someone who was also looking for their car. I think it’s the car Alex was—”

Jun tripped over someone’s foot and stumbled hard, catching the phone a second before it cracked against concrete. His knee burned where it scraped the ground. He scrambled up, and when he looked ahead, he froze.

Through the thinning crowd, he spotted Hal’s tall frame on the far side and Kana beside him. In the middle of the crowd, the two drivers flew out of their cars and stormed towards each other.

Alex and the flannel-jacketed driver squared off. The driver flailed his arms, shouting something Jun couldn’t make out over the garage noise. Alex stood his ground, flexing his hands, nostrils flared, holding himself back.

The driver raised a fist—

The Vanquish screamed to life—siren wailing, headlights strobing the garage. Jun flinched, hands clamping over his ears. The crowd around him ducked and scrambled. Even the flannel guy leapt backwards, nearly crashing into Alex.

The siren wailed and the light flashed for a few seconds until it beeped into silence. The garage sank into an eerie quietness with the distant murmur of the night market’s hustle in the far distance.

The hooded stranger stepped around the back of the Vanquish, a small cube-shaped key balanced between his fingers. He stopped between Alex and the flannel guy, his eyes curved in an unreadable smile above his mask. The garage seemed to hold its breath. Whatever this was, Jun knew it was far from over.

14

Vanquish

A tall guy in a gray hoodie and face mask cut through the crowd towards them, twirling a remote car key around his index finger like he had all the time in the world. He caught the key mid-spin, closing his fist around it. There was nothing visible above the mask except a pair of dark brown eyes that were locked on Luis.

“What’s going on here, Luis?” His deep voice was easygoing, almost amused—nothing like the stare he was drilling into Luis.

Luis stepped back, almost knocking Alex over. Luis let out a shaky laugh, his weight shifting from foot to foot like he couldn’t decide which direction to bolt.

Alex almost enjoyed it, watching this guy try to play cool when thirty seconds ago he’d been screaming about a rigged race.

“I’m just, uh, catching up with my homie,” he said, pointing a shaky thumb at Alex. “Just challenged him to a friendly race.”

Homie? Alex shoved his hands under his armpits and stepped up. No way was this loser going to introduce him as his friend.

“Which I won fair and square.” He rested his elbow on Luis’s shoulder and leaned his weight into the spot just below his collarbone—right where he’d dug in earlier. Luis’s jaw clenched, his breath hitching as he tried to swallow down the pain. “We were just exchanging our spills.”

The man’s eyes narrowed, something between curiosity and intrigue. “What did you win?”

“Business.” Alex nodded and pointed at the Vanquish. “And that beauty right there.”

Luis shrugged Alex off him, stepping between them. “It’s just a joke!”

As pathetic as Luis was, practically groveling in front of this stranger, something about it pissed Alex off. He didn’t come here to watch a grown man beg. He came for answers about Durden, and Luis had just bet on a car that wasn’t his. If he could lie about that, what else was he full of shit about?

“Glad to hear you like it. Luis takes good care of it every Thursday morning.” He flicked his wrist to check his digital watch. “But it’s way past your shift. Isn’t that right, Luis?”

The crowd around them had gone quiet. Alex could feel the weight of their eyes, the hum of phones recording.

The stranger glanced down at Luis, and from the way his eyes creased, Alex figured he was smiling.

Luis shrank against the Vanquish like a kid caught by an overbearing parent. He pressed his palms together and bowed his head. “Sir! Please just let me handle this!”

“Sir?!” Alex cackled, mocking him. He pressed his palms together to keep from clapping, biting back a laugh so hard his ribs ached. The last time he’d felt this kind of rush was beating the shit out of Ken in Hal’s garage. He sighed and shoved his hands into his sweats, tempering his excitement.

If Luis was going to squirm this easily in front of his own boss, then all Alex had to do was squeeze a little harder.

“Yo, Luis!” he called.