“GET BACK HERE!”
I’m panting hard, my chest heaving as I’m blasted with excitement and a thrill so sharp, I can’t help but let out a squeal of laughter. The car wavers as we tear through the field and onto the main road.
Urgent voices filter in from the radio on the dashboard. Panicked reports of a cop car being stolen and the other sabotaged, along with police jargon I don’t understand. I do hear them say we've gone eastbound and that we're dangerous.
I giggle at the last part.
The rest of my men are piled into the backseat, cramped and uncomfortable, but with delighted smirks on their painted faces.
“You ever been in a car, baby?” Jackal asks from the back, amusement in his tone.
“No,” I breathe, a wobbly smile on my face. Based off the speedometer, we’re going almost 100mph. It’s both exciting and nerve wracking.
The car swerves again, causing me to look over at Baine.
“Have you ever driven a car before?” I question.
I would have assumed so. I never got the opportunity to learn how to drive, but I would’ve thought my men had.
“Yes, but I’ve never been in a fucking car chase before so excuse me if I'm a little nervous.”
I open my mouth to snap back but realize fighting with him will only worsen his driving. So, I close my mouth and let him focus.
The blare of sirens that reverberates from behind us has us all tensing in our seats. Several more sirens follow suit, until it sounds like a stampede of angry cop cars.
“Shit, fucking shit,” Baine curses under his breath.
Blue and red lights flash in the review mirror, drawing closer by the second. Baine stomps on the gas hard, the car dangerously swerving side to side.
“Baine!” I shout. “Keep the fucking car straight!”
“I’m fucking trying!” Sweat pours down his face, his bone white knuckles tightening his grip on the wheel until they turn red.
The cop cars draw closer. I whip around in the seat, growling when my vision is obscured by the barrier and Cronus’s fat head.
“Cronus, bend your head down!”
The car jerks and I’m forced to turn around and watch the car nearly careen off the side of the road and into a ditch.
Just barely is Baine able to right the car.
“How many cars are behind us?” I shout, no longer trusting to take my eyes off the road.
I stick my face into the review mirror, counting the cars just as Mortis announces, “Six.”
Six?!
“Fuck,” Baine mutters, leaning his body further in towards the wheel in concentration.
It takes all of two minutes before the cops are right on our tail. They’re forced to keep a straight line as other cars are passing by on the other side of the road.
The car jerks again, and I just know it.
We’re going to crash.
Baine’s nerves are causing him to lose control of the car.
We careen to the left. Baine overcompensates and spins the wheel to the right, attempting to get us back on track. But he fails. The car jerks too quickly, and the car lifts up on one side. We turn completely sideways, the car losing control and bucking wildly as Baine keeps attempting to turn the wheel.
“Baine!” I screech just as the car is jerked violently. The sound of metal crunching follows a second later.
One of them hit us!
My head snaps to the side, hitting hard against the window right before the car is lifted. My entire body goes weightless, hitting against the roof of the car a second before my world spins tumultuously. It happens in slow motion, and too quickly all at once.
The car rolls four or five times, my body carelessly tossed around the car before we finally hit the ground in a violent jolt. My ears ring, a loud wailing reverberating in my skull. It takes several moments before I realize the wailing is coming from my own mouth.
The car landed upright, but my body is twisted oddly in the seat, my head by the passenger side’s floor. Baine’s limbs are sprawled across mine, our bodies tangled in a mess of aching limbs. Groans of pain penetrate my ears, coming from Baine and in the backseat.
My men!
I try to sit up, but a piercing pain in my ribs forces me back down.
Oh my god, I hurt. I’ve never felt this type of pain in my entire life. Not even from Daddy’s punishments.
My head pounds, blood dripping into my eyes.
“Baine?” I gasp, forcing myself up. My head spins and my vision darkens. The pain is literally blinding. I can’t see or hear anything past it. I clutch my head in my bloodied hands, willing the pounding to cease so I can check on my men.
Before I can get ahold of myself, my body goes weightless again as I fall to the side. I was leaning heavily against the car door before it was jerked open. Hands grip my arms, firmly but not roughly. Shouting and voices filter through as I’m gently pulled out of the car.
Reality hits and I panic beneath their touches.
“Let me go!” I shout, wriggling against the hold. Blinding lights paint the world in reds and blues, but I can hardly get my vision to focus.
“Ma’am! Ma’am, please calm down!” a woman’s voice shouts at me.
“My men! Where are my men?” I wail, continuing to wriggle. I can’t see them, but I think I hear Mortis’s voice and a panicked cry from Timothy.
Another pair of hands grab me, holding me still as I’m settled onto a stretcher. Its then I realize the woman is a paramedic.
“We’re going to need to sedate her,” the woman speaks above me, her voice getting lost in the turmoil inside my head. Binds are strapped across my chest and arms, holding me immobile. A brace is put around my neck, preventing me from turning my head.
They get the contraptions on me within seconds. Before I get a chance to look for my henchmen.
“Where are they?!” I scream, ignoring the
