“It’s from Mac,” he said, pre-empting my question. “She wants to know if you did your test this morning. What test?”
I rolled my eyes. “What test do you think? Tell her to let it go.”
Henry snorted and dutifully texted back. “Is she still going on about that?”
I groaned. “Yes and I am so over it. We need to find Mac a hobby. Marcus needs to give her a good―”
Henry cleared his throat loudly, cutting me off before I could unwisely ruin the rest of our day. We were starting to think that Jake had a slight Mac Crush because of late, whenever we mentioned Mac and another guy, Jake got all tense and went on a rant―not a rant directed at Mac, but about whatever he chose to rant about at the time. It just seemed the correlation between the two, Mac and another guy, rant, Mac and another guy, rant, was starting to become slightly obvious.
I sent Henry a grateful glance as my phone buzzed again. Henry sucked in a loud breath as he read the message.
“What did she say to that?” I grinned at him.
“It’s not from her. It says ‘Buckle up bitch.’”
My mouth fell open in shock and the car jolted as I fumbled gears.
“Who the f**k sent that?” Jake demanded from the back seat before I had a chance to ask the same question.
Henry’s brow furrowed in worry. “I don’t know. It’s a blocked number.”
He passed the phone back to Jake while I drove so he could have a look.
I glanced in the rear view mirror to see a silver Camry, not unlike the one Coby described was following us a week ago, sitting right on my tail.
“Uh, guys?”
They were busy talking amongst themselves and ignored me. Meanwhile the Camry driver was speeding up to ram us, and my breath started to short out in panic. Did the idiot really think ramming a Hilux with a Camry was going to have us coming out worse off?
“Guys!” I yelled impatiently.
The Hilux gave a lurch which suddenly had their complete attention.
“What the fuck?” Jake yelled.
Both Henry and Jake swivelled around to look out the back window.
My panicked glance into the mirror showed the Camry had backed off and my towball had added some nice damage to its front fender.
“We just got rammed by a tossbag in a Camry,” I said in disbelief.
“Goddammit! It’s that Camry cocksucker that was tailing you a week ago.” Henry shook his fist angrily out the window.
“Henry! Jesus, you’re not helping.”
“Shut up, Sandwich. He’s coming back again. Speed up.”
My glance confirmed Henry’s words. I pushed my foot hard on the accelerator, my knuckles white on the steering wheel at seeing the car pick up speed right along with us. Jake snatched the phone back off Henry and began dialling.
“He’s getting close, Evie. Plant your f**king foot,” Jake shouted at me as he glared out the back window, phone firmly to his ear.
“I’m trying to plant my foot, but I’m hitting traffic dammit,” I yelled, feeling another lurch as we shot forward. “I can only go so fast.”
At that moment, I was busy regretting those pancakes. I could feel them rolling around in my stomach, and I swallowed frantically as I changed gears.
“Turn here,” Henry shouted.
Barely slowing down, the tyres squealed as I made the left turn where Henry indicated and sped down the road, the Camry still hot on our tail.
Jake was talking rapidly. He moved the phone away from his mouth and spoke, “The guys said to turn around and head straight for the police centre. It’s only ten minutes in the other direction. They’ve got your phone on GPS, Evie, so they’re on their way.”
I did what Jake said, and the Camry didn’t deviate from our tail the entire time while he stayed on the phone.
“Turn here,” Henry shouted again, and I hooked a right turn and shot out onto a dual lane road. The Camry followed our turn and sped into the lane beside us, trying to push us off the road.
I risked a proper glance at the driver. “Oh hell no.”
“Oh hell no what?” Henry threw out.
I interrupted Jakes blow by blow phone account of our situation. “Who do you have on the phone, Jake?”
“Jared,” he replied.
“Tell him it’s definitely Jimmy in that car. I recognise him from the photos they showed us a week ago.” I shouted the last part because the idiot pushed us up and over the curb as we sped down the road. I heard someone behind us honking their horn.
Henry grabbed hold of the dashboard at the reckless jolt. “Fuck.”
“Oh my God, Henry, this bastard thinks he can ram us in that piece of shit he calls a car?” I yelled.
I’d somehow managed to tightly lock all the panic, disbelief, and shock away as I fought to keep the car under control, but the anger had overwhelmed me and spewed out in a sudden fiery burst.
Almost on autopilot, I felt myself jerk the steering wheel to the right, tyres squealing as I rammed my car back into his. Jimmy wobbled a bit and backed off in order to gain control. Adrenaline pumped through me from my driving manoeuvre until I felt light-headed.
“Jesus Christ, Evie, that was f**king awesome!” Jake shouted from the backseat.
“I know, right?” I yelled, contemplating my future career as a rally car driver, kicking serious ass as I spun gravel around tight mountain corners.
Unfortunately, my reckless driving didn’t appear to deter Jimmy because the Camry was gaining ground, even with some serious dents to the left side of his car.
Muffled shouting came from the back seat. “What the hell is that?”
Jake held up my phone and put it on speaker “….. and tell her to stop playing car games and head towards the f**king police centre. Right the f**k now!”
It sounded like Jared wasn’t as impressed by my driving as Jake and Henry were. In fact, he sounded downright pissed off, and maybe even a little scared.
I didn’t have time to think about my actions as we flew down the road. Coming the other way, we passed a police patrol car with lights flashing, sirens wailing, followed by Coby and Travis in Coby’s own Hilux, then Jared’s Porsche. My mirrors showed them executing squealing u-turns over the cement median strip in the middle of the road. Random cars lurched out of the way and came to a dead stop in a giant pileup while they took up procession behind the Camry.
“Evie!” Henry shouted. “Lights! Red ones.”
My focus back on the road showed a set of orange lights a hundred metres ahead had changed to red. A panicked glance told me no turns were available before we'd reach the huge four way intersection. My new driving style was rally car and tight turns, not f**king red lights.
“Jared?” I shouted at the phone, having no idea what to do.
“Evie, fuck,” I heard shouted and then a fumble. “Hang on, Mitch is going to try and shoot out the Camry’s tires.”
“Jesus!” Henry yelled. “Can that even be done? What if he hits us?”
“He won’t,” I heard Jared yell. “Just make sure you all have your seat belts on.”
I started slowing down as I reached the red light, my heart pounding in my chest, my hands shaking as I downshifted gears. I was trying to keep a grip on the dread forming a tight ball in my stomach, but I felt it unravel and tears climb my throat. There were no cars in front of me, and as I slowed to a stop, I noticed the Camry behind me was not slowing down.
“He’s not slowing down!” I yelled.
To my left another car, already ahead of me, was stopped at the lights so there was no room to move. I couldn’t attempt a red light run because cars were flying through the intersection at a deadly pace.
“Christ, does this guy have a f**king death wish?” Jake shouted.
Panicked, I shouted at the phone. “Jared, why isn’t Mitch shooting out the tyres?”
His voice bellowed out from the phone in a frantic, pain-filled burst. “He can’t, Evie. It’s not safe anymore, and it’s far too late. FUCK! Brace yourselves,” he shouted desperately.
We all swivelled to the back window to see the Camry much too close.
“Henry,” I whispered, meeting his eyes.
His hand reached out to grasp mine and squeezed tight. Jimmy finally hit his brakes. I saw the back end fishtail slightly as though he finally realised the outcome of him slamming in to the back of my big ass Hilux would not go in his favour. Our car took a massive hit as it heaved forward, the Camry crumpling into the tailgate.
The violent lurch had my phone flying out of Jakes hand and hitting the front windshield, causing a small crack before landing on the dashboard. For a brief moment, I felt okay, shaky, but okay, until Jared’s wild scream could be heard from the speaker. “Evie, get the f**k OUT OF THE CAR!”
The impact from the Camry had pushed us a full car length into the busy intersection. Cars flew by dangerously. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw the cavalry screech to a stop behind us, descending out of their cars, running for us. I was making a fumbled frantic move for the door handle when I saw a truck bearing down towards us with nowhere else to go, honking his horn loudly, then everything went black.
* * *
I woke in a room I immediately noted was not my own. My blurry eyes couldn’t focus as the sound of beeping pinged through my head like an out of control ice pick.
I turned my head left and found Jared sitting in a chair, fast asleep. He looked rumpled, worn out, and slightly vulnerable in a way that made me want to reach out and run my fingertips tenderly down the side of his face.
I shifted to sit up and do just that, but the pounding in my head began escalating, leaving me to wonder how much I’d had to drink last night, where I ended up, and what type of hangover it was that I was suffering from. I’d never experienced anything of the like before, and I here I thought I’d categorised every type of hangover that ever existed.
“Jared,” I croaked out.
He didn’t move. I cleared my throat.
“Jared,” I managed a bit louder.
The effort overwhelmed me, and I closed my eyes. I thought that maybe I just needed to eat, but when my stomach rolled over feebly, I began to worry.
“Baby?”
My eyes blinked open. Jared was standing over the bed and he took my hand in his.
Looking around the strange room, I asked, “What’s going on?”
Why was the room so bright and where were my sunglasses?
“Baby, you’re awake,” he whispered and without letting go of my hand, he weakly sank down into the chair.
“Yay me,” I muttered feebly. “My head is splitting open. What did we drink last night?”
I felt myself drift away before I could catch his answer. When I stirred again, the afternoon sun was still shining brightly, and Jared was sitting on the bed drinking a coffee.
“Where am I?”
His brow furrowed as he focused his eyes on mine. “You don’t remember anything? Hang on, I’ll buzz the nurse.” He reached over to the back of my bed and pressed a button on the wall.
“Nurse?” I whispered.
Jared put his coffee down on the side table and leaned in, pressing a kiss to the top of my head before he spoke. “You’re in the hospital, baby.”