“I thought you were spotting for him?” I questioned him, slightly confused. That was one of the rules of this race. There had to be a spotter for each player involved.
“I got pulled at the last minute, and Quincy stepped in,” he replied, and nodded toward his oldest brother. Although Grant was a good person, his brothers were not. They were all hard, cold, and didn’t give a damn who they hurt as long as they made their money. I hated being around them, and Grant knew it, which is why I was surprised to see them when I walked in.
“Alright, I’m going back out there,” I said.
“Let me get my keys,” Grant said. “You aren’t going out there alone.”
“Okay,” I nodded. Truthfully, I was happy he offered to go. My head was killing me, and I needed an extra pair of eyes. When he left the room, his brothers started to laugh. “What’s funny?”I looked around the room. The brothers exchanged looks that had me questioning what they knew that I didn’t. “What’s the problem?”
“It ain’t a problem for us, more so for you,” Quincy said. “There’s a price tag on your heads. That’s why he wanted you to come here instead of searching for Amethyst.” It took me a minute to process what he said, but I knew I heard him loud and clear. “The second you show your face, it’s over.”
“What?” I reared back, confused as hell as to what he was talking about. “What do you mean there’s a price tag on our heads?”
“That was one of the deals,” Quincy said from where he was standing. “Grant didn’t tell you, did he?”
“Tell me what?”
“The terms and conditions of this race,” he smirked. I wanted to yell at him, ‘obviously, I didn’t know shit,’ but that wouldn’t do anything but feed his fucking demented ass personality. “The winner got the slips.”
“He said that,” I nodded. “Tell me what I don’t know.”
“The losers paid with their lives,” he replied, and I took a step back.
“Our lives for half a million?” I questioned. That was the amount Grant said we would get for winning this race. Quincy shook his head. “No?”
“Not even close,” he answered with a shrug. “It was your life for five million apiece. This was a fifteen-million-dollar race.”
“A fifteen-million-dollar race?” I yelled. “We didn’t agree to that shit!”
“You did when you agreed to race,” Quincy said, then walked to the couch and sat next to his brother. “You got the five million for your life?”
“You know I don’t,” I said, shaking my head. I was barely making it, and racing cars was my means of earning a living.I’d been working for the Kilmores for years, long before me and Grant’s relationship and before Amethyst. Quiet as it was kept, I was looking forward to walking away after this race. I needed a way out of this. The only things I wanted after this were to maintain my relationship with Grant, to receive the money from the win, and to see Amethyst walk away before it was too late.
“You gotta figure something out,” Quincy suggested, and I cut my eyes at him. Hell yeah, I had to figure something out because I liked my fucking life. I wasn’t ready to die, and I knew that the niggas that they dealt with wouldn’t care if I didn’t know all the terms. I agreed, so that meant I was responsible for my payment. “Shit, both of you do.”
“Wait, you said both of us?” I questioned, and he nodded.
“That best friend of yours is on the hook for his half,” Quincy answered. “We got the money to cover Grant.”
“Fuck!” I groaned and paced. This wasn’t just on me; it was on Amethyst, too. We were on the verge of walking away. I only had two more classes to take, and I would be graduating, and Amethyst had to finish paying off med school. My eyes filled with tears, and I quickly wiped them away. The Kilmores weren’t going to see me cry, not now, not over this. “How much time can you get me to figure this out?”
“None,” Quincy answered. I stopped moving and gave him my full attention.
“What do you mean, none?” I asked, then laughed humorlessly. “You’re telling me that payment is due now?”
“Payment was due the second the race ended,” he said. “I’ve been taking calls for the last thirty minutes.”
“I don’t have ten million dollars.” My debt may have been five of that ten, but I wasn’t about to let this fall on Amethyst. I was the driver; I should’ve been paying attention. I knew the roads were slick, and I knew the car wasn’t handling how it wassupposed to. I hit the black car, which set off a chain reaction. This shit was my fault, not theirs.
“Then you’re a dead woman,” Quincy shrugged.
My eyes went to the Kilmore brothers, taking them in, knowing that this shit was on me and trying to figure out how to get out of it. I would sacrifice my life for Amethyst. I may love Grant, but my passion for Amethyst went beyond friendship. He was the love of my life.
“Who do I owe?” I asked as I squared my shoulders. I would walk into a room full of killers and lay down my life with my head held high.
“The Franklins,” Quincy answered, and my heart dropped into my ass. Of course, he was dealing with the Franklins. There was bad, then there were the Franklins. Owing them meant my death for sure.
“Fuck!” I yelled and threw my hands in the air. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I turned my rage to Quincy, who only looked amused. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
