“Fuck,” Taz says. “And I had her in that damn tub too. Even with Les around, I still could have…”
“Not drunk,” I say.
“Why not?”
“Because I said so,” I say. “No drunk fucking Jolie’s best friend.”
Taz shakes his head. “She’s ruined you, bro.”
“Excuse me?”
He laughs. “She’s ruined you.”
In a way I can’t argue with him.
But I stand by what I said.
“You know I’m not looking for love,” Taz says. “Neither is she.”
“Taz…”
“Hey, I get it,” he says. “Let Les do all the mushy shit with her. Hold her hand. Whatever. You know what? He can hold her hand while I’m taking care of her. She’ll need it. You know the rumors about my tongue, bro…”
“I don’t want to hear this,” I say. “Keep your…”
My eyes move beyond Taz.
“Fuck,” I whisper.
“What?” Taz asks.
I look at my phone.
Then I look behind him again.
There’s two black SUVs approaching.
“Oh, shit, Mac,” Taz says. “Is that…”
“Yeah,” I say.
The SUVs are just showing up now.
Which means we’re early.
Which means we’re caught.
Taz looks at me.
He knows what’s about to happen now.
We’re fucked.
We start the rides and take off.
I look back just in time to see a guy hanging out of the passenger window of the front SUV.
With a gun.
He shoots.
I duck down like I know where the bullet is going to go.
It’s just the front SUV chasing us.
The second one is turning around, taking off.
That means everything is fucked up even worse now.
No seeing Jeff.
No seeing who he was supposed to meet.
No figuring out the truth.
That means Jolie is going to be stuck at Mama Dae’s for a little longer.
More than that, I’m not sure I’ll get to see Jolie ever again.
Taz speeds up and I catch up to him.
Our only choice is to dip into the parking lot area where the meeting was supposed to take place. Then try to turn it around and get away from the SUV.
It’s really not that hard to do… except they have weapons.
We’re easy targets.
All we can do is move fast and dart left to right to make it harder to shoot at us.
I take the lead and make the right turn into the parking lot.
I look back and the SUV isn’t all that far behind us.
The shooter is still hanging out of the window, gun in hand.
He starts to shoot again.
I turn my head to the left, wanting to warn Taz.
As I look at him, I see him make a jerking motion.
He loses control of his ride and slows before falling to the ground.
I’ve never seen Taz crash before.
I slam on my brakes and turn.
I jump off my ride and let it hit the ground as I run toward Taz.
He’s getting to his feet, grabbing for his right shoulder.
We both take our helmets off.
“It clipped me!” Taz yells.
I turn my head and the SUV is coming right toward us.
I reach behind me and take out my gun.
The second I point it at the SUV, the driver cuts the wheel.
I start to run toward the SUV.
Taz is behind me, yelling my name.
I’m not against jumping into the fire, even if it hurts.
These fucking assholes shot at Taz.
They shot at me.
The SUV comes to a stop and the driver’s door and back door open.
The driver steps out and so does two other guys.
It looks like everyone has a weapon.
“You’re fucking dead,” I call out.
“You’re outnumbered,” the driver says. “And what were you doing back there? Waiting for something?”
“Just taking a smoke break,” I say.
“Where’s the asshole who shot at me?” Taz asks.
“Right here,” another voice says.
The guy walks around the front of the SUV.
And Taz takes off.
“Shit,” I whisper.
Taz runs right to the guy and lunges for him.
I know this isn’t going to end the way we think.
The guy has a gun and Taz doesn’t care.
He tackles the guy to the ground anyway.
I’m not facing off with three guys myself.
So I tuck my gun into the back of my jeans and shrug my shoulders.
I just hope Jolie won’t get too mad at me for this.
I find a good spot near the beach and I pull to the side of the road.
I turn off the engine, step off the ride, and peel my helmet up over my head.
The pain in my face pushes through the rest of my body.
I drop the helmet to the ground and just walk toward the water.
Taz is right behind me.
I get a few seconds of alone time and silence before I look at him.
“You look like shit,” I say.
“You’re one to talk,” he says.
His nose is bleeding. His lip is cut open on the bottom. His cheeks are a little swollen. He looks like he got his ass kicked in a fight. I know I’m a mirror image of him. My right eye keeps threatening to swell and shut. I can feel my heartbeat in my left cheek. When I lick my top lip, I taste blood.
Fuck, I taste blood inside my mouth.
It was a goddamn miracle we got out of there alive.
Taz makes a fist and holds it out.
I smash my fist into his.
“Four on two and we handled it,” Taz says.
“No shots fired,” I say.
“They knew better. They wanted to feel us out.”
“I have no clue who they are, Taz,” I say.
“Neither do I.”
It had been a wild fight.
Taz came to help me as the three guys held me and helped themselves to as many punches as they could get.
Taz and I held our ground with the three guys.
But then the fourth came back into the picture and it got out of hand.
We managed.
The fight broke apart and guns were drawn once again.
That’s when Taz and I got the fuck out of there before someone got killed.
“You know, that was… that was the wrong time,” Taz says.
“I know.”
“We should have showed up a little later,” Taz says.
“Something you want to say?” I ask.
Taz wipes his bottom lip and then wipes the blood on his shirt. “I’m not Les, bro. I’m not going to dance around shit.”
“Les doesn’t dance around shit either,” I say.
“I know,” he says. “Do you really want me to say it?”
“Yeah, I do,” I say.
“Mama is never wrong,” Taz says. “Until she is. And she’s been wrong more than once.”
I stared out to the ocean.
I slowly nod.
There’s not much I can say to that.
Taz bumps his shoulder into mine. “Maybe she looked at the wrong clock or some shit. You know? I remember one time, there was this clock in our house… this fucker was always fast. We’d set it and then it would slowly move faster. After two weeks it would be fifteen minutes fast. So we’d set it again. It was fucked up.”