Prologue
Shots fired
Adrienne
Champagne corks pop, the sticky, fizzy mess flowing over my head, and I can’t help but laugh. It fills my lungs and overflows.
Today is the best day of my life.
I’ve just won the Los Angeles Grand Prix—one of the toughest races in the world, andIwon it. My family has a long history with the Los Angeles Grand Prix. My dad, famous race car driver, Adrian Malone, has won the race twenty-seven times. In fact, he holds the world record for the number of races wonby far.
You would think there’s a lot of pressure on me to be just as good as my dad, maybe even more so, but that’s all on me. He has never forced me to race. In fact, he forbade me from it after my first big crash landed me in the hospital with a concussion and a few broken ribs. But I was hooked. Racing is my drug of choice, and the adrenaline that flows through my blood is the high I see myself chasing until the day I die.
With Dad’s impending retirement announcement, the world is waiting to find out who will be named the number one driver and head of Dark Horse Racing, the family business. My childhood best friend, Bobby, and I are the two names at the top of the list.
And I want it.Bad.
The name Malone is synonymous with Dark Horse Racing. It’s my family legacy, and I’ve worked my ass off to get here. And secretly, I think Dad loves the idea of handing that legacy over to me. But he couldn’t just give it to me. I had to earn it. Which is why I raced my ass off today to be standing on this podium covered in champagne.
I won.
I won a race that no woman has ever won before. I won a race no other driver for DHR has ever won besides my dad. Today’s win goes a long way in my favor for taking over the family business. It’s not just one check in my column; it’s a hundred checks. It’sthatbig of a deal.
I just stand here and bask in the moment. The smile that spreads across my face is huge and genuine. The crowd is cheering and chanting my name. Mine, not my dad’s. It’s an incredible feeling, and I close my eyes, tip my face up to the sun to let it all sink in, and say a silent thank you.
Unfortunately, that’s why I don’t feel the energy of the crowd change. I don’t notice something is wrong until the first bullet whizz past my ear. My eyes snap open, and the next thing I know, I’m being tackled from behind by a mountain of a man, who also happens to be my new bodyguard.
“Fresa,” he growls. “I thought we talked about not making yourself a target anymore.”
“Whoopsies.”
He also hates my guts. It’s a shame, because he’s the best-looking man I have ever seen, and he checks every damn box on my whole entire list.
My name is Adrienne Malone, and I’m determined to become the next face of my family legacy, Dark Horse Racing. I guess it’s time I take all of those threats seriously. At least before it’s too late and I wind up roadkill.
Chapter 1
Crown Jewel
One month earlier…
“I’m pregnant.”
I stand there in stunned silence as Dad’s wife makes one hell of an announcement. My dad is fifty-three years old, and until today, I was his only child.
A baby.
I can remember way back when I was little, I always wanted a sibling, a brother or sister to play with. A companion and best friend. I’m not going to lie and say my childhood was tragic, because it wasn’t—far from it, in fact. Even after my parents’ divorce, they still loved me and showered me with attention. I wasn’t abused or mistreated by any of my dad’s wives who came after my mom. But none of them gave me siblings, which is why this feels strange.
But a baby?
Even though I’m twenty-eight, and we’ll be twenty-nine years apart by the time he or she is born, I’m still going to love them. I’m also going to spoil the hell out of them.
“I think that’s great news, Candy,” I tell Dad’s current wife. I can’t think of her as my “parent” when she’s younger than I am by five years. She’s not a friend or a sister, but she’s also not my mom.
“It could be a boy,” she says. “Don’t you think this is a little hasty of a decision?”
“I’m getting old, babe” is all he murmurs. He’s fifty-three, but he’s not old. My dad is in excellent shape and is still at the top of his game, so his earlier announcement about retiring was shocking, to say the least.
