BULLETS PIERCE THE metal next to me as Dante unloads an entire clip in our direction. Reina quickly opens her door and falls out of the car, moving to her right to take cover next to the backseat door while I struggle to stay low and climb out next to her. Once we’re out, Dante squeezes the trigger over and over again while he screams from the fury he’s feeling. We’ve put him through a lot today, so I can’t blame him for being pissed, but shooting at me is a bad idea. Shooting at Reina is the worst idea.
“Okay, so what do we do?” Reina asks as glass from the backseat shatters above our heads and sends shards cascading down on us. I look at her and still don’t see the slightest hint of fear in her eyes.
“What do we do?” I repeat with a smile. “We kill him. Switch places with me.”
Reina and I exchange places so that I can be near the tail end of the car as I wait for my moment. Dante, like a lunatic, has already emptied one clip, dropped it, and reloaded while we were ducking for safety. As he empties another and moves to reload again, I open the back door and grab my own nine mil that I keep under the driver’s seat. Dante chambers a round just as I do, but before he can aim, I exit the backseat and take aim from behind the car, letting off round after round. The gun kicks back in my hand over and over again, and Dante, taken by surprise, has to turn around and run for the safety of his truck. There, he takes position behind the door and fires back, his bullets embedding themselves into my once-beautiful car.
“Son of a bitch,” I yell when I realize how much damage my Alfa Romeo is taking. “I love this car!”
“Gonna have to buy another one now, that’s for sure!” Reina bellows behind an amused smile. “So much for keeping Dante from finding out about us!” she says, laughing as bullets sink into the car and buzz over our heads.
“Wow, you’re seriously just as nuts as I am!” I say behind a chuckle of my own. “What do you say we kill this asshole and go buy another car?”
“Sounds good, babe. Let’s do it.”
“Take this.” I hand Reina the gun before snatching the back door open again and picking up the extra gun I keep under the passenger’s seat. Both of us armed now, we wait for Dante to reload a third time. When his shooting pauses, Reina and I both stand up and shoot at Dante relentlessly. Bullets hit his truck, sending sparks flying off of it as his windshield completely shatters from the rounds hitting it. Dante ducks behind the door, so Reina and I focus our aim there. We hear him let out a scream as rounds start to get through the metal, putting him in real danger, and I’m sure regret is slowly starting to sink in for him. He came for us, but Reina and I have turned the tables.
Unfortunately, guns don’t have infinite bullets, and Reina and I have to stop to reload. When we do, Dante quickly jumps into the driver’s seat of his wrecked truck and turns the key in the ignition. The engine struggles mightily to turnover, but eventually kicks on, sending white smoke floating into the air from under the crushed hood. Dante ignores it as he puts the truck in gear and slams on the gas. The tires squeal as he barrels forward, right towards us.
“Shit. Reina, move!” I bark as I push her to the side and both of us fall down and roll into the underground parking structure of the North-X-Northwest just as Dante’s truck whizzes by, barely missing us.
“He’s running,” Reina snaps. “He came to kill us, wrecked your car, and now he’s running!”
“There’s no way he gets away that easy. Come on. This ends tonight.”
I pick myself up off the concrete and help Reina do the same, before running into the parking structure and finding my other car—my gorgeous, burgundy, Rolls Royce Wraith. When Reina sees the car, she stops and looks back to me.
“You wanna drive this?” she asks. “No, Solomon, it’s too nice”
“Well after tonight, we’re gonna have to buy another one, right?” I say behind a chuckle.
“What about the keys? And what about your other car?” Reina asks when I pop open the door and climb into the front seat. She gets into the passenger seat as I press the button and start the engine.
“I’ll have Nix send a guy to get rid of the Alfa Romeo. As for this car, it’s a Wraith, baby. Push to start,” I reply with a smile. “I always leave the key fob in the glove compartment, because nobody touches my shit.”
“Oh that’s right,” Reina replies, grinning. “How could I forget?”
Reina closes her door, I close mine, and I pound the pedal into the floor. The tires underneath us spin and I send the Wraith out of the parking garage and into the street. Luckily, it’s nearly three o’clock in the morning, so very few cars are on the road, otherwise this chase would’ve stopped before it started.
I surge the car forward in the direction Dante’s truck went, and I floor it, letting the four-hundred-sixty-two-thousand-dollar engine earn its worth. We pass a few cars and luckily no cops, and before too long, I see white smoke and Dante’s tail lights ahead.
“There he is!” Reina chirps. “Get him, baby! Go!”
“I got him,” I reply, keeping my eyes on the road and my foot on the gas.
Dante’s crippled truck didn’t have a chance to get away even when it wasn’t broken, so we catch up to him in no time at all, just as he approaches the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. As we speed up next to him, Dante sees us coming and quickly swerves into my lane, forcing me to yank the steering wheel over to avoid hitting him. The move only pisses me off, and I let go of any plans to preserve the Wraith. I step on the gas again and when he swerves this time, I let his truck hit us. The metal scrapes together and sends sparks whirling into the air.
“Fuck this!” I bark, my words coated with rage. “Reina, he’s all yours, baby.”
Reina looks at me and smiles. Without thinking, she grabs the nine millimeter I handed her earlier and rolls down her window. Like a trained assassin, Reina aims the weapon at Dante’s window and squeezes the trigger. The gun kicks in her hand and she holds it, squeezing and squeezing like she’s been doing it her whole life.
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
Bullet holes appear in Dante’s door and he swerves the truck as he’s hit by at least one of the rounds, but before his truck can collide with us, I stomp on the brakes. Dante’s crippled vehicle swerves directly in front of us and crosses lanes before slamming, headfirst, into the railing of the bridge. The impact causes the front of the vehicle to kick up into the air before turning on its side and rolling end over end down the road. I slow the Wraith down and watch as the truck rolls away from us and finally comes to a stop up-side-down.
Reina and I sit in silence, looking at the wreckage in front of us. Oncoming cars come to a complete stop, making sure to keep a safe distance away, and I know this is our opportunity. We have to end this. I open my door.
“What are you doing?” Reina says, grabbing my arm. “I got him. There’s tons of witnesses down there, we have to go.”
“Not yet.”
“Solomon, there’s no way he survived that wreck. You saw how bad it was. Let’s go.”
“He destroyed my car, shot at us, and tried to run us over,” I reply, looking Reina directly in the eyes. “All of this after sending people to try to kill me at my own club, and kissing your cheek in front of me. I’m not leaving until I know he’s dead. I don’t care who’s watching. Let them watch.”
Reina pleads with her eyes, but relents as I turn from her and step out of the car. Slowly and cautiously, I walk down the road towards Dante’s truck as it lies motionless on its roof. Glass and truck parts are littered all across the road, and when I’m close enough, I see Dante hanging up-side-down, still being held in place by his seatbelt. I reach the truck and kneel to get a better view, and to my complete surprise, Dante is still alive. His breathing is heavy and there’s blood all over his face, but he’s alive and conscious.
“Tisk, tisk, Dante,” I say to him, leaning over to meet his gaze. “Look what you’ve gotten yourself into. You said yourself that I cause chaos, yet you still decided to come at me. Now, you’ll never know what it’s like to be the boss. Your family is done, Dante. Angelo is too old, and the mob is too weak now to do anything to avenge you. You know that, though, so I won’t rub it in.”
“Fuck you, Solomon,” Dante says, struggling to get the words out as blood leaks from his head and slides down into his mouth. “You’ll never beat us, and if you’re dumb enough to trust that whore in the car with you, you’re worse off than I thought you were. No matter what, you still lose, Solomon. So, enjoy this while you still can.”
At the mention of Reina, I see red, but I don’t let it show. It’s my game.
“How neat for you to paint a pretty picture for yourself at the end,” I say behind a smile. “Do what you’ve gotta do to exit this life peacefully. And don’t worry, I will enjoy this.”
Without another word, I grab a large piece of broken glass from the window and jam it into the side of Dante’s throat. His body jerks and he lets out a few gurgles as blood flows into his throat and mouth, making him choke. I watch him struggle to breathe for a minute before he finally releases his last breath and dies with his eyes open, still hanging up-side-down.
Once I’m back to my car, I hear police sirens coming. Reina looks at me with worry in her eyes and grabs my hand.
“We good? Can we go now?” she asks.
“We’re good, baby,” I reply. “Let’s go home until the sun comes up. Then, we’re going car shopping.”