Colors swam in front of Ray's eyes. She shook her head and rubbed a sore spot near the back of it, realizing that her hands were tied together with a messy excuse for a knot.

Instantly awake, she discovered she was in the back seat of a police car, moving very fast, probably on a highway. She shrunk over to the edge of the seat and lifted her head enough to see four men crammed in the front seat. They were those guys; the ones who had…kidnapped her, she realized with a start. She was being kidnapped!

"Hey!" she yelled, startling the driver and causing him to slightly step on the brakes. The car kept moving, however, and he resumed the pace.

"Hey, what the hell is this?" she demanded through the black grating in front of her. "Why am I tied up? Let me out! Right now, damn it!"

The big guy turned around. "I don't think you want us to let you out right now."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because we're driving down a freeway with no shoulder for the next twenty miles."

Ray looked out the window and saw it was true. The afternoon traffic surged around them, leaving no space for anyone to pull over. She sighed and sat back.

"Hungry?"

The word surprised her. She looked up to see the black guy holding a bag of McDonalds french fries through a hole in the grate. She made a sound and reached up to take them, nodding.

"Thanks," she muttered, discovering that eating was quite difficult with her hands tied up. She spent a few seconds writhing her wrists in the bonds and finally freed them. Sighing, her relief was short-lived when she saw a pair of real metal handcuffs around her ankles. Groaning with disgust, she leaned up and grasped the metal grate.

"Why am I all locked up? Let me go!" she spat.

"Ah…we don't want to do that," the lanky driver commented.

"Why not? I'm in the back seat of a cop car. No way out, no way for me to hurt you; why can't you unchain me?"

"Because you might do something stupid. Like try to climb out the window or something."

"Well, you freakin' kidnapped me! Why shouldn't I try to escape?"

"Listen, kid," the large one said. "We just needed you for cover. Surveys show cops are less likely to fire on someone if their hostage is a young, teenage or early adult female. That and you were the closest person we could grab."

"So I was just a ticket out of there?"

"What's one kidnapping on our list of felonies?" the driver claimed. "Once we get clear of the traffic, you just say where you want us to let you off and I'll stop the car."

Ray was bowled over. They'd just…let her go? Just like that?

"Are you serious?" she ventured.

"We can't afford to be watching you all the time. We've got gigs to do, and it's not like we can keep you in a guitar case."

"Guitar case? Is that some kind of slang term for something?"

"No, it means a guitar case. Jeez, kid, you're acting like you think we'd kill you!" Ray could almost see the smirk on the driver's face.

She looked out the window. "You're telling me…that after about a billion felonies and almost killing the entire ILPD, totaling every cruiser in three states and blowing up a strip club…you'd just let a hostage go? Because you don't need me?" She was dumbfounded.

"Kid, don't take this the wrong way, but you're no good to us. A hostage wouldn't be a bad thing, but frankly we ain't got room for you. It's amazing they crammed the rest of the band in the other car.

"Not only that, but it'd be too hard to watch you. So it comes down to how much we need a cover, and we really don't. So you're hoofing it home or sharing the backseat with four other guys."

Her mouth must have dropped open, because the black singer grinned. "You're not used to this, are you?"

"Not exactly."

The big guy turned and stared her down for a minute. Ray got sick of it and glared back. "What?" she demanded.

"You know a girl named Lisa Banning?"

Her eyes widened and she got suspicious. "Why?"

"You look like her a little."

"…Lisa Banning is my mother's name."

"Figures. How's she doing these days? I heard she went and got a desk job at some company as a secretary. I kept telling the girls Lisa'd come back, but I guess your mom liked the job, because she never did."

"Come back? And how did you know my mom?"

"Ah, I worked as bartender at Willie's Club. Your mom was a dancer there for awhile. We were really sad to see her go. Threw a party and everything."

"Wait a minute…you knew my mom…and it wasn't from her secretarial job? Since when did she ever have a job before that?"

"Since a long while back. She had two jobs back then, one as a secretary and the other as a dancer. Soon she quit Willie's and went totally desk," he explained.

Ray sat in stony silence for a few minutes. Her mother…a dancer? At some club…no wonder she had kept it a secret! But it didn't explain much. All it revealed was the past that Ms. Banning didn't want to be hers. Not much illumination in that.

"So…Lisa's doing alright?"

The words came from the driver. Ray looked up and caught his eyes in the rear view mirror.

"Yeah. Why do you care?"

"I…knew her. Before I went in…"

"You…no wonder! What the hell did you do to her?!" Ray raged, gripping the ripped leather upholstery and snarling.

"I brought up your name because I heard it on the news and she went postal! She stopped talking and got sick for a few hours! Jesus, did you beat up her mother or something? Did you kill up my da-…"

She faded away, upset that she had brought up the one subject she hated. The bastard. He had made her think about…him…when she had almost completely forgotten. Who did this asshole think he was?

He cleared his throat, trying to change the subject. But Ray's eyes showed no mercy and raged at him through the mirror. The big guy nudged the driver and motioned towards the backseat. "Better make peace, Elwood."

Elwood kept his head straight and continued driving.

"Your dad ain't dead."

"I know that, you jerk."

"I mean, I know where he is."

"Well I don't wanna know. The bastard deserves to rot in hell. And so do you," Ray spat, almost sorry she let the cursing slip. It was a habit she had already broken, except for times when she was really mad.

Elwood kept his eyes on the road, not daring to meet the angry gaze of the teenager in his backseat.

The car screeched to a stop and Ray realized they were on the edge of a commercial strip, full of convenience stores and restaurants. The kid slipped a dollar bill through the grating and Ray heard her right side door unlock and open slightly.

"Go ahead and call your mom," Elwood said blankly. "Make sure you tell her where you are. And tell her…tell her Mack and Elwood say Hi."

Ray sat for a moment on the hot seat and looked at the stores. Their glittering signs were starting to glow in the twilight and she looked over them, past them into the view of the city below. Hundreds of yellow lights glimmered in the gathering dark, and she reached for the door.

Suddenly, she pulled back on the handle and slammed the door shut. She turned back to the grate and growled to the four men in the front seat.

"I'm not going anywhere."