by Nikki Wild
Needless to say, I knew what it was before I pulled out in the light, but once I had I couldn't help but gasp.
I didn't open the jewelry box. It wasn't meant for me. It was meant for the woman I would be if I stayed, not for the one who discovers it on her way to making a cowardly escape.
I swallowed hard, gripping the box as if it were spring-loaded and might go off in my hand at any time.
Why would he do something like this? We just met. We’re on completely different paths in life. If there were ever two people less likely to make it work, I’d never heard of them. Did he seriously think I’d marry him after just a couple of days? Was he crazy? This stuff isn’t supposed to happen in real life!
Was I crazy for taking a second to imagine what that life might look like?
This was it. The moment. If I let myself, I could turn around and go back to Dane. He’d never know that I’d found the ring, and when his knee hit the ground I could let our lives run their course. This was the kind of crazy story you told your grandkids when they gathered around the dinner table. This was how fairy tales are supposed to go.
Love at first sight.
Giving yourself up to the fates.
Finding your happy ever after and never letting go…
Dane was good at going fast…
I'd been lying before about having to go outside to clear my head, but now the fresh air was exactly what I needed. I tucked the jewelry box back into the jacket pocket where I’d found it, grabbed the keys, and practically sprinted out of the church. I needed to put some distance between myself and Dane. I needed room to breathe and think about this logically.
I should've been paying better attention.
It wasn't until I’d already passed it that I realized that there was a black, gleaming Harley Davidson in the parking lot. With a start, I turned and studied it. Everything had happened so fast when they’d shot my tire out, but my eyes locked almost instantly on the word Reapers stenciled on the fuel tank.
I’d seen that bike before.
Whatever thoughts I'd had of running were instantly gone. I had to get back into the church and tell Dane. If this was an ambush, he wasn't ready for it.
"And just where the Hell do you think you're going?"
I didn't know the voice, but I knew who it had to belong to.
Reed.
The President of the Reapers. The lowlife that had given the drugs to Jimmy. The asshole who had almost killed me because he wanted to tear my rental car up for parts.
I didn't answer. Instead, I spun on my heel and started quicly back toward the church doors. My shoes slipped and stumbled in the gravel. As I tried to put distance between myself and the man who’d already shot at me once, I realized just how alone I was out here. The parking lot wasn’t empty, but no one was coming in and out like they had before. Anyone who had decided on an early bedtime was already gone, and those who remained were making the most of the dance floor.
It was only idiots like me who were wandering around outside in flimsy red dresses without their underwear on. I was alone with this madman and I needed to get back to Dane.
"I’m not here for you, sweetheart," Reed called out after my retreating back, "but if you keep walking, I’m gonna make things real bad for you tonight.”
I froze in place, turning slightly to look back at Reed. He hadn’t moved an inch, but I could see his hand resting on the butt of a gun tucked into his waistband.
“Please… just leave us alone,” I said quietly, wondering if I could make it behind the nearest car if he decided to pull that gun out. Judging from the ease with which he shot my tire out from atop a swerving motorcycle at high speed, I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to find out.
“I’m looking for Dane, but if you want to give him a message for me, that’s fine too.”
“A message?”
“That’s what I said. No harm, no mayhem. Just a message.”
“That’s it?”
Reed shrugged. “Just go in there and tell him that he forgot to let his Mother in on our little arrangement. She’s got a shotgun pointed at two of my guys. She claims they’re stealing shit, but you and I both know that’s not what they’re doing tonight. They’re collecting the payment your boyfriend and I already agreed upon.”
It wasn’t my place to argue. If Reed was going to let me go in and pass the message on to Dane, I’d be right where I wanted to be. Besides, any time I wasted out here would be precious seconds that Mrs. Carson would be in more danger.
“I’ll tell him.”
“Good,” Reed said, throwing his leg over the Harley. “And get him to meet us out there, huh? Too much shit is going wrong. I want him there to talk his Mother down, just in case she’s fixin’ to do something stupid. I don’t want blood on our hands. I’m just about fed up with the Carson family dying and blaming me for their own bullshit.”
Before I could say anything else he slammed his foot down on the lever that cranked the motorcycle’s engine and roared off in a thick cloud of burnt rubber.
Chapter 27
I tried to play it cool, even though that felt practically impossible. I didn’t want to rush in and blurt everything out in front of everyone.
It took every ounce of restraint I had to walk back into the church instead of run. Dane was there, a drink in each hand as he waited for me to return. I noticed he was wearing his jacket again. When he saw me his worried face broke into a relieved smile, but the expression I was wearing made that fall away fast.
“What’s wrong?"
I took him by the elbow as casually as I could and guided him away from prying ears. “It’s Reed,” I said, once we had a little space to ourselves. “He was outside. I think he was getting ready come in here and find you, but when he saw me he gave me the message instead."
“What message? What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, trying to catch my breath and gather my thoughts. There had been so much adrenaline coursing through me when I found the jewelry box, and Reed had only added to it.
“Reed told me that two of his guys went to ‘collect payment’. It sounds like your Mother caught them in the act. She’s aiming a shotgun at them, right this second. He wants you to go down there to sort it out."
“Shit,” Dean said, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that he had enough knowledge to fill in the gaps. “I told her to let them do what they had to do… All right, you wait here for me."
“Like hell!"
“It won’t be safe, Kara."
“I don’t give a damn. As if I’d really sit here on the sidelines! I’m in this with you, Dane. I’m tied to you, can’t you see that?"
It was like throwing a match on dry wood doused in kerosene, the way he reacted. “Don’t give me that bullshit. If we were in this together, you wouldn’t have swiped the keys to the car. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t know what you were up to when you slipped outside. You were on your way to Florida.”
He was right. Maybe that was why I was so angry. “So what if I was? And you can take that holier than thou attitude of yours and shove it. You want to make us work as badly as I do. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have stashed an engagement ring in your jacket. Or what, is that for someone else?”
“No.”
“’No’ what?” I demanded.
“No, the ring was for you.”
Was. Past tense. I let that slide. It hurt, but we had far more important things to attend to. “We’re wasting time. I’m going with you. Now let’s go." I handed him the keys to the Bentley, and he took my hand as we dashed from the church.
I was worried about his Mother. Reed wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her if he felt the reward was worth the risk. I already knew he was a dangerous man. Dane would have far more proof of that then I did, and the look on his face told me that he was thinking the same thing I was…
If we didn’t get over there, bad things were going to happen.
We got into the car and he sped us into the ni
ght.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Home. I had a few things to trade for the parts I needed for the Bentley, but Reed didn’t want any of them. I had to settle for the only thing that interested him.”
“The odds and ends, right? The racecar… That’s it, isn’t it? The fancy one, with all the sponsor stickers. The one that won the races before. That’s what he wants. Did you give him the one under the tarp too?”
“No... I gave him the others. That car under the tarp is not for sale, and it never will be. Maybe it’s not the fairest of trades giving up the other two, but it’s not like I was using them… Those cars were more Jimmy’s than mine. May as well let Reed have them. It was enough to buy your parts and it gave me an out from all the bullshit the Reapers have been pulling. I let them know this is the last deal I’m doing with them. We’re done.”
I sucked in a lungful of air slowly, feeling terrible. He’d had to trade those things away because of me. His brother and his Dad were tied to those cars, and it felt like I could feel their ghosts pressing in around me with baleful stares. “I’m so sorry.”
Dean shrugged. “It is what it is. They’re only hunks of metal, in the end. And they’re worth nothing compared to this thing we’re riding in now if the rental company comes after you for it. Besides, you needed to get your conference, remember?”
I let that last bit slide. It was a jab and I deserved it, but the conference was the last thing on my mind. Right this second, I didn’t care Florida itself floated away, never to be heard from again. “Your Mother must’ve caught them taking the cars out of the garage."
He nodded. “I was sure she was going to be gone long enough for the Reapers to collect their due, but clearly I was wrong." He was driving like a bat out of hell. We’d already whizzed by the shops and houses that made up Silver Creek. At this speed, we’d be there in a minute or two.
If he didn’t wreck us first.
Maybe he should have slowed down, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him that. This was my fault. His mother might have a shotgun, but these were dangerous men. She was already outnumbered, and Reed had a head start on us to.
“What’s the plan?"
“There isn’t a plan," he said with a shake of his head. “The parts I got from them are already installed. The cars are theirs. They aren’t doing anything wrong, at least not this time. We just have to get there and diffuse the situation before somebody gets shot."
We were at the gravel road now. I could hear the heavy rain of little stones scattering in our wake as the wide tires of the Bentley cut through the night. Before I knew it the headlights had picked out the house, in a split second later they were shining on the Reapers and his mother.
Reed was already there. I don’t know for sure how it played out, but I had a pretty good guess. He must’ve taken her by surprise. His motorcycle wasn’t near the van his guys had brought. He’d gotten the jump on her. She looked like she was all right for the moment, but in his hands was a shotgun that he’d probably taken from her and she sure wasn’t happy about it.
Dane yanked the wheel to the right and stomped on the brakes, making the Bentley drift. He was a damn good driver, but the aggressive move no doubt made fingers tighten on triggers, nonetheless.
He was in no state to go and talk to them. Amped up like he was, with his Mother in the crosshairs… Who knew what would happen if he hopped out of the car and started another in a long line of disagreements with the Reapers?
“Stay here,” I ordered, speaking to him in the same voice I used when I was directing models in a fashion show. Hundreds of people then had to obey my every whim without question and without hesitation. This was no different, except if he fucked this up the stakes were much, much higher. “I mean it, Dane. Don’t even get out of the car. I’ll handle this.”
To my surprise, he just glared out the windshield at the bikers and cracked his knuckles and said, “Fine. But be careful. Please.”
Chapter 28
Dane
Once she got out of the Bentley, there wasn’t much I could do except watch and hope. I was surprised at how much I trusted Kara. After all, I’d just put the fate of everything I had left in the world squarely in her hands.
I couldn’t help but be amazed, despite how scary it was. I was seeing more of who she truly was with each passing second. When she’d lashed out at me when I was trying to help her and her crashed Bentley in the first place, that had just been bravado. She told me over and over that she hadn’t meant the things she’d said, and I believed her, mostly because I knew she didn’t have the confidence to think so highly of herself.
She’d only been out there thirty seconds or so and already they’d lowered their weapons. Momma wasn’t looking happy, but clearly the worst had been averted.
Now that firearms looked like they were out of play, I could scan the scene with a little more calm. The Reapers had brought a van. I could see a trailer behind it. They moved one of the cars up on the back and towed it away before pouring a few gallons of gas into the other car and driving it on its own power. I knew they’d both be back at the chop shop soon enough. If they had any sense in the world, the engines alone would bring plenty of money for their trouble.
I was heartbroken see them go, but that loss was nothing compared to the one I was going to have to endure pretty soon. Kara would leave a hole in my heart that I’d spent a lifetime trying to fill.
Reed was still there, but Kara wasn’t done proving that she was a miracle worker. I stared in amazement as she said something to him and then pointed over at me. A moment later, she stepped forward and shook Reed’s hand. He seemed happy with the arrangement as well.
I expected Kara to get back in the Bentley with me, but she took her time helping my mother into the house instead. Reed lay the shotgun on the ground, and I noticed with pride that Kara scooped it up and pressed it into my mother’s hands before closing the front door and returning to me.
By the time Kara was sitting beside me, I was staring at the rearview mirror, watching the red taillights of Reed and the others fade into the darkness.
“Now listen,” she said, before I had a chance to open my mouth. “I know you aren’t going to like this, but I made a deal with them to get your cars back. You said you’re really good going fast? Well, now’s your chance. You’re racing Reed at sunrise.”
I was more than a little numb. “I don’t think you realize what you just offered up. I haven’t been on a track since Dad died. What do we get if I win?”
“When you win, you get your cars back. And the Reapers leave town.”
“And if I lose?”
“If you lose, I hand over the keys to the Bentley.”
“And?” I asked. I could tell she was holding something back. Something bigger and more important than this Bentley would ever be.
“And you’ll give him the car under the tarp.”
Chapter 29
Kara
Dane didn’t say a word. I gave him a couple of minutes to come to terms with it and went into the garage to wait for him.
When he entered the room, I flicked the switch that kicked on the florescent lights and approached the car with a tarp over it, the one he’d been so mysterious about.
"It's time for you to let it out," I said. "All of it. There's a reason this car is covered and I want to understand."
Dane planted his feet and hooked his thumbs into his belt buckle. There was a dark look on his face, and when he swung his head toward me, it was like his laser gaze went right through me. I wasn't there, not to him. He was reliving something else.
He was lost in the past and I could see how much it still hurt him.
At last, he spoke.
“I told you once that this car wasn’t for you… but the truth is… it wasn’t for me either. Jimmy was supposed to race it. That was the deal. I was good at going fast, but you need to do more than that to race. You have to know when to go slow. You have to make it ac
ross the finish line in one piece. Before the drugs, before Reed got him hooked, Jimmy knew when to let off the gas and when to floor it. I don’t have those instincts. That’s the real reason I haven’t gotten back out there on the track. My mother says that everything is one-hundred-percent with me. She used to call me ‘all or nothing Dane’, and I used to take a twisted sense of pride in that. I fuck up, but I do it with glorious abandon. This car… It wasn't built for me. My dad and I put it together for Jimmy, and if I get behind the wheel, I’m stepping all over what’s left of his legacy."
I reached out for the tarp, watching his reaction. I expected him to stop me, but when he didn't I found the edge of it and tugged.
The blue plastic came all at once, revealing a gleaming white racecar with black and red trim. It was a beast of a thing, even I could see that much. The chrome shown in the lights, and it seemed to squat there on wide, dark tires. It had a racing number across the acres of its hood, sixty-six, and gaps in the design where I assumed sponsors stickers and branding would go.
"It's gorgeous," I said, and meant it.
Dean smiled. "Jimmy would've loved it. My dad and I were still working on it when he passed, and after that, it took on a life of its own. We had to finish… Giving up on the car would mean we were giving up on Jimmy too, even though he was already gone… I don’t know… You do stupid things to cope.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to apologize. I understand… It’s almost… sweet?”
“Yeah, well, it definitely wasn’t sweet. Working on that car wasn’t exactly good quality family time. My father was drunk every time he stepped into this garage. He was the one who finally put the tarp over it. The old guy may have been three sheets to the wind, but he knew when to let something go. Jimmy was gone. It was time to leave the past behind. Maybe it’s something I need to get better at, too…"