“That’s a ton of money on my pick,” he whispered.
“Pocket change.” I winked at him, and he seemed like he wasn’t sure he believed me. “Don’t care if I lose a bit, promise. And even if I did care, that was my choice, not yours.”
He reached up and took my hand on his shoulder, gracefully twisting out of my hold, and for a moment I was disappointed, but he spun back in, and when he was done, he was simply holding my hand.
“If Red drives that car like she rides a bike, she’ll win.”
We made it to the knoll, and I moved in to stand behind him and wrapped my arms around his middle. People thronged on all sides of us. Cigarette and weed smoke drifted on the breeze, along with the rank musk of men sweating. I fucking loved it. He tensed for a moment, but then sort of leaned back against me as other people packed in near us. Somewhere out in the slowly dissipating crowd surrounding the cars, a call went up for the racers to get into their vehicles. I glanced about, and in back of us and to our left, Corbin stood sweating in the sun with his jacket on while he glared at me. I winked at him and went back to enjoying the sweet press of Hunter against my chest. He held my hand still when I rubbed it low over his flat stomach, and I didn’t miss the way his breath hitched.
Not long later, the track was clear and the drivers were in their cars. Red had a cute someone with pink hair sitting in her passenger seat, couldn’t really decide if they were a guy or a girl, and I noticed most of the drivers had a second person in the car with them. Red and her friend waved out of their windows, and I realized it was at us, and Hunter waved back, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
The cars lit up and revved their engines, and the crowd exploded with sound: claps, whoops, hollers, screams. Hunter cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled, “Kick their asses, Red!” He smiled back at me. “Look at her.” She had sunglasses on and a grim set to her features. It was almost comical because she barely sat higher than her wheel.
Corbin came up near my elbow, and I groaned inwardly. “What?” I asked. Hunter glanced back and seemed surprised to see him for a split second, but then it was gone quickly, and he went back to watching the race.
“There are Russians here. Looks to be Markow and a few of his lackies,” Corbin leaned in to say above the noise.
“So? Piss off.”
Two women dressed in short black leather skirts, heels, and something that seemed more like underthings than a shirt, pranced across the track in front of the cars. The girls stopped to talk to each driver, and when they reached Red, they each kissed her cheek. There was a tawdry round of catcalls and Red revved her car through it all.
The women stopped on the crowd side and held up matching flare guns. That didn’t seem smart, but I supposed they knew their business. They shook their shoulders and wiggled their arses, and next thing I knew, the bright pops of purple flares were up like low-flung fireworks and the cars were taking off to fly around the track. Clouds of dust kicked up behind the leaders, so there was a real advantage to being ahead.
“I don’t like this,” Corbin groused.
“They’re here to have fun,” I said with exasperation as Hunter bounced on his feet and pointed at Red’s progress circling the track. He shook my arm like a maniac. “No one’s causing problems here. Now piss off,” I turned to hiss at him.
Corbin gave me a salute and melted through the crowd so I couldn’t pick him out easily, but I knew he wouldn’t be far away.
The cars blew past the starting line, sending a light breeze toward us, and Hunter shivered. “How do they win?” he asked.
“They do three laps,” I said into his ear and enjoyed the way he slipped back a half step to press his body tighter to mine. “Winner gets the pot.” Dust stung my eyes and I blinked it out, but Hunter didn’t seem to be bothered, simply stared after the cars.
“Where does that money come from?”
“Entry fee for the spectators and the drivers.”
He glanced back and up until his gaze caught mine. “How much did you pay for me to be here?”
“Don’t ask and I’ll tell ya no lies, my wee devil.”
He focused back on the race. “I was a Demon, once upon a time.”
I laughed and then held my breath. On the far end of the track, where Red was indeed leading as Hunter had predicted, someone tapped her rear panel, or at least that’s what I thought must have happened. She wobbled and gunned her Mustang, pulling farther ahead, but behind her the car that had hit hers spun. The out-of-control vehicle cracked into another with an earsplitting rending of metal, and then a third and fourth were taken with it as the accident spread across the track. The crowd went deadly silent. The accident took out so many cars so fast, it was difficult to make out which ones were piled in.
Eventually what appeared to be a single mound of crunched metal came to a stop on the far side of the track, and it seemed like half the cars had somehow gotten ensnared in it. When nothing happened for a moment, some laughter started up, but Hunter tensed as someone climbed out of the window of their car and ran. He pulled me toward the ground, and I was confused, so I struggled, but he muscled me down at his side and surprised me as he wrapped his arms over my head and pressed his forehead to mine with his eyes squeezed shut.
“What the—?”
An explosion rattled my teeth and my skull. I tried to push him off, but he just held me there, and when he let go, other people were on the ground too. Engines roared by us as the race continued.
“Just wait,” he said, when I went to stand again. “Debris can fly. It’s like shrapnel. Those other tanks might go.” Our gazes caught, and I couldn’t help myself. I stole a fast kiss that had him opening his mouth enough to touch the tip of his tongue to mine. Heat streaked through my body and left my breathing ragged. Eventually he released his hold on me, and we stood carefully together.
“Thanks,” I whispered into his ear, and he rolled his eyes at me. No one in the crowd was excited anymore, though, or at least not the same kind of excited. There was pointing at the crash; the racers still moving around the track were more or less ignored. I spotted some cell phones out recording, even though that wouldn’t help anyone here. The other cars were still struggling to get the best of one another to win the lap, though they had to detour around the rubble when they came to it again. There was a gasp as Red’s car narrowly missed being caught in another small explosion.
“Why is no one helping them?” Hunter wondered aloud, and he turned to look at me like it was my fault. I shrugged.
“They knew the risks. They’re supposed to bring their own emergency equipment, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it myself. There’s going to be nothing left of those cars.”
