The Fast Lane

Chapter 36

We climbed into Alex’s small car.  I jumped into the back seat next to Tessa.  I didn’t feel comfortable sitting in front of her and I didn’t want her to feel important enough to have the front seat.  Alex cranked the car and turned to look back at Tessa. She merely crossed her arms and looked smugly out the window.  I cleared my throat impatiently.

“Directions?”

She didn’t answer. Alex looked at me and shrugged.  I inhaled deeply and watched as Tessa observed her nails in the dull light from the moon through the window and then looked back at her house, full of party people who had no idea she was missing. Irritated, I cocked the gun. She immediately looked at me. I pointed the gun at her head.

“Now.”

She began to chuckle. “Go ahead and kill me.  Then you’ll never get directions.”

“I didn’t say anything about killing you. I could just shoot you in the foot-“ I moved the gun slowly to point at her foot. “-or your hand-“ I pointed the barrel at her fingers which were gripping her arm more and more tightly as I shifted the gun around. “-or maybe your knee. I’ve heard that’s pretty painful.”

She began to shift uncomfortably and cleared her throat. “You turn left out of the driveway.”

I sat back in my seat and relaxed.  I probably wouldn’t have shot her.  I wouldn’t have been able to stand to hear someone screaming in pain right next to me and knowing that it was all my fault.  I didn’t want to kill anyone else, let alone shoot them, but apparently that was a part of this game.  To win, I had to kill - or at least, it was working this far.

I stared out the window as Alex drove and listened to Tessa give directions. I noticed her staring at me at one point. “What?” I asked shortly.

“I just wouldn’t expect all of this from someone like you.”

“You don’t know me.”

She shrugged and observed the back of her hand. “I don’t have to know you to know that you’re not going to survive when you get to my house.  Once they see I’m being held hostage, you’re going to die.”

Alex nervously cleared his throat from the front seat. I was trying to imagine what Rich’s house was like but couldn’t. “At least I can say I died trying,” I said quietly.  I hoped that Tessa was just trying to psych me out.  Unless someone warned Rich about me coming, they would have no reason to be all securitied-up, so I relaxed. 

Tessa glanced over at me for a few minutes and then asked, “Why are you doing this anyways? Why does it matter so much?”

I hesitated. Why did it matter? I’m sure there was some complex reason buried deep in the folds of my brain, but I didn’t want to explain it to Tessa so I stuck with a simple answer. “I love both Harry and my sister.  I just want my family back.”

“What’s so great about Harry anyways? You can’t tell me you’re not in this relationship for the money.”

I glared over at her. “Actually I fell in love before I knew about the money and the racing and all of this shit,” I said, motioning around us. “And Harry is just… great.”

“Great? You’re engaged and all you can say about him is that he’s great?” Tessa sneered.

 I could think of a million words to describe Harry, but the last person I wanted to talk to about my feelings for him was Tessa. “Yes, great. You might have understood if you had stuck around for longer than two weeks.”

Tessa shifted uncomfortably and turned to look out the window. “Drive about six more miles. You can’t miss it.” 

Six miles later, we pulled up in front of a house three times the size of Tessa’s.  All I could make out in the darkness was the outline of the house since most of the lights were off.  Tessa opened the door even before Alex had really parked the car and stepped out.  She stretched and looked impatient as Alex and I climbed out of either side of the car.  I reached in my pocket and pulled out some of the extra ammunition that I grabbed earlier and reloaded.  As I began to walk around the car, I suddenly realized that I had no plan of action. I began to panic.