My hand shot up to my mouth again. My throat felt constricted, like a snake was squeezing the air out of it the more I thought about my brother on Tank’s phone. My brother was definitely messed up with his head lolled back like he was too drunk or high to even hold it upright. There was graffiti on the wall behind him, and his arms were hanging by his sides as he sat slumped in a chair. Why was this happening? I breathed through my nose to keep myself from doubling over and puking.
“Well, color me fucking surprised. You won.”
I was brought back to reality when Tank spoke up beside me. I jumped an inch closer to Cole—the lesser of two evils surrounding me at the moment.
Ollie didn’t take his gaze off mine. His blue eyes were shadowed by the evening sky and his heavy b
row line. “I did,” he finally answered, walking closer and standing directly in front of me. My heart was still racing, but having him near and seeing him safe after speeding down a dirt road had a smidge of my anxiety lessening.
Tank made the exchange quick, and I couldn’t even fathom looking in his direction. He disgusted me. The conniving smile he gave me a few moments ago when Ollie took off in his car made my skin crawl. I knew he was a bad person. I’d been around bad people before, but I was almost certain he was evil down to his very core. There wasn’t an ounce of goodness in him. Or maybe there was because, after all, he was making a deal to prolong whatever his plan was with Jason if I paid back what he owed.
“Keep the money.” Tank handed the three thousand dollars I gave to him earlier to Ollie, and my head whipped over to their exchange. What? “Put a turbo in your car. You race for me every Saturday until I make back the money that Jason”—Tank’s gaze settled on me for a beat—“shoved into his veins. Then, we will revisit the idea of you continuing to work for me.”
Before I knew what I was doing, I blurted, “No way!”
Tank leveled me with a look that made me take a step back. Piper, what the hell are you doing? A burning anger had the reasonable Piper—the one who let people walk all over her—speaking up. I suddenly felt a wave of protectiveness wash over me, and to my surprise, it was for Ollie instead of my brother, which was maddening because I was certain that Jason was facing life or death over this. “I will have twenty thousand by Saturday. There is no need to drag anyone else into Jason’s mess.”
Tank threw his head back and laughed into the night sky like a wolf howling at the moon. The crowd that had formed around us grew quiet, waiting to see what would happen next. “Let me say this once, and only once.” Tank’s amusement was long gone, and in its place was something that resembled a monster. “Your boyfriend will race for me until I have the money paid back. I don’t give a fuck…” He stepped closer to me, and Ollie reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me over to his side in a flash. Tank tipped his chin and continued. “I don’t give a fuck if I get the money from your boyfriend racing or from you draining your precious trust fund that I’m sure your parents set up for you, Princess. I will get my money, and if I don’t…” He leveled me with a look. “Well…let’s just say… if someone steals from me, it’s the last fucking thing they do. You got it?”
My mouth was suddenly sewn shut. I kept the anger and resentment and fear all bottled up inside of me before I said something that blew up in my face.
Ollie’s voice calmed me for a moment, but the words did not. “I’ll be here Saturday. I’ll race for you until the money is paid back.”
The crowd whispered, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Tank.
I watched him smile with approval, showing off his yellowing teeth, and then he backed away, heading for another guy who seemed to be watching from the sidelines.
Ollie’s grip on my arm never lessened. He pulled me with him, like a child being dragged away by a parent, all the way to his Charger, my shoes dragging in the loose dirt.
Once I finally grew the ability to speak again, I asked, “What are you doing?”
He shook his head once as he opened the passenger door. “Surely you didn’t think we’d just go our separate ways and show up at school on Monday, acting like this never happened, did you?”
I opened my mouth, and then I slammed it closed again. What the hell did I get us into? The panic in my body started to make itself known, and my eyes began to water. Do not cry in front of him. Do not. Do not fucking cry.
“Get in,” he demanded. His voice was nowhere near the teasing tone I was used to.
I held onto the top of the door and took a deep breath. “You’re not racing for him next weekend. I won’t let you.”
He let out a deep chuckle, looking out into the distance. His straight and perfect nose was the only thing I could focus on. “Get the fuck in the car, Piper.”
“Don’t treat me like that.” The weeping girl inside of me was suddenly gone. I was angry. Everything I’d felt in the last day and a half suddenly turned to raging frustration. I wanted to lash out. I wanted to scream. I wanted to bang my fists on something.
“Like what?” His blue eyes locked onto mine, and suddenly, his face was inches away.
“Like I’m a child who just got in trouble.”
His breath fanned over my face, and I had to fight the urge to inhale. A rush of heat cut through me, but I stayed still. “Get in the car.”
“Make me.”
Ollie’s lip twitched as his eyes narrowed. “Do you really want me to? Because trust me, Piper…” His lips came closer, and I held my breath. “I can absolutely make you.”
The pair of us stayed still, our faces too close for comfort. I stayed locked onto his eyes, but I wanted to trace my gaze over every curve of his features until they erased the way Tank had made me feel. I wanted Ollie’s hot lips on mine. I wanted to feel the richness of them all over my body. Ollie had made my problems disappear before, and it seemed my body remembered.
And it wanted him to do it again.
“Get in.” Ollie took a step back, and a rush of air flew out of my mouth, interrupting my inappropriate thoughts.