There was nothing but a parking lot, the kind where truckers paused to sleep in their vehicles. No motel, no roadhouse, just a little public bathroom.
And a dozen brand new sports cars. With their headlights on, I could vaguely make out a white line that someone had hastily drawn onto the pavement with chalk. A few men and even fewer women were gathering around it, discussing something. Most of them appeared to be in their thirties and older.
I could feel Hunter’s eyes on me as I took the scene in. Then he got out of the car, walked around it, and opened my door as well. “Are you coming?”
I stalled for a few seconds, eyes darting back and forth between Hunter and the group outside. Eventually, curiosity won over worry. With a resigned sigh, I got out of the car and followed him as he walked right up to the white line.
As soon as the men spotted Hunter, a roar went through the small crowd. One guy turned around and looked at us with a thin smile. He was tall, not quite muscular but with broad shoulders and a nose that looked like it had been broken several times.
“Hey, shorty!” a few guys yelled at Hunter, who answered with a crooked smile.
He didn’t seem happy with that nickname, but he tolerated it, which surprised me.
“Hunter,” the lawyer-looking-guy simply said and nodded at him. “Who’s your friend?”
I gulped as I suddenly felt everyone’s eyes on me.
Hunter quickly stepped closer to me and said, “Franco, this is Jules. He’ll be with me today.”
“You mean he’ll drive with you?” the guy asked. He seemed surprised, as did everyone else.
Hunter nodded. “If he wants to, yes.”
I shot him a confused look, unsure of what was expected of me right now.
The man, Franco, now turned to me for the first time. “Boy, are you sure about that?” He lowered his voice to a murmur and stepped closer. “Hunter, you know the consequences. And the risk.”
Hunter smiled brilliantly at him. “I do. I will explain everything to Jules, and then he can decide for himself.”
Franco seemed like he wanted to say something, argue with Hunter, but then he shrugged and turned around. “Very well then. Tonight’s route will be up the highway. Finish is at the next parking lot.” He paused to wait for some murmurs to quiet down, then he continued, “There are exactly two speed cameras along the way, so be careful. If anyone gets pulled over in the unlikely case that there’s police, he’ll immediately send me a message so the rest of us can get out of here. Is that clear?”
Everyone nodded silently.
“Good. I will drive first, and Lisa will join me.”
A blonde woman in a tight leather outfit nodded and said, “Yep. Give us a ten-minute head start, then the first pair can start. Be safe!”
I noticed her winking at Hunter, then she disappeared in her car. Seconds later, she and Franco were gone.
Frowning slightly, I turned to Hunter. “Did…did you ever hook up with that Lisa-girl?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Seriously, that’s your most important question right now?”
I shrugged.
Hunter then said with a dismissive wave of his hand, “Yeah, I think we had a one-nighter.”
“You think?” I asked, appalled.
Hunter laughed again, though he seemed a bit uneasy now. “It was after I won a race. Afterward, I went to a bar to have some drinks, and Lisa was there too. I don’t remember much of that night, but when I woke up, she was lying next to me. I never went out with her again.”
“After you won a race?” I echoed when suddenly it dawned on me. “So that’s what this is about? A street race?” I couldn’t hide the concern from my voice.
Hunter nodded. “Yes. An organized one. I do this all the time. When you win, you earn a small reward.”
“But isn’t that illegal?” I whispered.
“Of course, it is,” Hunter said, not at all bothered by that fact.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re really making the most of this bad boy thing, aren’t you?”
He grinned broadly. “You kinda like it. Admit it.”
“Sure, having a boyfriend in jail sounds really fucking hot.” I snapped.
It was only when his eyes widened, and a real smile sneaked upon his face for a change that I realized exactly what I just said. My cheeks flushed immediately.
Fortunately, someone called Hunter over before he could say more than, “Boyfriend, huh?”
I didn’t get the chance to backtrack as Hunter pulled me with him to where the rest of the group were gathered.
“We’re choosing pairs, right now,” a brunette guy said. “Who do you want to compete with?”
Hunter smirked cockily and let his gaze wander over the group. “I don’t care. Whoever dares to run against me can have their chance.”
I saw some people roll their eyes, others were laughing. Eventually, one guy stepped forward. He was so tall that I actually tilted my head back to look at his face. With his long blond hair and square jaw, he basically looked like Chris Hemsworth as Thor, just without the hammer.
“Try your luck, shorty,” he exclaimed. “You won’t beat me.”
Hunter’s face lit up at that. I could almost feel the energy and the will to win radiating off him. “We’ll drive third.”
The others nodded, and it was decided. It was all a little surreal to me and the thought of these people actually driving an illegal street race in a few minutes was hard to imagine.
Hunter nudged me with his elbow. “So, now you know what will happen. Do you want to ride shotgun?” Before I could answer, he held a hand up to interrupt me. “I should probably warn you first. It’s dangerous because we’ll obviously drive at a really high speed. It’s also illegal, and you could be punished, too, if we get pulled over. So, if you want, you can stay here and wait. I’d understand that completely.”
I thought about it while eyeing Hunter, his car, and the Chris Hemsworth-lookalike. It seemed awfully stupid and dangerous, but then again, so was everything that had to do with Hunter.
“Fine,” I said. “I’m coming with you.”
“You are?” Hunter asked, clearly surprised.
“Yes. But only because the people here seem scarier than a life-endangering car ride with you.”
Hunter snorted at that, maybe a bit offended, then he turned back to Chris Hemsworth. “Alright, so it’s me and Jules against you.”
Chris frowned sourly. “You’re taking your lapdog with you?”
Even though Hunter just nodded calmly, I could see a muscle twitching in his right cheek, giving his anger about that insult away.
“Fine. Then I’m taking her with me,” he said, pointing at a blonde girl next to him, who didn’t exactly look happy about the turn of events. “We wouldn’t want to disadvantage them, would we? We’re doing this fairly.” With that, he turned around, pulling the girl with him towards his bright red sports car.
I looked at Hunter. “What did he mean by disadvantaging us?”
“Additional weight. The more passengers there are, the slower the car is. He did us a favor by adding weight to his car as well, so we have a better chance on beating him.”
“Do you often win?”
“I only lost twice. And those were because, at that time, I was driving a really shitty car,” he said and led me towards his Audi.
“So, do you think we can beat him with this one?” I asked.
Hunter didn’t even look at the other car before answering, “Yes.”
I snorted and got back into the passenger seat. Hunter followed into the car. Despite his confident statement, he seemed tense. His jaw was set, his fingers tightly clenched around the steering wheel.
Together we watched as the people outside retreated from the starting line and the first pair began their race. Soon, the second left. Hunter drove up to the starting line as soon as they were out of sight.
Next to us, Chris Hemsworth 2.0 was sitting in his car. The girl he too
k to accompany him looked like she was about to faint, so I offered her a smile that I hoped was encouraging, even though I felt jittery myself.
Through the open window, we could hear the voice of the guy with the flag who was standing next to the white line. As soon as he lifted it, Chris let his engine roar loudly.
“One!” the man shouted.
Hunter took a deep breath.
“Two!”
I dug my nails into the leather of the seat.
“Three!”
My heart felt like it was trying to hammer its way out of my chest.
“Go!”
As soon as the word was out, both cars jumped forward, leaving the parking lot at a speed I hadn’t expected. Soon, there was nothing but the smooth pavement of the highway under the wheels and the car shot through the darkness like an arrow let loose.
The red sports car was still next to us, driving at exactly the same speed.
Hunter glanced over at me to see my reaction, his smile razor-sharp, excitement sparking off him.
“Oh my God. Stop looking at me!” I shouted. “Keep your eyes on the road!”
He chuckled. “This is nothing! We’re still going slow because of the speed camera that’s we’re about to pass soon! Afterward, we’ll floor it. The second one is on the last eighth of the way, so until then, there’s no speed limit for us.”
I swore quietly.
Soon, we passed the speed camera, just like Hunter had said. Immediately, both cars gained even more speed, until our surroundings were not more than blurry shadows. I felt myself being pressed tightly into the seat, similar to the feeling during take-off in a plane.
I turned my head, completely startled as I suddenly heard Hunter laugh. His laughter was contagious, carefree, and lighthearted, not a sound I had ever heard from him. For a second, I smiled along with him, but then the car went even faster, and I was reminded of my situation.
I wasn’t even sure if the wheels were still touching the ground. It didn’t feel like it. It felt like we were flying, gliding just above the pavement. It wasn’t a speed that any regular Audi could reach.
“Is this car tuned?” I shouted over the rattling of the engine.
“Yeah, it’s stroked. I had the engine rebuilt with a longer-stroke crankshaft, so it has a higher swept capacity.”
“What?”
He laughed again. “Never mind!”
I wanted to say something, but when I opened my mouth, all that came out was a shriek as the red car suddenly appeared right in front of us after Chris changed lanes. Hunter let out a stream of curses as he steered into the lane that Chris had left.
Chris immediately followed, again driving right in front of us. Hunter had to brake, and I got flung forward, the seat belt digging into my skin.
“Oh my God. We’re going to die.” I whined and shut my eyes as Hunter changed lanes once more and passed the red car.
Now, being first and with the free road ahead of us, Hunter picked up speed again. “At least, we would’ve lived before,” Hunter said sounding, not at all concerned. “There’s a difference between being alive and actually living.”
“So this is your definition of actually living?”
“Yeah. The adrenaline, the risk…Nothing feels more like living than almost dying.”
I could only stare at him, actually worrying about his mental health for a second.
Hunter glanced at the other car through the rearview mirror and frowned slightly. Chris seemed to have slowed down a bit, the space between us getting bigger by the minute.
“Is he giving up?” I wondered.
“I don’t think so,” Hunter said, looking just as confused as I felt. “I’m not sure what he’s planning to—”
Then I realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to create space so he could ram us.
“Slow down,” I yelled. “You need to slow down, minimize the space between us.”
Hunter frowned for a second, then he understood and continued much slower. Chris seemed to be angry that we saw through his tactic and changed lanes. Then he gained even more speed until he pulled ahead.
Hunter immediately went faster too, but he couldn’t catch up. The distance to the other car got larger and larger.
“The second speed camera should be somewhere around here…” Hunter then muttered.
He was right. A minute later, we caught up with the red sports car. It was way slower, driving just below the speed limit. I expected Hunter to slow down as well. Instead, we seemed to go even faster.
“Hunter, the speed camera…”
I could already see it. It was not far away. Chris was clever enough to stay within the allowed speed and fell further behind.
“Hunter, slow down. They’ll catch us speeding!”
Hunter’s jaw was working, knuckles white against the steering wheel. “I don’t care. I want to win against this jerk.” With that, he sped up one last time. “Say cheese!”
I was momentarily blinded by the bright flash of the camera cutting through the darkness. When I opened them again, I saw the parking lot, our final destination, right ahead.
The grin was back on Hunter’s face, and the tension left his body. The red car was far behind. Hunter slowed down until we rolled into the parking lot at a normal speed. Franco and Lisa and the four people who had raced before us were standing at a safe distance to the finish line, cheering as we crossed it.
Hunter parked the car. For a moment, everything was silent except for our heavy breathing. Then Hunter laughed quietly, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the back of his seat.
I regarded him silently. He looked completely happy with himself and everything else in that instant, bathed in the moonlight, with one hand in his hair while the other one was still resting on the steering wheel. His lips were slightly parted and—
I quickly tore my gaze away from his mouth when a knock on Hunter’s window startled us both. He opened his eyes, still smiling and rolled down his window.
The rest of the group, including a pissed looking Chris and the blonde girl whose face appeared to now be greenish, were standing outside. Franco congratulated us while handing Hunter a brown envelope.
“Didn’t expect to lose, huh?” Hunter asked Chris as he accepted the envelope, smiling provocatively.
Chris glared at him. “Didn’t expect you to be so stupid and drive right into that speed trap.”
“Was worth it, though. I couldn’t stand to lose against someone who drives like a monkey on drugs,” he replied, shrugging. “Well, we’re going…See you, Franco.”
Franco waved half-heartedly, then they all were out of sight, and we left the parking lot.
“That was insane.” I eventually groaned.
Hunter nodded. “It was. But hey, we won. The car’s intact, and we’re alive.”
A weird noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh escaped my mouth. “If these are all the criteria for a successful date, I don’t want to see what a bad one with you is like.”
Chuckling, Hunter asked, “I take it this wasn’t the best experience for you?”
“It may have been without the looming threat of death,” I retorted. “Is this honestly something you often do?”
“Sometimes. When the mood strikes,” he said like it wasn’t a big deal at all.
To him, it probably wasn’t.
I looked outside, realizing that I suddenly had no idea where we were. “Where are we going? This isn’t the road back home, is it?” I asked.
“No. I thought we might go somewhere else before we drive back. Somewhere quiet so you can calm down.”
“Okay. And where’s that?”
“I thought of The Deck,” Hunter said, but it sounded more like a question.
I grimaced slightly as I thought of the last time I’d been there, breaking up with Emily. But eventually, I nodded. Perhaps it was a good thing to replace the bad memories there with better ones.
It wasn’t long until we arrived there,
parking beneath some trees. Hunter and I both got out of the car. I watched in confusion as Hunter walked around the car, opened the trunk and got a basket out of it. When he caught up with me, I could see that it was filled with a thermos bottle and a few chocolate bars.
I couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Oh, alright. So that’s your trick? This is how you impress your dates? By doing picnics under the night sky?”
Since the street lamp a few feet away was the only source of light, I couldn’t quite read Hunter’s expression, but I was pretty sure he was glaring or rolling his eyes at me.
I was surprised when he only said, “Well, no one else ever needed to be impressed, but for you, I can go that extra mile.”
I smiled like an idiot. Instead of teasing me about it, Hunter just motioned for me to sit down on the car’s hood next to him. It wasn’t very wide, so our arms grazed each other unintentionally. I could feel Hunter’s body heat through the fabric of my clothes, and since the night was chilly, it was a pleasant feeling. Even more so when Hunter took one of my hands.
With his free hand, he handed me the thermos bottle and one of the chocolate bars.
I eyed the bottle warily. “What’s in this?”
Hunter sighed, exasperated. “I’m not going to get you drunk, idiot.”
I hesitated for one more moment, then I took the lid off and took a sip. The sweet taste of chocolate caught me off guard.
“You made hot chocolate?” I asked and tried not to sound too surprised.
He nodded and took the bottle from my hand, drinking a little and sighing again, contently this time. Wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, he stared up at the sky. “Hey, do you know what time it is?”
After I looked at my mobile, I said, “Around three.” I laughed. “We’re going to be so fucking tired tomorrow. You owe me a coffee.”
“Oh, do I?” Hunter chuckled. “Am I allowed to give it to you in the school grounds then?” he asked the question lightly, but he was as serious about this as I was.
“Yes,” I said. “I just don’t want anyone to see us being…close…You know what I mean.”
“I do. And it’s okay for me if that’s what you want. Especially since it’s my fault that people are so stupid about it.”
“What do you mean?”
Why You Shouldn't Lend A Bad Boy Your Clothes Page 20