Taken and Misused.

[Vaughn’s Point Of View]

Marco and Darik had definitely been planning this out, I thought as we entered the garage and saw the numerous boxes. Nathan went up to the largest one and read the label then looked back at Marco with wide eyes.

“A cobra jet engine?” he said, letting a slow whistle leave his lips in awe. “That’s some powerful American muscle” he added. All I could do was nod. I had known Marco wasn’t poor but what was in front of me looked like it had cost a lot of money, there was enough stuff here to build an entire new car.

“I wanted the best, there’s news going around that Rodrigo is getting quite a few goodies imported, I just thought I’d make sure he didn’t get the upper hand” Marco said with a shrug.

Rodrigo was overhauling his ride? That was interesting to find out. Last time he had spoken to me about his car he had boasted that he would never change a thing about it. “Where’d you find the money for this Marco?” I asked, tugging a hand through my dark brown hair and ruffling it slightly. Marco’s expression didn’t give anything away but I could tell it was something bad, usually Marco liked to boast about his achievements.

“There’s this Russian, and, well… don’t get mad Vaughn, you look like you’re going to get mad, but I don’t know his name, no one does actually” Marco said, stumbling for a second and Nathan jumped in.

“Well, I’m pretty sure he knows his name” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I shot him a look that said shut up and he just grinned, leave it to him to take any situation and make a joke.

Marco, however, ignored him and went on. “He’s in on the black market, like their fucking leader or something, and I’ve been weaseling my way in, not doing anything ilegall-” I cut him off.

“You’ve been dealing with the black market! That’s shit you don’t stick your fucking nose in Marco” I shouted, he was going to get us killed or put us on the run again. We have been a team for a long time, friends for longer. Nathan, Marco, Darik, and I were friends since childhood and we had all grown up with a passion for cars. Marco, had another passion for getting his ass in trouble. Last time he’d messed around with gangs and tried to get cheap parts from the black market he had purchased stolen parts off of the gang lord’s stolen car which had put the cops and the gang on our tails. You can’t just say “opps, my bad” when it comes to illegal stuff. I tugged my hand through my hair again, this time from stress, and started pacing to real in the impulse to throw a wrench at Marco’s head. “Let me guess, all of this shits already been purchased?” I asked, still pacing. Marco looked too scared to say anything; obviously he hadn’t planned for us to find out how he had gotten this stuff.

“Well, it didn’t cost me any money” Marco said, emphasizing the word “money” when he said it.

“Well, what did it cost then?” I snapped.

“Sixty percent of our winnings from the races, but this isn’t all of it, he guaranteed that as long as we pull in money he’ll supply us with the best” Marco said quickly, like he was trying to get it over with, he was obviously trying to make it better by saying they’d get new state or the art parts all of the time if they kept winning. All he did was make it worse.

“Yeah, and when we stop winning then what? I’d sure as hell kill us if that happened and I was him, we’d be loose strings that knew too much” I said. No one said anything, we all knew Marco had fucked up big time, but I saw the glint of want and desire in Nathan and Darik’s eyes as they stared at the parts. They wanted what was in those boxes bad, I felt like the only responsible one in that moment. “How did you manage to meet this guy Marco?” I asked, my eyes catching a wrench on the work bench and that desire to hit Marco over the head with one rose up again. Nathan seemed to catch the direction of my gaze and reached over and grabbed the wrench out of my reach, I frowned at him for a moment before looking back at Marco, waiting for my answer.

“He wanted to meet with you at the race you beat Ryan Montrio at, but after we talked you left and I was going to get into my car when he approached me and told me to call him at this number at a certain time and that he could supply me with the parts to beat everyone” Marco said, looking visibly relieved when I stopped pacing. “When I called him he wanted to arrange a meeting with you but I said he would have to meet with me. I can’t believe he actually just agreed, I had no clue who the guy was otherwise I wouldn’t have been such a bossy ass” Marco said, muttering the last part.

“So, he wanted to meet with me but you played secretary and went without me?” I said, cocking an eyebrow up. I was not happy about his decision.
“I knew you would’ve said no” Marco said, not meeting my gaze. “But we met like that for weeks, and each time he would have some new bit of information on me, as if to prove that if I were lying he would have no trouble in finding me” Marco said and I heaved a heavy sigh.

“Well that’s fucking comforting!” I shouted again and looked where the wrench had been and then at Nathan who was frowning at me like a mother would when a kid was caught doing something bad. “Well, don’t you two have anything to say? We’ve got a shit load of parts from the black market that were bought with money we don’t have yet” I said. Nathan and Darik were quiet.

“We can figure this out bro” Darik said, trying to calm things down. “We just have to stick together, we’re a team” he added, speaking slow and even.

“I’m pissed at Marco, don’t get me wrong, but I agree with Darik. We can’t just shove this stuff back at this Russian dude, and we’re obviously all involved, I say we stick it out. Last time we tried to run from trouble we got in more trouble” Nathan said. I hated it when Nathaniel made sense; it always meant I had gone overboard. But still, I felt like we were bad parents when it came to dealing with Marco, instead of just smacking his wrists and giving him a time out we should just knock his ass out with a wrench one of these times. That would teach him a lesson.

I leaned against the hood of one of Marco’s stripped cars and hung my head for a moment, a long sigh escaped my lips and I tried to send all of my anger with it. I would have to go find Elisabeth soon and I didn’t want to be angry when I did. “Alright, we’ll go through with this and try and find a way out once we win enough money to pay this stuff off” I said, gesturing to the boxes while I spoke. I had a feeling I saw Marco release a sigh of relief, along with Nathan and Darik, they always got nervous when I got angry because I was pretty good and getting angry then getting violent. They went hand in hand with me.

“I’ve gotta go find Elisabeth, but Marco…”I said and pointed a threatening finger at him. “If anything goes bad I’m not going to forgive you so easily, or at all for the matter” I said and I saw Marco’s expression drop. I unlocked the door that led to the kitchen and slammed it shut behind me.

I had to take a moment to compose myself before I went to find Elisabeth. Racing could never be peaceful or simple; something always had to get fucked up. I groaned and rubbed my hands over my eyes. I knew ditching them would get rid of my problems but I couldn’t, they were my family and no matter how many times they messed up all I wanted to do was help them fix it.

A loud crash brought me from my thoughts and I went into the living room and about had a heart attack. Elisabeth was on Marco’s bar table, dancing. Not just normal refined dancing like ballet or ballroom like what she practiced. No, she was whipping her hair around and, well; let’s just say at that moment I wanted to tell every guy in the room to get their fucking eyes off of my girl.
I mean, Elisabeth. Not my girl, just Elisabeth.
She stopped dancing and shouted something that sounded like, “punch, please” but I couldn’t understand her slurred speech. Someone did though and a glass of red liquid was handed to her, she downed half of it and dropped it while doing a spin. “Oh shit” I heard her say.
Did she just curse? I hadn’t even known she knew curse words.
It was amusing watching her for a second, her hair was a mess but it didn’t take away from her beauty, in fact, it added to it. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed; incredibly sexy was a good way to describe it. Her eyes were unfocused and I found it amazing she hadn’t fallen off of the bar top yet.
My grin was wiped clean from my face when another man climbed up on the bar table with her. Instead of being civil and asking him to get down I went up to the bar, pushing the drunken crowd out of my way and reached up, grabbed the man’s shirt, pulled him down to my level, and punched him square in the face. Elisabeth laughed loudly, one short outburst, and then started jabbering away in French. The man fell back behind the bar and Elisabeth laughed again, pointing a finger at his fallen body as if it were the funniest thing on the planet.

“He fell off the bar, did you see that? Oh! Vaughn! Where have you been?” she asked, frowning at him. “I have been waiting for you and…. Did you see that man fall of the bar?” she slurred, losing her first topic and picking up on another. I sighed and was about to tell her to get off the bar when she went to reach for another glass of what I knew was spiked punch. Of course she would fall victim to something like that. I took the glass from the man and handed it to someone else who took it and downed it. This is why I never got drunk, people did anything when they got drunk.

“Vaughn! He was about to give me that!” Elisabeth said and her outrage was slightly funny. I wrapped my arms around her legs and tipped her over my back, she let out a surprised shout and then a whole stream of giggles. I walked through the crowd with her over my shoulder, when we got out side she was still giggling like a drunk. She had grabbed onto my belt and was slowly ceasing her laughing. “Did I ever mention you have a very nice butt Vaughn?” she said, giggling again.

“No, you haven’t” I said, opening the back door of my car and laying her down in the back. A grin had tugged at my lips no matter how hard I tried to keep it off of my face.

“Well, I just had a very good view of it and… you do” she said, dragging out the word “and”.

I paused for a moment before closing the door; she just sat up and stared at me, slightly wobbly as if she were going to tip over at any moment. “Thanks” I said and she burst into a fit of laughter and tipped back onto the seat. I closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh. I prayed to God she didn’t have ballet class tomorrow. I felt her knock on the window I was leaning against and when I turned to face her she had her face pressed against it and was looking at me with her big blue eyes.

“I’m hungry!” she shouted, the words muffled through the glass. I fought a grin and went to the driver’s side door. “Are you going to get me food? Because I’m hungry Vaughn” she said as I started the car. I started to talk but she shushed me, “shhhhh! Did you hear that? My stomach is growling at me Vaughn!” she said, her eyes wide again as she leaned up on the back of seat. “I need food Vaughn” she clarified again.

“Don’t worry Princess, I heard you” I said and then she started talking in French again like she thought I knew a word she was saying. I couldn’t believe Elisabeth was drunk; she had probably never drunk anything alcoholic. After a few minutes of driving she was passed out in the back seat.