“Graham,” Halle says, her voice is serious this time catching me off guard. “I can’t tell who it is, but I think the person behind us is following me.”
The dark night sky makes it difficult to make out who’s driving behind us. Holding onto the head rest of Halle’s seat, I peer out the window over my shoulder.
“Do me a favor, baby, and make a few turns,” I say, keeping my eyes focused on the car behind us.
She pulls onto the next road and sure enough, the car behind us follows along behind. A few seconds later, she makes a sharp turn onto another road essentially bringing us in a circle and once again the car is right behind us turning too.
“Graham,” she mutters nervously. “What should I do?”
“Take another left up here and let’s head back to the highway. Try to stop for a second before you turn. I want to try to see what kind of car it is.”
“Okay,” she responds. Her voice flutters with nervousness.
Rubbing my hand over her shoulder, I try to let her know I’m here. The tension in her shoulders ease just a little.
As soon as we roll to a stop, I’m able to make out just enough of the front hood to see the GTO emblem and I immediately know who it is.
“Son of a bitch,” I curse out, slipping my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialing Maverick’s number.
“What’s up?” he answers, the sound of music blaring behind him.
“Where are you?”
“At Tattered with Ryan. What’s going on?” Tattered is the tattoo shop his girlfriend, Ryan, co-owns.
“I’m with Halle, we’re driving back from Big Nasty and we’re being followed.” I glance over at Halle, reaching to touch her thigh again. “It’s Krate.”
Halle’s eyes flash to me, wide with worry before focusing back on the road. Her hands grip the wheel with so much force, her knuckles turn white.
“Where are you?” Mav asks. He tells his girlfriend, Ryan, he’s gotta go and a few seconds later, the music disappears just before the exhaust on his pickup roars to life.
“We’re coming down Highway 30. We’re in Halle’s car, heading to my place.”
“Alright, I’m heading that way.”
He cuts the line. Thankfully he’ll be coming from Everton, so he will likely be coming up on us very soon.
“It’s gonna be alright, baby. You’re doing good,” I reassure her, just as the loud rumbling of the engine behind us revs.
Krate drives up on us, nearly rear-ending Halle’s car, before breaking and doing it again once more.
“Graham,” she cries, her hands fisting the steering wheel as she picks up speed.
“Be careful, baby, you’re doing great. We’re almost home,” I say.
We’re still about seven minutes away. In this moment, I hate that I let her drive tonight. I wish I would’ve driven, and it was me in the driver’s seat. Although I know if the roles were reversed, there’s no way in hell that stupid son of a bitch would be playing this game with me.
Glancing out the side mirror, I notice a pickup truck come up on us and a moment later a honk ensues.
“Oh, God, what was that?”
“That’s Maverick, baby. You’re doing great. Pick up the speed just a little bit but be careful. I don’t want you to get into an accident. I just want us to get home.”
“Okay.” She trembles, pressing on the gas.
My phone vibrates in my hand and I quickly swipe the screen, answering it.
“It’s definitely Krate, that stupid son of a bitch!” Maverick shouts.
“Yeah, I know. He’s been riding on our ass. Do me a favor and get rid of him. I want to get Halle home.”
“You got it. Let me know when you make it home.”
“Alright,” I say, rubbing my hand along Halle’s leg again hoping to reassure her.
I disconnect the call and turn my attention to my woman sitting next to me. All my biggest fears feel like they are about to become reality. Ever since the day I lost Gage, all I’ve thought about is what would happen if something happened to Halle or my mom. The fear of losing one of them, letting them down, has damn near crippled me.
Here I am in this moment, feeling like I’m out of control and could lose her, and I don’t even know what to do.
“Baby, Mav is here and he’s going to help us lose him. Okay? I need you to just focus on the road and getting us home. We’re almost there, baby. Just get us home.”
Maverick pulls his truck into the lane next to us, toward oncoming traffic and races up next to Krate as he revs his engine again before slamming on his brakes and swerving back behind him. He continues to run up behind him, riding on his ass warning him to let us go.
Distracting him long enough, Halle quickly swerves over into the right turning lane that veers off onto the gravel road leading to my house. Slowing enough to take the corner, I turn back to check if Krate is following us to see that he and Maverick continue to fly past us.
Halle lets out a heavy sigh as she pulls over to the side of the road.
“It’s okay, baby.” I lean over and kiss her, as she puts it into park and wraps her arms around my neck holding me close to her.
Her body trembles against me, as the tears start to flow down her face.
“Graham,” she cries, her arms wound tightly. I feel her tears against my neck as trembles rack through her body.
“You’re okay. We’re both okay,” I say to her, doing my best to remain calm even though I feel like I’m about to lose my mind.
She crawls over the seat into my lap and I hold her, doing my best to calm her down. We sit like this for a few minutes, until her tears have dried and her body has stopped shaking.
“I’ll drive us the rest of the way to my place.”
She nods her head. The adrenaline that was once racing through her has eased and now she’s crashing. The exhaustion weighing her down, as her eyes begin to droop.
I move to open the door and she scoots over into the seat. Closing the door behind me, I race to the other side and slip into the driver’s seat. I try to make quick work of getting us back to my place. Thankfully, we’re not too far now so it only takes a couple of minutes.
Her forehead is pressed against the glass of the window, as she looks out with her body curled up into a ball. Her arms are wrapped tightly around her legs, and I realize now how fragile she looks.
“You ready to head inside?”
It takes a minute before she unwraps herself, looking over at me.
“Graham, I was so scared,” she says, as the tears fill her eyes again.
I tell her to hang on a sec as I turn the car off and come around to her side, helping her out. She doesn’t hesitate when I wrap my arms around her lower back and her legs, picking her up. She tangles her arms around my neck, holding onto me as I carry her inside.
She helps grab the keys from my pocket and unlocks the door. Kicking the door shut behind me, I don’t stop as I take her down the hall and into my bedroom. Setting her on the edge of my mattress, I press a soft kiss against her lips.
“I know you were scared,” I whisper to her. “I was scared too.”
In fact, I was terrified. Images flash before my eyes of me racing down the side of the road, the gravel crunching beneath my feet as my lungs burned with every deep breath I struggled to take. I envision the red and blue lights from the emergency responders, as I frantically look around for Gage, hoping to see him standing around or being loaded into the ambulance.