Danger (The Driven World)

Danger shakes his head, still not meeting my eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I wish you would. You can tell me anything.” I tug at his chin, bringing his face so I can see his eyes.

They’re dark, and there’s no happiness there. “No, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. And this is not your fault.”

He gets up and walks away, pressing the elevator button with his thumb. I watch as he steps through the lift doors and then he’s gone.

I stand, heading back to give my support to Lilah. “Did you get a hold of his mother?”

Tears flood Lilah’s eyes. “Yes. What was going on with Danger? He just didn’t seem like himself today.”

I shrug. “I’m not sure.” I stare at the closed elevator doors Danger just stepped through. “Lilah, call me and let me know how Mandarin is. I need to check on Danger.”

Lilah hugs me. “He shouldn’t be alone tonight.” And she doesn’t say it in a snarky, sexual type of way. She’s right, Danger shouldn’t be alone right now.

I need to figure out what is going on with him. He wasn’t himself today, and I want to find out why.

I press the button on the elevator panel and the doors swish open. Danger stands there, eyes trained on the floor, his arms resting on the bar behind him. He glances up and our eyes lock.

“Danger.”

He grabs me, yanking me into the elevator with him, and he presses the ‘door close’ button. He kisses me before I even think the doors shut.

His tongue begs my mouth to open, and I do for him as his arms hold me tightly against him. Tighter than I think he’s ever held onto me before. Almost needy with a raw passion. I wasn’t expecting this, but am so glad I’m here in his arms right now.

He turns me on as his tongue traces over mine. This man knows what he’s doing, and I swear I really want more and more from him.

The lift doors ping and Danger pulls away from me. “I don’t want to talk about today. I just want to go somewhere.”

“Well, you have a concussion. So, sleeping is out of the question.”

“Will you go somewhere with me? Just the two of us.” He holds out his hand, and I take it. Because wherever this man goes, I go too.

Chapter 19

Danger

“Are we allowed to be here?”

“Of course we are. I wouldn’t have brought you here if we weren’t,” I say to Monterey as we stand in the center of the speedway.

Everyone’s gone for the evening, although there’s still a few campers and trailers at a campground not too far from here. I’m not too worried about any company.

The security guard was a great help in getting us in here, and I’ll have to be sure to thank him with some autographed merch in the future. But for now, I’m here, at the one place I love more than anything.

A race track. It’s hard to believe that not only a few hours ago I was here getting into a massive wreck. You can still see a few pieces of debris from either my car or Mandarin’s.

“Any word on Mandarin?” I ask Monterey.

She pulls her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and checks the screen. She shakes her head. “No, nothing.”

“Why do you like racing so much?” I ask her as I take a seat right on the bench near the Pagoda.

She takes a seat next to me. “Well, kind of grew up around it, ya know?”

“I get your dad breathes racing, but you didn’t need to. You could have…” my words fade away.

She cuts in, “What, went shopping? I’m more than a pretty face, you know.”

“Who said you’re pretty?”

The look on her face is priceless and she doesn’t say anything. Although, I can tell she wants to.

I try to hold off my laughter as long as I can. “I’m kidding,” I let her off the hook. “You have to know you’re gorgeous. In fact,” I move closer. “You’re one of the hottest women I’ve ever seen.”

She nudges my shoulder with her own. “Oh please, you’re just saying that.”

“No, I’m not.” I blink. “You’re beautiful. And confident. And classy. And more importantly, smart. You’re the whole package.”

“Thank you. What about you?”

I crack a grin. “Well, we know I’m gorgeous.”

She laughs and I laugh along with her. “No, silly. Why do you race?”

I take a deep breath, wondering if I should tell her the truth. “The money.”

“Come on, I know that’s not true.”

“It’s sort of true.” I gaze up at the stars overhead. “When I left home I used to steal cars with this guy I met named Kav. And well, I realized I was pretty damn good at driving fast. So I started street racing. And it led to getting into Formula III racing, and it all snowballed from there.”