“Hey, Mom, we’re going to head out to a movie,” Cory called into the kitchen.
“That’s nice. What are you going to see?” she replied.
“I think that new action flick, right, Jamie?”
She rolled her eyes at her friend.
“So car chases and gun fights?” his mom replied.
“Maybe some explosions, too.” He laughed.
“Have fun. Let me know if you’re going to be late.”
“Alright, Mom.” Cory pulled teh door open and ushered Jamie out.
She climbed into the passenger seat of Cory’s Kia and buckled up. As soon as they were on the road, she turned to him, an eyebrow quirked up. “Car chases and gun fights, eh?”
Cory laughed, sounding overly satisfied with himself. “I thought it was funny. Plus, she doesn’t care about action movies so she won’t ask many questions about it.”
She snorted. “You better hope there’s actually an action movie in the theaters right now.”
He turned his head, blinking slowly at her. “Jamie. There’s always an action movie in the theaters.”
“I guess so.” She fiddled with the music, finally setting it one of her soothing playlists.
Though it didn’t seem to help much these days. The gun in her pocket seemed to weigh far more than the nearly two pounds it professed to weigh. It seemed to be reaching the proportions of a neutron star, crushing her dreams and her waking hours until its gravity was the only thing her brain could focus on.
“Where do you want to park this time?” Cory asked.
“I don’t know. Um, let’s just do a drive by first,” She replied.
“Gotcha.”
Now that they were near the bar, she forced her brain to focus on their task. It was dark and rainy, nothing unusual there, but she’d still be able to peer down the dark alley where he always seemed to park his motorcycle. Sure enough, it was there.
“It’s there. Pull around the block then park in front of that market.” That would put the car facing the direction their target usually went when he left the bar.
“Good. Because I might get hungry later and need a snack, and I don’t want to walk in the rain.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re always hungry for a snack.”
He chuckled, pulling off the road and parking. “Mom says I’m still a growing boy.”
“You’re eighteen. You’ve got to be as tall as you’re going to get.”
“I don’t want to take any chances.”
She laughed, and it felt good. She’d done precious little laughing since she’d walked in on bikers roughing up her dad. Cory viewed his job to keep up her spirits. He’d been doing it for most of their life, but she knew he felt particually helpless with the current situation, so he supported her and tried to make her laugh.
He turned off the engine and slouched into his seat. Soon, the windows fogged up as the cold rain chilled the inside of the car as they expelled their moist breath into the air. Though it made watching a bit more difficult, it obscured their presence from people walking down the street, not that there were many in this weather.
As they sat, Cory checked the time on his phone, then stared out the other window, sighing forlonrly. Jamie tried to ignore him as she stared out the window, alternating her gaze between the entrance to the bar and the alley next to it. A stead stream of people headed in an out of the bar, but none of them looked like the tall, skinny white man with the large nose. After a while, Cory’s fidgeting vibrated the parked car as his foot thumped on the floorboard.
She huffed in annoyance. “Cory, go get yourself a snack. And for god’s sake, download a phone game or something.”
He grinned and gave her jaunty salute. “Yes, ma’am!”
Once the door shut, she exhaled a deep sigh. She was glad for his company, even if he was a pain in the ass, but she still couldn’t help feeling annoyed. It wasn’t his fault, really, he was a fidgety guy and needed to burn a lot of energy, hence their regular runs. Since they’d been burning time planning their—she was loath to call it murder, but that’s what it was—murder, they hadn’t been out for one. She missed it too. She almost always felt better about life after a good run through the woods in her wolf-form.
“Shit,” she mumbled to herself.
The headlight of his motorcycle poured out of the alley. If Cory didn’t get back soon, they were going to miss their opportunity to try to find his home. Peering toward the door to the market, she made a snap decision and jumped out of the passenger side and ran around to the driver side. She fired up the car and put it in gear, rolling forward so the car was directly in front of the market’s door.
“Come on, come one…” she said to herself.
The headlight shifted in the alley, appearing to move forward. She’d hate to leave her friend behind. There he was. He noticed his car and he bent over, peering into the vehicle. Reaching across the car, she grabbed the hadnle of the passenger door and pushed it open.
“Get in!” she yelled.
Cory sprang into action and practically dove into the car, though he made sure to protect his fountain drink and bag of salty, fatty snack foods. He pulled the door shut behind him just in time. The motorcycle pulled out of the alley and onto the street. Giving him a second to straighten his bike out and pull away, she then eased into the street behind him. She was just someone who’d stopped at the market for snacks and was now heading home. No big deal.
Cory carefully set his bag on the floor and pulled his seatbelt around, but when the belt got tangled around his arm holding the soda, he nearly lost it. Fortunately, he saved it without a disastrous spill and managed to get his belt buckled without further mishap.
The snack bag crinkled as Cory reached in and popped a handful into his mouth. “This is very exciting.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full. It’s gross.” She focused on the road ahead and the motorcycle knowing that Cory had probably just stuck his tongue out at her with a mouthful of half-chewed food.
“Ugh.” He swallowed. “You always ruin my fun.”
“Well, you’re getting a first hand view of a car case.” She looked down at the speedometer—twenty-five miles per hour.
“It’s titillating. A rocket-fueled, mayhem making, adrenaline ride.” He said this all tonelessly. “Woo. Hoo.”
She chuckled. “It’s not my fault he’s a conscientious diver…rider…whatever.”
“Oh, look, he’s using his turn signal. Oh, no. The excitement. I hope we can keep up with this wild, reckless driver.”
Her chuckle turned into a laugh. “Stop it! I’m trying to pay attention, and you’re making me laugh.” She turned on her turn signal and made a safe turn, resuming her slow speed chase.
Cory exaggerated a loud, fake yawn. “Wake me up if this thing gets exciting.” He filled his mouth with another handful of crunchy snacks.
They followed the man through a couple more turns over quieter roads, but when they approached the larger, busier road insecting the one they were one, he gunned it through the stop sign and took a hard left across traffic.
“Wake up. It’s chase time.” She wasn’t sure why she said it, but it made Cory snort with laughter as he tried to keep himself from spraying food debris from his mouth.
She pushed down the pedal and the Kia leapt forward at a moderate clip. Once she approached the stop sign, she looked both ways as she rolled through it then mashed the pedal down as he aimed for a gap between cars coming from her left. Her stomach dropped and her throat tightened up as lights bore down on her and horns screamed.
The old Kia bounced into the middle land then into the lane they wanted. They’d only lost a bit of distance on the motorcycle, though he was attempting to weave his way through the cars in front of them to put some distance between them.
“Holy shit, Jamie. You’re going to kill my baby…” He patted the dashboard. “Don’t worry, baby, I won’t let the mean lady hurt you.”
Ignoring her passenger, she turned off her safe driving brain and squeezed through a narrow passing space, accelerating to weave back into the other lane. With each honk annoyed at her antics, her adrenaline rose. She’d never done something like this before. Neither had Cory as far as she knew, though he seemed to be taking it in stride as he sucked on the giant soda. However, the knuckles on his hand gripping the dash were white from squeezing on it.
A moment of triumph brought a faint smile to her lips as she gain a position. There was only one car separating them for the motorcycle. A pair of trucks where blocking the motorcycle from moving around them. Instead of moving into the other lane to move closer, she decided to keep the car in front of her, hoping the motorcyclist wouldn’t see them and think that maybe he’d lost them.
Now that they were both moving at traffic speeds, she backed off a little bit so she wasn’t quite riding the tail of the car in front of her. The brake lights in front of her flared and the car rushed toward them. She slammed on her brakes and yanked the on the wheel, aiming for the middle lane. She narrowly missed ramming into the car in front of her.
More brakes screeched and tires squealed. The motorcycle swerved into oncoming traffic, sending cars swerving around it. Screaming, Jamie held up an arm, blocking the view of the car hurtling toward her, its lights streaming through the window. Fortunately, the car stopped before smashing into them. Weaving through the mayhem he’d created, the biker looked directly at her, staring as he rode by. When he passed, the roar of his engine announced his departure.
She heaved panicked breaths as she tried to calm her body. Blinking rapidly, she watched people step out of their cars, assessing their vehicles and the other drivers. It looked like strobe light lit people to here with the lights blaring in her eyes. She jolted when someone knocked on her window. When she didn’t lower her arm or roll the window down, they knocked again. She could here their mumbled voice, the blood pumping too loudly through her ears.
With a shake of her head, she rolled the window down. “What?”
“Are you alright, miss?” a woman asked, bending over to look into the car.
Jamie, unsure of the answer , looked at herself. Other than the seatbelt locked tightly against her chest and shoulder, she thought she was OK. “I think so. Just a bit scared.”
“Damn motorcycles. Always causing traffic problems. I hope the cops get him. Well, if you’re OK, I’m going back to my car,” the woman said.
“Thank you, ma’am. We’re fine.” She rolled the window up. “Are you OK, Cory?”
“I spilled my drink…” he mumbled, sounding on the verge of tears.
“What?” She turned and looked at him, a smile cracking her face.
He’d spilled his giant cup of soda indeed. It dripped down the inside of the window, pooled on the dashboard, streaked the side window, and had drenched Cory. Streams of sticky soda ran out of his hair and down his forehead. His shirt was soaked. After the adrenaline dump of nearly becoming part of a massive car pileup, she couldn’t help but laugh at her soggy friend. She really didn’t mean to, but he looked like a half-drowned kitten, his hair falling into his face.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up at your poor old friend, Cory. Just here to make you laugh.” He sounded miffed at her jocularity, but she help it. He shook his head violently, flinging soda all over teh car and onto her.
“Hey!” she called, raising her arm to block it.
“Serves you right.” Rolling down the window he, dumped the rest of the soda onto the street, then tossed the empty, crushed cup onto the floor of the car. He reached down and grabbed his back of snacks, stuffing his hand into the bag. He lifted a handful, but liquid dripped from his hand and down his wrist. With an annoyed growl, he crushed the mushy snacks and flung his hand back into the bag.
She stifled her laugh, forcing her lips shut and looked away so she didn’t start laughing again. As the cars tried to move apart so they could unblock each other and traffic, she waited until a spot opened up and she was able to pull away from their disastrous first attempt at a high-speed chase.
They stayed silent as she worked her way back to their neighborhood. Cory wasn’t in the mood as he fumed about being soaked in cold, sticky soda. If she thought it was possible, steam would be rolling off his head as he fumed.
“You’re helping me this mess up,” Cory said, finally breaking the silence.
She thought about explaining how it was his fault for buying the super duper bucket o’ soda while they were on a stakeout, but she was sure her observation wouldn’t be appreciated. He was helping her when he didn’t have to. She’d owed him some cleaning time, it was the least she could do.
“I know. We’ll get your baby all cleaned up and sparkling again.” She parked in front of Cory’s house, then turned and looked at her friend, a twinkle in her eyes. “At least you have an exciting car chase story to tell your mom.”
Cory flipped her off and headed toward his house, no doubt to grab a shower. She sighed; the silliness had been a needed, even if Cory was grumpy about it, but reality settled back in. She still hadn’t completed her mission. She still hadn’t killed a man.