Nick was wiping the Gold Wing Valkyrie through traffic recklessly. He was weaving through the cars in ways he hadn’t done since he was a kid flying through the streets on his Ninja. He loved the hard rumble of bike beneath him and the roar of the modified mufflers each time he accelerated to thread his way between the closely packed vehicles.  The big Valkyrie was well tuned, purred like a big jungle cat; he’d been working on this motorcycle since he’d got home from prison. After thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of work and modifications there was no way he was going to just let a car full of assholes roll up on him without them earning it.

          Nick kept his eyes moving. The traffic was flying by at a breakneck speed, but he was vigilant of every vehicle, or so he thought. The pistol inside his jacket was tapping at his ribs thanks to the wind, and his mind was prepared for anything; it’s amazing the shit you get used to when you walk into a war with your eyes open. Jangles never did shit half-assed; if Coni said they’d been sent, he knew they were out there… it was just a matter of when they’d attack.

        He’d noticed several large, dark colored SUVs driving by and each one he’d look at expecting some signal that they were Lagrange’s men, but they’d keep driving without taking any notice of him at all. He ducked down letting the wind skate across his head and shoulder blades as he revved up and breezed off trying to get back to Tampa with little to no incidents. He’d always felt free in the wind like this, but today… the wind was not his friend.

      "Aye, yo, Nigga,” the voice seemed to barely reach him over the whistling wind, but he looked over just in time to see a man sticking his arm out of the window of the big body Chrysler 300. “Rememba me, you sombitch?”

    “Fuck!” Nick popped the break watching as the car flew by him; he dropped gears, skirted lanes to the left, and raced off gunning the motorcycle’s engine hard. “Too goddamn close.”

     Bullets whipped and whizzed by his ears as he sped past the car and off into the thicket of traffic. Once again Nick found himself whipping the bike between cars, going from lane to lane and dodging bullets. He was ignoring horning being blown as he maneuvered to keep the 300 at least two or three cars behind him, but the man driving was not to be denied; he was a damn good driver.

     He kept his eyes forward only taking quick glances into his mirrors watching for the lights of the car, but they were blending in with every other set of lights behind him. A spark from the window of one car caught his attention just as he dipped back to the left between a set of cars, and he knew now what car to keep an eye on.

    The traffic was getting thick just past Plant City and close to Thonotosassa and the 300 was keeping up a little too close for his comfort. Another round of bullets whizzed by Nick’s ear causing him to flinch and he almost lost control of the bike, but he steadied her out and dropped back over to the right and then right back up into the middle of traffic before the car could readjust to keep up.

      Nick could feel his heart in his throat as he tried to clear his head enough to think. There were entirely too many goddamn cars around for him to get around and those to idiots were shooting without a care who was hit. He’d already seen two cars veer off from to avoid being hit by the bullets and there’d been at least two accidents caused by the shooters.

      “Shit,” he mumbled as he pulled up in front of a semi and eased off the throttle just a bit waiting to see the car go past. Pulling his pistol and leaning over the handle bars he took off after them as they zipped past him.             “Damn good plan, Styles, a pistol versus fucking assault rifles.”

        Just as he took aim a large, black Suburban pulled up beside him and the passenger side windows rolled down and two men held what looked like AR-15s out of the windows. Nick returned his attention to the 300 and fired off the twelve shots that he had in his gun just as the men in the truck opened fire on the car as well. All hell broke loose when the car began weaving all over the road as it was riddled with bullets from both sides. 

Nick saw Macintosh Road coming up and he stuffed his pistol away, this would be his escape. The 300 began careening into a number of cars as the men in the Suburban continued firing. Nick slammed on his breaks bringing the big bike to a stop, and watched as the trucked pushed into the driver’s side of the car. The bullets never stopped. He could see the men in the car being jostled around like ragdolls as the large truck moved them around as it felt until the car was scrapping the guardrail. Nick watched in horror as Lagrange’s man pulled away from the car and the two shooters opened fired in a big way on the car.

        Riddled with bullets the driver and two shooters in the car were now slumped in their seats as the car’s wheels hit the shoulder sending the vehicle sailing into the air flipping. Rolling into the roadside ditch the car finally came to a stop smoking with its wheels spinning. Nick shook his head as he heard the sound of sirens coming from both directions on I-4. Not stopping to see what else happened he took off down the ramp and off onto Macintosh without looking back… he would have to call Lagrange and thank him later.

        “Fuck you, Jangles,” he was pissed. “Your ass is mine, you son-of-a-bitch.”