Just some background vibes. ⤴
"So it wasn't an accident," Brook repeated thoughtfully after the crew had finally told him and Michelle everything they discovered after he had been discharged from the hospital. They were back in the hotel where they were staying and had gathered to go over the situation.
"I want you out of that race right now!" Michelle said in a high-strung voice. She turned to Paige.
"You told me it was an accident!" Michelle accused her. Paige averted her gaze.
"I didn't want to worry you last night." Paige defended. "And I didn't specifically say it was an accident."
"Either way, if someone's trying to sabotage Brook, I don't want him in that race anymore!" Michelle insisted. She turned to Brook with worry in her eyes. "I never wanted you to be a part of this and even more so after what happened."
"I gotta say, I agree with her," Payton said seriously. "This whole deal was a waste of time anyway. It's not like the Nightshades have proven to be of much help to us."
"Yeah, Paige, why are you still trying so hard to enlist their help?" Reece asked suspiciously.
"You know we're more reliant on our own. We've got our own resources," Jett said.
"I didn't want us to get attention!" Paige retorted, folding her arms in defiance. "When I started this investigation, it was clear that whoever is after us is targeting everyone known to be associated with us! Which makes each one of us a target! They made that clear when they attacked Payton and Brook, and I'm not gonna let that happen again!"
"And I don't want us to be a target anymore either!" Michelle added fiercely.
"But whoever's after us should have found out that the Nightshades are also associated with us, which means they'd have gone after them too," Brook reasoned.
"Well – so far, we've been lucky they haven't!" Paige spluttered, unable to think of a better excuse.
"So far, it looks like we've been garnering all the attention while they've stayed in the shadows undercover. That's not working out for us," Reece said.
"And it's not easy for us to investigate who sabotaged Brook's Ford when we're being sidetracked a lot," Jett added.
"Which brings us to the present – what do we do now?" Payton voiced the unspoken question hanging in the air.
"We drop out of that stupid race, we conduct this investigation ourselves and we don't put ourselves at risk anymore," Michelle spoke with finality before anyone else could answer.
"Michelle—" Brook began but was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Did you order room service at a time like this?" Payton asked Jett incredulously. He shook his head with vigor.
"No, it wasn't me!" He said. Payton opened the door.
"Hey, mind if I come in? We need to talk." Trish stood at the door alone, looking uncertain. Payton frowned.
"Now's not a good time," he said, intending to close the door. Trish placed her palm on it and pushed it wide open.
"Yes it is, you guys will wanna hear this." She said and walked in. Michelle glared at her, irritated by her overbearing attitude. She didn't miss the concerned look Trish gave Brook.
"How are you feeling? I heard what happened," she said in a humane voice to him.
"This better be important, you're wasting our time," Paige said gruffly. "Unless you have something actually helpful to us, you walk now." Trish's expression twitched in anger for a second, but she calmed herself quickly.
"Fine. I'll make it short. I want Brook to drop out of the race," she said. Everyone stared at her in surprise. Michelle, most of all was shocked.
"Are you serious?" She blurted out. Trish nodded.
"Yes. I don't want you to get hurt again. It's not worth it," she said, directly addressing Brook. "The stakes were for us, and I've decided it's not worth the risk."
"Well... er..." Payton ran a hand through his hair, unsure what to say.
"But aren't you guys like – losing by letting him drop out of the race?" Reece asked.
"I'm surprised Jada agreed to this," Paige stated with suspicion.
"That isn't your concern," Trish snapped at her, "And I can make my own decisions without Jada's input. We can take care of ourselves and our own problems. But we're not gonna put Brook's life at risk for money." Trish paused for breath. "If someone's trying to deliberately sabotage Brook, it's not safe out there."
"Finally we agree on something," Michelle muttered.
"Does anybody care what I have to say?" Brook spoke up, drawing everyone's attention.
"You're not gonna race again, are you, Brook?" Michelle asked anxiously. Brook cupped her face with his hand, a serious look on his face.
"I am," he said steadily, making Michelle's heart drop.
"Brook, did that carbon monoxide melt your brain? Because you're talking crazy now!" Paige said hotly.
"Guys, we've never run away before. You know it's not our thing to get scared and back down. We don't cower to threats. So if we're gonna be attacked, I want us to face it head-on. Isn't that what you wanted, Paige?" Brook looked at her as he spoke. She folded her arms defiantly, a furious scowl on her face.
"But Brook..." Michelle's lower lip fell a little as she gazed at him. He gave her a tender look.
"I know you're worried, Michelle. But I can't take this sitting down. We're gonna fight. And it's best to do it out in the open. If whoever's after us thinks they can scare us into hiding, they're dead wrong. If we put ourselves out there as bait, they're more likely to give themselves away trying to get to us. We can be prepared next time. Plus, we're not the kind to go back on our promises," he glanced at Trish, "if we said we'd help, we're gonna see it all the way to the end." Everyone remained silent for a minute after Brook's speech.
"You know what? He's sure as hell right," Payton said finally. "We've got this. We're not gonna back down."
"But—" both Michelle and Paige protested simultaneously.
"No 'buts'. We can fight this. We were caught unaware before. That's not gonna happen a third time," Payton said firmly. "This time, we're going in prepared."
"Then – you're not dropping out of the race?" Trish asked, looking just as uneasy as Michelle about the fact.
"No," Brook replied. Trish exhaled in defeat.
"I tried to warn you. Fine. Have it your way. Just know that if you need anything, you know where to find me," she said. Michelle clenched her fists.
"No! This isn't right, I don't want Brook's life at risk again, it's not safe out there!" She said sharply.
"I agree! This is crazy!" Paige also raged.
"Well, you're overruled. It's two against four," Reece said with a smirk. "Five if you count—" Michelle gave him such a piercing glare that he stopped and cleared his throat. "Anyhow, I'm for this and so's Jett. Right, Jett?"
"Er, right," he mumbled and ducked his head as Paige gave him a deathly glare of her own. Trish backed towards the door.
"Give us a call if you need anything, okay?" She offered as she left. After she had gone, Michelle and Paige glared daggers at the boys.
"What the hell is wrong with you boys?!" Paige asked indignantly. Payton spoke.
"We're just doing what we do best, babe. Fighting to protect the ones we love."
"Well so far, you guys are the ones who need protecting!" Michelle argued. Brook squeezed her hand.
"Michelle, I need you to trust me. You trusted me this far. I need you to trust me again." He said to her. Michelle looked like she was fighting a decision inside. She gave a sigh of defeat after a minute.
"Good. Because we're not gonna get taken by surprise again," Brook said, seeing her yield. He met Payton's eyes and communicated a silent message to him. Payton nodded.
"We'll be ready," he affirmed, grim determination in his eyes.
Far at the edge of Carson City, a man in a Fedora sat in a parked black car with a tablet in his hand, clutching it with such ferocity he was close to breaking it. His face contorted in rage as he muttered to himself. On the tablet, a video of a news clip had been playing – a video of the accident that happened at the second stage of the NNC.
"Still kicking... Why is it so damnably hard to exterminate those Night Blazers?!" He stormed. A shadow moved beside his car but he didn't look up and continued to mutter to himself.
"Killing off those vermin is proving harder than I thought. Perhaps I should change my approach. Then again, I need a few of them alive long enough to pay for their crimes..." He lapsed into silence, his bushy eyebrows furrowed deep in thought as though in a perpetual scowl. It wasn't until a knock came on his window did he look up. Jada stood outside. He leered at her before unlocking the doors. She opened the passenger's door and got in.
"How's that failure working out for you?" Jada asked calmly with folded arms. The man's only response was grinding his teeth. Jada checked her nails and dusted them off as she continued, "Not sure what you were trying to accomplish there, but all you've done is put those Night Blazers on their guard. You better have covered your tracks alright."
"Don't be foolish, Miss Alvarez, I never get my hands dirty personally," the man snarled. "All I had to do was plant the seeds of strife and those brainless mutts do the rest."
"So it was the Mao You..." Jada said thoughtfully.
"Of course. Why do a dirty job yourself when you can get someone else to do it for you?"
"It was a pretty sloppy job."
"I find myself agreeing with you on that. Those Night Blazers seem to evade death." The man flared his nostrils as he seethed. Jada drummed her fingers on the dashboard.
"You do realize you almost killed my golden goose?" She said with a hint of cynicism. "I get the whole plan of revenge and all, but I have a family to feed and—"
"Don't be stupid, Miss Alvarez," the man snapped. "I can offer you twice the amount of money that lap dog of theirs can win for you from the NNC. If he wins," he added sarcastically.
"I'm not taking any hand-outs," Jada returned sharply. "So far I've had no issue taking your money for doing the jobs you gave me. But the line draws here." The man gave her a long stare before a smirk broke at the corner of his mouth.
"It's a good thing no one's tamed you yet," he said, and suddenly grabbed her neck pulling her close, pressing his lips roughly between hers. She tried to push him away for a minute but soon stopped resisting and resorted to staying still. When he pulled away, her eyes blazed at him.
"I'm not interested in your games, Linus," she said and got out of the car, shutting the door with a bang. The man snickered inside.
"It's been a long time since anyone used my name..." He watched her return to her own car and drive away. His expression hardened again and he took up his tablet.
"I must find their weaknesses... Even outlaws are not invulnerable. And as the saying goes – keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It's time to get behind enemy lines."
Payton scanned through what must've been the twentieth video footage he had obtained from the NNC recordings which he was watching on a laptop at the hotel. He, Brook, Jett and Reece had been going over the footage again hoping to find something suspicious, maybe get a clue as to who could have sabotaged Brook's car. But so far they found nothing.
"We can't rule out the other racers either," Jett said from behind him. "Competition's rough."
"There's a fairly good chance they might have done it," Reece added.
"No, somehow I don't think it was them. It was too much of a singular act. If the other racers wanted to cut the competition in half, I wouldn't have been the only one to get sabotaged," Brook reasoned.
"But none of the others had any problems," Reece conceded.
"Which means it must be the mysterious attacker again," Jett said with a pout.
"If only we had some idea who it was..." Payton said with a yawn. He pressed the area between his eyebrows in exhaustion. "Hang on, where are the girls?" he asked, suddenly alert.
"I think they're in their room. They're – fuming," Brook said wanly.
"As long as they're safe..." Payton muttered.
"Safe and angry. They won't even look at us," Jett said, wiggling his nose from side to side.
"They'll cool off soon," Payton said, though he didn't sound convinced. Everyone had been so on edge for the last few weeks that all the feuding that had been going on within the crew was starting to strain them all.
"Please, you know Paige can hold a grudge for months," Reece scoffed.
"And Michelle is abnormally good with the silent treatment," Brook sighed. Payton shut the laptop with force.
"Maybe we need to do something to make it up to them," he said.
"Like what? If they won't even talk to us, how are we gonna get them to agree to anything?" Brook asked.
"Isn't Michelle's birthday coming up? We should celebrate in style! That'll cheer the girls up!" Jett suggested enthusiastically.
"No, I was thinking more along the lines of a date," Payton turned off Jett's idea, "although Brook had better start working on the birthday idea..." He turned to Brook who nodded.
"We need a break from all this and so do the girls. You thinking what I'm thinking?" Payton asked. Brook smirked.
"Already ahead of ya." He said and walked out the door. Reece groaned.
"This is why Jett and I have gotta get girlfriends!" He grumbled.
"Hey, it's your fault for sitting on your butts all day coding video games. Get a life and you might get girlfriends," Payton teased brutally.
"Might?" Jett asked with his mouth open. Payton grinned.
"There are no guarantees," he said, earning a pummeling from both of them. Brook returned suddenly, slamming the door open as he entered, panic-stricken.
"Guys, the girls are gone!" He said. Payton let out a roar.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit! Not again! Did you try calling them?"
"There's no answer!" Brook said frantically. Payton pulled out his phone and quickly called Paige's number but turned to Jett when the call didn't go through.
"Jett?" He asked meaningfully. Jett sighed.
"I'm on it," He said, opening his laptop again.
"They must have taken Paige's Chevy," Brook said helpfully. Jett mumbled 'mmm-mm' as he tracked the car. Reece huffed.
"Women. I wouldn't be surprised if they did this on purpose just to give us a fright."
Michelle and Paige strolled leisurely down the canned goods aisle of a supermarket. Michelle pushed a trolley while Paige randomly picked things off the shelves and added them to the trolley.
"Black or white?" Paige asked, holding up two cans of beans.
"Brook likes black..." Michelle replied listlessly.
"White it is," Paige said and dropped the can more noisily than necessary in the trolley. They walked on, trying to figure out what else they needed.
"Paige, do you think it was such a good idea to leave without telling the boys?"
"Are you nuts?! Those testosterone-inflicted lugs need to get a scare once in a while. They think they're in charge and are the only ones who can call the shots? Hmph! We'll prove them wrong."
"Yeah but... I don't want Brook to worry too much. He's already been through such a stressful situation. I feel bad for giving him the cold shoulder already." Michelle squeezed the trolley handle in guilt as she spoke. Paige whirled around with a scowl, a carton of milk in her hand.
"Look, those guys wouldn't listen to us, they just sidestepped our opinion! And for what? To continue putting themselves in danger?! Well, they gotta learn to take it in if they can dish it out. A little worry will be good for them. So far they're the ones worrying us about their safety. Not anymore! I'm turning the tables and – and..."
"Paige? You just strangulated that carton of milk," Michelle pointed to her hand. She looked down and saw her hand soaked in milk as the carton had burst with her grip. She grunted and threw it in the trolley before wiping her hand with the handkerchief Michelle offered her.
"You care too, don't you?" Michelle asked softly. Paige sighed.
"Too damn much. And I hate how it's eating us up watching our boys suffer. I wish we could do something instead of feeling so helpless – whoa!" Paige exclaimed as Michelle's trolley bumped into another one in front as they didn't see where they were going.
"Hey watch where you're – ugh, it's you guys," Paige said in disgust, seeing Jada and Trish with a trolley as well. Trish scowled, all the good nature she usually put on in front of Brook gone.
"Hmph, I guess even freakshows do grocery shopping," Paige said in an undertone.
"It feels like they're stalking us," Michelle mumbled back. Trish glared at her and Paige.
"Get out of my way, bitches!" She growled. Michelle narrowed her eyes. She was such a faker in front of Brook, acting all concerned and nice!
"Manners, Alvarez. This is a public place," Paige said through gritted teeth.
"Are you guys shopping for groceries?" Jada asked, attempting to divert the argument.
"Obviously," Paige rolled her eyes.
"Great, then we'll leave you to it," Jada said, pushing their trolley and Trish forward.
"The next race is in Gardnerville by the way, in case you haven't heard!" Trish back-taunted as Jada dragged her away. Michelle sighed.
"I wish we hadn't," she said. Since the third stage had ended in a perfect fiasco raising concerns for other racers as well, the next stage had been postponed to a date later that week after thorough security checks. And to Michelle's dismay, Brook's accident hadn't disqualified him. Which meant hoping that would chuck him out of the race wouldn't work.
"Yeah well, we did and we need to hit the road again soon because there's only so much hotel food I can handle," Paige grumbled as she loaded the trolley with a few more things. Michelle had been surprised to see that none of the crew could digest hotel food; they were all used to scarfing down their own junk from packets and cans back when they were on the run and fending for themselves and couldn't switch over to meals that came in ceramic dishes now.
"But how are we gonna cook all this?" Michelle asked. "It's not like we packed a kitchen."
"We can stop at a motel in Gardnerville. They'll have the few necessary utilities we need. Apart from that, we cook out. You have seen a campfire before, right angel face? Michelle?" Paige turned to her when she didn't get an answer. Michelle was staring wistfully at a row of Oreo cookies on the shelf.
"Brook loves Oreo cookies..." she said, sticking her lower lip out. Paige groaned impatiently, grabbed the Oreo cookies, and dumped them in the trolley where it was a certainty that they were broken into crumbs.
"You are so hopeless, you know that?" She commented cynically. Michelle gave a weak smile.
"I can't help it, Paige. Even if we disagree and I'm mad at him – I can't stop thinking about him. I love him so darn much." Paige shook her head.
"I'm not gonna get any support on this, am I?" She asked resignedly. Michelle smiled.
"Let's go back, they must be worried sick by now," she said. Paige pouted but agreed.
"Fine. But let's at least pick up some beef jerky."
"But you hate jerky," Michelle said with a frown. "You said it's too fatty."
"It's not for me," Paige grunted under her breath and mumbled, "it's for Payton." Michelle heard that last bit and giggled widely.
"Aww, you do care!" She said and hugged Paige. Paige shrugged her off.
"Ugh, don't get your love cooties all over me!" She protested.
"Yeah right, like you don't already have a fair share of them." Michelle winked at her. "I'm sure Payton will love—"
"WHAT IN BLAZES WERE YOU GIRLS THINKING?!" Payton's loud voice bellowed, startling them.
You know even villains think they have a chance at a life - at the expense of someone else's. Not sure if you found that chemistry weird, but I'd love to hear your comments on it.
So the girls just put themselves in hot water - again. They are such troublemakers eh? What with that 'battle of the sexes'. Y'all get any nostalgia there?
Safe to say we're past the halfway point and I'm building things up to a climax - but there's still much to come! Did you catch that birthday bit? I promise it'll be a blast just like last year! 🥳
You're invited.
See ya, wouldn't wanna be Paige and Michelle rn in: