window. “I’m going to let you off with a warning for now, but make sure you don’t go over the speed limit again. They are there for a reason.”
I don’t let out a sigh of relief until he gets back into his vehicle.
“Okay,” Mac says. “Let’s go, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Maggie starts to talk again, but the three of us sit there in silence, stunned by what has just happened.
Did we really just get away? I ask myself. It’s all over now.
Before I can fully come to terms with it, he comes back.
Only this time, he doesn’t just trail behind me. The lights flash right from the get-go.
My heart jumps into my throat.
The cop knows exactly who we are and he wants to arrest us.
“Is that him again?” Isabelle asks.
I keep driving, unsure as to what to do.
“Maybe he forgot something?” Maggie asks. “Maybe we should stop?”
Maybe, but that’s not what’s going to happen. I press the pedal all the way to the floor and gun it.
“What are you doing?”
Everyone knows what I’m doing. I’m trying to get away with our lives.
The police car follows behind.
When I hit eighty miles per hour, so does he.
When I get up to ninety and then ninety-five, he does as well.
Eventually, we start racing down the dark desert at over one hundred ten miles per hour, swishing around cars.
I don’t have much time for a plan. He has already called for backup and that means at any on-ramp there could be ten new cops waiting for us.
When I see an exit coming up, I create as much of a separation between us as I can and pray that there are no other cars getting off.
Then I flick off my headlights and drive up the exit. The bend in the road gives me a little bit of time. I pray that it is enough for me to lose him.
As soon as I get on the overpass, I turn on the lights and slow down to a normal speed, to match the other drivers’. We hold our breaths.
There’s a loud and busy truck stop at the far end and I pull into the parking lot to hide in the shadows. I kill the engine and the lights and wait.
Doubt starts to creep in.
Should I have kept going?
Is sitting here and waiting the best thing to do?
A few minutes pass and then five more. After twenty minutes, I start to feel like maybe we’re safe. At least for now.
“What’s going on?” Maggie keeps asking. “Why are y’all running away from cops?”
No one answers for a while.
Then Isabelle says, “You don’t want to know.”
“Ready to go back?” I ask Mac and Mac only.
He gives me a slight nod.
“Any chance that he’s waiting for us there?”
“There’s always a chance, but I’m not sure. I think he would’ve followed us on here if he knew that’s where we went."
I swallow hard and drive as normal as possible. There’s no flashing lights anywhere, but that doesn’t mean he’s not waiting with other unmarked vehicles.
Still, the only thing I can do is drive and that’s exactly what I do.
I don’t feel safe stopping so I keep driving. Instead of staying on the interstate, I get off and drive north. No one argues with me.
After a few hours, everyone falls asleep, but my adrenaline keeps pumping and I keep driving.
I want to get us as far away as possible and never get that close to danger again.
Around three in the morning, I pull into an empty, almost abandoned gas station and am pleasantly surprised that the pump actually works. Maggie and Mac are asleep, but Isabelle comes out to get some fresh air with me.
“That was really scary,” she says, rubbing her shoulders to warm up.
“Yeah, it was.”
“We need a new car,” she says quietly.
“Yes, I know. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that for the last two hours.”
“She can’t keep traveling with us,” Isabelle says. “She’s on the verge of finding out who you are if she doesn't already know. And if we run into the cops again, they’re going to shoot to kill—”
I cut her off by putting my finger up to her mouth.
“I agree,” I say quietly. I know everything that she’s thinking and I don’t want to talk about it. “Kiss me.”
I pull her close to me and hold her for a long time. I can feel her body soften against mine. When she looks up at me, I press my lips onto