“That didn’t go too good, did it?” Shirleen asked.

“Sugar, you can say that again,” Daisy answered.

* * * * *

“Ren Zano calls you and asks you out on a date, Luke Stark is gonna have a shit hemorrhage. He’s gonna lose his motherfuckin’ mind,” Shirleen said from the of my Range Rover.

I figured she was not wrong.

“Maybe we should take Ava to Wyoming. Maybe we should stop by Zip’s Gun Emporium and load up on weapons and then take Ava to Wyoming. Hole up in a cabin somewhere and shoot at anything that moves,” Daisy suggested, sitting beside Shirleen.

“I ain’t shootin’ at Luke Stark. First, that boy is fine. Second, if I missed he’d beat the shit out of me,” Shirleen said.

I glanced at Sissy. She had her fingers to her temples and was rubbing in circles.

“This is unprecedented. A Bad Boy pursuing a Rock Chick with competition on his ass,” Daisy said. “I’m not thinkin’ good thoughts, I’m not gettin’ good vibes, I’m not seein’ good things. We gotta get Ava out of here now. Luke is gonna blow his top. Blow… his… top. Comprende?”

“Would you two stop talking? You’re freaking me out,” I told them.

“Girl, better to be freaked out then cuffed to a bed for the next month. Which is exactly where you’re gonna be when Luke finds out you orchestrated this fiasco,” Shirleen told me.

Ee-yikes!

I stopped at a red light. “Maybe this is a moot point. Maybe Ren won’t call me. Have you thought that maybe Ren’s not interested in me?” I asked, somewhat hysterically and also loudly.

“He’s interested in you.” Sissy said quietly.

My head jerked to her. “What?”

“Ren’s interested in you,” she repeated.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“He told Tony, Tony told Carla, Carla told me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, beginning to sound more hysterical and definitely louder.

“I don’t know. Maybe because you’d sworn off men stating you’d never, never, never, never get involved with another one again. I like Ren. He’s a good guy. You can be a bitch to guys. Ren doesn’t deserve that. He deserves a woman who hasn’t vowed fidelity to her vibrators.”

I had to ask, why me?

It was on this thought that we were bumped from behind. Not a big bump but we all jerked forward and snapped back.

I looked in the rearview mirror. It was another SUV. I couldn’t tell the make because it was too close. The person driving it was a man. He had dark hair but that was about all I could make out before he started to reverse.

“We’ve been rear-ended,” Shirleen stated the obvious.

I watched him reverse thinking that was weird then he came forward again.

“Holy crap. He’s gonna –” I started to say.

BAM!

He rear-ended us again, this time a lot more than a bump. Everyone jerked forward harder and snapped back.

Shit!

“What the hell?” Daisy asked.

I watched as he reversed, I looked forward and the light turned green. I slammed the Range Rover in gear and I put the pedal to the floor.

“Oh my God! What’s going on?” Sissy cried, looking behind her.

“I don’t know. Is everyone buckled in?” I asked.

“Do you know that guy?” Daisy was looking to our rear as well.

“No. Now, I asked, is everyone buckled in?” I shouted, driving like a demon.

“I’m in,” Shirleen answered.

“Me too,” Daisy said.

“Yes,” Sissy added.

I saw the light in front of us turn red.

“Shit!” I shouted as I braked, looked in the rearview mirror and saw the SUV behind us wasn’t slowing. “Brace!” I yelled.

We had a split second to brace then, BANG!

“What’s going on?” Sissy screeched.

“Go! Go, go, go!” Shirleen shouted.

The guy behind us was reversing again.

“I can’t. It’s red,” I said.

“Lay on your horn, girl, and go,” Shirleen yelled.

The guy started coming again. I laid on my horn and went. As I entered the intersection, cars screeched and swerved. To avoid one, I pulled a left into the heavy, three-lane traffic on Hampden Avenue.

“Don’t stop, just go, keep honking and drive,” Daisy advised.

I did as I was told, weaving in and out of traffic. I went fast, cars honked, swerved out of my way, threw me gestures and the whole time the SUV followed me.

“I can’t shake him!” I cried.

“Keep drivin’,” Shirleen told me.

“I’ve done this before, I got experience. Go to a police station,” Daisy said.

“I can’t!” I yelled.

“Why not?” Sissy screeched.

“If I go to a police station then Luke will know I’ve been out and he’ll freak.”

“Better Luke freaks than we die,” Shirleen put in.

Easy for her to say, she wasn’t facing “payment” and “punishment” tonight.

Hell and damnation.

“Hold on!” I shouted and then I drove faster, weaved more and on the overpass to I-25 at the last minute I swung a huge, tight, very illegal uey.

It was not good at all to swing a huge, tight uey on a highway overpass in an SUV.

SUVs rolled easily. Very easily.

We teetered on two wheels, visions of us flipping over the overpass onto the busy highway below flying through my head, every last one of us screamed at the top of our lungs, we slammed back down on four wheels and I motored.

The SUV following us missed the uey and I kept driving like a madwoman, bent over the wheel, eyes glaring at the road.

I drove this way for awhile then Sissy said quietly from beside me, “Ava, you’re kind of scaring me.”

I slowed.

“I think we lost him,” Daisy murmured, looking behind her.

“Shee-it,” Shirleen breathed.

“I need cookies,” I declared.

* * * * *

I dropped a shaking Sissy off. She wandered into her Dad’s house looking dazed.

Shirleen and Daisy followed me to Luke’s. I went in and they drove off, Daisy behind the wheel of my Range Rover.

The back of the Range Rover was damaged. Shirleen and Daisy were taking it to “a friend” so he would fix it, thus hiding the evidence from Luke that I’d been out, doing stupid shit and getting into trouble.

I went up to the loft directly to my computer, flipped it on and decided to work and not think about any of this.