CHAPTER 57

We had a game plan. Which was more than I could say about my last few weeks. You would think it would make me feel better, but you would be wrong.

Maybe it was because the game plan was to sneak into the ranch, unseen, and bug a spy who'd linked herself to the highest ranking member; the alpha.

Anthony.

I frowned and picked at the insignia on the pockets of the black sweats I'd found in the apartment before I'd gone in search of Aiden. There had been several options in color, along with matching shirts, all Hoventech paraphernalia. They were good quality, though, and comfortable, so I couldn't complain.

I couldn't go to the ranch until dark, because as good as I was at being undetected, I wasn't invisible and someone was sure to spot me crawling over the perimeter fence in broad daylight. I also couldn't visit the vampire. Not yet anyway. There was some sort of procedure being performed and an intrusion would wreck some sort of data...or something.

There wasn't much else for me to do, so I'd dropped by to check on Darius, who was still out of it, but, relievingly, was healing mostly on his own now, and then I'd gone looking for Bobby.

I found him in a portion of the fifth building of the Hoventech facility. In a large bay where several vehicle upgrades were in the process of being fabricated, or worked on. His Oldsmobile sat in the middle of the bay, it looked sad and dented in the fluorescent lights. Bullets had torn holes along what must have been a custom paint job of fading golden browns, the back bumper was missing, and so was the back window. The seats, too had been removed.

Bobby standing at the front, wearing a similar set of sweats, except his were bright orange for some reason, including a heavy orange hooded sweatshirt, making him look a lot like a prisoner in max security. Beside him stood a group of four wolves and one human, and they appeared to be having some sort of argument.

"If we swing it right we can get both the rear diffuser and front splitter on by the end of the day," one of the wolves said in an excited voice, a woman in her mid twenties sporting a soot stained set of coveralls and black pigtails with pink highlights.

"The armor is more essential," a man in his mid fifties argued. Safety over speed.

"It's not a tank, not designed to be," pigtails argued. "If you want safety then give it the power to get the hell away from anything chasing it. A supercharger..."

Bobby noticed me, his face flicking from alarmed distress to relief. Which was a little odd considering that I was the one who'd gotten him into this position to begin with.

"Raven," he waved a hand in an undignified manner, "Raven tell them, the old girl is perfect the way she is...or was. No upgrades, if they're going to do something just repair the damage."

I approached the group, pigtails and the older wolf stopped talking, maybe I made them nervous, apparently wolves could sense my wolf's power.

"Er...Raven, you gotta little somthin'..." Bobby licked his thumb and reached for my face.

"Eww," I scooted out of the way, "keep your saliva to yourself, Bobby, I've got enough problems."

"What?" he frowned at me, his pale eyes narrowing on mine, "it's not like you can catch anything."

I pulled up the neckline of the black Hoventech tank and wiped around my mouth. A large gob of ketchup, probably from the foot-long hot dog I'd swiped from the cafeteria earlier, came off in a smear.

Oh. Maybe they weren't intimidated after all.

Bobby gave up on cleaning me and waved a hand at the group.

"Tell them Mavis was fine just the way she was!"

"Mavis?"

"It's an old name, a classic," he threw his hands in the air. "You guys don't know squat about old cars. You gotta keep them as close to original as possible, otherwise the value drops."

"The value's gonna drop a whole lot more when whoever has been chasing you catches up," pigtails pointed out.

"They've got a point," I told him.

"What? Not you too! None of this would have happened if it wasn't for you. I don't need no tricked out ride. I just want my car back."

"Sure, it happened because of me this time, but the way you play with the big boys it's only a matter of time before a few extra measures could save your hide."

"You planning on selling it?" The older wolf asked, eyes narrowed shrewdly.

"No! I don't want to sell it, I just...you know what? Never mind. I'll take it to my own guy, at least he'll listen to what I'm saying."

"You're going to pay someone to do worse than what we've been told to offer for free?" That was one of the younger men, the human, and he looked flabbergasted at the idea.

"You guys are fixing it for free?"

"No!" Bobby yelled, running a hand through his white blond hair leaving it sticking up in oily looking spikes. "You're not fixing it at all!" He stormed toward the bay door, which was open, pulling up the hood of the sweater until it covered everything except his eyes, which he covered with shades before tucking his hands into his sleeves.

"Boss' dime. Said offer anything he wanted," the older wolf sized me up he chewed on something that I really hoped was gum. "Another trip like last night and there wont be anything left to restore."

They were right, Mavis had taken a beating, I probably wouldn't have bothered at all. But when the clouds part and the gods offer you a gift...

"What's the catch?" I asked.

"The catch?"

"What's the catch for doing up the car? That's not a cheap fix, and the upgrades are..."

"Prototypes," Pigtails grinned at me, raising her brows. "And who's to say why the boss does anything? All I know is he can leave this place with much better odds than he entered it on, and what kind of lunatic turns that down?"

Yeah, what kind of lunatic indeed? Why did I feel like Bobby might have the right of it?

"I'll talk to him," I told them, waving to the car. "Maybe if we could stick with the original classic lines, while still giving it some oomph?"

The older wolf narrowed his eyes speculatively.

"Stealth upgrades...undetectable to even the most discerning eye..."

I stared at him, because it was like he was introducing a new commercial product or something, but the others seemed to catch the excitement and soon they were heading toward the rear of the car, murmuring in excited mechaniceeze.

Well, I didn't know if Bobby was going to be happy with me for this, but at least his cheating ass would be better protected. One could even say I'd done him a favor.