Senior Year Box Set

We’d just passed Tracy’s driveway when we saw the flashing lights of the county sheriff. Cassidy slowed down and stopped.

“There’s three of them. One is armed …” she began.

The back window of the SUV exploded. Cassidy didn’t hesitate as she put the car in gear and took off. The county guy got out of his car and held his hand up. Bill’s Corvette shot forward, and the officer dove to the side of the road. I wondered if a cop with his hand up ever worked. Bill slowed down and shot out the cop’s back tire to disable his cruiser.

“Up ahead is an old dirt road. This vehicle was made for off-road driving, and that Corvette isn’t,” I said.

Cassidy put us into a power slide as she found the road. Evidently, no one had done any maintenance on it for a long time because there were huge potholes. When I hit my head on the ceiling for the second time, I’d had enough.

“Either slow down or let me out,” I complained.

I looked back, and Bill hadn’t joined us down this road, but I spotted the Jeep about a half-mile behind us.

I grabbed the tablet and brought up a local map.

“We need to get him to a hospital,” Tami said, nodding toward Paul. “He’s lost some blood, and this bouncing around isn’t doing him any good.”

“Frick!” I complained.

“What?” Cassidy asked.

“Bill plans to cut us off. I hate to say this, but I want you to drive through that field. On the other side is a farmhouse, and a paved road that will take us into Pontiac,” I suggested.

If this had been any other time, I would have loved this. The problem was, I had one of my security people bleeding in the back, and two goons and a maniac who wanted to kill Tracy and me were chasing us.

When I called 911 this time, I got a man who took me seriously, the sheriff himself. Apparently, having one of his deputy sheriffs almost run over and his cruiser disabled had gotten the man’s full attention.

He gave us directions for how he wanted us to come into town. They planned to have a roadblock set up to catch Bill and his goons before we hit a populated area.

I wasn’t impressed when he suggested we slow down so they could catch up. I had no desire to be human bait. Then again, the two behind us didn’t have guns now. Unless they had more in the car. Frick!

“They want us to slow down so the police can catch them,” I told Cassidy. “At the road, take a left.”

The farm dog flipped out when we drove out of the field and down their driveway, precisely what I would have hoped one would do. Cassidy took a left onto the road. Shortly after that, I looked back and saw the Jeep pull onto the road as well. When he caught up, he stayed about three car lengths behind us.

“Why is he pacing us?” Cassidy asked.

“My guess is he’s on the phone with Bill. Watch the intersections.”

I’d just said that when we spotted the Corvette up ahead, blocking the road.

“What should I do?” Cassidy asked.

“This thing is a beast, and that Corvette will end up in a bunch of little pieces. Run him over if he doesn’t move,” I ordered.

“Cassidy!” Tracy screamed as we didn’t slow down.

She now had one hand on the roof and one on the dashboard. I hunted for a seat belt.

Bill figured out that his life was about to end and shot out of the way before we collided. I was glad our game of chicken hadn’t concluded with us crashing.

“You two are crazy,” Tracy said, almost in tears.

“Take the next right,” I told Cassidy as I secured my seat belt.

The Jeep was still on our butt, and the Corvette was quickly gaining. If the county guy hadn’t requested us to slow down, we could have easily outpaced both cars following us.

The Ford Hennessey VelociRaptor 650 had the chassis of a pickup truck that had been designed to run the Baja 1000. Hennessey got ahold of it and installed a supercharger, which they tuned to push the 6.2-liter V-8 to 1032 horsepower. Despite its size, the beast could do 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. It wasn’t my Demon, but it was quick enough to leave these cars in the dust.

We were now on the road that led to town. I looked at the map.

“Up ahead is the Vermillion River,” I shared.

“That’s the worst bridge. I always get nervous going over it because it’s so narrow,” Tracy warned.

As we came over a ridge, we spotted the roadblock on the other side of the bridge. Bill must have seen it too, because he sped up and tried to pass us. I looked over and saw his gun pointed at Cassidy’s head.

“Look out!” I yelled.

Cassidy slammed on the brakes. The Jeep was right behind us and slammed into the back of the SUV, causing us to fishtail toward the Corvette. Bill jerked his steering wheel over to avoid us. That caused him to clip the bridge.

Modern cars have all kinds of safety features, from collapsible steering columns and crumple zones to air bags. Bill’s Corvette predated all of those. The body of the vehicle was fiberglass, and it exploded on impact. Bill’s front tire caught the edge of the bridge, causing his car to roll.

Everyone sat in stunned silence at the destruction we’d just witnessed. I doubted Bill had survived that.