Sonny and Rico were driving downtown in Rico's Caddy, on a perfect Miami evening, nice temp and the dark had already kicked in, when out of nowhere a car passes them at an outrageous speed.
"What the hell...??" Rico
exclaimed as he threw the wheel in and stepped on the gas.
The
black car in front of them is almost out of sight and it is very hard
for the Cadillac to catch up on it.
Thank God for the red light that popped out of a sudden, making the black car stop for a moment. Whoever was in it, probably didn't want to get in too much trouble on top of the speeding. They could almost catch up with the car, if it wasn't for the light turning green having the black car get away into the night again. The black car was pretty well visual for that short time, they could make up it was a black Ferrari Daytona Spider convertible.
"That is MY car!" Sonny shouted
into the wind.
"You thought that too? I thought I was losing it.
Can't it just be another one?"
"There IS no other one in
Miami!"
They step on it as fast as they can, swirling
through traffic, passing cars on the left and right. The black car's
driver seemed to have noticed the tail and ignores the next red light
to keep up the gap between the cars.
"Where did you last
park your car, man?" Rico asked his partner.
"Were you picked
me up, pal. At the marina."
A large van blocks their next move
to pass a car and they lost the chase.
"Damn!" Sonny slams his
hands on the dashboard. "You lost it!"
"I lost it?! There's
a big slow moving roadblock in front of me, you want me to drive
through it?!" Rico defensively answered.
"If you just
squirreled in a bit faster… ah, forget it."
"Who would wanna
steal your ride, man? You'd need your key as it's being secured
and everything?" You can't just kick start this car by putting
some wires to each other, it's one of the first cars with
electronic starting security.
"That is one hell of a point!"
Sonny started double checking all of his pockets to find out he
didn't have the key there.
"They've got me all right, I
don't have it." Sonny said.
"Didn't you just leave it
at the coffee table or maybe Elvis ate it?" Rico laughed.
"Uh-uh."
Sonny said, his face turning serious as he is thinking this through.
"I think I know just who it is, kicking off in my car..." His
eyes and brows showing off the anger that was coming over him, his
whole face showed it, actually.
"Well, spill it!" Rico
pushed.
"This morning when I kissed Danni goodbye, I felt
something. First thought she nicked my wallet, which she does from
time to time, but it was still there. So I forgot about it, never
would have thought it was my car key she nicked. But now I know for
sure it is her in that car. Man, I really hope she doesn't kill
herself in this game, else I can't kill her myself!"
The van clears out of the way.
"Well what are you waiting for?! Step on it!" Sonny shouted
at Rico.
"Easy man, I can't put my foot through the floor
here. This is all I've got!"
It was no good, by now, the car
was long gone and nowhere to be seen. They just drove around the area
for a while as they suddenly saw the car parked outside of a club on
the other side of the road.
Rico took a sharp turn and parked
right in front of it.
"She can't be in here." Rico said.
"This one is for over 21."
"This shit is getting better by
the minute. Maybe there's an ice-cream joint around the corner or
something? That'll be much better for a 16 years old…. Guess
not."
"Wanna go check this thing out, man?" Rico
asked.
"Yeah, let's do that before it gets even worse."
Sonny sighed.
At the door they are being stopped by the bouncer, they have to flash their badges once again to get in. Sonny lit a cigarette and put his hands in his pocket for a while, checking the place to spot his daughter. Rico stood next to him scanning the area as well. The first one to spot her was Sonny, Danni was standing on the elevated floor with stairs on either side to reach it. He points his cigarette holding hand in that direction while tapping Rico on the arm to notify him. They split up, Sonny moving in on the left, Rico moving in on the right.
Danni was sipping her
second Mojito, wiggling her hips and moving her feet to the music
while talking to her friends. She took another sip and just as she
looked up from the glass, she sees Rico slowly approaching her. She
takes in a sigh of air at her startle. He was still about 20 feet
away from her, so it was a good shot to take the run. With all these
people it was a good chance she could get herself out of there before
he could even get to her.
She turns right around to move out of
there as she hits into the familiar face of her dad's after just a
few steps. He was standing still, with both hands in his pockets,
chin up and looking down on her, as always when he is angry.
She bumped right into his chest, spilling most of her drink over the both of them. Sonny grabs her wrist of the hand holding the glass, takes the glass out and has a sip, just to confirm his thoughts on this drink to slam it down after that, on the table next to him. He gives her the most raging eyes and angriest scowl ever as he checks her revealing outfit from her face down to her feet, back to her face again, squirming his eyes even more so. Danni throws her eyes to the ground, she can't look him in the eye now. Rico caught up with them very shortly and they escort her out of the club, each holding her firmly by one arm.
On the outside they release her and all
standing right next to the car.
"My key." He practically
whispers as he held up his hand for it.
Even though there was no
way out of it, she didn't act on the request, hoping it was not
them who tailed her in that car.
"Your key? What key? I have
no…" Danni stumbled.
"Where is it?" Sonny growled
interrupting her.
She reached into her mini-purse and looked for
it. After just only two seconds, Sonny felt it was taking too damn
long and he pulls the purse right out of her hands to search for the
key himself. On the bottom of a tiny purse filled with makeup, some
candy, a pack of Sonny's smokes, a couple of condoms, a small
mirror, a fake ID and some loose change, he found the key in a few
seconds while noticing the bag's content.
He grabs the pack of smokes and the
fake ID and shoves the purse back into Danni's hands. Sonny took a
cigarette out, while giving Danni the eye, tapped it on the box, wet
it and lit it. The rest of the package went into his pocket, since it
was his anyway. He holds up the fake ID to her face and shakes his
head when he puts it in his pocket as well.
After opening the
passenger's door to the car, he pushes her in roughly. She could
just barely get her feet in before he slammed the door. Rico pads
Sonny on the shoulder. "Good luck with this, I'll see you
tomorrow, man. Call me if you need me."
"I think Danni's the
one who needs some good luck here… I won't need you. See
ya."
He speeded the car back to the marina, going even faster than Danni drived earlier. Showing off his easy moving through traffic at tremendous speed, which worked, Danni was impressed, especially since she found out it was pretty difficult. She was glad she had lost the tail after a short while, so she could slow down a little. They got out the car and walked over the dock to the boat, Sonny pushed her forward every now and then, Danni wasn't going fast enough to his opinion.
As soon as they reach below, Sonny
asks "Well? What have you got to say for yourself?"
Danni was
keeping quiet, not knowing what to say to get herself out of
this.
Sonny gently takes her chin to have her look into his eyes.
"I asked you a question!" He says a bit angrier, but still
holding himself.
"I don't know what to say…" she honestly
admitted.
Sonny put his hands in his pocket, his jaw
clenched.
After pausing for a minute he starts calmly
"You
got yourself into a big one this time…"
"You're gonna
lecture me, aren't you? Man, I hate that…" Danni sighed.
Sonny
blowed a fuse here and furiously answered that with
"You can
either shut the hell up and listen to this or you can stand there
with a sore backside while you listen to my speech. I don't give a
damn, you choose!"
She tightened her lips and agreed to him in
keeping her silence.
"Good choise…" he said, starting to
walk closely around here getting on with his speech.
"Nicking my
keys …" He kept the score on his fingers during this.
"Sneaking
out while you were already grounded… Not to mention dangerously
speeding my car, you could have killed yourself!"
He looks her in the eyes with a
serious and worried look on his face.
"… Than entering a club
on a fake ID, Jezus what were you thinking? You could have gotten
arrested when someone found out … wearing a sleazy dress, looking
like a hooker… Oh, and then there was the drinking… Were you
actually getting back into that car while you were on alcohol? You
stupid kid…"
His eyes became angry again when he pictured
her smoking.
"And the smoking… you? If you don't kill
yourself in my car, you'd smoke yourself to death. You nicked MY
cigarettes?! I'm really gonna have to take care of those
sticky fingers of yours! And finally, when you saw Rico, taking a
run… what were you thinking?!! All of this, in one night?! Way to
go, Danni! Probably set your record straight here."
Danni
couldn't help the little smile forming on her lips. It was quite a
record indeed. Her friends would definitely praise her when she'd
be in school after this weekend.
"You think this is funny?!
Let's see how funny you feel after the three weeks I intend to take
off, to spend some time with you!"
What?!! Was he really
planning to stay home for a few weeks? Hell no! That would be
terrible. Usually, being grounded wasn't too bad as he usually
wasn't around to see her stick to the rules. She could bend that
pretty easily, what a life…
"I will be taking my time off, starting right now. As of now, I'll drop you off and pick you up at school. That's right, no more ways to escape this. Oh we'll have lots of fun… You know I regularly threatened my suspects to clear my desk of all other cases and make their lives a living hell?… Well, I just did and you will be the first to experience the meaning of that... Now get into your room and get some sleep! You will need it."
