The Billionaire's Gamble

In my rear view mirror I see several cars speeding after me. Shit. One of them is gaining on me, a man in a giant black Escalade. He’s close enough that I can see his face in my mirror and I know that he’s one of the people who kept asking gross sexual questions. Exactly the kind of man I want chasing me down on a highway. I speed up even more, and I know it’s dangerous, but I don’t want him to be that close.

I see my exit, and I barely slow down as I take it. Luck is on my side and I hit green lights, swerving around cars I’m sure weren’t expecting to run into a mad woman driving for her life. Unfortunately, the Escalade is right on my heels. I don’t see any other cars—we probably left them behind. The turn into my parking lot is coming up quickly, and I think maybe if I play it right I can lose him. I don’t slow down until the last second, careening around the corner and into the lot. But this guy is good, and he makes the turn too.

My heart is practically beating out of my chest, and my lungs are burning. I don’t know if I’ve ever had this much adrenaline rushing through my body. I manage to stop, swinging into a parking spot across from my boss’s car, right next to the door of our office. I breath for a heartbeat, and then I’m moving again. Glass shatters around me and I hear myself scream. I slam into the steering wheel and bounce back, my head hitting the seat behind me. I hear another crash of glass, and the screech of metal on metal.

Then everything is quiet.

I’m leaning against the seat, and I notice my arms are limp. Why are my arms limp? I try to raise them and only get a few inches. They feel wobbly. Why is everything so bright? There’s the sound of cars and I think that’s a siren I hear. There’s a crunching sound like someone’s stepping on glass. “Dani? Dani are you all right?”

I blink a couple times, looking up. My boss John is outside the window. I look around, and I come back to myself with sudden clarity. I was being chased, and that asshole in the Escalade didn’t have time to stop. He crashed into me. In fact, he crashed into me so hard that I was pushed into my boss’s car and shattered the front window of our office. Are you kidding me?

Blood rushes to my face in both anger and embarrassment. “Yeah,” I say. “I’m fine.”

I try to get out of the car, but my door is jammed shut and I have to force it open. The minute I step out of the car there are more pictures being taken. John grabs my arm and keeps me stable. “I’m really sorry,” I say to him. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

I can see all the cars of the paparazzi that caught up with us, and the ambulance is pulling into the parking lot now. The guy in the Escalade is nowhere to be seen. Probably ran off without a scratch. There’s a cop car pulling in with an ambulance and it feels like there’s a whirlwind of activity around me. The paramedics check me out, apply butterfly bandages to some cuts I got from the broken glass. The cops keep the photographers away, but they’re still taking pictures, and everyone keeps asking me if I’m okay.

After what feels like the millionth time being asked, I snap. “Yes!” I bark at the cop standing in front of me. “I am fine. The paramedics have said I am fine. Maybe instead of asking me if I’m okay you can try to find the assholes who were chasing me?”

Behind the cop I see some of the photographers head for their cars, obviously unwilling to be around if the police start asking questions. Other than my car mangling the glass of my office though, they don’t have any tangible proof. I’m hoping that maybe they can catch this guy on some traffic cameras. The cops don’t seem happy that I’m telling them what to do, but they do start talking to some of the people that are still here. I just hope they have some answers.

They do what they can, and the paramedics mother me longer than I want them to. All of this is observed by a rotating cast of my coworkers who come outside to see the damage. A tow truck shows up and someone has the thought to retrieve my stuff before they take my car away. I don’t try to stop them—I can already tell that the car will be totaled. The entire front is crushed from smashing into my boss’s car, and the back is crushed from the Escalade. Looking at the way the car is sandwiched, it’s amazing that I walked away with only a few cuts.