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“Why are we here?”
“Because Kaneko told us to be.”
“You don’t really strike me as the type of person who does something just because someone says so.” It was one of the things she liked about Mona, but if what Kaneko says is what gets Freya more time with her is worth it. “How’d you end up working for him anyway?”
“Well, I…” Mona is caught by surprise, sadness reaches her eyes but she doesn’t look away from Freya’s. “Because I owe him.”
“You owe him your freedom?” She shakes off her own feelings about owing your freedom to someone. “I know you were in prison.”
“Ding-ding-ding,” she smiled.
“And he got you out? How’d you end up there?”
Mona avoids the question, announcing their arrival. Freya follows her through a narrow alley between two offices. Waiting around a corner is a car covered in a tarp.
“What’s this?”
“This is the job,” she yanks off the tarp, revealing a red vintage car.
“It’s beautiful,” Freya walks closer, her hand wanders atop the shiny metal until it reaches Mona’s hand and entwines their fingers together looking into her eyes. “Truly breathtaking.”
She smiles, turning her gaze to Freya’s hand in hers. “The 1961 Maranello M/4 GT Malibu. One of the rarest Italian convertibles ever built.”
“I’m driving,” Freya smirks, going around it and jumps in the driver’s seat, like in the movies.
“Nothing like taking the top down and letting the wind run through your hair… especially in a gorgeous ride like this.”
“And with a beautiful girl by your side it sounds even more amazing,” Freya extends her hand open but instead of the keys Mona flips out a compact screwdriver from her jacket and go as it to her, she begins to get into the steering column then hesitates a little. “So what are we supposed to do with it? Burn it? Strip it down to parts?”
“A little bit of both, Brotherhood’s orders.”
Freya slowed down to enjoy the car for a little more time, “Someone’s cared for this car for almost sixty years!” The sadness on her voice took her by surprise, but it was her story. She and this car were loved until they weren’t, until it served no purpose anymore.
Mona hit her with the hard truth, the one she would dare to tell herself. “In this line of business, it doesn’t matter how nice something is or how hard you worked on it. If it gets tainted, you gotta salvage what you can and junk the rest.”
Freya takes a pair of wire cutters from Mona’s hand, after taking out the ignition cylinder, savoring the touch. She goes expertly through the wires- snipping, striping, fraying and twisting.
“Not bad.”
“Yeah, still got it,” she winks playfully at Mona.
She scoffs and shakes her head.
Freya crosses her right leg under the left one to face Mona. “Alright, are you gonna tell me what happened? What got you in prison?”
She takes a deep breath. “I met a beautiful girl with a beautiful car, and I got hearts in my eyes. She taught me everything I know.”
“Was she prettier than me?” Mona rolls her eyes, but Freya laughed it off. “Ok, you don’t have to answer I know she wasn’t.”
“Anyways, we were just a couple of poor teenagers growing up in the Bronx. I thought it was love, helped her boost a couple of cars… She got me hooked on the thrill. Nothing in the world like it. I mean, you know what I’m talking about.”
“It was thrilling,” she smiled. “And being back to it… Feels familiar.”
“I always told myself I’d go back to school. But I could never really imagine myself having a nine-to-five. A regular life…”
Freya goes back to the wires to start the car, sparks fly and it purrs to life.
“What a beautiful sound,” she leans on her side in the passenger seat, facing her.
Freya turned around, cupping Mona’s face and placing a strand of hair being her ear with her other hand and leaned forward.
Mona closed the remaining distance until their lips touched, soft at first.
Freya tasted her bottom lip with her tongue and Mona opened her mouth, giving permission for the kiss to deepen. It grew intensely and quick until it was slow again. She gave Mona a few more soft kisses all the way to her ear, and she moaned softly. “What a beautiful sound,” Freya teased.
Grinning she turned back to the wheel and turned it really hard until they hear it crack as the locking pins snapped.
“Alright, we’re good to go. Let’s see what you got, gorgeous.”
“Are you talking to me or the car?”
“Both. Get us outta here.”
She drove south on La Cienega with the wind blowing through their hair.
She reached for Mona’s hand and entwined their fingers together. “How did you get caught?”
She’s silent for a moment, running her free hand through her hair. “We robbed a delivery truck. Me and the girl. I wanted to get my mom a new computer. The cops did the classic thing. Split me and her up, offered us each a deal. I kept my mouth shut… and she talked. She got off with probation.”
“But…” Freya squeezed her hand to calm herself, but what she really wanted to do was to find that girl and punch all of her teeth out. “She’s the one who got you into that life to begin with.” When she took a glance at her she was smiling.
“Funny, isn’t it? I was stuck there, waiting for trial, and I swear part of me believed it was part of her plan to get me out.”
Freya could be angry at this fucking girl or be grateful for it being what brought Mona to her, even if the second option was the selfish one. “If it was me, I would’ve burned the whole thing to the ground to get you out of there.”