"What are you going to do now?" Charlie snidely asked, while being silently terrified they were about to die.
"Buckle up Sweetheart, you're about to find out," Joey said and slammed her foot down. The car lurched forward.
"Shit," Charlie said. She'd been in a couple of high speed pursuits before, so driving fast wasn't an issue for her, as long as she was the driver. On the other hand, going at high speed while being stuck in the passenger seat, was an entirely different and thoroughly unpleasant experience. She had no control, no idea where the next turn was going to come, because she wasn't the one making the decisions, Joey was. "Oh shit," she whimpered with the realisation that her life was well and truly in the hands of a woman she was growing to mistrust by the hour.
"Don't let them get away Mick," Jarrod Stevens said.
"No way are they getting away," the driver assured him and the black sedan sped up. There really was no way in hell he was going to lose them, not when this was his best chance to move up within the organisation. He grinned at their luck. Word had gone out to everyone, along with the photos of the women, but he and Jarrod hadn't been able to do a single thing about it, since they'd been sent to pick up the latest supply of drugs, yet here they were, about to snare their biggest catch and it was all down to chance. He had no idea what the odds of taking this road back home and just happening to drive right past the very women everyone else was chasing after were, but he was damn sure going to cash in on it. Then afterward, he was going to go to the races. With this luck, he couldn't lose.
Angelo tapped his thumb on the steering wheel. Watson's trail had gone cold, meaning she must have turned off somewhere. Where though? He was starting to get worried that he was going to be the last man to the party and he'd be too late to do what needed to be done. Angelo yawned. He'd yet to sleep since he'd started and it was catching up to him. He reached for the small container again. He was running low.
"Fuck." He was going to have to find a refill somewhere or he wouldn't be able to function.
Watson slammed on the brakes and not a moment too soon. "Get off the fucking road you walking racks of lamb," she yelled at the sheep. Watson leant on the car horn. "Fucking move it!" she shouted. Her words and honking was greeted with utter disinterest by the sheep. "Ok, that's it," Watson muttered. She wound down the window and pointed her gun in the air. Two shots and the lamb racks were scattering. "God I hate this place," she muttered. Her car was covered in dust from the crappy roads, her hands were greasy after she'd been forced to change her tyre after it blew out and she was hot and sweaty because the damn a/c had packed it in. So why was she smiling? Because she'd finally chosen the right direction, even before she'd eventually decided to answer Heath's latest phone call. There was still some way to go, but she was a hell of a lot closer to them than she expected to be.
Her stomach rumbled as her path on the road was finally clear. Lamb chops for lunch sounded nice, if only she had time to stop and eat. She'd have to settle for catching her prey instead.
"Fucking hell, if they don't kill us, you will with your driving," Charlie said when her head nearly smashed into the side window as Joey took a sharp turn onto a gravel road that took them out of the town.
"Would you like to drive?" Joey sarcastically asked.
"I'd do a lot better than you," she snapped.
"Yeah, but could you do this."
"Oh no, don't you dare!" Charlie screamed as the car sped up the incline in the road and was airborne momentarily, before slamming onto the hard road again. If you could call gravel and pot holes a road. "You're fucking crazy," she shouted as the car flew into the air over the next incline. Not once though, did Joey lose control of the car.
Pee Wee glared at his mate. They were lost and he was even more pissed that they'd been wasting all this time driving around, while Mick had fluked it. He'd been heading back to HQ and had purely by chance, spotted those women on the road.
"Fucking lucky bastard," he muttered.
"What was that?" said Brodie.
"Nothing," he said. "Just find us the right road."
"Why bother," Brodie said. "By the time we get there, it will all be over."
"Mick might still fuck it up," he said. "Now just get us out of here."
"We should go back to the coastal road."
Pee Wee glared at him again. "Do you know how to get back there?" he snidely asked.
Brodie shrugged.
"Fuck, just go that way," Pee Wee said with a wave to the left. Maybe they would strike it lucky as Mick had.
"Where the hell are you taking us?" said Charlie. There were no sign posts or other cars, except for the sedan behind them, which meant there was no one around to help them.
"I think losing this tail is more important than getting directions right now," Joey replied, since she really had no idea where the hell they were. Taking random roads to lose a tail hadn't exactly been in her plan. "Shit," she murmured. This was why she hated being unfamiliar with the terrain and it just made losing these pricks even harder.
"Any chance of you actually doing something to lose that tail any time soon?" Charlie snidely said. Her fear was making her bitchy, but she didn't care. "Or was that just all bluster earlier when you said you'd done this before?"
"Can you hold off on the sarcasm for five minutes," Joey said, showing the first sign of annoyance at her passenger.
"Hurry Hails," Tegan said. "We don't want Mick to get the credit."
"He probably already has," Hayley pointed out.
"Not if he stays on form," she said. "He likes to play first, then finish the job, which still gives us some time."
Hayley shivered. She didn't like Mick. She hated the way he looked at women, especially her and she knew the only reason he never cracked onto her, was that he was too shit scared of Tegan to even try.
Charlie harrumphed, impressed in spite of herself, yet unwilling to admit aloud that she admired the calm way in which Joey had handled that last manoeuvre. It was like a real pro. "Yeah, a real pro," she thought. She would do well to never forget that her companion wasn't what she'd first appeared to be.
"They're still gaining on us," Charlie couldn't stop herself from saying and she smirked at the curse Joey muttered in reply.
Casey stared at his phone. There was a voice mail from Heath from about twenty minutes ago, yet he'd made no effort to return it or to tell Stu about it. Stu would probably be pissed when he found out, especially when he realised they'd been going the wrong way and were further from the women than ever before. Casey didn't care. The longer this trip went on, the less he wanted to be a part of it. This life wasn't for him and never would be, came the crushing realisation. His brothers could force him to do these things, but it would never be him.
"You ok Case?" asked Stu.
"Yeah, just bored as hell," he replied.
"How can you be bored on an adventure like this?"
"Adventure?" he said. "We're in a car with no idea where we're meant to be going, it's hot, it's dusty…"
"It's fun," said Stu. "Case, just think of the end game here and then you'll start to enjoy the hunt more."
"If you say so," he murmured softly.
The crunching sound as the sedan rammed into them made Charlie wince and glance nervously over her shoulder, while Joey looked into the rear vision mirror. The sedan was so close now that they could see the two occupants clearly.
"Shit, it's Mick," Joey said softly, yet not softly enough that Charlie hadn't heard it and in spite of the current dangerous situation, Charlie turned her head to stare at the other woman. How did she know who he was? That particular concern was pushed to the back of her mind when the sedan slammed into them again.
"Shit," she muttered. Charlie had done her study on the Braxtons and their known associates, including the one she was now looking at through their back window. No wonder he was keeping up with Joey. Mick Jameson was a former rally car driver. Her admiration for Joey getting them this far grew, until she remembered that Joey had also known this man's name.
"Fuck, what did that sign we just passed say?" Joey urgently asked her.
"I don't know," Charlie began to say, but then it became clear. Her eyes widened and she braced herself. "There's no bridge!" Charlie screamed as their car continued on with its current trajectory. No wonder there was no one else on this road. It went nowhere. Charlie's eyes ping ponged between Joey and what was left of an old bridge that lay in front of them. The middle of the bridge was long gone, there was no way across, yet it was still getting closer.
There was no bridge. Surely Joey saw that? Yet Joey wasn't slowing down and Charlie's stomach dropped with a sickening realisation. "Oh please, no," Charlie said. "Please don't tell me you're going to try to jump the fucking river!"