3:30pm

46: "You can't shoot the bitch . . . she's Stephen's."

There was actually a taxi a couple of cars from my bicycle, and it was empty. 

Being right next to the curb, it was easy for me to swing my legs off the bicycle and park it in the nearest alley between two retail stores.

I could barely walk. The muscles in my legs and lower belly protesting furiously against my attempt to move after doing all that cycling, I hobbled over to the taxi, after meandering through the rows of cars also waiting for the stop sign to go green, and rapped against the window of the driver. 

Right then, the sign went green. The sudden and familiar sound of a bike revving filled the air at once and seconds after, it zoomed off.

My adrenaline levels spiked instantly, thinking I was about to lose Stephen.

"Open the fucking door!" I yelled at the driver as soon as he wound down his window. 

"Jesus H. Christ, it's already unlocked if that's what you mean," the driver, a portly man with a shock of dark hair said, staring at me with dark eyes, the right one suffering from an almost severe ptosis.

I yanked the back door open immediately and hopped in, shutting it as I went.

"Where—" the driver began when I cut in.

I pointed at the glint of the mirrors of Stephen's bike in the far distance—it was all that was left of him that I could make out. "Follow that bike!"

"What bike?" The driver squinted, already shifting gears and rolling the car forward. 

"You don't see it?" My eyes darted to him and back to the glint up ahead. I didn't want to lose sight of it. "You don't see the fucking light coming off the bike's mirrors?"

"Oh, I do now," the man said, relaxing back into his seat.

"Then step on it!" I burst out.

"Jeez!" He exclaimed. 

I knew he'd done as I said when all of a sudden the car jolted forward, thrusting me backward with the motion.

"You are one very rude young lady," he muttered, looking straight ahead, visibly upset. "Gotta eat all this bullshit just for what? A couple fucking bucks?"

I rolled my eyes at his not-so-subtle soliloquy, finally able to relax the tension in my muscles once more. Sinking back into the seat, I let my head loll back onto the headrest. Slowly, the pent up energy began to dissipate and my heart rate lessened, until all that was left was the mind-numbing fatigue.

"Just don't lose that bike," I murmured, my arms and legs feeling like dead weight. "Please," I added.

"Oh, so you know that word?" The driver quipped in a surprised tone. "I mean, I'm hella shocked."

Again, I rolled my eyes.

"I'm sorry I yelled," I said, my gaze resting on the back of his floppy hair. "I was afraid of losing the driver of the bike, that's why."

The man was silent for a while before he spoke up again. "It's fine, I guess. I mean, now that you say it that way, I guess I understand."

To his comment, I made no remark, as more rational thoughts began to settle in my head. Like what exactly Stephen was unknowingly leading me to. Where, to be precise. Where the heck was I going? For all I knew, it could be dangerous. I mean, Stephen couldn't possibly be going to a regular place. No, not dressed like a goddamn hitman.

I sighed and rubbed my still throbbing temples. I couldn't really say at this moment that I trusted Stephen as much. Whatever it was he was leading me to could be dangerous. What then if I walked into it and there was no one to get me out?