“Thanks,” she smiled in relief. As she was about to walk on, another of them spoke up, slurring his words.
“You want a drink, love? We got plenty here.” He turned towards her, holding out a bottle.
“No thanks. Just need a phone.”
“We got one of those too.”
Now she paused. She couldn’t see any pub from where she was standing, so it must be quite a distance away still. Should she risk it? After a brief moment of indecision, Alex knew she didn’t want to have to be out here for longer than necessary. She would just borrow this guy’s mobile, make the call and have the cab driver meet her farther up the road from here. “You sure it’s no trouble? I just need it to call a cab.”
“Nah!” he replied jovially, “Knock yourself out.”
Alex jogged the few steps back to the van. “Thanks so much!”
“No worries. The name’s Pete.”
Alex shook his hand and looked at him expectantly.
“Nah, not me, love. Jonesy has the phone.” He gestured at another of the men.
“No I don’t, you idiot. I gave it to Sam.”
“Well, where the hell is he?” asked Pete, taking a swig of whiskey.
“Calling home. Remember?”
“Aw, shit. I do remember now. Damn, Steve,” Pete said, finishing the bottle.
Steve? Alex thought to herself. Didn’t he call him Sam a second ago? Alarm bells were definitely ringing and this time she wasn’t going to ignore them. “Hey, look, thanks anyway, but I think I’ll just head on up to the bar. You said it’s not far, right?”
“I think it’s a bit farther than I thought. You probably better stay until Steve comes back,” Jonesy replied, eyeing her and unscrewing another bottle.
“I thought you said his name was Sam.” She knew she was going to regret pointing that out.
“Sam, Steve, who cares?” said Pete, smiling and scraping Alex’s leg slowly with his foot.
Alex smiled, survival mode kicking in, hoping she remembered how to fake that sleazy look that made guys giddy. It was one Lauren actually managed to do really well, she mused bitterly.
“Fair enough, then,” she said with an overdose of sweetness. “Mind if I take that drink?”
Jonesy smirked, looking her up and down. “Yeah, I thought so. We got one here.”
He took the first swig then handed it to Alex. She filled her mouth up and spat directly at Jonesy before throwing the bottle at Pete’s head.
“Get that!” she screamed as she turned to sprint alongside the length of the van. The next thing she knew, she was flat on the road, having smashed into the inside of the front door, which someone had suddenly flung open. She bolted back to her feet as quickly as she could, but was pressed against the side of the van by the driver. A hand was over her mouth, and both of his legs were between hers so she couldn’t even knee him in the groin.
The driver shook his head. “Now that wasn’t nice.”
Alex struggled but it was no use. She heard the sound of glass breaking and moved her eyes to the rear of the van.
“Bitch!” Pete said, blood trickling down his face. The bottle she had thrown at him was in his hand, now broken. A rather large, sharp piece was being pointed directly at her.
“Well, now. This just got a hell of a lot worse for you, didn’t it?” Pete said through gritted teeth. “You want to cut me, huh? Huh? Let’s see how you like to be cut. Get her in the van—”
An explosion echoed through the otherwise still night air. The sound of a gunshot cut him off and the driver fell heavily into her, grunting and pressing her harder into the side of the van before slowly sinking down to the ground.
“That’s enough now, kiddies.”
Alex just barely recognised the voice. She looked over to see Michelle standing out of the sunroof of her silver car, pointing a silver handgun, which gleamed in the streetlight, at the two others.
The driver lay in the road and let out a pitiful scream. “She shot me! She fucking shot me…in the arse!”
“Be thankful it’s not your dick,” Michelle said, still keeping her eyes on the other two as Alex bolted over to her car. “But I don’t know if I’m that good a shot.”
The driver was crying with the pain, both hands trying to stem the blood flow.
“Hey, you. Fat guts,” Michelle said to Pete. “You like breaking bottles? Me too. Let’s play.”
The already broken bottle exploded in Pete’s hand as he tripped over himself. Finally, Michelle pointed the smoking barrel toward Jonesy, who did not move a muscle save for the raising of trembling hands.
“Now where can this one go…” Michelle said, pursing her lips and waving the gun dramatically. Suddenly she burst out laughing. “I’m just fucking with ya. Seriously, put your hands down. You look like such a wanker.”
Alex wasted no time getting in the passenger’s side of Michelle’s car. Michelle hopped up in the air and landed cleanly on her butt in the driver’s seat and whipped the car into gear, screeching the tires as she accelerated away from the van.
“Oh my god! Thank you…so much,” Alex said, hugging Michelle as best as she could in the cramped conditions.
“You’re welcome,” Michelle smiled, rubbing Alex’s hand. “What the hell where you thinking going over to them?”
“I know…I know…but I don’t want to be that girl who assumes every group of men is a bunch of rapists, you know?” She shrugged. “What are you doing here?”
“Dante asked if I could stop by. He had a feeling you would try to talk to your friend. He suspected it wouldn’t go too well and he was worried about
