Free Kane's Ransom: A BWWM Mafia Romance Novel by Samantha Westlake

notice of the car.
    It was, she thought idly to herself, a very nice, very fast looking, very expensive looking car.
    Slowly, feeling almost unsure of herself next to something so slick and expensive, Alicia advanced towards the car. The tinted glass window rolled down, and she felt relieved to see Killian sitting behind the wheel, grinning at her.
    "Okay, so maybe I forgot how fun this is to drive," he commented, turning the key to shut off the car's idling engine. "It's been sitting in storage in my garage for a year or two, now. Not much need for a fast car like this around here, not when I've got my motorcycle."
    "What is it?" Alicia asked, reaching out and running her hand over the curved doors. The three-pronged insignia on the back looked a bit like a crown, or perhaps a trident, but she didn't have a name to attach to the badge.
    "Maserati, a GranTurismo," he replied, pronouncing 'grand turismo' as one word. "Fast, luxurious, and expensive as hell. Not exactly the thing to be showing off in small town Texas," he added ruefully, "but it's the only vehicle I have besides my motorcycle, and it's the only one with any kind of trunk space."
    "It looks expensive," Alicia said, stating the obvious, as the man climbed out from behind the wheel and headed up to grab her luggage (her rather tattered and torn luggage, she noticed with a pang of embarrassment) off the step.
    "It is," Killian answered. He shrugged, pausing for a moment and looking at the car, before popping open the trunk. "But it's also a reminder of my past, and that's something that I'd be happier to forget."
    Alicia looked at him, trying to see past the man's impenetrable veil of secrecy. What had he done in the past? What was so dark that he wanted to escape, that he'd been willing to give up a life where he had the money to buy expensive cars like this one?
    With the luggage tucked away in the trunk, Killian climbed back into the driver's seat, hitting a button on the door and making the rest of the car's doors unlock with a click. He waited, and Alicia realized after a second that he meant for her to climb into the passenger seat so that they could leave.
    With her hand on the door handle of the expensive car, she hesitated for a moment. For some reason, the idea of climbing into this pricy vehicle almost seemed like a betrayal of her roots, she thought to herself. She'd grown up dirt poor, had worked her whole life to pull herself up to her current status, meager as it may be. By climbing into this car, by accepting the help of this clearly wealthy white stranger, she was suggesting that she couldn't make it any further on her own.
    You're doing it for Marcus, she reminded herself, hardening her resolve. If this was only your choice, maybe you wouldn't be taking a shortcut - but you need to do it for Marcus, if you want to save him.
    And with that thought, Alicia pulled open the door handle and climbed into the passenger seat of the Maserati.
    The inside of the car looked just as luxurious as the outside, she quickly observed. The seats were crafted out of leather, as was the inside console and dashboard. Even the smell of the car somehow reminded her of opulence, as if money could be distilled into a scent and sprayed around like an air freshener. It was almost a relief to look over at Killian and see that, like usual, he was just dressed in jeans and a tee shirt that pulled tight across his brawny upper chest and arms.
    "Let's get going," he said. "I know where we're headed, but it will take us a couple of hours to get there."
    Alicia nodded, and he put the car into drive, pulling smoothly away from the curb. Fastening her seat belt, she settled in for the wait.
    A few turns later, and they were pulling out of the small little town of Commerce, onto the highway that would carry them towards Dallas. This early in the morning, there wasn't much other traffic on the road, and Alicia felt the car smoothly accelerate beneath them as Killian merged quickly over