All the Little Secrets: A Standalone Enemies-to-Lovers High School Romance (English Prep Book 2)

by S. J. Sylvis

  My gaze wandered over to the other guy racing. He was driving a Chevy Camaro, and it looked expensive. The cherry-red color gleamed, even with the sun fading into dusk, and the tread on the tires had my confidence wavering for a moment. There was a tap on my window, and when I looked over, I saw Brandon staring at me with apprehension. I hurriedly rolled the window down.

  He glanced at the Camaro before giving me a look. “He has a supercharger and nitrous.”

  My heart slammed. “Great.”

  Brandon flicked his eyes to the Camaro rumbling beside me. I darted my gaze to Piper who was biting her nail on the side of the road. Something awakened inside of me. I’ll win, Piper. Watch me.

  “I’ve got this,” I said, eerily calm. My limbs relaxed as I wrapped my fingers around the stick shift.

  “I’ve watched him race before. He has a fast car, which is why he’s in the next bracket, but he loses control easily. Stay steady and do your thing. That’s the only thing that’ll help you now.”

  I nodded and began to roll my window up, but his hand shot out as he gripped the glass.

  “You’re going down a dangerous path, my man. You know that, right? Tank is bad fucking news.”

  I turned my head away and looked out at the dirt road. “No backing down now.”

  He chuckled. “Spoken in true Ollie form. The most confident son of a bitch I know.” My mouth tipped upward but quickly fell when he asked, “Is that your girl?”

  I followed Brandon’s line of sight to Piper, and my heart sped up even more. I swallowed, taking my eyes off her. The unparalleled anxiety I felt from just seeing her quaking little body caused me to rev my Charger again.

  “Not yet,” I finally answered.

  Brandon grinned and shook his head. “She looks worried.”

  “She shouldn’t be. She knows me. She knows I don’t like to lose.”

  “Oh, she’s perfectly right to be worried. I don’t know what type of business she’s got with Tank, but the dude is bad fucking news, Ol. Tread lightly. Don’t make a deal with him. You’ll be signing your own death wish.”

  Too late, bro. The second I saw Piper involved, I’d already signed over my rights.

  “Alright, boys.” The blonde chick from earlier walked up beside the passenger side of my Charger and the driver’s side of the Camaro. “Get ready.”

  I rolled the window up, watching Brandon retreat back toward his girl and Piper. My eye caught hers once, and I hoped she could read what I was trying to say. I’ve got this, Pipe. Relax.

  She nodded her head slightly, so slightly that I barely noticed when she did. She knew I wouldn’t lose, not with her involved.

  I took a moment to breathe, my chest expanding and falling calmly. My back rested along the leather of my seat, and I felt the world shut out. The only thing I saw was the dirt road in front of me and the face of a girl that made my heart beat a little faster. The only thing I could hear was my engine rumbling with life. The only thing I could feel was the power of my car and the drive to win.

  “Go!”

  I sped away quickly, so quickly my back flew into the seat even harder than usual. Dust flew all around me and drowned out the rest of the crowd. Piper crept into my head, but I pushed her away, knowing I needed to focus in order to win. My car wasn’t as fast as the supercharger, but I’d win. I’d win because I had to.

  The sight of the red Camaro skirted my peripheral vision as I rounded the curve along the side of the forest, and I pushed the gas harder, knowing I needed to shift to gain more momentum. You have to win, Ollie. Brandon’s words replayed in my head. He’s bad fucking news, Ol.

  The adrenaline in my veins was pumping so hard my fingers prickled with heat on top of the steering wheel. I felt high on the rush, and it only pushed me further.

  “Not today, bud.” I shifted again as I came around the next curve, seeing the finish line up ahead. We were side by side, his car gaining traction faster than mine due to the upgrade he had. Fucking hell. I urged my Charger to go faster. My blood was pumping hard, my heart racing with so much speed I was certain I was going to have a heart attack.

  Just then, as I heard a screeching, I got the push I needed to gun it. The Camaro disappeared from my vision, and I trudged on, speeding past the finish line quicker than I’d ever done before.

  I fishtailed as I hit the brakes, coming to an abrupt stop before diving down into the trees.

  My head snapped up to the rearview, my entire body running on the fumes of exhilaration. The dust was thick and heavy, but as I glanced around my windows, solace started to settle in.

  The cool air and smell of unsettled dirt wafted around me as I climbed out of my Charger. My eyes adjusted as dust began to clear out and a grin etched itself onto my face as I spotted that cherry-red Camaro head-first in the middle of a line of trees. The driver was out behind it, pacing back and forth with his hands placed on his head. He appeared to be fine, but his car…not so much.

  I got lucky.

  I knew deep down I wouldn’t have won if he didn’t break traction and lose control. His car was faster, but thankfully, I was better at driving.

  The universe was on my side this time. Maybe it was a nice little gesture, given the current circumstances I was facing.

  After I tipped my chin to my opponent, I climbed back into my car and rounded back to the starting line.

  I won this one, but that didn’t mean the night was over by a longshot. As I climbed out of my seat, I spotted Piper instantly. Tank was standing entirely too close to her, and she looked ready to bolt. Her naturally pink-tinted cheeks were a ghastly white, and her copper-colored hair did nothing but enhance that. Brandon was right; I was about to sign a death wish, but first things first—who the fuck was Jason?

  Chapter Seven

  Piper

  Ollie slowly walked over to where I was standing, and chills rained down my spine. Relief pooled in my heart, and my eyes welled up. The entire time he was racing, I was trembling. My legs shook, and my heart was beating so fast I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I should have pulled him out of his Charger and drug him back to his house, demanding he stay out of this. But one look from Tank eyeing me with malice had me shook. It was like he had me pinned to my spot. I didn’t even want to blink, too afraid I’d show all my cards and he’d know just how afraid I was.

  I kept trying to reiterate Hayley’s words in my head, thinking back to a few months ago when we were in a situation that had both of our stress levels rising to their full capacity. Showing fear did nothing but heighten the anxiety and worry, but I was truly afraid.

  I was afraid the first time I saw my brother high.

  I was afraid the first time my parents threw him out.

  I was afraid the first time he came back, beaten to a pulp, begging for my help.

  And I was even more afraid last night when I’d been met with the same bloody and bruised Jason that I’d grown accustomed to seeing. But this time, he didn’t just have disappointment in his eyes—he had fear.

  He was terrified.

  I wanted to believe he was being dramatic. But now I knew he wasn’t.

  What exactly did Tank mean? Was he going to kill my brother and make it look like an overdose?

  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.

  Embarrassed, I climbed into the passenger seat, and he slammed the door. I sat and waited, watching him talk to the guy Tank sought out after the race. The entire time, I was trying to come up with a plan to fix things—to make things better.

  And sadly, I came up with nothing.

  But one thing I knew: I couldn’t let Ollie fix this problem.

  Jason had already brought down too many people with this destructiveness.

  He wasn’t going to do that to Ollie, too. Not if I had anything to do with it.

  I just needed some time to think. There was a way around this. I was certain of it.

  Chapter Eight

  Ollie

  Piper and I didn’t speak at all the entire drive to her house. Not a single syllable was shared. I didn’t want to speak. My mind was spiraling out of control. The severity of the night had come crashing down on my shoulders as soon as I got on the freeway. My gaze stayed transfixed on the blurring yellow lines on the road, trying to focus on those instead of Piper, but I wanted to look at her. I wanted to place my heavy gaze on her until she broke and spilled everything.

  She sat in the passenger seat, twiddling her fingers together in a nervous habit. There was usually a hefty amount of tension between the two of us, even more so when we were alone, but tonight it was off the charts. Although, it didn’t feel like her tension was directed entirely at me. There was something bigger weighing on her mind, and I was going to find out what it was.

  When we pulled up to her house, all the lights were on, just like Hayley had described, and her car was parked off near the mailbox. I held my phone in my hand and scanned my earlier texts, shooting Eric and Christian the same one, telling them I was on my way to the cabin. I had to cover my tracks—or else there’d be an even bigger mess on my hands.

  Parkway Drive was streaming through my speakers when I placed my phone back down in the cup holder. I watched the thought cross Piper’s face as her hand shot out to the door handle.

  “Don’t even fucking think about it, Piper.”

  She rolled her eyes and dropped her hand to her lap, not daring to look at me.

  “Who’s Jason?”

  “Ollie…” Her red tendrils of hair swayed as she shook her head. “You are not getting involved in this. Don’t worry about who Jason is. I have this handled.”

  Why won’t she tell me who Jason is?

  That familiar feeling of jealousy was sliding up my back and resting on my shoulders. “Who the fuck is Jason?” Shit, calm down. I cleared my throat and leveled my breathing. “Whoever he is, he must mean something big to you for you to get mixed in with that type of trouble.”

  My mind drifted back to that night so long ago that we shared in secret—so much a secret that
she wouldn’t even admit it aloud. “I did something bad tonight.” Yes, she fucking did. Goody-Two-Shoes Piper turned into a desperate minx that night. She was an oxymoron. An angelic sin. A good girl turned bad. And it was so hot that I had a hard time seeing her as anything but.

  “I’m not the good girl everyone thinks I am, Ollie.”

  I scoffed, leaning back in my seat a little more. “Oh, trust me. I know.”

  Piper eyed me out of the corner of her eye, knowing very well what I was referring to, but again, she wouldn’t admit it.

  Silence encased the car, the pair of us sitting in the dark with only the glowing interior lights of my dash as our guidance. “Who is Jason?”

  Piper finally looked my way for a brief second, just long enough to say, “Stop. Please,” before looking out the window. “I will handle this. Don’t worry about racing on Saturday. I’ll get the money.”

  “From where? Do you have twenty thousand just laying around? I know our families are wealthy and all, and we’re pretty fucking privileged, but even I don’t have that much in my bank account. Do you?”

  Her mouth opened then closed. She wrapped her arms around her torso, and for a moment, my chest ached. Why won’t she let me help her? I knew there was an unhealthy bout of anger and tension around us. There were times I tormented her, flirted incessantly with her, and then turned around and flirted with another girl. I’d get under her skin on purpose because I loved it. I loved watching her react. I’d always kept Piper close but not close enough to where I could have her. We shared something together. She knew something about me that no one else did—of course I had to keep her close. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. From the moment I watched her enter English Prep our junior year, we’d been like this. At each other’s throats. The recognition and shock in her eyes when her gaze transfixed on me that day told me that she recognized me, too.