“Nope.” I hold up a hand. “I don’t wanna hear it. It takes me hours to unclench after I’ve heard you guys fighting.”
“Yeah, and anyway—all we care about is what went down in New York,” adds Lane.
“Get the man a beer, Don.” Adam rubs his hands together. “Pull up a chair, buddy. I ordered the pizza already. Got your favorite.”
I take my time staring back and forth between them, blinking slowly.
Somebody pinch me!
“Food, drink, respect… You guys are the sweetest. When does the stripper get here?”
Lane snorts. “Don’t push it, man. We just want you to get to the good stuff, ASAP.”
Makes sense.I drop my bag and collapse onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.
Adam nudges me with his knee. “So?”
I settle into the pillows and take a swig of beer, half tempted to hold back. I don’t have to spilleverything, after all, but… Who am I kidding? It’s too insane to keep to myself.
As we munch through our pizza, I tell them all about Brooklyn, and I totally get my friends’ incredulous faces—the past twenty-four hours have been so crazy I hardly believe it all myself.
“So, you think she was serious when she made Sycamore Heights a no-go?” Lane asks.
I shrug. “I’m no specialist. I was kinda shaken by the whole thing, you know? But yeah, I guess you could say I feel pretty confident about it all. You should’ve seen how they all bent over for Amy. It was scary as fuck—and kind of hot.”
“You realize if we hadn’t forced you to go over and speak to her in the first place, you might never have got your car back?” Lane says.
“Hey, give me some credit, man. When I got into that Pontiac, I put my life on the line.”
“Yeah, except Firebird was driving.”
“Sure, but just her showing up at RJ’s garage would’ve helped, anyway.”
Lane tilts his head. “You sure about that?”
“I guess it doesn’t really matter,” I say breezily. “What matters is that my Dodge is back home, safe and sound.”
“Okay, so call me a shit-stirrer, but we need to talk.” Don jumps to his feet. “What’s the situation with Amy? We onboarding her?”
I frown. “Dude… What part of ‘the girl hangs with gangsters and hookers’ didn’t you get?”
“The drag race thing is a big deal, I get that.” He nods. “But she left New York, right? She told you she decided to leave that shit behind her, and that she wanted to be a Campus Driver.”
“Oh, well, I guess if shesays so…”
“You saying you don’t trust her?”
Donovan’s question throws me, and my chest tightens, like I just said something huge.
“You really don’t get it, do you? She put her neck on the line for you, even though you fired her ass.”
“I know she did.”
“That’s a huge deal, especially when you consider what an asshole you can be. I’m guessing you put her through hell,” adds Adam.
“That was some team fucking spirit she showed back there.” Don nods, like he’s her lawyer or something. “She had your back like a true Campus Driver trooper. Exceptwe’reyour best friends, whileshedidn’t owe you shit.”
“Don’s right. That’s the Campus Drivers spirit, right there.”
