Chapter Eighteen
Memories
We scrambledinto the car and as soon as I saw she was buckled in, I pulled out. I looked back and saw Chris and Duchess howling with laughter. Holly tried to grab the keys from him, but he pushed her away.
Of course, we were stuck behind some people trying to leave as well. I sighed, fighting the urge to lay on the horn. My nerves were wrecked. I felt like my stomach was about to empty all over Adrian’s car.
I tried my hardest not to watch the scene behind us, but the long wait made it hard not to. I saw that next to me Cleo was watching as well.
Duchess got into the passenger’s seat. Holly and Chris continued to fight outside the car. He grabbed her wrist and she tried to pull away. He was stronger than her and with one swift movement, shoved her in the back seat. I hadn’t even realized you could fit a person in the back. He spat something at her and hopped into the driver’s seat, slamming the door. Oh my God.
“Did you just see that?” Cleo said, her voice worried. I nodded, gulping.
“He’s too drunk! He can’t drive like that. Can we follow him?” I stared at her incredulously.
“Why? We need to get away from here, from them, as fast as possible. Whatever they do is on them,” I snapped and as soon as the traffic started moving, I floored it.
I got on the road and sped off, trying to get as much distance between us and the yellow jaguar. The damn rain was forcing me to slow my speed. Within five minutes I saw the sports car trailing us. My heart stopped. How fast was he going? Before I could voice my concerns, he was right behind us. Cleo squeaked and I tried to calm her. Between the slick roads and the drunk behind us, I couldn’t spare any extra attention on her.
“It’s alright. He’s just being stupid. He’ll get bored. I’m slowing down. He’ll just pass us eventually,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. If I believed it, she would. But he didn’t.
I got down to 30 miles an hour when he tapped us. We jostled. The entire car shook with the impact. Oh, fuck. Adrian was going to kill us. Cleo started whimpering.
“Call one of the guys. Tell them to meet us at Lai’s. It’s not too far from here,” I told her. It was the only place that came to mind, and it was twenty minutes away. Shit, why didn’t I say someplace closer? My mind was too scrambled to think straight.
He tapped us again, so I put my foot on the gas to try to get out of his space. That just spurred him on. With every tick I made on the speedometer he matched me. His movements were shaky, and he was all over the road. He was going to crash. I prayed silently that he didn’t hit anyone. That he didn’t hit us.
Cleo pushed the buttons and put her phone to her ear. Her voice was shaky. “Chris?” She said into the phone and I almost laid on the break. Why would she call him? He’s drunk and driving. What would calling him solve? That would only make it worse.
There was female laughing on the other end of the line. Cleo’s lips shook as she talked to Duchess.
“Just put it on speaker. I need to talk to him.” There was a pause and then Duchess must have done so because Cleo started talking.
“Chris, I know we have a long history. I wasn’t the greatest wife and I should have told you about the twins. But you need to let this go,” her voice was desperate as she pleaded for him to stop.
“Please, stop all of this. Someone is going to get seriously hurt.”
You could hear Chris shouting something and Cleo sighed deeply, realizing her final plea was getting us all nowhere.
“Goodbye Christopher.” She hung up the phone and took a few deep breaths but that didn’t stop her tears. I repeated as calmly as I could that she needed to call someone that could actually help us.
He crashed into us again, this time just a little harder. I let out a small scream and clamped my mouth shut. If I lost my composure, then we were all screwed. I felt a tear slide down my face, but I refused to react to it. Instead I tightened my grip on the wheel and focused on the road. Cleo held her phone up to her face again as she called someone else.
“E-E-Ethan? I don’t know how it happened. Chris is drunk and following us. We can’t stop. He’s already hit us twice. Renee is going to get us to Lai’s where we’ll be safe. We need help,” she started crying. It wasn’t wails, or sobs. It was the crying you did when you were terrified of what was going to happen. Her cries made the panic in me worse. This was serious. I couldn’t keep this speed up much longer. The rain had picked up again. I needed to make a decision and quick.
I saw a turn coming up, so I moved to take it. Chris must have seen what I was doing because he sped up to cut me off and instead our cars completely collided.
Everything came crashing down- or in- or together. The jaguar hit us hard, pushing us off the road and into a guardrail. I slammed on the brakes, but the car was beyond my control now. The sound of glass shattering and metal crunching surrounded us. I closed my eyes when I realized the car was rolling.
It happened so fast. We returned back upright but everything felt tight and I knew the car was totaled. Cleo screamed as her head hit her side window. I watched in horror as the seatbelt locked and tightened on her chest. Her head and neck bounced back in a grotesque movement.
My head had hit the something as well and everything flashed white. I blinked, but the ringing in my ears made it hard to concentrate on what was going on around me. I had to get her out of the car.
My entire body felt like I had been punched over and over, but I managed to unlock both of our seatbelts. I glanced at the rear-view mirror but it was smashed into so many pieces. I couldn’t really see out of it. All I could make out was bits and pieces of the totaled yellow car.
I could faintly hear sirens and I tried to open my door, but my arms didn’t have the strength. I could feel my body draining and as I saw the lights of a police car, I shut my eyes. That’s when I heard the screams.
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