Page 89 of Stag

“Yeah.”

“The vehicle was just spotted tearing down the A road out of town, sending coordinates. I’d hurry if I were you, she’s speeding up, and I don’t think the plan is to make it to the end of the road,” a crisp voice said to him. It wasn’t one I recognised, but his words sent me into fucking overdrive. Not being the one driving was killing me. I wasn’t even in control of the vehicle I was in, merely a passenger in our horror, and the fact that it was a cage was even fucking worse.

“I can’t breathe!”

Danno cursed, and slammed the brakes on, pulling up by a gate on the side of the road.

“I’m doing this for your own good,” he said firmly, turning in his seat and grabbing my seatbelt to tug me toward him, a firm fist catching me right in the jaw, snapping my head back as he released me. Jesus fuck!

“Ow, motherfucker!”

He chuckled. “You’re welcome, let’s go get your girl.” He pulled back out onto the road, and floored it. We were going to find her. There was no fucking option where we’d miss her. I wouldn’t let it happen, and I was starting to realise he wouldn’t either.

“Turn left here, down that dirt track,” the disembodied voice commanded, and Danno swerved at the last second, a cloud of dust flying up behind us as he kept moving at speed.

“You got eyes on her, Nige?”

“Not as many cameras out this way, but some of the bikers are on their tail now. She’s not getting away.”

Oh god. “Fuck! What if they get in an accident?!”

Claudia

It was like something out of a movie, some kind of macho action movie, where the bad guys are roaring down the road, recklessly taking curves and bends like they just don’t want to survive, but it wasn’t a movie. It was my real life. It was possibly the last moments of my life.

Marissa was crying, I could see tears pouring down her cheeks, and I knew the only hope was to talk her down. To try. To try and make her see reason, to try and get through to her before she slammed us headlong into a tree or something, and ended our story in one violent moment.

“Mar, please. Listen to me. You don’t want this. You don’t want to die, and I don’t want to die. I don’t want you to die. I want us to stop, please. Let’s pull over somewhere and just talk. We can talk this out. It’s not too late.”

She kept glancing fearfully in her rearview and side mirrors, so I turned to look behind us, and the sight of several black clad bikers chasing us down the road was both a relief and horrifying, because their presence could send her even further into a meltdown, because this would make her feel like there’s no way out.

“They won’t hurt you, Mar. They just want us safe. They’re good people, I promise. You can slow down, please, just do the smart thing. We’re twins! We’re practically the same person. You’ve done so much for me, so let me do this for you now. I’ll help you. I… we’ll get help for you. You’re so brave, but you’re stressed out. You’ve had so much to worry about, but I want to help!”

I kept glancing at the bikers behind us, their helmets making it impossible to know who’s who. Was Stag one of them? Was he riding right behind us, watching Marissa risk our lives? What if she hurt him too? What if she hurt his brothers?

One of the bikers broke away from the others, speeding up to move alongside our car, on the wrong side of the road. He was waving his arm at us, trying to get Marissa to slow down, and the other bikers were close behind but they suddenly all started falling back, and when I turned to look ahead of us, I could see a large black vehicle blocking the road, and a man standing by the open passenger door, waving at us to stop. Oh god! It was Stag, and she wasn’t slowing down!

“Marissa! STOP! STOP PLEASE! Don’t hurt him!”

In a panic, I grabbed the steering wheel and pulled down on it, throwing as much of my weight into it as I could, and we veered sharply across the road. We were both probably screaming, as the car left the road, and crashed down into the ditch on the side of the road. We landed with a bone-jarring crash, and I was thrown forward hard enough that the seatbelt locked in place, like a steel bar across my chest, and the airbag deployed on Marissa’s side, her face slamming into that instead of the steering wheel.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck!

I watched the car in horror as it roared towards me, and swerved to the side at the last moment, almost rolling as it crashed down into the ditch instead. I heard the engines of my brothers’ rides as they pulled up to help, but I was already running for the car, with Danno right behind me.

“Claudia! Fuck, please be okay, baby, please be okay,” I was babbling like an idiot as I reached the car, and hopped down into the ditch, fully aware my sweet lady wouldn’t hear me calling out to her, but unable to do a thing about it. My terror was leaching out of me in frantic words, because what if she didn’t survive?

As I rounded the car, my eyes caught hers through the windscreen, her head lolling a little as she fell back against the seat and tracked me as I reached her door. Danno was going for Marissa’s side, and I truly didn’t give a fuck if that bitch was alive or dead, because she was the reason my lady was dazed and bleeding, and traumatised.

The door was a little bowed, but brute force tore it open, and then I was leaning in the car, gently cupping Claudia’s face in my fingers.

“Babe, can you focus on me?”

Her eyes were a little sluggish and glazed over as she blinked slowly at me, and her lips parted on a moan. Not the version I loved, but a sound filled with pain and confusion.

“I’mma get this nutjob handed over to your guys, then I’ll move my car for the ambulance when it arrives.”