Page 74 of Falling in Reverse

The grip around my arm tightens, and I hear the growl of Levi’s displeasure.

“What the fuck?” Juice mumbles to my right while we’re hunched down behind a red Challenger. “Who is that?”

“Someone who definitely shouldn’t be here,” Levi leers back. “Not one of our boys. They would’ve texted me.”

“My baby is out there, bro,” Juice mourns sourly. “They touch my Impala, and I’m spraying lead.”

“Chill.” The pop of doors opening resonates through the air, and I am immediately tense. We’re not far away from the stolen Mercedes, and the feeling of danger fills the air, coercing my lungs to only take air when it absolutely has to. “Car must have a chip on it. There’s no way anyone found us out here.”

“We’re fucked,” Juice utters under his breath. “That doesn’t sound like two guys we can easily take down.”

“I know that car,” a male voice quips over the sound of a running car. “Search this fuckin’ place.”

Levi’s fingers dig a little deeper into my arm, and I hold my breath for any sound of them approaching this way.

“What about the car?” another asks.

“Oh, hell no,” Juice snap-whispers. “They’re not takin’ my baby.”

I want to ask him which one he loves the most—the Mercedes or the Impala because he’s two-timing with his love right now—but there isn’t time for teasing. Our place to hide our stolen vehicles just got blown to pieces and now we have to find another place.

“Would you shut the hell up?” Levi shoots back. “Check how many there are. Bay”—he gives a little shake to my arm—“get under one of these cars, okay? Don’t move, no matter what you hear.”

“I can shoot and?—”

“Roger and the girls.”

It’s all he has to say.

The only reminder that I’ve already taken one chance tonight with the law in stealing that Mercedes. I don’t have any room for another.

“Go ahead,” he orders softly. “We’ll be fine. I promise.”

I follow his instructions, finding an old Oldsmobile behind us that leaves a little more room for me to crawl underneath.

We’ve kept quite a stash of vehicles back here. Some of them are grabbed up by the guys randomly when the opportunity is available and then laid aside here for a buyer or parts. Others, like the Mercedes, are stripped or sold as a whole.

I hear Levi whisper something to Juice before I see them creep around a red Challenger and disappear somewhere else.

The crunch of rocks and shuffle of dirt sounds down the trail made between all the cars kept here, and I steadily focus on just breathing over anything else.

Crickets and the soft brush of leaves from the trees collectively sound around us, leaving an eerily feeling of what’s not so peaceful out here.

“They’re here,” I hear a male say. “I want them alive.”

“We’ll find them.”

I see a pair of white shoes approach, followed by a fucking flashlight as it guides the person through the darkness barely lit by the moon that just conveniently disappeared behind a cloud.

I hope it stays put.

We need as much darkness and quiet as possible.

The shoes pass me, and I release a silent gulp of air from my lungs. Wild goosebumps tread up my arms and down my spine as I wait in pure apprehension of the boys getting hurt.

The distinct sound of tussling bodies and a male grunt sounds to my left, causing me to crane my head that way, but there’s nothing I can see besides the front tire of the car I’m underneath.

“Motherfuck—” A hiss sounds before the obscenity can be finished, then a thud of something heavy hits the ground. The shadow figure of legs runs past the front of the car I’m under and they suddenly drop a whole body to the ground, scaring the absolute shit out of me.

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