I stumbled backward into Vero as Ike strode toward us. She peered over my shoulder as the tire iron came within striking distance.
“What’s it going to be, Ruiz? Do you have the money, or am I taking you back to New Jersey to meet with…” Ike’s threat trailed as he stared at something behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see what had captured his attention. The shed door creaked, swaying on its hinges in the breeze, revealing a glimpse inside.
Ike ambled around us, using the tire iron to nudge the door open wide. “Well, well. What do we have here?” He smiled, a crooked slash of gold teeth. “Marco doesn’t normally take his payoffs in trade, but this presents some interesting possibilities.”
“I think there’s been a small misunderstanding,” I said cautiously. “We can’t give that car to Marco.”
Ike turned toward us as he adjusted his grip on the tire iron. “Who said anything about giving the car to Marco?”
Vero’s mouth fell open. The car was worth more than Vero owed and Ike knew it. He could probably sell the car, pay off Marco, and pocket the rest for himself. Or he could just as easily keep the car and tell Marco he never found us. Either way, duping his boss would probably be easier to get away with if Vero and I weren’t in the picture.
“Give me the keys,” he demanded.
“I don’t have them,” Vero said. Ike was in front of her in three quick strides. She held up her hands, jutting her chin toward the shed before he could grab her. “They’re in the car,” she blurted.
He shoved her out of his way. “See? That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
Ike turned and headed for the Aston. Vero tugged my sleeve. She pointed at a loose hubcap beside me. I nodded, reaching for it as she charged after Ike and thrust her foot into his backside, sending him stumbling to one knee. I swung the hubcap hard into the back of his head. The metal reverberated with a gong-like sound, sending a wave of vibration all the way to my teeth.
Ike went still.
Breath held, Vero and I waited for him to teeter and fall over, the way Steven had when she’d hit him with my frying pan. Ike only shook his head. His grip tightened around his tire iron as he pushed himself to his feet with a sneer.
Vero grabbed me by the sleeve as she backpedaled away from him. “Run!” she shouted, taking off at a sprint.
Ike’s fingertips grazed the back of my coat as his feet pounded behind me. I risked a glance over my shoulder as I chased Vero between two stacks of crushed cars.
“You’re going to pay for that! Give me the goddamn keys!” His tire iron swung with every pump of his bulging arms, his thick waist bouncing with his strides. Vero hooked a sharp right, pulling me behind her. Then an abrupt left, desperate to shake him. I had no idea if we were losing ourselves in the maze of the scrapyard or working our way free of it. Vero’s head turned back and forth, frantically searching for something as we rounded the next row. Her gaze paused on the rusted frame of an old clunker mounted on jacks and blocks. A tower of crushed cars was stacked precariously on top of it.
Vero yanked me toward it. “Get under. Hurry!” She dragged me with her to the ground, shimmying under the chassis. I scurried after her as her legs disappeared beneath the frame. Loose gravel dug into my knees as I army-crawled after her. If we could get to the other side of the wall of cars, maybe we could make it back to the gate and find Javi.
A cold hand clamped around my ankle. I yelped, my shirt riding up, the ground scraping like sandpaper over my ribs as Ike yanked me backward by my foot. Vero twisted to see me, the whites of her eyes wide as she groped for my hand. I grasped hers, kicking out wildly with my feet. The toe of my sneaker caught Ike’s face. He barked out a swear, clawing at my ankles as I managed to scramble free of him.
Vero scuttled out from under the car, reaching back for me with both hands when she was safely on the other side. “Come on, Finn!” Digging her heels into the ground, she leveraged her weight and pulled. I scrabbled forward a few inches until something snagged the hood of my coat. Vero panted between tugs on my arm. She grunted when I didn’t move. “I know what I said about body positivity, but you might want to cut back on the Oreos!”
“That’s not funny! Keep pulling! I think he has my coat!”
I kicked out again as Ike wedged his upper body under the car. My shoe connected with something solid.
“Push harder!” Vero shouted as she pulled.
I thrust out with my foot. There was a cracking sound, then a horrible groan. Vero gave one final heave and my hood tore free. She flew backward, landing on her butt in the dirt, her momentum dragging me out from under the car until I was sprawled on the ground beside her. The ominous groan grew louder. We both shrieked at a loud snap, ducking into each other’s arms. We shielded our heads as a cloud of dust erupted around us and the ground shook.
Vero and I held each other as a hush fell over the salvage yard. We sat up slowly, waving grit from the air. When it cleared, the gap under the car was gone, the jacks and blocks nowhere in sight. The car’s chassis was pressed flat against the ground, the tower of smashed cars still perfectly balanced on top of it.
Vero and I scrambled to our feet, backing a cautious distance away from it. We listened for Ike’s angry shouts, but the only sound was the quiet hum of the highway a few miles off.
“You think he’s in there?” she asked in a shaky voice. “I mean, he could have gotten out, right?”
I swallowed. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Vero gave my shoulder a nudge. “Great, let me know how it goes.”
“Oh, no,” I said, turning her toward the stack of cars. “No way. I was the one who opened the freezer in the storage unit the day we found Carl.” And my husband’s former business partner had not been in one piece when he’d been put there.
“So?”
“So I touched a severed head, Vero! I think that earns me a pass this time!”
“Well I cleaned eau de Carl out of my trunk! Not only that, but I was the one who found all those dead dudes with their brains blown out in the field at the sod farm.”
“Yeah, well I performed mouth-to-mouth on Harris Mickler’s corpse!”
“That doesn’t count. He was probably still warm.”
“He’d been eating blue cheese olives, Vero!”
She shuddered. “Fine, I’ll go. But I’m not going alone.” She took my hand, leading us to the end of the row and looping us around, until we were back on the other side of the wall of cars we’d crawled under. Vero slowed, creeping toward the flattened station wagon. A pair of denim-clad legs protruded from under the frame.
Vero toed one of Ike’s sneakers, grimacing when he didn’t move.
I covered my eyes, peeking through my fingers. “Is he dead?”
“Remember that day we went shopping for snow shovels, and I told you we should get garden shovels instead? I take it back. This is definitely a snow shovel kind of job.”
“An interesting choice.” The rich purr of the woman’s voice came from behind us. Vero jumped back from the dead man’s legs. I stiffened as I recognized the familiar trace of the woman’s accent.