Dante snickered a mean laugh, and I whacked him with the back of my hand. “Hey, don’t act superior. You’re only here because you know you can’t stop me.”
“No,” he replied. “I’m here because I know you’re a badass that can handle this course and would never tell you what you can and can’t do. Unlike some.”
I rolled my eyes at his not so subtle dig at Beck’s overprotective nature. The ten months of “peace” since the massacre in Delta’s office hadn’t really seen Dante and Beck getting along any better, but now that Eddy and Dante lived together things were reaching more of a truce.
“Reckon this guy is going to show?” I asked them both, casting my eyes around the crowd and trying to work out if it was someone I already knew. It’d been a while since I’d raced, though, and new people were constantly popping up.
“He’d be an idiot not to,” Dante commented with an odd tone, and I gave him a suspicious look. “I just mean, missing the chance to race against the legendary Butterfly herself? Who knows when you’ll next manage to escape your jailers long enough for a race. Right?”
Something about the way he said it felt false, but I was too hyped up for the race to call him on it.
“They’re not my jailers,” I muttered, unable to resist defending my guys. “We’ve just had a whole lot of shit going on, you know? Legitimizing Delta’s businesses without putting thousands of people out of work hasn’t been super easy.”
“We know,” Eddy said, shooting Dante a warning glare and linking her arm back through mine. “Dante’s just got old habits that are dyinghard. Aren’t they, love?”
Dante just rolled his eyes and muttered something we couldn’t make out before heading over to talk to Rabbit.
Eddy sighed as she watched him go, but it wasn’t a frustrated sigh. It was more of a hopelessly in love sort of sigh, and I smiled. It was nice to see the two of them so loved up with each other. God knew I had my work cut out trying to find girlfriends for Evan, Jasper and Dylan. If for nothing else but to give them something todowith their spare time, aside from stalk me.
“Ooooh, shit,” Eddy breathed, looking over my shoulder. The sexy, thrumming purr of a sports car engine told me that my competitor had just arrived, so I turned to see who it was.
“Wow,” I blurted. “Is that a Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita?”
Eddy snorted. “Like I’d know. But it’s gorgeous, whatever it is.”
My eyes scanned over the sleek black sports car with fully tinted glass and edgy design, and I let out a little groan. “Oh my god, it is. Eddy, those things cost twice what I paid for Butterfly 2.0. I didn’t even know they wereavailable.”
“Who is it, do you think?” My friend replied, squinting to try and see the driver.
Just then, one of Rabbit’s girls strutted out in hot pants and high heels, flipping a flag back and forth between her hands.
“Guess we’ll find out at the finish line.” I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway, he’ll be coming in second.” I shot Eddy a cocky wink and slid back behind the wheel of my car, clicking on my racing harness—a feature I was all too happy to include in the custom specs, thanks to my recent accidents—and hit the ignition.
I flicked a glance over at my competition, but couldn’t make out much more than a silhouette. Not that it mattered. It was probably some rich kid who’d just gained access to a trust fund and went out looking for a thrill ride.
A camera flashed somewhere on the sidelines and lit up his car just enough that I saw his head turn toward me, like he was eyeing me up the same as I was to him.
Good. Because the second the flag fell, he’d only be seeing my tail lights.
The girl in hot pants raised her flag in the air then paused and gave us both a long look to make sure we were paying attention and ready. Just for fun, I revved my engine. The Koenigsegg revved back, and I grinned. Maybe he’d be good enough to make it a fun race.
No time like the present to find out. The flag dropped, and we both shot off across the starting line like bullets from a gun.
It only took a few minutes for me to work out that not only was my competition serious about winning this race, he was also good. Really fucking good.
Excitement ran through me, fueling my every move, every gear shift and every intercept as he tried to pass me on wide patches of road. But shit if he was making me work for my tiny lead.
Either I was rustier than I’d given myself credit for, or this asshole was the best driver I’d faced yet.
Taking another tight corner, he laid on the accelerator harder than I’d ever consider safe orsanebut it saw him pulling level with me, then inching ahead.
“Oh no,” I muttered under my breath as I held tight to the inside lane and pushed my Butterfly harder, faster. “Not today, motherfucker. Not. Fucking. Today.”
But no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn’t shake him. He stuck with me, either riding my bumper or edging up beside me thewhole freaking courseuntil we hit the long straight to the finish line. With barely a few feet separating us, and no corners to slow us down, this would be a clear test of speed.
Heart pumping so hard it hurt, I slammed my foot down on the accelerator the second my wheel was straight. My shiny new baby shot forward like a rocket, but the sleek black Koenigsegg was sticking to us like glue.
Seconds later, we blew past the finish line at way over double the speed limit, and for the first time in my racing career, I didn’t know who’d won.
