Hotbox (78 page)

I glanced at him briefly from where I sat
and tried studying him a little better
. He had brown hair and hazel eyes, and he always tended to have a week’s worth of growth on his face, kind of like me.
He didn’t seem much older than myself,
and
I wa
s guessing that he
couldn’t be
any older
than
thirty
.

He cast a quick look at me as he came to a stoplight. “I’m sure you’re surprised by my invite,” he finally said.

I shrugged. “Uh, yeah, I guess.” I looked around to where we were. We were actually heading
out
of town, and I suddenly got an uneasy
feeling. “Uh, where are we going?”

Cole
paused for a few seconds as
the light changed
he continued to drive. “To eat.”

“Where? The next city?”

He smiled
ever so slightly
. “
Pretty much.” It was quiet again and his expression changed. “Ty, we need to talk. And…I know this is going to be a little bit of a surprise for you, but you need to keep an open mind
,
okay?”

I raised my ey
ebrows
at
him,
now
totally
wary
of the situation I was
facing
. “Talk about what? Anyway, why couldn’t you talk to me at the shop?”

“Ty, I’m not who you think I am.”

I swallowed. What was
that
supposed to
mean? “Uh, okay. Then I suspect you’re gonna tell me who you are?”

He nodded. “I’m a cop.”

My heart stopped for a second, just as he was pulling into the parking lot of a diner.

“A cop? You mean…like an undercover cop?”

He nodded again and turned slightly to face me. “Yeah. I know who you are, Ty—who you’
ve been associating with.”
My heart picked up a pulse again and it began to race. I shook my head but he only cut me off before I could speak. “You don’t have to deny it. I already know it’s true. Besides, I’m not here to bust you. I want to help you.”

I stared at him with disbelief. A million thoughts were
tumbling
around
in
my head, but I couldn’t pin a single one down. I wanted nothing more than to have someone help me out of this mess, but at the same time, it was terrifying to even
consider
it.

I shook my head again. “Look, whatever you think you know—”

“I’m here on Jayden’s behalf.”

“
What
?” I spat out. I couldn’t believe he even said her name! “What about Jayden? Is she in trouble?
Did something
—?”

“She’s fine, Ty. Nothing’s happened. Let me explain, okay?”

I
took a deep breath to calm myself down, and then
nodded my head
so
he
could continue
.

“Jayden is a friend of mine. She ca
me to me a while back—in
Oct
ober—and asked for my help. She
loves you, Ty. She believed that something was going on a
nd she wanted to help you. S
he saw you with Conlon one night—the night you left town to see your father.
She saw him talking to you on the street that night.
Once she mentioned his name, I knew her worries had merit. That guy has been unde
r our radar for
such
a long time now.
”

I swallowed hard. “That’s why she sounded so odd on the phone?” I said mostly to myself. “She knew I was keeping something from her.
That’s probably what she wanted to talk to me about and… And then everything just…
”

“Ty, I came here to see what I could find out. I moved here to keep an eye on you and to…”

“See what you could get to build a case,” I finished dryly.

He remained quiet for quite a while
. Finally he said, “Here’s the deal, Ty. You help us with this, tell us everything you know
to
help bring these people down, and you’ll be completely free. As far as I’m concerned,
you haven’t done anything wrong
. We don’t want anything to happen to you—”

“Well I appreciate the concern,” I chuckled bitterly, “but I won’t be around for very long if this all comes back on me. Besides, how do I even know you are who you say you are? Maybe you’re working for
them
.
” I shook my head. “I can’t trust anybody
right now. Just…take me back to my truck, okay? Leave me alone.”

He was slowly nodding his he
ad. “I understand your worries
, I really do. These people are unbelievable, I know. But Ty,
no matter what you do for them, you’ll never escape their
influence
. I know you know that. I actually work
with a special team
.
We’re very good at what we do
. I know we can help you if you just give us a chance.” I was shaking my head again but he added, “How can I gain your trust?”

I scoffed. “You can’t. I’m not sure you can even understand how deep this goes.”

“Enlighten me. I’ll let you know if I’m surprised.”

I shook my head again. “No,
you
enlighten
me
. Then I’ll laugh in your face when you realize you’re in way over your head.”

He barely smiled
. “Only if this means we’re working together.”

“Oh, no way. I told you…I don’t trust anyone. I don’t care who you claim to be, or how muc
h information you share with me.
I know people
who
could convince me that I’m not even Tyler Huntington. I’ve had to deal with crafty people for quite some time—”

“Chase,” he interrupted.

It sucked the air
right out of me
, and I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly
. “Excuse me?”

He took a breath. “I told Jayden that you would react this way. I told her to
give me something that I could use to get you to believe me. She said, ‘Chase… He’ll know what it means.’
”

I finally gasped for a breath of air. Chase. It was what we had decided to name our first son.

Suddenly I was overwhelmed with an entire sea of emotion. My heart was about to burst from how much I loved Jayden and how much I missed her. I would do anything to be with her again. But was this the right way? What if I made things worse than they already were? How was I supposed to know what to do?

I leaned forward onto my knees and
dropped
my face in
to
my hands. Cole was right about one thing: it didn’t matter what I did
,
I would never escape Olevsky’s control. I felt unsure about both decisions, but maybe there really was something that Cole could do. At least I would be working with the right side of the law. Maybe that would account for something.
And now Jayden was involved in this, whether I liked it or not.

I sat up and took another breath. “My number one priority is Jayden. I don’t care what happens to me, but
her well
being comes first.”

“I understand that. The good news is that we don’t believ
e that she’s in danger
—”

“I don’t care what you ‘believe.’ I care about what you’ll do to make sure she’s safe.”

He smiled as he nodded.
“
Wrong choice of words. She’s absolutely fine.
She’s under 24-hour surveillance right now, provided by my tea
m. She’s got the best eyes looking out for her, and the best protection there is
. We realize that she’s had someone from, uh, the ‘organization’ that’s been keeping an
eye on her
,
as well.
”

“Kenny Ross.”

“Yeah. It’s been…
a little difficult to keep our paths separate, but we’ve managed.” He took a long pause. “So? Ty, can you help us help you?”

The first thing that
came
out of my mouth was, “When can I see her?”

I fully expected him to tell me that I couldn’t, but instead he answered, “We can arrange a way for you to see her… Give me
some time, first.”

My heart was racing at the thought of holding her in my arms again, but a dark
notion
made me reply, “But only if I help you first, right?”

He shook his head. “No, Ty. W
hether you help us or not, I’d like for you to see her again. But you do know that it might be difficult for you. You’re already right in the middle of this, and seeing her just… Well, it might complicate things. We don’t want to involve her anymore than we need to. She knows you’re in trouble, but she also said she wasn’t going to ask any questions. She only wants you to be okay and…she wants to be a part of your life if you let her
, no matter what it consists of
.”

Oh, Jayden. After everything I put her through, she still wanted to be with me. My chest felt tight, like it was going to ex
plode from loving her so much. B
ut at the same time, I was worried
,
scared
,
and
uncertain
.

“What about her father? Does
n’t
he know about this?”

He shook his head. “Hell no. Our assignments
don’t exist. We are strictly covert. This is a high priority case overseen by the federal government.
I have any resource I want at my disposal. We will make this happen, but I want to do it in a way that keeps you safe and leaves your involvement completely unknown.
”

I sighed and nodded my head. “I’ll agree to think about it,” I told him.

“You can’t talk to your father about this.”

I
t was exactly what I wanted to do. “Why not? He knows as much as I do. More, even.”

“That’s something I’ll have to look into, then. Would he be willing to help us out?”

I shook my head. “No, I guess not. He’s a
bit
… Well, I don’t think he’d want to get involved.”

“Most people don’t.”

“Then why did you approach me
? Y
ou’re risking a lot on the hope
that I would agree to cooperate with you.”

“Very true. But it was a call I had to make. I felt very confident that it was the right thing to do.”

I gave him a smug smile. “You mean
you haven’t learned anything
by just observing me day in and day out.”

He lightly laughed. “
Well one th
ing’s for sure. You are one bad
ass mechanic.”

That made me chuckle.

“But to be truthful,” he added more seriously, “
I’ve collected enough.
The conversations you’ve had with your father at home… I’ve been listening to them. I’m sorry, Ty, but it’s part of what we do.
But I followed my gut and felt like
now
was the right time to fill you in. Besides, Jayden was getting a little impatient.”

I smiled, just thinking about her beautiful face. “How do you know her?” I asked. “And if you’re
a
deep undercover
…whatever…
how does she know what you do?”

“I’ve known her since we were kids. Didn’t live in the same city, but I had to compete against her in various motocross events. It really sucked to get beaten by a girl,” he chuckled. “I joined the Marines after high school and we kept in touch through letters
or emails
. I hadn’t seen her for about
two
years, so I looked her up when I came back from my last tour. I was pretty vague about my current profession,” he smiled, “but I think
with my background
she kind of figured it out. I
could tell something was wrong, but it
took
another week
before
she eventually
came to
me and asked if I could
look into something for her
.” He nodded toward the diner. “Let’s go eat something. I’m starving.”

After we were sitting in a very private corner booth eating our dinner, Cole began discussing exactly wha
t it was that he wanted from me. He seemed to know what he was talking about,
and he definitely knew Olevsky’s organization,
but I was still very
uneasy
that
the
entire nightmare had completely shifted.