I went back inside the car and Frankie frowned.
“Hold tight guys, let’s get down here. Thousand Spring Creek.” He motioned to our left. There was a thicket of trees in a woodland area, it was perfect.
He bumbled down the road and sped off. Jia screamed again, cowering against the noise, the gun shots, the panic and terror.
The car followed us and started firing shots again.
Jesus if we weren’t careful this could really be it. It could be it.
Frankie sped to the trees and the path became rocky, jagged, bumpy.
Once again I thought of the driver of the Porsche. I had to get him.
On three, I moved and fired one shot, growling as I did so.
It got him.
It got them and the car jerked up on the path then smashed into a tree.
It didn’t matter who else got taken out in the car, we lost them.
“You guys okay?” I asked both of them but I checked Jia.
She was shaking but she was okay.
“I’m fine.”
I looked to Frankie and saw his arm was covered with blood.Fuck, he’d been hit.
“Frankie where’d they get you?”
“It’s just my arm. We need to keep going.”
“I’ll drive,” Jia offered. “Stop the truck. I’ll drive.”
“I should drive,” I cut in.
She shook her head. “No, I can’t do what you do and I can’t curl up and hide. I can help. Me on the wheel means you and Frankie can shoot if necessary. Frankie needs a bandage.”
I liked her way of thinking. What I didn’t like was the fact that if we had a repeat of just now she wouldn’t be able to keep her head down.
She reached forward and touched my face. “I’ll be okay. I will,” she assured me.
I nodded and looked to Frankie. “Stop the truck Frankie and get back here.”
He pulled the truck to a stop and he and Jia switched.
When she started driving down the path, I looked over Frankie’s wound which looked bad. I grabbed one of the t-shirts his mother had given us and bandaged his arm with it, hoping the bleeding would stop.
“I’m good, kid. Don’t worry about me. It just hurts like a son of a bitch.” He chuckled. I’d only known a few people like him, who could take a bullet and act like it was a fucking scratch.
“You sure Frankie? We should get you to the hospital.”
“Kid, we can’t stop for that. This just got next level bad. We gotta lose the truck. Aside from my plates giving us away and acting like a homing beacon, we can’t ride around all day with a bullet riddled truck. People will notice.” He chuckled deep and hearty, as if he was fine. Although I could see he was in pain, just taking it really well. He was right though. We had to lose the truck.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I know a guy who can give us a ride. We just have to hope we don’t have any more surprises along the way,” he answered then looked to Jia. “Princess, switch the route on the GPS to Park Valley.”
