Slide of your Life

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

            The door creaked open and Ryan and Kara carefully made their way in. Ryan let the beam of the flashlight shine over as much of the room as possible until he saw the shadow of a person tied to a chair.

            “Hey, over here.” Ryan whispered to Kara as he started heading toward the chair in the middle of the room. Kara followed behind him, baton at the ready. Ryan got to the chair and pulled the black cloth bag from the figure’s head.

            “Alex!” Ryan had to contain himself in case he could be heard. Ryan removed the gag from his mouth and started to untie him.

            “We have to hurry! I don’t think they’re expecting you yet because there was supposed to be a big ambush or something and the boss wanted to talk to you. But they tried to get information out of me. Naturally, I didn’t bother to say a word. And then they fucked up my clutch leg pretty badly so needless to say, I won’t be driving, let alone racing for a while.” Ryan finished untying Alex and propped him up on his shoulder. The three began to make their way out. The guards that Ryan and Kara had taken care of were still where they left them and they reached outside without too much of a problem. However, it was when they got to the car that they had problems. Some patrol guards had seen them and called for backup. Within seconds they heard the roaring of BMW engines heading toward them.

            “We really have to hurry now. Quick get him in the back!” Ryan shouted as he got into the driver’s seat and turned over the engine. Ryan threw it in first and let out the clutch. There was a mass of tire smoke as the RX-7 peeled away from its hiding spot in the shadows and tore off toward the mountain.

            “We have to get Alex’s car just in case they do something to it. Kara, you can drive it back to the garage we keep the cars in. It’s an SR20, so you should know how it works. I’ll try to shake them as best as I can before I come back. Wait for me there.” Ryan tore through the streets, passing traffic like it was standing still.

            “Alright, I got it.” Kara responded quickly as Ryan started up the mountain. This was Ryan’s first serious uphill with his new car. It handled like a dream and in almost no time flat, they were pulling up to the still raging party on the mountain. They found Alex’s car quickly and Kara strapped herself in. Alex gave her the key, which the thugs surprisingly didn’t bother to take from him, and started the engine. She began to tear her way down the mountain like she’d been driving Alex’s car for years.

            Before Ryan could make his escape though, The BMWs showed up and spotted Ryan immediately. Ryan peeled out and tried to shake them but these drivers were better than the ones from the first chase. They kept up with Ryan’s every move and soon had him surrounded on all sides. The driver on his left motioned for him to follow, and Ryan saw no other choice but to obey. They led him back to the warehouse district but to a different building. Ryan got out of his car and in an instant, guns were trained on him from every angle. Suddenly, a figure stepped out from the shadows.

            “Well, hello there mate. You seem to be causing me a bit of trouble. We need to have a bit of a chat about that, now won’t we?” Apparently, it was some sort of British gang, because he was definitely the leader, and his accent was definitely English.

            “What do you want with me? Why have you been tailing me these past few days?” Ryan kept a cool head even though he was scared out of his mind.

            “I don’t like how you’ve suddenly made a comeback after such a nasty accident. We could have sworn you’d be dead after that car exploded. We lost a lot of money betting on you dying. We fixed that race to a point where it was impossible for you to survive. But that boy had to go and save you, eh? Now we need to make that money back and you’re going to help us get it.”

            “How the hell do you expect me to do that? Or Why? That’s the better question.” Ryan mustered as much fake confidence as he could, hoping it wouldn’t backfire and get him killed.

            “Your next race. That’s where you’ll do it. You’re going to throw it. Make it look good, but at the end you’re throwing it, and there goes your reputation.” The man laughed as if the idea actually entertained him.

            “You’re crazy, what’s in it for me?” Ryan was starting to get upset, and it was evident in his change of tone.

            “You get to keep your life. If you say no, we’ll kill you right now, then your little girlfriend and your buddy after. So what’s it gonna be sunshine?” Ryan’s eyes widened as he heard the threat, and the mysterious boss just smiled.

            “Your bluffing, how will you make your money if I’m dead? You have to be either stupid, or seriously bluffing if you’re going to make that threat. Use your head.” Ryan had hoped he didn’t seal his death and awaited a response. The man just began to laugh, hard.

            “You’ve got balls kid. I like that. You took a chance and you were right. That’s exactly why I don’t like it as well. Your first risk in that race should have been your last. But you got lucky. Not again. You may have called this bluff, but I guarantee you won’t see the bloody end of it if you cross me again. Now get out of here, and don’t forget what I said. I may not have killed you tonight. That’s because I need you. If you don’t throw this race, believe were going to hunt you and your friends down and that’ll be the end of it.” Ryan didn’t bother to respond. He just got into his car and drove off. The fear of the man’s now credible threat had Ryan at a loss for words.

He simply drove off into the night.