Page 6

Rachel

“Can we play a car game, Rachel? Please.” I looked down at Joseph and smiled. He grinned back up at me when I turned the smile into a mock stern frown.

“Are we not finishing this story, then? I’ll let you choose the ending.”

“We can save it for the plane instead. I’ll think of the best ending, I promise. I hate planes, they’re so boring, there’s nothing to see—”

“Well now,” I interrupted. “There are people who aren’t lucky enough to fly on a plane at all, never mind as often as you get to.” I reminded him. “The views from the window seat are unlike anything else.”

“I don’t care about a stupid view,” he huffed, and I bit my cheek to keep from smiling.

“Of course you don’t. What game do you want to play, buddy?”

“The quiet game sounds good,” James chuckled from the front seat. I clenched my fist to stop myself from flipping him the bird, and brushed the hair out of my eyes to disguise the fact I was rolling them so hard, I was surprised I didn’t go blind.

“Not much chance of playing the quiet game with this one.” I gave Joseph a playful tickle. “He was just about to tell me his top ten favourite sights, weren’t you?”

“I was not!” He squealed, his little body shaking with laughter as I continued my tickles.

“What do you mean? You promised!” I laughed back, only to be met with the stern, angry face of Mrs Geller as she whipped around in her seat.

“Rachel, please! We don’t pay you to frolic around,” Mr Geller raised his eyebrows at that and gave me a subtle smirk in the mirror.

Pig.

“Keep him quiet, please. I’ve got a terrible headache after that awful place.”

“Sorry, Mrs Geller.”

“Sorry, Mum,” Joseph and I said in unison.

“How about we play the counting game?” I asked him in a quiet voice. “There’s not much to see, but you could count how many red cars you can see, and I’ll count the blue ones.”

“I want the blue cars!” He said, his nose already pressed against the glass.

“You take the blue ones then. Mrs Geller, would you like to play?”

“No. Just keep the noise down. Please.” The way she said please was more of a command than a request.

Stuck-up bitch.

“Of course we will.” I turned to look out of the window on my side and quickly noticed the first red car. “That’s one for me,” I said, nudging the side of Joseph’s leg.

“No fair!” Joseph yelped, and I quickly hushed him as I heard Mrs Geller sigh in response.

“It’ll never be fair if you don’t look,” I pointed at his window as he pouted in the seat. “Keep looking, or you’ll miss all the cars, not just the blue ones. Maybe a bike will even go past.” That got his attention. He scooted back over to the window and pressed himself as close as possible.

“Blue car! I see a blue car!” He yelled, earning us both a nasty look from his mum. “And another!” He said, but this time much quieter.

“Another red for me!” I whispered, beaming with excitement. Though that quickly turned to a frown as I noticed the red car brake hard, and pull in behind us, leaving the fast lane wide open. Two scary looking bikes flew past us in a blur, the roar of their engines rattling my ears.

I grinned as I remembered my dad raging against bikes all those years ago.

He always said they were death traps with the way they flew down the motorway.

He raged even harder when his little girl blossomed into a teenager and loved nothing more than the dangerous motorbikes – well, maybe she loved the men on the bikes a little more.

I relaxed slightly, easily explaining away why the red car had pulled away and tucked in safely behind us. It was just easier to get out of their way sometimes.

“Bikes!” Joseph hissed, his little face turning red as he did his best to contain his excitement.

I turned my head to his side with a scowl, noticing four more bikes pull up next to our car on the opposite side from the ones I had seen.

Two of them rode ahead to join the others, but the remaining two stayed by our side.

One of the bikers waved at Joseph, and he practically fainted in elation.

I was just about to open my mouth when there was a knock on the glass beside me, almost making me jump out of my skin.

I smothered a yelp of fright and shot around.

There was a huge man at my window, riding an absolute monster of a machine.

I couldn’t see his face underneath the jet-black helmet he wore, but he still cut an intimidating figure – probably even more so, since what he looked like was left up to the imagination.

He signalled at us to pull over, showing me hands that were covered by leather gloves.

Alarm bells rang, and instinct told me that underneath those leather gloves would be the same tattoos belonging to a certain man we had seen only a few minutes earlier.

I looked at James as he swore, swerving to the side to avoid the motorbikes.

Those that had travelled in front of us had slowed down, almost making us crash into the back of them.

My gaze flickered to the rearview mirror, and just as I knew there would be, there was a whole stream of motorbikes waiting for us behind.

“James…?” Elizabeth began, her voice sounding strained.

“I see them. They’re just idiots messing around – probably from that diner back there.”

“I guess them chasing us down wasn’t out of the realm of possibility after all, huh, Mr Geller?” I questioned, my voice as sweet as honey.

“I told you not to throw the money on the table, James!” Mrs Geller hissed, and I had to force myself not to let out a barking laugh.

“Ignore them. This is how they have their fun. They’re looking for a reaction, and we’re not going to give them one. We’ll be back on the free… Motorway,” he corrected himself, throwing daggers at me through the rear-view mirror. “We’ll be able to speed past them again in no time.”

“Are there any cameras around these parts?” Mrs Geller questioned, turning her head to direct her question at me. She quickly turned back around when she noticed the beast at my window that I was still doing my best to ignore.

“Not as far as I’m aware. It’s pretty rural around here.

Not much cop activity. And any cops that do patrol out here will more than likely have heavily lined pockets, if you get my drift?

The only cameras people have will be to protect their own property.

They’re not going to use it to assist the police. ”

“What?” She sounded so appalled it was almost comical. All I could do was give an apologetic shrug of my shoulders.

“It’s just the way it is.”

“Brilliant,” she muttered sarcastically. Another knock at my window had us both tensing, but once again I refused to turn around and acknowledge it. I wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of playing the part of the damsel in distress in whatever sick game they were in the middle of.

“Shit!” James hissed as the bike that had been riding at Joseph’s window took a sharp turn, forcing him to pull to the left to avoid him.

James wasn’t overly comfortable driving on this side of the road at the best of times, never mind having to perform tricky manoeuvres to stop us from ending up in a head on collision.

I ignored one more knock at my window – this one pissing me off more than it did scare me, even if it was fiercer than any that came before it.

The windows rattled under his fist, but I kept my eyes on the window ahead of me.

I watched as six bikers came together to line up in front of our car, two at the front windows, one on either side, and four just ahead of us.

The roar of their engines was deafening as they revved the engines, and that’s when Joseph spoke up.

“Rachel?” His voice was nervous as he shuffled closer to me. Shadows fell over his face just as two bikers pulled up to his window, and another two pulled up to mine. I flicked my eyes to the mirror, and saw two more on our rear, their front wheels almost touching the car.

They had well and truly surrounded us.

“James! Do something!” Elizabeth hissed as the bikes ahead of us slowed down even further.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” He growled, sweat beading on his forehead.

“Look,” I said calmly, knowing it was down to me to get control of the situation.

“If they wanted to hurt us, they could have made us crash at any moment. Notice them two have been slowly dropping their speed? They want us to slow down safely. They could have easily run us off the road, and yet they haven’t.

I say we follow their lead. We’re practically at a standstill now, anyway.

Let us just do as they’re clearly wanting us to do and stop the car.

We can see what they want, and we’ll be back on the road before we know it.

” James looked as though he wanted to argue the matter, and so I spoke up before he could get a word out.

“There’s no point letting egos get the better of us.

We’re surrounded. There’s no out-driving them, and there’s no getting out of this circle they’ve created.

I’ve had this twat knocking on my window—”

“Swear!” Joseph interrupted.

“Now’s not the time, buddy. I’ll give you a dollar when we get home.

Anyway, as I was saying, this idiot has been knocking at my window trying to get attention for the past few minutes.

Just slow down,” James growled low in his throat and revved the engine in return.

“James!” I all but snapped. “This is a situation that could quickly spiral out of control. Slow down before it escalates any further and someone ends up getting hurt. Your son is in the backseat,” I reminded him, giving him a jolt of reality.

I wouldn’t have put it past him to think he was the next breakout star of “Fast and Furious 204.”