“Yeah?” he asked, his voice still husky from sleep.
He listened, and then turned around, looking behind us. I checked the rear view mirror, and noticed two cars behind us. I frowned, they had been following us for a long time, but I didn’t think anything of it.
“Slow right down when you get to the overtaking lane,” Ren said, still holding the phone to his ear.
I nodded, but was still confused.
When we got to the overtaking lane, both Rome and I slowed right down, but the cars didn’t overtake.
Ren looked behind us again, and the car got closer and closer to our bumper.
“Yeah,” he said into the phone, “I recognise him now.”
He listened for a little longer, before nodding once and hanging up.
“What’s going on?” I said, my voice strung high with panic.
“Follow Rome’s lead,” he said, “when she speeds up, floor it.”
“What?”
“Just do it, Val. They’re Redliners, they were obviously watching us last night and knew where we were. They must have known we would be on the watch for motorbikes, not cars.”
Before I had time to process it, Rome flew forward.
Antoni’s car made a rumbling growl as she hit the accelerator. I did the same, pressing the pedal to the floor. Ren’s truck kicked forward, it was fast, but not as fast as Antoni’s Rolls Royce.
The cars behind us were still close on our tails.
“Faster,” he instructed.
I shifted back a gear and pushed the car to its limit. As I got closer to Rome and Antoni in front of us, Rome moved over to the other side of the road.
“Get in front of her,” Ren instructed.
“Why?”
“They’re going to try and lead them away.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice shaking.
“It’s okay, bunny. I won’t let them hurt you,” he said, reaching out and putting his hand on my thigh.
I did what he said, and I pulled up next to Rome.
We were side by side, Rome was sitting on the wrong side of the road.
I looked over and caught her eye, and she nodded at me once.
I pushed forward further, and she fell back, putting space between us.
It was a long straight of road, there was nowhere to turn, nowhere to go to hide. We were getting closer into town, but we weren’t there yet. The car wedged itself in between me and Rome, hitting the side of Antoni’s car and nudging her more and more off the road.
“They’re going to make them crash,” I stuttered.
Rome fell back even more, she had no choice.
Now, both cars were behind me, and Rome was behind them.