"Jada was betraying us this whole time!" Michelle whispered in shock.

"Told ya not to trust them," Holden whispered back.

"You betrayed us!" Soriano exploded at Jada. "And after everything we did for you!"

"I gotta say, Soriano, for a cop, you were a little slow on the uptake," Jada said bitterly. LaCroix pulled her under his arm, making her flinch.

"Jada here has been giving me the ins and outs of your crew," he said slowly. "All my efforts to destroy you and your crew would have been in vain if not for her."

"Don't tempt your fate, Jada, you'll pay dearly for this betrayal," Soriano gritted at her. LaCroix scoffed.

"Your threats won't hold water now, Morgan. Pay him no heed, Jada. And call his crew to let them know I have their dear chief. And if the police get wind of it, they won't see him again."

"Fine." Jada pulled away to go make the call while Soriano started to jerk around in his chair.

"Don't do this, LaCroix!" He yelled. LaCroix merely smiled with vindictiveness in his eyes. Michelle clutched Holden's sleeve, pulling him.

"We have to go warn the others!" She whispered. "We can't let them fall for his trap!"

"What about your chief?" Holden asked.

"Do you want to fight those men off two against—ten?" Michelle asked sarcastically after counting them. "Plus, Jada's deadly with blades. We can't take them all ourselves. The police should be here any minute—ah!" She screamed as she suddenly felt a pair of hands grab her wrists, pinning them behind her back. Holden also gave a yell as someone overpowered him and he began to kick and struggle. They had been so intent on watching the chief that she hadn't noticed they had been ambushed! It was maddening as they couldn't see a thing and were captured in the dark.

"Let go of me, you a**holes!" Holden yelled, fighting them off. "Run, Patterson!" But Michelle had already been captured by the men. She screamed as she and Holden were roughly dragged down the hangar grunting and crying out as they were brought to their knees before a smirking LaCroix.

"Well, well, my job just gets easier and easier. Loyalty will get your crew killed, Morgan. How lovely of your young runaways to join us," he taunted Soriano. Soriano gaped in shock at Michelle and Holden who were still struggling against their captors.

"Michelle! What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here!" He yelled in a panic. Michelle gazed at him in fretful silence, giving him a silent shake of her head. She wanted to tell him not to worry, she had gotten his message and the police were on their way but she couldn't with LaCroix watching her. She glared at Jada standing in the corner who gave her an emotionless look.

"And what do we have here? Zhang's little renegade," LaCroix said, clutching Holden's hair and pushing his head back to see his eyes. He snarled at LaCroix while the latter cackled.

"Reuben, do bring our young friend's old boss, give him a look," LaCroix directed one of the thugs. Michelle watched as two of the men went out and came back and she gasped on seeing them dragging a wounded and bleeding Zhang, too weak to even speak from all the blood loss.

"I'd like to take credit for this but your chief here was responsible for this damage," LaCroix said to a shocked Michelle. He turned to Holden.

"It's a pity he hasn't got much time left, he'd have shot you himself if he hadn't gotten blown off," he said carelessly. "But now, I have the unpleasant task of doing it myself." LaCroix pulled out a gun from his jacket and prepared to pull the trigger at Holden.

"No! Don't shoot him, please!" Michelle screamed and entreated desperately. If anything happened to Holden who had helped her get this far, it would be all her fault. And Holden had tried to save her earlier. LaCroix gazed at her with a patronizing look. He walked towards her and lifted her chin up with the nozzle of his gun.

"DON'T YOU DARE HARM HER, LACROIX!" Soriano raved at the top of his lungs. LaCroix chuckled softly.

"Have you grown a heart for this felon, sweetheart? Well, let me tell you, that was your biggest mistake. A pretty young woman like you might've lived if you'd never gotten tangled up with these vermin." He put his gun away.

"Don't worry, I'll be a gentleman and save you the horror of watching him die. You, however," LaCroix turned to Soriano, "won't be so lucky." He turned to Jada.

"Have you set the trap?" He asked her. "I want the others here now."

"No, I have a better idea," Jada said, eyeing Michelle's jacket pocket. She walked towards Michelle whose eyes regarded her with intense hatred. But Jada simply slipped her hand into Michelle's pocket and pulled out her phone.

"Give that back!" Michelle yelled. Jada held it up to LaCroix.

"It'll be better if you tell them yourself—with her phone," she said. "They'll come rushing in without a second thought for her. Her boyfriend is obsessed with her and will fall like a sucker if he thinks she's in danger."

"No!" Michelle and Soriano shrieked simultaneously. LaCroix laughed.

"Perfect." He turned on Michelle's phone and called the number Jada suggested.

"It's the other woman's number. She'll pass the message along."

"No, no! Please!" Michelle screamed and cried out, but the man called Reuben stifled her mouth with his hand, muffling her screams. The phone rang for a couple of rings and then Paige answered.

"Michelle! Where are you? We're—"

"Listen carefully if you want to see your friend again," LaCroix interrupted her in a dangerously silken voice. "You and your crew will track this phone and drive here posthaste, unarmed. You call the police and she gets a bullet in her head. You will give yourselves up to me. Do you understand?"

"DON'T DO IT PAIGE, I FORBID YOU!" Soriano bellowed but was gagged by one of the men. Michelle also tried to cry out in a muffled voice through Reuben's hand in vain. There was a gasp on the phone.

"Chief! You're—"

"One hour," LaCroix cut Paige off. "If you and your crew are not here within the hour, they both die. Be seeing you." He hung up and dropped the phone into Jada's hands with a devious laugh.

"Soon, it will be the end of the Night Blazers." Tears of agony fell from Michelle's eyes; if the others got here before the police, they were finished. And it was all because of her. What had she done?

A few minutes earlier...

Brook and the others had been driving in silence for the last few minutes, his eyes fixed on the tracker to Michelle's phone. It was only when Jett suddenly spoke up through the radio did he realize he'd been holding his breath every few seconds, every muscle in his body taut as steel as he waited to reach Michelle.

"You know, Brook, I feel I oughta tell you this," Jett began, "I know why your Ford didn't blow up with the explosion."

"What?" Brook asked in surprise.

"It was all the chief's idea," Jett continued earnestly. "He made me and Reece paint your car with a fire retardant last night. It was the paint job he had for us."

"Yeah it's true," Reece said rapidly. "With everything going on, I forgot we'd done that."

"He never told me..." Brook muttered.

"So the chief's the reason you and Michelle are alive," Payton observed somberly.

"He thinks of everything," Jett said in a low voice. Brook let out a deep breath.

"All the more reason to find and rescue him. Wherever he is..."

"Er, Brook? The tracker's stopped," Jett said.

"That must mean she's arrived at wherever the chief is," Brook said in anticipation. "Jett, can you check out the area where she stopped?"

"Just a minute. It's in the outskirts of the city near an old air force base," he replied, "there's a disused hangar there, that could be it. I think—uh oh."

"What?" Brook asked Jett at once, but then he soon realized what his 'uh oh' was for—the tracker had disappeared!

"Brook?" Jett called anxiously, but Brook remained flint-faced this time.

"She must've entered a dead zone. Air Force grounds are known for that," he said firmly.

"I sure hope so... at least we know where she stopped, let's keep driving!" Payton said. A sudden honk behind them made them look back. Paige's Chevrolet Corvette appeared, trailing behind them.

"Paige! You were supposed to stay behind!" Payton scolded her sternly on the radio.

"Pipe down, babe, I'm not about to let you boys have all the fun!" She retorted. "I'm gonna help find Michelle too!"

"Don't argue with her or she'll have you for dinner," Brook muttered to Payton who sighed loudly.

"We were too worried to sit at home and do nothing," Leslie's voice came through the radio.

"Leslie, you're with Paige too?" Brook asked with a groan. "What's it take to keep you women safe?"

"Quit whining big guy, we're not damsels in distress," Paige said cynically. "You can't always play the hero."

"Ugh... just stay close and don't do anything stupid," Brook warned her. She snorted, making Payton smile in amusement.

"Oh yeah, because we women always make stupid decisions first," she muttered sarcastically. "You gotta learn to accept help some—" she stopped as her phone rang, clearly audible through the radio.

"Are you getting a phone call?" Reece asked incredulously. Paige gasped when she saw the caller ID.

"IT'S MICHELLE!" She yelled.

"Answer it!" Brook called back urgently, just as Jett added, "The tracker's come back!" Paige answered the call instantly and put it on speaker for the others to hear.

"Michelle! Where are you? We're—"

"Listen carefully if you want to see your friend again," A man's voice spoke, making Brook convulse in shock. "You and your crew will track this phone and drive here posthaste, unarmed. You call the police and she gets a bullet in her head. You will give yourselves up to me. Do you understand?"

"No, Michelle!" Brook hollered in horror.

"DON'T DO IT PAIGE, I FORBID YOU!" Soriano's voice in the background startled the others and made Leslie gasp.

"Chief! You're—"

"One hour," the man said, interrupting Paige. "If you and your crew are not here within the hour, they both die. Be seeing you." The line went dead and Brook almost howled in frustration.

"We have to do what he says, Michelle and the chief's lives are at stake!" He cried.

"Hang on, who was 'he'?" Payton asked thoughtfully. "That wasn't Zhang's voice but it sounded familiar..."

"I don't care who he is, he's got Michelle and is threatening her life!" Brook raged. "When I find him, I'm gonna break every bone in his body for this!"

"But it's a trap, Brook, what if we get caught too?" Paige said anxiously. "We won't be of any help to Michelle and the chief then."

"And we can't call the police or try to hold them at gunpoint," Leslie said with worry. "What do we do?" Brook thought hard for a moment.

"Whoever he is, he wants us all in one place, defenseless and easy to capture. He will probably ambush us. We can't take our earpieces in case he finds them. Do any of you have any spare trackers?"

"No, the only things we have on us are the earpieces," Reece replied. "Not good for tracking. And the radio doesn't help with tracking unless we send out a signal manually."

"The car trackers!" Jett chirped excitedly. "All your cars are still bugged!"

"Where are those bugs?" Brook asked quickly.

"Under your seats, it was the safest place for me to hide them," Jett said.

"Okay. Jett? I'm counting on you for this. I need you to track these bugs once we're out of our cars. Call the L.V.M.P.D, submit an urgent report right now about a kidnapping and hostage situation, and give them our coordinates through the trackers. Tell them to get here ASAP, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Jett affirmed.

"But what about his threat about killing them if we call the police?" Leslie asked.

"That's a risk I'll have to take if we're gonna save them," Brook said, though the thought jarred him. "I hope we'll be able to do something before it comes to that."

"We'd better hide the trackers well on ourselves in case we get searched," Paige warned. "And we each better keep one in case we get separated. Everyone wearing boots?"

"Way ahead of you, babe," Payton replied. "We're ready."

"Good," Brook said determinedly. "Then let's go on a rescue mission."

https://youtu.be/vLuTWdUCq60

optional bg music. from pixelberry.⤴

Michelle sat in the middle of the hangar on the ground, tied up with Soriano and Holden. Zhang was lying unconscious in a corner, still bleeding profusely. LaCroix had left him to die there. He, his men, and Jada had gone outside to ambush the Night Blazers as soon as they arrived. Michelle felt like she was suffocating with the worry she had for Brook and the others; she was supposed to rescue the chief and protect the others from a situation exactly like this and now what happened? She had failed miserably and had incited a dire quagmire. A tear slipped from her eye.

"Hey Patterson," Holden coughed, speaking to her. "Thanks. You saved my life there earlier." Soriano glanced at him.

"I just bought you a little more time, Holden," Michelle said despairingly. " Sooner or later, they're still gonna kill us."

"Yeah, but still. No one's ever stuck up for me that way," Holden said, his voice gruff with emotion. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you get away."

"And I'm sorry I ever doubted you, kid," Soriano said to him. He turned to the chief saying, "That's understandable. I just regret I lived my whole life without knowing decent folks like you. Folks who really care. It's not something you find around Zhang's circle. Out there, it's mostly every man for himself." Soriano raised his head to glance at Zhang on hearing his name.

"You don't deserve this either, Holden," Soriano said. "Maybe you'd have been better off if you'd never come to us. Safe and alive somewhere at least."

"Maybe," Holden said, "but then I'd never have gotten to see what a tight-knit crew is like. You people are like—like family. And if I'd have had more time, it's something I'd wanna be part of." Michelle gave him a watery smile.

"You're alright, son," Soriano said to him in a fatherly way, "if I ever get us out of here, I want you to know you'll always have a place with us."

"Thanks, chief," Holden said, his voice breaking a little as he called Soriano 'chief' for the first time. He turned to Michelle, changing the subject.

"So when do you think the cavalry's coming?" He asked. Soriano glanced sharply at Michelle.

"That reminds me... didn't you get my message?" He asked her. Michelle nodded, glancing at his ponytail.

"I did, chief, and I did what you asked... but I'm not sure if they'll get here in time," she said sorrowfully. "We managed to track you here but I guess we should've waited a little more. It's just that... the boys tracked you to Stetson tunnel and found your car and—and blood, and..."

"You were worried about me," Soriano said gently as she sobbed quietly. "Well, there's still a chance Bill won't let me down. If only we could stall the others from getting here..." The sound of car engines outside made Michelle suck in a sharp breath. Were they the police as she had hoped? No, there were no sirens... her heart sank when she recognized Brook's Bugatti engine. He had fallen for the bait and had driven straight to her—straight into a trap.

"It's not the police," she said to Soriano and Holden, biting her lip. They sat in tense silence, waiting. Soon the sounds of yells and a scuffle could be heard outside and LaCroix and his men returned, dragging the captured Night Blazers. Michelle and Soriano were anguished to see the whole crew there—even Leslie. Oddly, Jett was missing.

"Brook!" Michelle cried out in distress on seeing him being manhandled by the men. He spotted her on the ground and began to struggle in vain to get to her.

"Michelle!" He called back in desperation. LaCroix chuckled cruelly as he entered the hangar upon seeing them in pain. Michelle watched, helpless, as they bound up Brook and the others and brought them to their knees.

"Chief..." Leslie whispered with a little cry on seeing him bruised and bleeding at the lip.

"Ah, what a tearful reunion this is. It's so reliable trusting the dashing delinquent to rush in and save the girl he loves." LaCroix mocked them from the darkness while they glowered in his direction wanting to pound him to a pulp.

"You, you led her here!" Brook attacked Holden on seeing him tied up next to Michelle.

"Like hell I did! We were trying to protect you!" Holden argued back. LaCroix suddenly shot his gun upward to silence them, making Michelle scream and startling them all.

"Enough! Did you search them for weapons?" He asked his men who confirmed that they were clean.

"Excellent," LaCroix said and stepped into the light where the crew got a good look at his face for the first time. Payton grunted in recognition.

"You! I knew you were trouble!" Everyone soon recognized him from the day they first met him—the day before the third stage of the NNC.

"What do you want with us?!" Brook demanded him. LaCroix yawned.

"Oh, I'd hate to go over the same tragic story again... the long and short of it is my brother was murdered, you people were the reason for it and I'm just here to exact revenge." Brook glanced at Soriano.

"He thinks Mario's death is on my head," Soriano growled. "Listen to me, LaCroix. If you touch my crew, I swear, I'll make you pay dearly in blood for it."

"Hmm, and how can you do that when you're all tied up?" LaCroix asked in a taunt. The men holding the crew prisoners laughed heartlessly as well. Jada came forward, watching the Night Blazers.

"You!" Brook, Payton, and Paige cried out simultaneously. "You betrayed us!"

"No, Paige," she said calmly, "I was never on your side from the start."

"You used me all while playing us along!" Brook raged hotly. Jada looked unmoved.

"Thanks by the way. You filled our pockets. We'll use the earnings from the NNC well."

"When I get my hands on you—" Paige spluttered in fury.

"Oh but you won't," Jada said unconcernedly. "You'll be blown to bits before that. After all, it's because of you seeking our help that you led your crew to their doom." Paige looked shattered at that and hung her head in shame.

"Don't listen to her Paige, she's nothing but a liar!" Payton said with a ferocious glare at Jada. Jada was unperturbed by his insult and instead, her eyes quietly counted the Night Blazers.

"Hang on, one of them is missing," she said. "It's a guy called Jett." LaCroix frowned.

"I thought I told you all to come here or else," LaCroix said, twirling his gun in his hand.

"Jett's halfway across the country by now!" Paige lied smoothly. "You'll never get him!" LaCroix debated.

"Hmm, I remember him. He's the computer geek who fell for my investment offer. He'll be easy to lure in. I'll find him later."

"I knew you were nothing but a four-flusher," Payton raved at LaCroix who simply chuckled.

"And the surprises aren't over yet," he said with twisted humor. "Allow me to introduce your captors!" The men who captured them all rounded up in front of the Night Blazers, malicious grins on their faces. Payton's eyes widened when he saw their tattoos.

"Hang on, I know you ugly mugs, you're the gorillas who broke into the dealership and attacked me!" He bellowed. When Paige heard that, she began to yell at them.

"I should've maimed you all back then!" She exploded. Reuben cackled.

"Nice try, girlie. We are the Ignis Viperae gang. It'll take a lot more than a little harlot like you to take us down." Payton looked ready to rip the man's tongue to shreds when he insulted Paige, but since he was tied up, all he could do was writhe and roar.

"We never did find out who you were..." Reece muttered darkly, glaring at the men.

"Ah, and I hope my message got through your thick skulls," LaCroix said. The crew suddenly realized the meaning of the message left in the dealership.

"Where do the bones of the innocent lie... beneath the pride of criminals... You were referring to Mario..." Soriano breathed.

"Correct." LaCroix clapped. "And now, the night is wearing down and it's time I sent you all to your demise..." He turned to Jada and his men.

"Take the women for a ride across town."

"No!" Soriano, Brook, Payton, and Reece shouted.

"Tsk, tsk. You criminals don't get to make demands! Although, I will allow you to watch each other get blown up, as my brother was." LaCroix tortured them with his words. He turned to his men. "Oh and, boys? I have a package to be picked up," he went on, giving Jada a sly glance. "Place it with the rest of the prisoners." The men picked up Michelle, Paige, and Leslie and began to drag them away while they screamed and struggled.

"Payton! Morgan!" Paige and Leslie cried out.

"Brook! Listen to me, you're gonna get out of this, just trust me okay?" Michelle called out, tears flowing from her eyes as they met Brook's tormented gaze. She was dragged away and didn't stop calling out his name until he was out of sight.

"Michelle! No!" Brook howled, pain ripping his heart apart at the thought of losing her. LaCroix gazed intently at him.

"Hurts, doesn't it? Watching the one you love being taken away from you... how sweet of her to try and give you false hope. But I'll let you see each other one last time before you leave for the afterlife."

Phew! Extra looong tension chapter here. You still with me? Please tell me that didn't gut you...😫😰 Intense scenes, I know. We've reached the climax and things are gonna get worse before they get better so hang in there! Quick Q, do you know what quagmire means? It's like a dilemma or a checkmate situation, FYI. 

And turns out, ding ding ding! Holden was not a traitor! 😲 And he might have had a chance at joining the crew... How do you feel about that?

PS, note about the soundtrack... that tune was actually in the original book 'ride or die' and is called Quiet Darkness but I don't know why it's falling under 'perfect match'... in the original too it was for a climax scene so I thought it's fitting. Definitely the right vibe here. Hope you heard it!

Until the next, hold onto your hankies.