Page 190 of Fury
21
THE PROPOSAL
Carrera
The ride home was just as much fun as the ride to Great Falls. The view from his side mirrors was ten times better than the road ahead of him, and he kept stealing glances at Slash. For most of the journey, she rode behind him, but closer to his house, she pulled up alongside.
Back in the garage, they removed their helmets. The divot between her eyes was deeper than expected, especially since they’d been out riding.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“It’s nothing.”
He ran the back of his hand down her cheek. “Tell me.”
“That car at the lookout… the driver was wearing a ski mask.”
“What the fuck? Did you get the tag number?”
“They sped out. I didn’t want to race off and try to catch them. Not on the parkway. Now, if that had been the beltway, I would have caught them.”
“Wasn’t it a two-door?” he asked.
“Yeah, silver coupe,” she said as they entered the house.
The delicious aroma of pancakes filled his nostrils. In the kitchen, G-ma was busy at work.
“Are we having family over?” he asked.
“Just us. How was your ride?”
“Great,” he replied.
After breakfast, he drove G-ma to her house. He was impressed with how she stayed strong despite the charred remains. They salvaged what they could, loaded up his truck, and returned home.
Slash was holed up in the office the rest of the day.
That evening, Alexandra Wilde called her. Twenty minutes later, she emerged from his home office with a relieved smile on her face.
“It’s all set,” Slash said. “Alexandra’s going to the club after the holiday weekend to talk to Karen.”
“Karen won’t like that,” he said.
“No, she won’t, but her ego’s pretty inflated. She might like the attention. I gave Alexandra the total scoop on her.”
“How’d you handle ALPHA?”
“Alexandra said would never divulge what she knows or her sources,” Slash explained. “Her focus is the missing women.”
Carrera’s phone rang. “It’s the arson detective.” He answered, put the call on speaker. “Santini.”
“Mr. Santini, I’m calling with an update,” said the detective. “I spoke to a few of Mrs. Santini’s neighbors. No one heard anything. Two have security cameras and they said they’d check for anyone walking by the house. It’s going to take a little longer to get the report back on the accelerant. Has anyone contacted your grandmother out of the blue? Someone who heard about the fire and wanted to see how she was doing?”
“Just family,” Carrera replied.
“Sorry I don’t have more information.”
“Thanks for the call.” Carrera hung up. “He’s got nothing.”
