Lyla clutched the phone in her trembling hands. Like a survivor crawling out of a collapsed building, she felt the crushing weight of the stress and exertion she'd expended during the course of the horrendous day. She was as fragile as a pie crust. With the slightest pressure, she would splinter.

"I can't take this." Her eyes filled with tears.

"Is that...?" Jack began.

She showed him her phone.

"What the actual hell?" he sighed.

"Actual hell," said Lyla. "Exactly."

She looked out the back window and saw the cop car still behind them. She sniffed her forearm and grimaced.

"Yeah. We definitely stink," she groaned.

"I'm burning these clothes," Jack replied. He rolled down the windows to air out the car. "I might need to burn my car."

She gave him a weak smile and then a pleasant thought leaked into her mind. Jack called her his girlfriend. Sure, they were only putting on a performance for the police officer, but the Trooper believed them. To him, they looked like a high school couple so maybe it wasn't so implausible after all. Maybe she didn't look as mismatched as she thought she did with a super gorgeous guy like Jack. And maybe he was thinking the same thing.

His tired eyes alternated from the road ahead to the rearview mirror. He heaved a sigh of relief when the state police car finally stopped following them and turned at an intersection.

Ten miles down the road they found a gas station and convenience store. Jack steered his car to the gas pumps, then got out. While he fueled his car, Lyla went inside to wash the grime from her face and hands, and hopefully, to dilute the stink.

She caught a quick glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror as she lathered her hands in the sink.

"Wow, I look like a microwaved Dr. Seuss character," she said and grabbed a handful of paper towels. She exited the bathroom, took two Red Bulls from the cooler, and carried them to the counter.

An obnoxiously loud, hulking pickup truck roared into the lot and parked at the gas pumps across from Jack. Headbanger music blared, rattling the store window.

The clerk shook his head.

"Gross," she said plugging her ears. "Loud much?"

The driver of the truck, a beast of a man, climbed down from the cab. Her heart rate accelerated when she recognized Taj. She hoped that he hadn't noticed Jack at the pumps on the opposite side of the island. Her eyes widened when she noticed JoJo in the passenger seat.

Shit!

How would she manage to get to Jack's car without being noticed?

She worked her hair to cover her face, grabbed her drinks from the counter, put her head down, and exited the store.

So into bobbing his huge head to the beat, Taj didn't notice her crossing the cement driveway.

She turned her head away from the musical assault belching from the truck, avoiding eye contact with Taj and praying that JoJo wasn't paying attention. She jumped into the car and handed a Red Bull to Jack.

"Let's get out of here," he said and started the car.

They were jolted when JoJo darted out from between the gas pumps, grinning menacingly at them through the windshield.

"Well, look who decided to take a joy ride out to my neck of the woods," JoJo growled.

Taj positioned himself as a massive barricade in front of the car. Lyla was fearful that he might lift the front wheels off the ground when he placed his enormous hands on the hood.

JoJo scurried to Jack's window. "Why don't you come on outta there so we can finish what we started?"

"It's finished," Jack replied.

"It's finished when I say it's finished," JoJo sneered. He threw a hard punch that caught Jack by surprise and sent him crashing into Lyla. JoJo reached for the door handle.

She shifted the car into reverse, jammed her foot on top of Jack's on the accelerator, and whipped the wheel. When the car rocketed backward, JoJo toppled to the ground.

Jack cleared the cobwebs from his head and took control of the steering wheel, piloting his car out of the parking lot before JoJo and Taj could follow.

"I'm gonna kick his punk ass," he snarled, wiping a blotch of blood from his lip.

"Here they come!" She looked out the back window watching in horror as the two men scrambled into the pickup.