Chapter Twenty-Seven: Fall Hard, Fight Forever-5

Lola's face visibly stiffened. "Kindness? It was no kindness when he discarded me-for you, of all people! He doesn't get to humiliate me and abandon me like that, Max-not without a price. So unless you want to pay it, you're going to have to remove yourself from his life immediately and permanently." My own temper flared at her audacity and I had to remind myself that Lola's grasp on reality was loose and she was about to fall off the cliff and grab me on her way down. But it didn't mean I wasn't getting angry. "I get that things are difficult for you right now. We can help you if you'd let us. But I'm not going to let you ruin other people's lives just because you're intent on making an absolute disaster of yours." That seemed to have caught Lola by surprise but in another second or two, she burst out laughing. "Well, then. That makes my decision so much easier, Max. I honestly did not relish the idea of having to bargain with you because in my opinion, you are simply a waste of his life and the bane of mine." Well now we know who my mystery texter is. I should've seen this coming but crazy is crazy because there's no telling exactly how they'd act. "You don't deserve to get anything you want out of this because you're simply a parasite that just needs exterminating," she added haughtily, her smile becoming even cruder. It was one thing to have a lunatic point a gun at you. It was another when that lunatic seemed perfectly lucid who found nothing wrong about the situation. I opened my mouth to respond but Lola suddenly reached a hand out to me. "Hand it over, please." When I didn't move, she sighed and slipped her other hand into her clutch, drawing a small silver revolver and levelling it low toward me. Okay, so she was really crazy-crazy and murderous. "Give it over, Max, and drive. Take the first exit to the freeway," she instructed in a cold, cutting tone, thumbing the hammer back on the gun. "If you make any attempt at jumping out or yelling for help or going anywhere other than where I instruct you to go, I will shoot you. And don't think I'll hesitate because there's nothing I'd like more than to put a bullet through your ugly face. This will be like me simply scratching an itch." Holy mother goose. Elise was not kidding when she said this was like a badly-written soap-opera. Swallowing hard despite my attempt to not show any outward emotion, I handed over the phone to her, aware that Luke was still on the line. Lola smiled and brought the phone to her ear, pressing the side buttons to turn the volume up. I could hear Luke frantically yelling my name on the other line. "Hi, lover," Lola said before she flicked her gun in the direction of the driveway and mouthed 'Drive' at me. Then she returned her attention to the phone call, her voice taking on a sweet, seductive lilt that gave me chills. "Thought you'd never hear my voice again, did you? You're such a silly baby, Luke. I can't give you up. I won't give you up." I tried to split my focus between what Lola was telling Luke and driving down the street looking for options on how to get out of this mess. Every time I turned my head to the side in an attempt to scan the area, Lola nudged my arm with the nuzzle of the gun. I didn't trust her not to pull the trigger-she really was crazy enough and hateful of me to give it no second thought. "Oh, you can track us all you like, Luke, but I doubt that it would make a difference at this point," she was telling Luke almost calmly, as if they were having a pleasant conversation about the weather. "If you'd listened to me, it wouldn't have gone this far. Your precious Max wouldn't be paying for all that you refused to give me. Because that's what you did, Luke-you took away everything from me." I had no choice but to go on the exit ramp to the freeway after another hard jab on the arm with the gun and while I tried not to get smashed into as I merged, I could hear Lola's voice thickening with emotions so theatrical I couldn't shake off the goosebumps that rode up my skin. "You know that without you, I was nothing!" she yelled at the phone. "People left me when I was having issues-a fucking little issue! Who doesn't use nowadays, huh? You tell me! All those fucking hypocrites left-except for you. You were all that I had! Norman has his wife that he keeps cheating on with all kinds of bimbos but he would never leave because she leads him around with chains around his fucking balls. I told him I could cut them off for him if that's what it took to make him a man. He laughed at me about the baby-just fucking laughed as if he had nothing to do with how I got there. But I didn't really care because Norman was a fucking loser anyway. I had you and you were going to take care of me, like you always did. Except that all of a sudden you wouldn't because this little bitch-witch nobody has her claws all over you." I had no time to react to Lola's name-calling because now she was practically shoving the gun to my side as she tilted her head to the left in what I interpreted was a sign to go over to the left lane. "I don't want you or your money anymore, Luke," Lola continued on the phone, her voice lowering into a deadly calm now. "I want a legacy instead. I want to go out with a bang, just like many of the celebrated stars in history, loved despite all their actions simply because they died too young and too tragically. The world will know it no longer has power over me, that in the end it was I with the power. No one will forget me then." She laughed-the crystalline clear, melodious and heartbreakingly hollow sound of a death knell. I shuddered. "Showtime, Max." She repeatedly slammed the gun into my arm, even after there was no more remaining lane to move over to. "There's nowhere left to go!" I yelled at her, trying to keep a steady hold on the steering wheel. "Cut through the construction up ahead and go on the other side," she instructed curtly.