Author: Cynthia Taz
Rating: PG-13 (language, violence)
Disclaimer: All characters, sites and such from 'Buffy, The Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' belong to Joss Whedon, UPN, WB, and et al. All characters, sites and such from 'Grand Theft Auto' series belongs to Rockstar Games and Rockstar North. No copyright infringement intended. All new characters and storylines belong to the author (Yah me!). This story is not sell or for any profit.

"Drive me to Snake, kiddo."

Tara nodded and stepped into the Sentinel, driving her 'boss' towards the Sex Club Seven. It was a short drive, and Tara felt more than relieved that Joey had not tried to prey from Tara about what had happened the night she was supposed to have driven Toni to the Carson General Hospital. Toni had, without so many words, ordered Tara not to reveal anything to Joey about the meeting with Yakuza. While Joey had not directly forced Tara to talk, there was no lack of trying, and it did not take a genius to see the distrust that was sending her way.

Letting Joey getting out of the car, Tara drove to a small pizza place nearby, having a quick lunch while waiting for Joey to finish whatever he wanted to do at the club before driving him back to his garage.

Finishing her slide of pizza, Tara slowly made her way back to Joey's Sentinel, and started her engine. She just reached the entrance of the Sex Club Seven, two men wearing Colombian's trade mark Hawaii shirts ran past her and disappeared around the corner. And before she knew it, her car rocked, and everything went black.

It was minutes before Tara could see again. She could felt the safety belt biting in her flesh as she watched legs running pass her car. It was another second when an alarm went off inside Tara's head, and immediately, she released herself from the safety belt, ignoring the pain as her head hit the top of the car roof, and started clawing out from the side window.

Tara could felt heat at her back, and she knew it wouldn't be long before the overturned car exploded. Her heart bumping wide as she clawed, praying that she would make it in time, when she felt two hands holding her own and forcefully pulling her away from the car. There was no time as Tara pushed herself to her feet and ran off with her rescuer before the car exploded and burnt into a piece of metal skeleton.

Tara dropped onto the ground, exhausted, and looked up at her rescuer. The sun shone directly into Tara's eyes, forcing her to close her eyes. When she opened them again, her rescuer had already turned around, and started walking away. "Hey-"

Her rescuer halted and turned, its thin red lips curved up, smiling a goodbye before moving away again. With a cap covering half the face and an over size jumper and beggar pants, Tara could not even make out the gender of her hero. She could almost swear that it was a smile that she had seen not long ago though.

The smile that belonged to the redhead Yakuza.