Soon, she was behind the wheel of the car weaving in and out of streets, shooting past finishing lines and stacking up enough cash to keep the lights on. Nattie excelled at school. Joel excelled at sports.
By Alex’s nineteenth birthday, Rhonda had decided to clean herself up, seeking help from a local support group. They assigned her a sponsor and life took a turn for the better. Alex switched the steering wheel for books, studying to get enough extra credits at a local community college to forge a career as a police officer. She supplemented the money with evening shifts at a diner, hoping to build the life she’d put on hold for the sake of her siblings.
But it didn’t last.
It never did.
When she came home on the evening of her twentieth birthday, she found her younger brother in floods of tears. Their mother lay motionless on the sofa, an empty bottle of pills in her hand. It was a minor miracle when they’d been able to revive her, her heart having stopped for over two minutes.
But that was when the social services began digging.
As the evidence stacked up, Alex had to prove she could look after Joel and Nattie, otherwise the state would assume control of their welfare. They couldn’t guarantee they would stay together. They would both be lost in the system, their bright futures vanquished by their mother’s addiction.
Alex went back to the streets. To the wheel of the car.
That was when she was nabbed by Trevor Sims and blackmailed into joining Blackridge, putting her out in the field as his squadron’s driver.
If she didn’t go, her siblings would.
Nattie’s voice broke, tears flooding down her face.
‘You can’t go, Ally,’ she wailed, wrapping her thin arms around Alex’s waist. ‘You can’t.’
‘Hey, I’m just going for a few weeks.’ Alex squeezed her younger sister, running her hand through her braided hair. ‘I’ll be back before you know it.’
‘What about her?’
Joel, stood in the doorway, nodded towards the living room of the apartment. Rhonda lay on the sofa, catatonic, her eyes barely open as she stared at the TV. Alex sighed.
‘Well, you’re just going to have to be the man of the house, ain’t ya?’ She smiled. ‘You reckon you can handle that?’
Joel proudly puffed up his broad chest. As the star quarter back for the high school football team, he’d certainly blossomed into a hulking specimen. Like Nattie, colleges were taking notice.
Their futures were so bright.
Alex, gritting her teeth, knew she had no choice. Nattie squeezed her tightly.
‘We can’t do this without you.’
A tear gently slid down Alex’s face and she slowly leant down, meeting her younger sister with a smile.
‘You can do anything. Be anything,’ she said sternly, then looked to Joel. ‘Both of you. Now while I’m gone, you need to make sure you eat well and study. You hear me?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Joel saluted, smirking. Nattie solemnly nodded her head.
‘Good.’ Alex smiled at them both, masking her heart break. ‘I don’t want to have to whoop some ass when I get back.’
All three of them chuckled and Nattie once again latched onto her like a koala bear. They were soon joined by Joel, who wrapped his muscular arms around the two of them.
It was just the three of them.
Together.
As they huddled together, Alex knew that if she had to swim the Atlantic Ocean itself, she would return to them.
Whatever it took.
Taking a deep breath, Alex focussed her line of sight on the entrance to the industrial estate. The large, square car park was near empty, just a few lorries ferried away in the far corner, in front of a warehouse. A large sign displaying the names of the businesses and their locations stood proudly by the front gate and she knew it was only a matter of moments before it bathed in the lights of their pursuer’s car.
As the rain clattered against her windscreen, she peered through the fuzzy glass, the wipers smearing it across the glass.
It was like looking through a clouded filter.
Sure enough, the headlights of Matt’s car bounced off the plastic sign, momentarily blinding her.
She blinked it away as quick as she could.
The Mercedes roared around the final bend and then screeched to a halt.
Behind the tinted glass, Matt and his last remaining henchman peered menacingly around the dimly lit car park.
As Sam had instructed, she flicked the lever on the steering wheel, causing the full beam to explode through the darkness like a firework.
She revved the engine.
The standoff lasted only a matter of seconds before both sets of wheels spun on the spot, smoke rising from the concrete before both cars leapt forward, thundering towards each other in a terrifying game of chicken.
Someone would have to give.
Sam lined up his shot.
As soon as Alex had pulled into the empty estate, Sam had told her to pull over. They didn’t have long, and their element of surprise was dissipating rapidly. The plan was simple.
Alex would lure them in, skew their vision while Sam stood in the shadows. He didn’t like it but putting her in harm’s way was the only way out of it.
It relied on Matt’s recklessness.
And his own aim.
Only one of those things was within Sam’s control.
As the rain engulfed him, Sam lifted the handgun with both hands, his eyes locked on Matt’s windscreen as they hurtled towards Alex.
His shoulder ached.
His back moaned.
Sam’s entire body had been through hell, but here he stood, ready to fight once more.
Thirty feet.
Twenty-five feet.
Sam closed his left eye.
He adjusted the grip.
He pulled the trigger.
The bullet sliced through the raindrops and pierced a perfect hole in the windscreen. The sudden jerk of the car confirmed it had lodged itself between the driver’s eyes, blowing out the back of his skull and killing him instantly. The dead weight would have pushed down on the accelerator and as the car spun wildly to the left, Sam envisaged Matt’s fear as he scrambled to steady the wheel.
Alex had already spun the wheel in the opposite direction and
