There were bad guys out in front of the gallery. If I ran around to the front of the building, I would most likely get shot by the morons guarding the car. And there was no way I was going to make it all the way inside the gallery without them stopping me.
I glanced back toward the truck, groaning as a really bad thought began to form in my mind. There might one way. Obviously, this was another one of my brilliant ideas…right up there with driving a car into a circus tent. I just hoped there were no elephants around.
Sal was going to kill me.
My father was going to ground me.
Uncle Jerry was going to put me in jail.
I really had not thought this out, and there was no time to do it right now.
I jumped into the front seat of the SUV and made sure my seatbelt was secured before turning the engine on. It was kind of a rush to drive again after so long. Of course, I had never driven anything as big as Sal’s SUV so I was a little concerned with how narrow the alleyway was.
I just knew I was going to hit something.
“How hard could it be?” I asked into the air. It hadn’t been that long since I was behind the wheel of a car.
I put the SUV into drive. Gripping the steering wheel as tight as I could, I pressed on the gas. The SUV crept forward. I pressed harder. It moved a little faster. I steered around the dumpsters and wooden crates stacked behind the building, making it all the way to the street without incident.
I was surprised.
I grinned. “I can do this.”
I carefully looked both ways. Once I knew no cars were coming, I pulled out onto the street and steered the large vehicle toward the front of the building. I knew I wasn’t going very fast, but I wasn’t hitting anything either.
That was a plus.
I stopped at the corner of the block and looked down the sidewalk toward the gallery, which was about halfway down the block. I could still see the three guys standing outside. They had never entered the building, but I had easily spotted them hanging out by the black Lincoln Continental parked in front of the gallery.
They were kind of hard to miss.
As I turned the corner, I heard a gunshot and the three guys started toward the building. I stepped on the gas as hard as I could, gunning the car. It shot forward like a rocket. I winced when I heard the unmistakable sound of metal on metal.
I had hit something.
I hoped it wasn’t a car.
I hoped someone wasn’t in the car, if it was a car.
At least it wasn’t an elephant.
As I roared down the street, the three men must have heard me coming. They all turned and stared with different degrees of sheer terror on their faces. I was briefly amused by the shock on their faces as I jumped the curb and started down the sidewalk, but only briefly. The rest of me was bracing for the impact as the SUV hurtled toward the front of the gallery.
This was so gonna hurt.
The tires of the vehicle screeched as I instinctively stepped on the brake. The SUV fishtailed several times before crashing through the large front window of the art gallery. I screamed as the airbag deployed, smacking me in the face. I didn’t care what anyone said; that hurt.
By the time it stopped moving, I was halfway inside the building. I sat there in the front seat, stunned, breathing rapidly, hoping I wasn’t dead.
When someone reached inside the car to turn off the ignition, I glanced over. I winced at the fuming glare in Sal’s eyes.
“Did I hit anyone?”
Chapter Nine
Salvador
In one single second, I saw my life flash before my eyes. I had always thought that was a joke, just a phrase people said. How could your life flash before your eyes? But it wasn’t. My entire world started and ended with the man barreling toward me in a three-ton SUV.
