Chapter 23

 

The gold Kia accelerated down the dark, two-lane road as it realized the four teenage girls in the black BMW were chasing it. But the Kia’s four-banger engine was no match for the V-8 as the BMW closed.

“Don’t go crazy,” Olivia said. “Knock him off into a ditch or something.”

“Love tap!” Miyuki said.

Nadia floored the BMW and the front end smacked into the Kia with a jolt. Miyuki clapped her hands together with delight while Olivia looked like a concerned soccer mom. Emma just hoped Nadia knew what she was doing.

Nadia turned hard into the next turn. She accelerated out of it and rammed the Kia again.

Emma’s heart jumped in her chest. That was more than a love tap. The lights of the BMW exposed the Kia’s back bumper. The car’s taillights were broken and mangled. Pieces of the Korean car were falling off.

“Hit him again!” Miyuki squealed, treating this like some kind of game.

“PIT him, for flipping sake,” Olivia said. “Don’t take us out with him.”

“Pit him?” Emma asked, not familiar with the term.

“The police use the PIT maneuver to push a fleeing felon’s car into a spin so they can end a chase,” Nadia said in her calm and quiet way as she drove a car over ninety miles per hour. “I’ve only done it once, during evasive driving training.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Emma said.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.” Nadia concentrated as she swung out to the left lane and sped up. She tried to make the right front fender of the BMW line up next to the left rear of the Kia’s.

“Big truck!” Olivia pointed.

In one quick move, Nadia tapped the brakes and tucked the BMW behind the Kia. The semi roared past, blasting its air horn.

The two cars weaved through more turns before Nadia swung out to the left lane and gunned the BMW once again.

“You can do it!” Miyuki said.

This time the two cars were side by side when the Kia decided to smash into the side of the BMW.

Emma yelped as their car shook from the impact. Nadia fought with the wheel.

The Kia smashed into the side of the BMW again.

Nadia struggled to keep the car on the road. The car’s headlights showed rows of trees on the left-hand side of the road. If they veered off the road, those tree trunks would pound the BMW like mallets.

“Is this part of the maneuver?” Emma asked.

The desperate little Kia swerved into them a third time and Emma’s window exploded, throwing glass everywhere and making her scream. This was all getting too real.

Nadia braked and tried to clip the left rear of the Kia. But the little car avoided the BMW by swerving to the far right of the road.

Nadia backed off the chase. “Are you all right, Emma?”

“I think so. It was only my window.”

“Maybe we should let him go,” Olivia said.

“Are you coconuts?” Miyuki asked.

“Bananas,” Emma corrected.

“It’s too dangerous, love. It’s not worth all our lives,” Olivia said. “Let him go. We’ll catch up with him again.”

Nadia eased off the gas and the Kia quickly raced into the distance.

“Sorry, guys,” Olivia said. “But we have to see the big—” A huge jolt flung all four girls against their seat belts.

Emma glanced in her side mirror as new headlights blinded her eyes. “Looks like he called some of his friends.”

A giant Hummer bore down on the smaller BMW as it rammed them again from the back and bullied the car forward towards a turn.

Nadia hit the brakes and the rubber tires burned. But the Hummer shoved the BMW forward anyway. The next turn had a big drop-off past the guardrail. If they smashed through it, they would roll the BMW for sure.

Nadia gripped the wheel and mashed the gas pedal. The BMW scrambled off the front of the Hummer and accelerated towards the drop-off turn. The speedometer needle climbed.

Emma stopped breathing. Could Nadia make the curve going that fast? Wouldn’t they fly off into the trees?

Nadia waited.

And waited…

Then slammed the brake pedal. The girls braced as Nadia hit the gas again and flung the car into the right turn. The BMW slid across the double yellow lines. The tires screamed. The left side of the car skidded towards the far end of the pavement, almost kissing the guardrail. But the BMW somehow cleared the turn.

Behind them, a loud crash of trees hitting metal. The headlights of the Hummer tumbled down the embankment as the large vehicle took out trees left and right.

Nadia braked the car to a stop.

All the Gems sighed at once as calmness finally descended inside the car.

Emma turned to Nadia. “Can I say that you’re, like, a rock star behind the wheel of a car?”

Nadia smiled in her shy way.

 

The night air felt cold as the girls went down the dirt embankment to the overturned Hummer resting on broken trees. Olivia peeked inside it. No one was there.

“They must have gone into the forest,” Olivia said.

A cold breeze blew under the oversized T-shirt Emma wore, chilling her to the bone. “Do we have to do this again? We’re not properly dressed for all these outdoor activities.”

Miyuki and Nadia hugged their chests. They could feel the breeze too.

“But they might know something,” Olivia said.

“They also might have guns.”

“Emma’s right. We should leave,” Nadia said.

“Mr. Raymond’s goons are expecting us back any minute,” Emma said. “They could be out looking for us right now.”

Olivia didn’t like giving up, that much was clear as the girl watched the forest. But Olivia let out a curse and led the girls back up the embankment to the BMW. Nadia turned over the engine and got the heater running as she drove the Gems back the way they had come.

“What will we do about Mr. Raymond?” Miyuki asked.

“Yes. We must find out what role he plays in all this,” Nadia said.

Emma thought about Ryan. How genuine he felt to her. “I don’t think Mr. Raymond knows. I mean, when I talked to Ryan, he told me how much his father loved his company. More so than his own son, and a man like that—why would he destroy something he worked his whole life to build? My dad had the same mind-set. He loved his company too and it wouldn’t make sense for him to do something to hurt it. Honestly, I think Mr. Raymond is innocent. Jacqueline could be using his company as a secret base of operations.”

“A good possibility,” Nadia said. “He might not know what’s going on.”

“But he gave Emma that bad rifle,” Miyuki said.

“Bertrand could have easily switched out those rifles before the hunt,” Emma said. “Remember that I was the only one who needed the spare gun.”

Olivia thought about it. “There’s only one way to find out for sure. We should tell Mr. Raymond about Jacqueline and see what the man does.”