Dick by Scott Hildreth Read Free Book Online Page B

us, and I was stretching the distance slightly. The cop car ahead was speeding into traffic in anticipation of us catching up with him.
    “Hold onto it. If we wreck, hand me that fucker, get out, and throw your hands up in the air. You can claim I kidnapped you, I don’t give a fuck. But just so you know, they’re not arresting me.”
    I expected her to gasp. Scream. Tell me no. Go ballistic and start babbling incoherently. She did none of those things.
    “Okay,” she said calmly. “But I’m not telling ‘em that. We’re in this together. I’m the one that told you to go fast.”
    Interesting…
    “We’re taking this exit, and it’s gonna be a bitch,” I assured her. “Grab ahold of something.”
    I gripped the wheel tight, bracing myself for what I was sure to be a crash.
    With two cops behind us half a mile, and one slightly ahead and on the right, I got as close to the exit as I could, holding the middle lane as if we were heading for the open road. At the last instant, I touched the brakes, fell behind him, and swerved through three lanes toward the exit on the far right.
    The car slowed considerably from the force of the ninety-degree turn.
    I downshifted three times, pushed the throttle to the floor, and screamed as we took the exit at a speed well in excess of what was safe.
    “Fuuuuuucccckkkkkkk!” I cried out as the rear of the car hopped up and down, skipping across the pavement like the rocks I used to skip across the pond as a kid.
    The car fishtailed a little, and I slowed slightly. I somehow recovered, and hit the gas again. By the grace of God, we made it through the curve without wrecking. The cop, on the other hand, shot well past the exit.
    Jess fumbled for the phone. After finding it, she held it to her ear. “Still there? Yeah. No. One of them wrecked. Yeah. We just got off on 35th. Okay. Okay. I’ll tell him.”
    “Drake’s at the door waiting.”
    I had plenty to worry about. My focus was – and had to remain – the road, driving, and what obstacles were well ahead of us. I couldn’t help but admire Jess’ calm demeanor and acceptance of everything that was going on.
    I slowed to roughly 60 miles per hour, took a narrow left, and downshifted four times. After pegging the throttle and tapping the paddle shifter a few times, we screeched into Drake’s neighborhood. A few seconds later, and we were in his driveway. I checked over my shoulder. Jess did the same.
    I pulled the car into the garage, let out a long sigh, and turned to face Jess. As Drake powered the garage door down, Jess grinned her ear-to-ear smile.
    “What?” I asked.
    “That was crazy.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Sure as fuck was.”
    The driver’s door flew open.
    Drake stood outside the door with a half-eaten hot dog in his hand.
    He was in his mid-thirties, but acted and appeared to be just shy of fifty. He was of average height and average weight, but his hair made him seem much older. The shoulder-length strands of filth were brown with streaks of grey, and his long goatee was solid white. He wore the same thing every time I saw him, regardless of whether he was at home, a club, or eating at one of the Vietnamese soup kitchens he liked to frequent.
    A robe and matching pajama pants. Plaid was the choice of the day.
    Everything he did had a price attached to it. It didn’t matter what how simple or how difficult the task, he simply did nothing for free. He was one of the last people I wanted to see, but his house was the only place I felt I could safely reach without wrecking the car or being arrested.
    “How’s it hangin’, Dick?”
    I stepped out of the car and nodded. “Low, as always. Appreciate this.”
    He brushed his long greying hair behind his ears and peered over the top of the car. “God damn, Dick. Where’d you get this one?”
    I waved my finger back and forth between them. “Jess, this is Drake. Drake, Jess.”
    Dressed in her work clothes from the previous night, Jess walked around the