Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
The car behind me closes in. “Get back to work,” I tease. “I gotta go.”
“Love ya, kiddo.”
We hang up, I press on the gas, shift gears again, and hightail it to Fallstown.
I race down the long lane to the track, keeping an eye in my mirror. “What do you want with me?”
Are you spying on me? Protecting me? Pondering when to strike?
Lights glow up ahead, and cars sit in the makeshift lots off to the right, before the tracks. Picking up my phone, I dial the number Deacon called me from once. I wait for the light of my call to glow inside the Dodge.
But it doesn’t.
If it is Deacon, he’s not carrying that phone.
Ending the call, I jerk the wheel and bounce over the already-trampled grass to a quick parking spot. Shutting off the engine, I grab my phone and keys and run back over to the main road, the car still stopped in the middle—staring at me.
Come on, I urge them. Just get out of the car.
It’s just sitting there.
What the hell do they want? I led it to the camp last night, and it ditched me. I don’t understand.
Moving toward the car, I watch it suddenly back up. I stop, letting it retreat as I hold back a scream of frustration.
“Hey, you came!” I hear Dylan behind me.
Spinning around, I open my arms just in time for her to barrel into me with a hug. I don’t know if she sees the car behind me, but there are vehicles coming in and out of here all night. “I told you all I’d figure out some free time eventually,” I tell her.
She rocks me side to side, gleeful. “Wanna race with me?”
She pulls away, and I glance over my shoulder, seeing the car back away down the long road.
“If you still raced cars, then maybe,” I say.
“That could be arranged.”
She races motorbikes now, and I knew she had no interest in racing anything else anymore.
I walk over to the tracks with her. “Just be safe.”
“I’ll be the only thing I can be.”
I throw her a small smile, but she doesn’t see it. I love that she knows who she is. There’s never really a fork in her road.
Engines roar in the night, the bleachers are filled, and lines stretch from the food trucks and merch tents. This is the last race before Jared heads out on the road with his team for a whole month. Rumor has it he’s stopping in Colorado. Maybe Noah can see his dad.
And I also heard Dylan will be joining them all for her first real circuit. Which he only agreed to if she promises to be home by the time the fall semester starts.
Lucas stands in a group with my brothers, his hands in his pockets. I stop at his side—close—and feel him go instantly still. I hide my amusement.
Jared doesn’t even say hi. Just arches an eyebrow at me. “Nice Jeep.”
Jared’s not a fan of me making any decisions without him.
“Don’t give her that look,” Lucas teases. “I checked it out and bought it for her as a surprise. It was cheap, but it runs well.”
Madoc twists his mouth to the side but keeps it shut.
Lucas continues, “You can talk her into something with higher safety ratings and bulletproof glass after I leave. Just be glad I got her driving.”
“Yes, thank you,” Madoc grumbles. “As usual, you’re the only one she listens to.”
Do I listen to Lucas? I almost laugh, remembering how he had to chase me last night.
But wait… after I leave, he’d said. Is Lucas not at least considering staying now? I don’t know why that surprises me. It shouldn’t. I told him I didn’t want more than last night anyway.
I reach into my bag and pull out the compass, slipping it into his pocket as my brothers talk to other people. However it goes, I want him to have it.
“Can we go home?” I whisper.
I want him to myself a little while longer.
But he steps behind me, and I feel his breath in my hair as he moves to my other side. “Farrow’s going to trail you to your parents’ place,” he murmurs, “and make sure you’re safe. I’ll come home as soon as I can.”
“What’s going on?”
But it’s not an actual question. It’s a beg. A plea for him to talk.
He holds my gaze, but I know after one moment turns into five, he’s not going to tell me.
“Quinn!” Dylan bounces over, grabbing my hands. “I’ve never seen Noah race a car, so we’re gonna do it!” she exclaims. “You riding with him or me?”
I turn away from Lucas, unable to look at him right now.
Dylan starts to pull me away, and I try to latch on to what she said. She and Noah are racing cars instead of bikes? And I’m riding with one of them?