「 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐫 」𝘸. 𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘫𝘪𝘮𝘢

xvii | a series of fortunate events + girls day

"Pluto!" I scream, averting my gaze back to the road in front of me. With one car off our trails, it's now two on two, which shouldn't be too much trouble now. Pluto catches up with me and rolls down his window, and I hesitate if I should do the same. The police might see my reflection, and facial recognition is getting very serious nowadays.

With my head swarming with adrenaline, I roll my window down and there he is.

He's smiling and giving me a universal thumbs-up. I chuckle and return the hand gesture.

"Split up and lose them; let's meet up once again at another race, Queen!" Pluto uses my racer name and closes his window, taking a right somewhere, taking another police car along with him off the highway.

"Lose them Y.n.!" Nick says next to me as I roll up my window, adjusting the shift of the car and doing as instructed.

"Let's meet up at another race, Pluto," I smirk as I echo his words.

- - -

With the chase now being a bit easier to manipulate, I smoothly work the gear stick, the high-pitch sound of tires filling the air and being carried by the wind. I'm not sure how, but the cop car manages to gradually pull up on Nick's side, to which I mentally thank him for installing tinted windows. I glance over to see the cop on the left side straining his eyes, attempting to see inside as the driver focuses on the road. Their faces are filled with frustration and annoyance, and that riles me up. His struggle to keep up with me humors Nick and me, but those chuckles die down when I see assault rifles being taken out.

"Fuck," Nick says under his breath, and I know things get a bag when he cusses in a serious undertone.

"Holy shit, are they really bringing out guns for this?" I huff. I keep stealing glances from the police to the road ahead, swerving through other cars, receiving unappreciative honks in the process.

I finally manage to get ahead of the cop car, and just as I'm turning right per Nick's instructions, I hear a loud boom.

"Shit, they're gonna damage Lotus even more!" I hear Nick grumble. The inside of the car is suddenly very cold, and I realize they must've hit the rear windshield.

"Remember to pick up the bullet while cleaning up," I tell Nick, and he hums in response, scanning his phone for the best way to get this pesky cop off my tail.

"Look out!" Nick points in front of me, and then I see it. The all too familiar red and white Japanese police lights become clear and blurry, and I'm spinning from the sudden impact.

"Watch it, Spin!" he encourages, and Lotus' wheel moves on its own.

"C'mon Red Lotus, work with me!" I scream and I fight the car, and it finally listens.

I regained control and speed away, the cop that shot at us crashing into a building, and the one that made me spin, finally giving up.

"To my shop," Nick says once we're finally at cruising speed.

"Okay," I breathe, my heart still beating at an alarming rate.

About 30 minutes later, we enter a calm and almost cookie-cutter-like neighborhood, most of them getting ready to sleep. I cautiously look behind me, and shards of glass are barely holding on to the metal frame, one of the many things that Nick will have to fix.

I turn into a normal-looking two-car garage that's already anticipating me and Nick's arrival. I stop the car in front of a wall inside the normal-looking two-car garage and wait for the garage doors to close. After a mild booming and latching sound through the garage, the wall in front of us moves up slowly. In reality the wall-in-disguise is a second set of garage doors.