Page 158 of One Good Crash

He shrugged. "Yeah, well…"

"So?" I prompted. "Fifteen years ago, you and Jaden 'borrow' this car and…?"

"And Jake's been wanting it back."

I gave a snort of laughter. "After fifteen years? I'm sure he does. So, why didn't he just get it already?"

"Because," Jax said, "we wouldn’t give it up."

"For fifteen whole years?'

"Hey, we paid him."

"How much?" I asked.

"Five-hundred bucks."

My mouth fell open. "That's all?"

"Why not? That's whathepaid."

Even fifteen years ago, five hundred dollars would've been incredibly cheap for a car. I murmured, "He must've gottensomedeal."

"Nah. The car's a hunk of junk."

"So why didn't you give it back?"

"Because we didn't want to."

Well, that was informative."Why not?" I asked.

"Because we paid him. It's ours."

Obviously, there was a lot more to this story. "But you have like a dozen cars already. And so does Jaden."

"Hey, it's not a dozen."

I gave him a look. "It is between the two of you." I hadn't seen all of the cars, but thanks to Allie, I knew they stored most of them in a warehouse near their corporate headquarters. "So, why'd you want to keep this one?"

Jax turned to gaze out over the horizon. "Because he's a dick, just like I said."

That hardly seemed like a good reason. Plus, I couldn’t quite understand why any of them wanted the car if it was so terrible. Searching for some clue, I said, "Is he short of money or something? I mean, if the car'sthatawful, he must've been pretty desperate to want it back."

"He's not desperate," Jax said. "It's just a power-play, something to piss us off. He's good at that."

"Sothat'swhy you got in a fight?"

Jax shook his head. "I didn't fight him."

"So, who did? Jaden?"

Jax turned again to face me, and his gaze warmed. "Before it all happened, we're at this party. And I'm dancing with this incredible girl…"

I felt a silly smile spread across my face. "Really?"

"Really. And one of my security guys comes up to tell me that my dick of a brother has picked that night to show up and try to lift the car."

"Lift?"