Second Chance Addison

Charlie had the guys follow her halfway across the building and then down a long twisty flight of stairs.

The door at the bottom of the staircase had a modest sign that just said 'STORAGE.'

She pushed the door open into an abysmal pitch black space and then briefly disappeared into the darkness and flipped a few switches.

Row by row, lights high up in the ceiling flickered to life and brightened the space.

Chance was stunned by the massive room they had entered into.

It was easily four or five times larger than the showroom on the first floor and packed twice as tight with all kinds of vehicles. Some were simply parked on the floor while others were up on racks or lifts.

There were all types of cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, quads, small aircraft, and even some boats. If it had an engine, there was probably one in this warehouse.

The warehouse itself was built strictly for function. The floors were simple concrete and the walls were unfinished cinder block. All of the steel support beams and columns were openly exposed, giving the whole place an industrial feel.

Every fifty feet or so, there were steel support columns. The columns, in addition to keeping the ceiling from caving in, were used to navigate the huge space.

Each one had a designated letter and number combination based on a grid-like system.

The letter was determined by the rows that ran north to south while the number was determined by the rows that ran east to west. For example, the northeastern most column had the designation A1. The next column south was B1 while the next column to the west was A2.

"First, ground rules. Stay with the group, don't touch anything, and no pictures. Questions?"

No one spoke up so she kept talking.

"Alrighty then. So how big are we talking?" Charlie asked as she pulled a clipboard from its hook by the door.

"I want something inconspicuous that could push its way out of a sticky situation. But it would still need to be street legal and fit into a parking garage." Chance replied as he continued to scan the warehouse.

"I think I may have something like that. Let's see..." She hummed as she flipped through several pages on the clipboard.

"Ah, we need to go to L27." She grabbed a small set of keys off of another hook and then ushered them over to an electric golf cart.

They climbed aboard and she started driving to L27. On the way, they passed a few of everything from sports cars, to dirt bikes, a few helicopters, and even a tank.

A short while later, they reached their destination.

L27 was packed with a variety of very average looking SUVs.

"For you, I recommend the Trackhawk." Charlie walked over to a blacked out Jeep and started listing off specs.

"This baby is big, heavy, and a hellcat. She's got a V8 with plenty of horses to back you up. As a bonus she'll hit 60 miles per hour in under 4 seconds. The biggest downside is the fuel efficiency kind of sucks, but that's pretty much standard for this kind of vehicle." She opened the front passenger door and pulled an information sheet out of the glovebox for Lola to skim.

"Of course, I've done some minor mods here and there. Mostly just some armor, reenforced glass, and a set of run flats. And it does come in other colors but you did say inconspicuous. Also black suits Jack the best." She walked around and opened all of the doors so they could see the spacious interior.

"So, what do you think?"

Chance nodded and looked to Lola. He wasn't sure how the rest of this process was supposed to go.

"This'll do nicely, Miss Foster." Lola took Chance's hint and answered Charlie.

"Alright! I get one of the shop guys to pull it around while we do some paperwork." She closed up the SUV and pulled a neon pink paper tag from the back of her clipboard to hang on the side mirror.

"Shop guys?" Koty and Chance blurted at the same time

Koty hadn't realized there were other people who worked here when he thought of bringing over Nevada. He was especially concerned about those other people being 'guys.' Nev was his baby sister after all.

Chance on the other hand felt silly for believing that Charlie and her mother were the only ones in this colossal facility.

"Well, yeah." Charlie laughed as they got back on the golf cart. "Who do you think cleans this place? I certainly don't."

"So tell me about this sister of yours."

"Her name's Nevada, she's eighteen, and she wants nothing more in life than to be a mechanic. Nev started taking apart lawn mowers and weed eaters when she was nine or ten. She'd fix them up and sell them to get money to buy more and do it again."

Koty sighed as he remembered how quickly she'd tear something down, look over the parts, make the repairs, and resell whatever it was. Before long she moved on to small engine bikes and scooters. The rest was history.

A feeling of pride surged in his c.h.e.s.t as he remembered the first time she hotwired a car.