Page 98 of Straight to Me

“Because he’s a fucking outlaw sweetheart. Ain’t no one telling Deano what he can and can’t do.”

VP smirks. I can’t believe they’re bantering with each other as we’re travelling at high speed away from someone chasing us. How he and Jack can be so calm in this situation amazes me.

“Shit, god damn truckie out early. Gotta get off this road,” Jack’s voice raises. It’s the first time I’ve heard him sound slightly on edge with what’s happening.

“Take the next exit, Jack.”

Slapping the steering wheel, he kicks the sirens into life. The wailing and whirling makes the lorry, or truckie as Jack calls them, start to move, clearing a path for us. The grey van’s too close though, it makes it past too.

“Jack, don’t fucking let us get caught.” The tone of VP’s voice sounds more anxious than before too. “Mads, get down.” He holds the cage in front of him for balance, his other hand then drags my body towards him. I slide down the seat, my head no longer able to see out the window.

The grip I have on the door handle’s making my knuckles hurt as the muscles stretch and tear. I can feel tears starting to well in my eyes. There’s no time for tears though, what good are they now? I wipe my eyes with my sleeve before they fall. Even though I’m well within my rights, I feel pathetic.

“Deano?” Jack shouts.

“Give me your gun, Jack,” VP yells, and I let out a gasp.

I’ve never seen a gun in real life. The cage in between us and the front stops Jack from being able to pass anything through.

VP climbs across me. “Here, pass it through the back, quickly.” Jack winds the back window down. VP looks behind us. “Whatever happens, you keep your head down Mads!” He’s serious.

No words come out of me, just a fumbling nod as VP takes the gun and the car swings to the left.

Jack starts accelerating having presumably got some open road before him. “Hold on!” he shouts.

Holding on for dear life and bracing my legs, Jack takes a hard left, forcing the car to drift across the tarmac. In one fluid movement he shifts gear and we’re accelerating again, the car never having stopped.

VP removes the hand he’d slammed over my body when we skidded. A brief pause is taken between us, silence utterly deafening my ears. “Fuck! They're still on us, Jack!” VP roars, as Jack punches the accelerator again.

A loud crack then shatters VP’s side of the car, the window no longer transparent.

My hands let go of the door handle to cover my ears, as blow after blow rains down on the car. “Fucking brazen bastards!” Jack argues, as we all duck from the noise of the bang. “My fucking car!”

My heart starts burning in my chest. I watch in horror as VP leans back to kick the window out, glass falling all around him.

He sits up, then starts for the window.

Leaning out, he’s completely mad as he fires Jack’s pistol at our chasers. The sound of the van’s engine gaining on us makes me want to grab him back inside the car.

“VP!”

He doesn’t listen to me. He fires another two shots.

“Got 'em!”

There’s the sound of flapping rubber and tyres screeching as they’re forced to stop the chase.

Jack maintains his speed away from the grey van.

My eyes don’t move from VP as he looks to Jack in the mirror. Like psychopaths, both of them start cheering and laughing. Jack bangs the steering wheel repeatedly whilst VP hits the back of the seat.

I don’t get it.

My ears are ringing, my eyes watering from shock and fear, meanwhile these two seem hysterical. “Fucking good to have you back Deano. Been boring doing this alone.”

He’s done this sort of thing before? It seems so ridiculous. But witnessing him under pressure, VP definitely has no problem handling himself in the criminal world.

Twenty minutes later, we pull onto a tiny dirt track just off the main road. I didn’t speak the rest of the way here, too overcome by all the antics. VP and Jack caught each other up as I stared out the window, aimlessly looking out to where the sky meets the land.

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