When Elke used to step out of Roan's WRX, she would take hang her head low to avoid the stares. It wasn't because she didn't like the attention or that she was ashamed of being seen with him and his friends. It was because she was always stepping out of the car alone and spending the rest of the night trailing behind her so-called boyfriend.

But tonight, Elke stepped out of the Impreza with confidence. Being in the middle seat, she waited for Alanis to be helped out by Apson, who had opened the door for her. He took Alanis' hand and was immediately replaced by the driver.

Elke straightened up as her sneakers hit the carpark tar and had the silver door shut for her. Joost's hand attached to the small of her back as he stepped to be behind her. Looking down at her, Joost had a permanent smile on his face.

People paused their conversations and watched the couple from afar. Men leaned against bonnets and shamelessly stared at the beautiful woman wrapped in the blonde's arm. Women shoved at their boyfriends' shoulders in fury while lonesome girls envied Elke. She was against the most handsome man at the meet, surrounded by a friend group that everyone wanted to join and radiated an unmatchable aura.

'You're not racing today, are you?' Elke asked Joost. Enzo had pulled up beside them in his Porsche with a man Elke still wasn't familiar with. It seemed he was going to be a stranger for a while longer, as Enzo joined the group while the man headed off in the other direction.

'Not planning on it,' Joost lowered back onto the bonnet of his car, his hand sliding to sit on Elke's side. 'Although, if that fucker keeps staring, I might have to go back on my word.'

Elke turned look where Joost gestured with his chin. Over her shoulder, she spotted a dark-eyed man practically breaking his neck to stare where Elke stood next to Alanis. Her feet were forced to move as Joost pulled her towards him and Elke turned back to see the space between his thighs. She couldn't resist, his hands already guiding her to sit on the silver bonnet with him.

'Don't you two look cosy,' Stuntje commented with a smirk. 'You almost look like boyfriend and girlfriend.'

'That's because we are,' Elke said, matching the man's mocking tone. Joost grinned from behind the girl as Stuntje's eyebrows shot up.

'Oh, really? Well, pardon my impoliteness, Mrs. Joost's girlfriend.'

With hands up in defence, Stuntje made Elke giggle. Joost could feel her laughter rumble through his arms locked around her middle. He had the perfect view over the top of Elke's head and only needed to look to his right to see where Donnie was stood. The man was far enough out of sight for Elke to be oblivious to him while Joost and the others could see everything that was going on.

From what Joost could gather, the informat was a young man much like himself. He faced Donnie who lit up a cigarette and listened to the limited answers he got to his questions. The young man looked around the meet, making sure that there were no familiar faces listening in. When his head swivelled to Joost's direction, he looked away and tightened his hold around Elke's middle.

'I've got three meetings tomorrow,' Elke sulked as she checked her phone. 'How am I going to make it to the weekend with that being my Friday?'

'Call in sick. We can go out, instead.'

'I can't. I've used up almost all of my sick days already.'

'Then use your paid leave.'

Elke pushed off the bonnet to stand and twist in his hold. Joost's hands loosened from her sides but slid down to her hips to prevent her from stepping away. Hearing Joost's suggestions made her smile, adoring the way he didn't care what her job would think. If she had one bad day, Joost would tell her to quit and move in with him. She felt cared for and special, and Elke wished she could come close to making Joost feel the same way.

'I can show you more of Friesland,' Joost hummed, a smile playing on his pink lips and his eyes bright through his glasses. 'Come on liefje. You know you want to.'

'And what about you, hm?' Elke said. 'You have a job, too, remember?'

'Aye, Daan!'

The man looked away from Tantu and raised what would be his eyebrows in question.

'Do we have anything booked in for tomorrow?'

'No, but we could have walk-ins-'

'See? I'm free,' Joost ignored him and turned back to Elke, who was trying to contain her grin.

'You're crazy.'

Four spaces away and behind a purple Mustang, Donnie was trying to get through the small talk. He wasn't made aware from his contact that the informat would be a young, twitching drug-addict. Donnie could barely get an undistracted sentence out of the man as he looked around and bounced from foot to foot.

'You said he was speaking German?' Donnie tried in irritation.

'Yeah. It was fluent, too. I don't know when he arrived, though. Or how. Or why,' the twitching mess looked over his shoulder again. 'Look, man, I don't have a lot of time. I need to go.'

'You haven't told me anything apart from there being a German in The Netherlands. Big fucking deal. Alex said you knew Acid-'

'I do! Or did. I... I did know him and then Roan - oh fuck, Roan,' he put a hand to his face and swiped aggressively at his eyes as if in pain. 'He turned up dead and the cops started calling. I had to hide. I have to leave now-'

'Roan? Roan Colijn?'

The man paused in his turn to scurry away. His blown out pupils focused on Donnie for a moment before going back to their constant shifting. He swallowed, making Donnie raise an eyebrow and exhale the smoke he had been holding within in his chest.

'Y-Yeah. He was my mate. He did this deal with Acid and it went bad. Fuck man, it went so bad a-and Acid was saying all this shit about bringing in guns and-'

'Guns? Acid's bringing in guns? From where?'

'I-I don't know. I-It had something to do with the money and the German. I have to go-'

Donnie tried to grab him before he left but the drugs made the man sly and quick. He cursed as he watched him head through the cars and slip amongst the many heads and faces. The cigarette between his fingers was barely smoked and Donnie was unsatisfied. But from the last few seconds of the talk, he had gotten some half-decent information out of the jittery informat.

Hearing Tantu's laughter, Donnie glanced back to the group. They were so emmersed in their conversation that not even Joost was looking in his direction. Donnie could see the bright smile on his face and the hiccups from his laughter. The woman standing in-between his legs leaned forward to put her face on his shoulder, her wheezes silent. Joost took the opportunity to hold Elke's waist and watched her stand back up.

Donnie couldn't help but think of their conversation that he first took as willful naivety. Joost's desire to break away from their profession was laughable, but now that he saw how Joost was with Elke, Donnie understood.

She had a face that could start wars and a smile that made you melt. From what Donnie could see, Elke was worth the trouble that Joost was putting himself in. The money was worthless if she was involved and Joost's car was just another set of wheels if she wasn't there.

Deciding to finish his cigarette before he would go to finally introduce himself, Donnie looked to where his informat had left. Over the hoods of cars and buzz of people, the carpark was alive compared to the main road. It was deserted at the late hour and the streetlights dawned the street in a pitiful warm yellow.

On the other side of the street, two cars sat in the dark. The tinted windows teamed with the night made it impossible to make out if anyone was in the driver's seats. With no headlights on, the cars could belong to someone at the meet, but something told Donnie different.

'The Rothschilds have a sixth sense! As soon as you're having the best week of your life, your check engine light comes on!' Elke cried to the group.

'Or your brake pads start scraping against your rotors.'

'Yes!'

Alanis laughed at Elke's reaction and Joost giggled along. He pushed off of his car, Elke entering a conversation with the girl next to her. As he went to pull out his cigarettes, Donnie suddenly appeared and said,

'We should go.'

The smile was immediately wiped off of Joost's face. At three words, any sign of laughter and relaxtion was gone.

He made sure Elke wasn't listening before he lowered his head so only Donnie would hear.

'Why?'

'There's two cars on the other side of the street. It could be nothing but we shouldn't hang around to be sure.'

'If we leave now, we'll be followed,' Joost muttered. 'We need a crowd.'

Joost didn't like the look that graced Donnie's face. The corner of his lips twitched upwards and he was already pulling out his phone from his pocket. Glancing over to where Apson smoked with Stuntje, Joost communicated the situation wordlessly. The two men caught his stormy eyes and clenched jaw and rushed to finish their cigarettes.

While Donnie made the call, Apson whispered into Alanis' ear. Elke was trying to find something on her phone to show her and Alanis swallowed dryly at her boyfriend's words. The word had already spread through the group and she was the last to be informed. This made it so that Enzo was already retreating towards his Porsche with Stuntje, Daan and Tantu in tow.

Elke looked up from her phone and noticed the four men getting into the car. The picture on her screen became irrelevant as her eyebrows flew upwards.

'Where are they going? Are we going home?' she questioned and she was answered by someone shouting,

'Cops are here!'

The red and blue lights flashed in the distance. People leapt off of their cars and threw their cans of alcohol to the ground. Doors were thrown open and friends separated with promises to meet up elsewhere. The amount of illegal modifications in the carpark was enough to fill an officer's entire book of infringements and fines. So, in a flurry of frantic teenagers and young adults, the carpark was being emptied within minutes.

'Take her home,' Apson rushed into Joost's ear. His hand engulfed Alanis' and she bid a confused Elke goodbye with her best smile.

Joost didn't question how he, Donnie and Alanis were getting home. He took Elke's wrist in one hand and opened the passenger's door with the other. Much to his relief, she didn't resist or argue. Elke was in the car quickly and Joost was able to close her door, run to the other side and throw himself into the driver's seat.

'You don't have any mods, do you?' Elke asked, watching him shove his keys into the ignition and bring the engine to life.

'I don't know what's on this thing anymore. I'm not risking it.'

Not risking running into Nathan, was more to the truth, but Joost wouldn't dare say that.

Elke watched through the windshield as cars shot out of their spaces and headed for the exits. Some elevated cars drove over the curbs to get to the main road, their backfiring combining with the countless others as they sped away. She thought they would never make it out of the carpark with the amount of traffic there now was. But Joost was putting his foot down and cutting in front of vehicles before she knew it.

She tried not to voice her concerns. Enzo was spotted up ahead, already stuck behind three cars that had decided to pull out at the same time. Swears were being thrown out windows and Elke clutched her seatbelt as Joost yanked the wheel to the left. He pulled up alongside the commotion but didn't stop, making Elke peer through the window to see Tantu in the passenger's seat.

Joost said nothing as he avoided every person and car that edged into his path. He made it look easy, like the wheel was controlling him. His eyes moved behind his glasses in fluid motions and Joost was grateful that Elke had made him comfortable with wearing the frames. Everything was far more clearer and just as a BMW pulled out to turn right, he went around them and ignored the loud horn that sounded afterwards.

'Jesus, Joost. You're good at this,' Elke laughed nervously, looking back to the queue of cars that had formed behind them. The police were only just walking away from their own vehicle with their notepads at the ready and their night full of wonderous fines to be given.

Checking his rearview mirror, Joost hoped that Elke wouldn't think more of his silence. The road was deserted behind them and the ride home was only fifteen minutes. He was sure he would be able to relax and put his hand on Elke's thigh soon enough.