Route 62, Ch. 20

I'll Meet You On Route 62
(A Disney/Pixar Cars fanfic)

Chapter Twenty: Ford's Escorts

Two weeks earlier…

Vee kicked off her rhinestone-studded hubcaps and collapsed on the bed, heaving a frustrated sigh. The air was thick with the stench of her last client’s exhaust fumes and it made her gag. She buried her nose in one of several satin pillows, squinting her eyes shut so as not to have to look at her own reflection in the enormous mirror that covered an entire wall. Her mascara was smeared around her red-rimmed eyes and most of her lipstick had worn off. Tear trails had cut streaks through the body glitter sprayed on her hood. One taillight was broken, leaving the bulb exposed. She couldn’t have cared less how she looked at that moment.

The mahogany paneling and green velvet draperies made the room appear dark. Countless candles arranged around the room flickered, tiny flames casting large shadows. Beyond the blackening curtains, a sliver of dusty pink sky tinged with orange from an unseen streetlamp peeked through. Evening had settled over Los Angeles. Vee wiped her eyes on a pillow and stared longingly out the window. Horns honked and sirens wailed in the distance, but she heard nothing beyond the lonely chirp of a cricket in the azalea bushes outside.

A dull thud shook the wall and in the next room, soft music started playing. Engines revved as a man’s voice shouted incoherently. This was followed by a series of muffled thumps that caused a brass sconce to vibrate on the wall. Both a man’s and a woman’s voice punctuated the rhythmic thumping with an occasional curse or moan. These sounds grew steadily louder and the sconce bounced so hard against the wall that it threatened to fall off any moment.

Vee growled and kicked the wall as hard as she could, causing the sconce to fall. The candle was knocked loose and spilled onto the floor. The noises in the next room ceased. There was a barely audible murmur, then a short laugh, as the thumping resumed. Vee climbed off the bed and stamped out the candle’s flame before it could ignite the carpet, then picked up the fallen sconce. 'Damn fire hazard,' she mused. 'Whoever thought candles were romantic, anyway? Must’ve been a pyro fire truck.' She threw the brass fixture across the room where it clattered loudly against the door. The thumping continued.

A moment later there was a soft knock at the same door. Vee knew who it was before she opened it. Just outside on the landing stood a very petite and timid-looking white Corvette. Her sky blue eyes were shining with concern. “Yvette? What’s wrong?” Vee asked her. The young woman trembled.

“Joey called Slade,” she whispered, her voice frail as mist. “He told him everything. He’s coming back tonight.” Vee’s oil ran cold at this news. For a moment her own violet eyes mirrored those of the Corvette before suddenly darkening.

“I won’t be here when he arrives,” she declared, then turned to shut the door. Yvette stopped it with a tire.

“What are you going to do? Run away?” she demanded, her voice shrill but no less misty.

“No, I’m just gonna spread my tires and let him screw me like he’s screwed everyone else around here!” Vee snapped. She turned back into her room and started throwing things around as she searched for items to pack. Yvette stood in the doorway, fidgeting and casting nervous glances in her side view mirrors.

“Veronica,” she murmured, barely above a whisper. Vee dug through her dresser drawer as though she hadn’t heard her. She pulled out a switchblade and flicked it open. The blade gleamed like chrome in the candlelight. Yvette gasped and shrank away from the doorway. Vee smirked at her and closed the knife before tossing it on the bed.

“Veronica, please,” Yvette started again. She drove forward into the room, stopping on the other side of the bed. “What are you going to do?” The gleam in the Chrysler’s eye went unnoticed as she continued to dump an array of items onto the bed along with the knife. Makeup, sparkplugs, oil cans, CD’s, books, and other miscellany were added until the room had been completely ransacked. When she was finished, Vee lifted the corners of the bedspread and bunched them together to form an enormous bindle.

“Here, put this in my trunk,” she ordered, shoving the blanket into the Corvette’s tires.

“But I -”

Vee spun around and popped her trunk open, ignoring her protest. Yvette sighed, though to Vee it sounded more like a sob, as she hefted the bindle up and carefully eased it into her trunk. “Okay,” she mumbled, and Vee slammed her trunk shut and turned back to face her again. The younger woman would not meet her gaze, though she looked every bit on the verge of tears. Vee let out a frustrated sigh.

“What do you want me to do?” she demanded. “Stay here and suffer like the rest of you? Be Slade’s bitch for the rest of my life? Screw that. I’ve been wanting to get out of this hellhole ever since I first came here. Four effing years I’ve been working for that prick, and for what? Huh? You tell me!”

Yvette flinched at her fierce tone. She looked down her hood, unable to answer. A loud shriek from the next room made Vee’s engine rev. “Shut UP!” she shouted. Seething, she picked up the nearest object lying on the floor - one of her rhinestone hubcaps - and lobbed it at the wall. A thud from the other side echoed it, followed by the sound of a door swinging open out on the landing. A second later a furious-looking red Mercedes burst into the room.

“What the hell is your problem?” she screeched in Vee’s face. “I’ve got a very important client in there, and you’re in here screaming and banging around like a maniac! I swear to Dodge if you drive him off I’ll -”

“What?” Vee challenged. “Tell Slade? Be my guest! Do I look like I give a flying Ford?” She snorted and turned away to look out the window. It was pitch black out now. The Mercedes growled and opened her mouth to respond, but Yvette nudged her and shook her hood.

“Leave her, Darla. She’s already in for it. Slade’s coming back from Fresno tonight to deal with her.”

Darla shut her mouth promptly and her lips curled into a devilish grin. “Well, in that case…” she backed out of the room. “See you at the funeral, Veronica.”

“What funeral?” Yvette asked.

“Hers, of course,” Darla purred, nodding toward Vee. She chuckled wickedly as she drove back to her room.

Yvette looked at Vee in alarm, but Vee merely smirked. She went around the room, blowing out the candles. When she was done, she ushered Yvette out of the room before exiting it herself and closing the door behind her. She said nothing, even as the nervous Corvette followed her along the landing and down the ramp to the ground floor. A large silver SUV was parked behind a counter, swigging a beer and watching a demolition derby on a dusty twelve-inch screen.

A little black bug landed on his hood and he swatted at it with his antenna. Vee drove up to the counter and smiled at him. It took the SUV a moment to notice her. “Eh? Whaddaya want?” he grunted.

“To tell you that it’s been hell working here and that you reek like a dump truck and that you and Slade can both take your pathetic little drive shafts and cram them up your tailpipes,” Vee said, as pleasantly as though she were commenting on the weather.

Bristling, the SUV swung out from behind the counter with amazing agility for so large a vehicle and glared down at her, growling. “What did you say, whore?”

Yvette gasped and backed into a corner, but Vee stood her ground with a smile. “Joey, Joey, Joey,” she chuckled, shaking her hood. “How did Slade ever manage without you?”

“You’re scrap metal,” he growled. “Soon as Slade gets back -”

“I’ll be long gone by then,” Vee said jeeringly. “So save your putrid breath.”

Joey shoved her against the wall. Yvette shrieked. There was a metallic clanging sound overhead, and Vee glanced up just as a large drop of blood-red wax splashed onto her hood. A treelike sconce with twisting branches holding over a dozen candles hung from the wall a few feet above her cab.

“Cool your cylinders, Joey,” said a smooth voice from behind the SUV. “She ain’t going anywhere, are you, Vroom?” A tire swatted Vee’s back bumper and her engine stalled. She didn’t need to look in her side view mirror to know who it was, though she turned one anyway so she could see him.

“Slade,” she growled, and was answered with a chuckle. A black Ford F150 with an icy blue flame job and even colder blue eyes was lazily caressing her bumper.

“Have a good time with the pigs?” he purred, voice smooth as smoke.

Vee snorted. “Do I look like I’m having a good time right now?”

Slade laughed. “You’ve been working here too long,” he said gleefully, before suddenly turning serious. “Don’t truck with me, Vroom. I know everything.” His tire slipped lower and Vee hissed. “I know you’ve been taking gigs behind my back and keeping the money for yourself. And that hummer you put in Intensive Care today happens to be an old friend of mine. Heard you knocked him off an overpass and stole his wallet. What do you say to that?”

Vee laughed. “Oh please. You actually believe that? If I can’t get Joey to move his fat ass one inch, what makes you think I can push a hummer off an overpass?”

With a growl, Joey slammed into her again. The candelabra clattered, sending a shower of hot wax raining down onto Vee’s hood.

Slade’s engine revved. “Knowing Kel, he had to be drunk!”

“Oh yes, of course. And I suppose that made it perfectly okay for him to try to rape me! Just got a little frisky, was that it, or did I miss something?”

“Men hire you for one thing, and one thing only!” Slade reminded her.

“That wasn’t part of the deal!” she retorted. “He paid me up front for a teaser, and that’s what I gave him! Then he chased me out onto that overpass which, by the way, was under construction. That’s why he fell off. I didn’t push him. And I sure as hell didn’t steal his wallet! Someone else obviously did while he was out cold on the freeway.”

Slade growled and brought his tire down hard on her backside, popping her trunk open. Vee glared back at him in her mirror. Though she could no longer see his face, she could feel him rummaging through her belongings. She started squirming and Joey pinned her harder against the wall. Slade also pinned her down as he searched her trunk, digging down to the bottom of it like a dog determined to find a buried bone.

When he reached the floor, he flipped the carpet back and pried her spare tire out. There was silence for a moment. Then with a curse, he dropped the spare back into her trunk and slammed the lid down with such force that Vee yelped in pain. He nodded at Joey, who finally let her go.

“Where is it?” Slade demanded when Vee turned around to face him.

“Where is what?”

“The money. Where is it?”

“What money?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, you dirty little skank! I want my money, and I want Kel’s money. Now!”

“Your money? Ha!” Vee laughed coldly. “I don’t recall ever seeing you on the receiving end of a long haul! And I told you, I didn’t take Kel’s wallet. Bastard lost it on his own.”

Slade snorted. “Right. Point is, he caught you screwing around off the job, and Dodge knows if you did it once, you did it again.” Without warning he rammed into her, forcing her up against the same wall where she had been pinned only moments before. The brass fixture hanging above her bounced and two candles popped loose from their holders. Slade didn’t seem to noticed as they fell onto Vee’s hood, then rolled off onto the floor. Vee felt for them with a tire, recoiling with a hiss when rubber touched flame. Sobbing sounds came from a nearby corner where Yvette was still parked, watching in horror.

Vee’s frame groaned as the truck’s weight pressed down on her. It took all her strength to bear it while she stealthily kicked the candles out from under her. She watched as one rolled toward a stack of old newspapers near the front door. “Now then,” Slade hissed in her ear, “we’re going to settle this one of two ways.” Vee said nothing. She was too busy watching the feeble flame licking at the edge of the sports section.

“Either you give me my share, or I take it from you.” She gave an involuntary shudder as his rear tires brushed languidly against the insides of her own. The flame caught and she smiled. “It’s your choice, Vroom. Either way, I’m getting what’s mine.”

“Yes you are,” she purred, as the stack of papers erupted in a blaze.

“What the -!” Slade jumped off her back. Yvette stood frozen in the corner while Joey took off down the hall. Vee drove over to Yvette and nudged her. The terrified Corvette was unmovable. She stared wide-eyed as her boss tried to stamp the fire out and cursed when it burned his tire. Just above him, the sconce was hanging loosely from its hook on the wall. Vee plunged toward him, ramming him so hard against the wall that the fixture fell with a loud clatter into his truck bed. Slade screamed and spun around.

His tailgate flew open, spilling out the contents of his bed. A half-empty quart of oil hit the floor and broke open, soaking the carpet. Several candles followed, lighting the oil stain. Slade took off in search of a fire extinguisher, but the fire grew too fast for him.

Within seconds, the entire lobby was ablaze. Vee went back to Yvette and had to hit her hard to get her to budge. Broken from her terrified trance, the younger woman bolted out the front door and into the night. She was quickly followed by Darla and the other girls. Vee stood by watching them go. Her tires seemed rooted to the spot as she waited for Slade and Joey, the only two left in the building aside from herself. She waited until the heat grew unbearable and the smoke too thick to see through.

Dodging a falling stud, she backed out of the building. The air outside was frigid and full of the awful wailing of sirens and flashing red lights. Vee slipped off into the shadows as several fire trucks arrived on the scene. She took the alley and several back streets until she finally reached the freeway. Sailing down the onramp, she revved her engine fiercely until it was clear of smoke, clear of all the memories. The scent of rain and autumn leaves on the night air was a promise of a brighter future, and she drove toward it as fast as she could without looking back.



Chapter Twenty-One: [link]