I smiled reassuringly. “It won’t be late, don’t worry.”

He grinned and walked forward slapping me on the shoulder affectionately. “I know.” He turned and looked towards Terry who was cradling his hand to his chest, one of his eyes swollen, his lip split, his jaw bruised, he was favouring one side slightly so he was obviously in pain on his ribs too.

“Didn’t I already tell you not to mess with the kid? Next time maybe you’ll listen, huh?”

Terry nodded in agreement, dropping his eyes to the floor as he shuffled on his feet. “Sorry, Boss.”

Brett looked away from him distastefully. “Someone take him to see Marlon,” he instructed. Marlon was Brett’s brother in law and he was doctor at the local hospital, he had an agreement with him of treatment, no questions. Terry immediately limped towards the exit of the warehouse with Ian following behind him. Brett turned back to me. “I don’t want to know what that’s about, frankly I don’t care, but don’t think you can come waltzing in here and start shit with my employee’s, Kid.

Talent or not, if you start messing with my business our friendship will cease to exist, you get what I’m saying?”

I smiled and nodded, laughing quietly. That threat wasn’t exactly subtle. “Sure. You’re saying, screw up again and go for the long walk,” I answered cockily.

He laughed and slung his arm around my shoulder. “Exactly.” He looked down at his watch and frowned. “You gonna get this order done?”

I smiled and waved my hand dismissively. “Don’t I always?”

He grinned, squeezing my shoulder, his eyes soft and friendly again now. “Yeah, Kid, you do.

That’s why you’re the best.” He winked at me before turning for the stairs. “I’ll be upstairs in the office. Someone tell me when it’s done.”

Ray was busy running his hand over the car that I’d fallen into, a worried expression on his face. I grinned. “No, careful of the car!” I mocked in a high pitched girly voice, mimicking his words from earlier when Terry caught me off-guard.

Ray sighed and turned around, looking at me sarcastically. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to polish this angel up? It’s a thing of beauty,” he cooed, tracing his hand on the bonnet.

“Thanks for being concerned about me, man. I’m touched,” I joked, putting my hand over my heart.

He grinned and shook his head. “You can handle yourself, this little baby on the other hand,” he bent down and kissed the expensive paintjob, “she needs loving.”

I laughed and grabbed the pack from the desk, ripping it open, excitement building in my chest at what was about to happen. I couldn’t help but love the rush that coursed through my veins at the mere thought of boosting cars; the bad boy in me would always love it I think.

“What the hell do you look like anyway?” Ray asked, coming over and sitting next to me, flicking my black tie that hung loose around my neck.

I grinned over at him, laughing. “An American James Bond apparently.”

….................................

I woke early in the morning; as usual my first thought was of Ellie. I rolled to the side, stretching my hand out for her but was met by nothing but air. I sighed when I remembered she hadn’t stayed over last night - instead I’d left her at the dance to go and steal over a million dollars’ worth of cars and one motorcycle.

I rolled over and finally cracked my eyes open, looking at the alarm clock on the side. It was just after eleven o’clock. I sat up quickly, I’d told her that I’d call her this morning but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to, I’d dropped my cell phone last night in the scuffle with Terry and the stupid screen had cracked beyond repair. She was going to be even more annoyed with me that I hadn’t called her like I promised I would.

“Damn it,” I mumbled, pushing myself up from the bed. I was still tired, my body refusing to wake up after only getting about four hours sleep. Today was going to be another crappy day - I was seeing Ellie for lunch, which was great, but tonight was the first time at the strip club which I wasn’t looking forward to in the slightest. I’d much rather be cuddled up to my girlfriend on the sofa, talking about random stuff and joking around with her like usual. My whole life seemed to revolve around this girl now, well, the good stuff did anyway, the bad stuff I wanted to keep as far away from her as possible. I stretched my sleep deprived muscles and then headed to the shower, flicking the water onto cold so that it’d wake me up a little.

Half an hour later I pulled up outside Ellie’s house unannounced. Hopefully she’d be awake already, if not then maybe I could use the spare key that I knew they kept hidden under a stone and sneak into her bed and surprise her. I smiled at the thought. The smile soon faded from my face when I saw the Pearce’s car still in their driveway. They usually left already to drive make the hour drive over to see Ellie’s grandmother, looks like maybe they weren’t going today or something.

Pushing myself out of the truck, I stalked up to the door and knocked. I took a deep breath as I ran through my apologetic speech that I was going to make about bailing on her last night. But Ellie didn’t answer the door, her mother did.

I winced as her polite smile that she answered the door with, faded when she realised it was me. She frowned and looked me over distastefully and immediately I was wishing I’d put on a nice shirt or something - the woman never failed to make me feel like a scumbag.