Fast & Hard (The Fast 1)

“I thought you liked it dirty,” he mumbles around my neck.

Damn it you filth pig, just get in the shower so I can destroy your life already.

“I’m the dirty girl, you’re the sexy powerful man, Digby. Come back smelling like a gentleman and do very ungentlemanly things to me.”

He lifts his head and I’m not sure if I’ve been made or if he’s going to humor me. “I expect you naked on my bed in two minutes,” he says as he holds my chin and then he heads to the bathroom.

“Hurry,” I fake giggle and kick off a high heel past him. I won’t need them anyway and it sells my story.

The shower turns on and he hasn’t even closed the door. Great, one less thing, I was prepared to kick that fucker down. All the flats have the same hollow remodeled interior doors and well, Celeritas will need to replace mine after I practiced.

Creeping toward the restroom and pretending to unzip my dress in case he sees me, I pass the breakfast counter and snag his keys. I tuck them into my cleavage and keep creeping toward the bathroom where water is running. I wait until I hear the glass shower door close and pause a few seconds to be sure.

I peek my head in. His back is turned and he’s soaping himself up.

Boom, the gym shorts are on the floor with the wires of the earbuds dangling out! I crouch down and take two steps in, reach for him gym shorts, and I’ve got them, the phone is in there!

“Hey!” Oh no, Digby has turned in the shower and sees me.

I grab the shorts and run for my life. Through the living room, I fling the front door open and tear down the hallway.

“You bitch!” I hear him scream in the distance; he’s not in the hallway yet.

I skip several stairs at a time and haul ass out of the building clutching his filthy gym shorts with the phone inside. I dig his key out of my cleavage and sprint barefoot across the campus. I just need to round this corner and the parking lot will be in sight.

I turn back and Digby is running out of the residence building door with a towel around his waist. Fuck, hurry hurry hurry, I won’t be able to outrun him!

I round the corner and see her right where she should be. Of course she is.

“Throw me the key!” Aria screams.

I fling it to her and through an act of god, the throw connects and she catches them and unbeeps the doors. She has two small bags we packed on the hood and throws them inside moving at the speed of a woman possessed. She opens the passenger door then as she gets in the driver’s side, “Hurry!” She screams.

I don’t look back, I just hear Lennox’s voice saying, “He’s dangerous, Mallory.” I put everything I have into my legs and run like I have never run before in my life. I dive into the open car door and Mallory already has it in reverse and hits the gas before my door is even shut.

She throws the Hummer into drive and as I sit up and get the door closed, Digby lunges just feet away, but it’s too late. The doors are locked and we’re speeding away while he stands in the parking lot wrapped in a towel.

I’m lit up with adrenaline, on fire. I roll the window down and hang my head out and scream as loud as I can, “Ha! Fuck you, you fucking wanker!”

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,” Aria chants as she keeps the Hummer floored and we make it onto the main road off of Celeritas grounds. “We just stole a car, Mallory!”

“Go two miles then take a right. We ditch it at the end of that road,” I tell her as I fish the cell phone out Digby’s gym shorts and find the photo folder.

“I remember,” Aria pants, clutching the steering wheel and racing this behemoth, idiot vehicle down the road. I would never have been able to be our escape driver. I’d have wrapped us around the very first telephone pole we came across. Lennox would be proud of how Aria’s driving. He would have been prouder if it were me driving, but he can’t have everything. I know when I’m bested.

“They’re here, the videos are here!” I scream.

“Do it!” Aria yells, never taking her eyes off the road.

I select the videos and start following the upload instructions I memorized. I watch the bar move as they upload and Aria fishes my cell phone out of her back pocket and hands it to me.

My fingers are shaking but I dial the number I programmed. He picks up on the first ring.

“Mallory?”

“Max, do you have it?” I yell into the phone.

“It’s coming through, you did it.”