The Fast Lane

Chapter 28

Harry jumped up and pulled me up to my feet. He looked around frantically for Rich or any of his men. I looked up at Harry and began to apologize but he shut me up with a quick and forceful kiss. “It’s not your fault, you didn’t know,” he said quickly, turning to speak to Caleb. That definitely didn’t make me feel any better about it. Harry took his keys out of his pocket and handed them to me. “Will you crank the car? I need to finish talking to Caleb.”

I obliged without hesitating. I cranked the car and sat in the front seat. Harry gave Caleb a decent hug before he began to walk around the front of the car to the drivers side, and then he saw me. He nodded a final time at Caleb and then walked over to the door as I rolled down the window. “You driving?”

I bobbed my head to the beat of the song that just came on the radio. “We’re in a bit of a rush now too so if you could hurry and sit…” I said sassily and nodding toward the passenger seat. Harry smirked and ran around to the passenger side of the car, sliding in and slipping on his seatbelt. I pushed in the clutch with my left foot and shifted into reverse, giving the car enough gas with my right foot to catch the gear. Driving with the boot was definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be but I was managing. We rolled backwards and out of the parking space, and I shifted into first to get going.

Harry watched me intently as I drove to the entrance of the parking lot. “I didn’t know you could drive stick.”

"Mhmmmm. Sam’s boyfriend taught me once on the farm."

Just as Harry was about to say something, five all-black cars pulled into the parking lot. Their tinted windows kept us from seeing into the cars but we didn’t need to see into them to know they were Rich’s men. They passed Harry and myself in Harry’s small, beat-up car. Harry grabbed me and yanked me downward behind the dashboard. He looked into my eyes almost pleadingly as we listened to the cars pass us. I gripped his hand tightly as I heard the last car stop next to us. A door opened. Feet hit the pavement. I sat up a little to peer out of the window. A man was walking toward us, wearing a black suit and black sunglasses. I was beginning to hate their cliché bad guy outfits.

I looked back at Harry. He bit his lip. “Want me to drive?”

I thought for a moment. “I’ve got it.”

"Tris…"

"I’ve got it Haz." I gave his hand a final squeeze and let go to grip the stick shift. As quietly as I could, I shifted to first gear, let off of the clutch, and gave it some gas. We stared to roll just as the man reached the window.

"Hey. HEY. STOP."

I threw the car into second and floored it. We spun out of the parking lot and down the hospital road. I heard screeching behind me as I shifted to third and the last of the black cars spun around to follow us. Looking in my rear-view mirror, I saw three more emerge from the parking lot behind the other. “Tris!” Harry shouted as he pointed in front of us. I looked up at the light in the busy intersection as it changed from yellow to red. I shifted to fourth and slammed on the gas, flying around the stopped cars waiting for the light and through the intersection. Harry turned around to watch as the four cars followed me, the last one getting rammed by an oncoming truck.

"One down baby, one down. Keep going. Get us out of here!" Harry was making me laugh. He was being completely serious yet I thought it was so funny. Squealing tires behind me brought me back to reality. I shifted to fifth as we hit the highway at nearly 100 miles per hour. I took the first exit off of the highway and wheeled into a Walmart parking lot. A loading truck was pulling in just as I was, and I gunned it, just narrowly missing the front bumper of the truck. The black car closest to me hit the bumper and began to spin until it ran over a curb and wrapped around a tree in a small patch of grass. Harry jumped up and down in his seat and he punched the ceiling excitedly as he looked out the back windshield. "YES, Love, keep going! Two to go! C’mon baby!"