Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
D ane helped Emily into the driver’s seat and buckled her into the racing harness. “How are you feeling, baby?” When she didn’t immediately answer him, he stopped what he was doing and squeezed her thigh. “Emily, look at me.”
She lifted her gaze to his and nodded, but her smiled looked forced. “I’m okay. I promise.”
“Just remember, you don’t have to do this,” he said. “If you’re having any doubts at all, we can call the whole thing off right now.”
As per their meeting with Detectives Bryant and Cross that morning, Dane knew one phone call was all they needed and Hell would descend on the hoons.
They also knew that some of them would get away to drag another day, but the main aim of the operation was to scoop up Spencer and his crew, and the drug dealers that always seemed to slither in and take advantage of the extra cover supplied by the crowds and chaos.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about Emily, that he would be happy if she changed her mind and called it quits on the race.
What if she got caught up in the action at the end of the night?
What if he and Eric couldn’t get to her in time and she got arrested along with everyone else?
What if she crashed?
The sudden heat of her palm on his cheek brought him back from the brink. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to be okay, so stop worrying.”
“The day I stop worrying about you is the day I die.”
Her whole expression softened and her smile turned kinda goofy. “I love you too.”
And he just stayed there, crouched down beside her, basking in her love until his brother called out for him. “Derek, is she ready?”
Dane straightened and dusted his hands off on his jeans. “Are you ready, baby?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she murmured, then gave him a thumbs-up.
“Just remember what we spoke about on the drive over. You’ve driven my car before, you know the timing. Trust your reflexes.” Dane closed the driver’s door and leaned in through the open window. “Kick his arse, baby.” Then he kissed her deeply.
Until a hand landed on his shoulder. “Move over.” A moment later Emily giggled as his brother took his place and kissed her too.
“We’ll be waiting for you, kitten.”
“You better be,” she said, then winked. “I was promised a good hard railing if I win.”
Eric growled. Dane chuckled. “That was the plan.”
“Good,” she said, then started the engine. “You might want to step back.”
Stepping away from the car was harder than it should have been. Emily knew what she was doing behind the wheel. Dane knew that, but his instinct to protect his woman was at war with his need to do his duty.
“Come on,” Eric said. “Em has it from here.” Then he tilted his chin at her. “Come back to us in one piece.”
She gave him a nod, then revved the engine, signalling she was ready to race.
Dane and Eric moved to the side and made eye contact with Detective Cross. He scratched his chin. The signal that everything was set.
Good.
The sooner they got this over with, the better.
Shane stood ready to get in his car and addressed the crowd.
“You know the race. You know the stakes. If I lose,” —a chorus of booing and jeering filled the air—“I forfeit the Coyote. But if I win,”—he stared directly at Dane and Eric—“your bitch is mine. And I’m gunna fuck her up so good, she’ll never want to leave me. ”
Dane took a step forwards but Eric grabbed his shoulder and held him back. They’d done that a lot in the last twenty-four hours. Stopped each other from doing dumb shit like punching people who really deserved it. Sometimes being one of the good guys sucked.
“Never gunna happen, Shane,” Eric said. “Our girl is gunna crush you.”
Shane’s only response was to laugh, then get in his car.
Emily knew the route she had to drive. It was on the note Shane had dropped off that afternoon at the dealership. A three kilometre stretch along Mount Cotton Road, between Ney and Redland Bay Roads. It was a hotspot for illegal drag racing and dangerous as fuck.
Curvy roads through semi-rural land, which meant kangaroos, wallabies and the occasional koala were potential hazards, especially at midnight.
Concealed driveways on both sides of the road, not to mention the way the road curved and dipped, and oh, yeah, had single fucking lanes, which meant someone had to drive on the wrong side of the road for this insanity.
But they knew the drill. Shane’s crew had the area blocked off.
The local residents knew the drill too and tended to steer clear of it all, but there would be at least one call to the local coppers about the hoons in the area.
Thankfully the boys in blue had already been informed of what was going on and, barring any other major incidents, were on hand to help with the clean up.
Emily and Shane moved into position, both of them revving their engines and spinning their tyres, leaving rubber on the road for better traction and a cleaner take off.
Dane’s heart was in his throat. He didn’t want to watch but he couldn’t look away. He couldn’t let his girl out of his sight.
Even after they took off in a roar of heavy metal and a cloud of burning rubber.
“She can do this,” Eric said, then moved off to speak to Detective Cross.
As always, his brother was right. Emily had been racing cars with her family for years.
She’d even raced them. She was amazing. And she was all theirs.
A slow grin slipped into place as his pride for his girl made itself known.
Emily Berringer was short, curvy, and owned more sass than Dane knew what to do with.
And she was about to beat Shane fucking Spencer at his own game.
He looked over at Matthew Spencer and honestly wondered if he should shake the idiot’s hand. If it wasn’t for that little twat lying to Emily and bringing her out to an illegal drag race, he and Eric could have lost her for good.
Just as the thought went through his mind, Matthew turned and caught Dane staring at him, grinning at him. “What’s so funny?”
“Your brother is about to have his arse handed to him by a little girl. That shit is funny.”
Matthew kicked at a stone on the pavement. “He’s not going to let her win.”
“Well that’s a co-inky-dink, because Emily isn’t going to let him win either.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Matthew looked nervous. More than nervous. The kid looked like he needed to vomit.
A pit formed in Dane’s gut. Something wasn’t right.
Grabbing Matthew’s upper arm, he jerked him closer and he didn’t care who saw it.
“Something you want to tell me, mate?” The kid swallowed hard and began to shake his head, but Dane shook him harder.
“Don’t even think about lying to me. Not if it has something to do with Emily. ”
Nodding, words began started spilling out of Matthew, like a confession avalanche. And just like an avalanche, it destroyed everything in its path.
“Shane’s going to mess her up, he’s going to make sure she can’t win.”
“What do you mean? Explain.”
“He’s got a guy ready to run her off the road. If it even looks like she might win, he’ll make the call and?—”
“And what?” Dane snarled, his temper clawing at him like the beast it was. But he couldn’t unleash it. Not yet. Not until he had all the information.
“He’ll kill her,” Matthew said, sweat beading on his brow and upper lip. He shook his head, his eyes wide and haunted. “He’ll make it look like an accident, but he’ll kill her.”
Dane grabbed the kid by his ear and dragged him, literally kicking and screaming over to Eric and Cross. “Tell them,” he demanded. “Tell them what you just told me.”
Matthew’s gaze darted between the three older men as he rubbed at his ear, but he did as Dane demanded and told them what Shane had in store for Emily.
“Fuck,” said Cross, then pulled out his phone and pointed a finger at Matthew. “Detain him, and keep him quiet.” Then he called in the cavalry.
The kid was in cuffs before he could blink, and he didn’t even argue. “I never wanted her to get hurt.” He shook his head. “But she humiliated Shane. He was never going to let her win.”
Dane stared at his older brother and knew he too felt the pain around his heart, the squeezing sensation that had the power to cripple them where they stood.
With the speeds Emily was doing and the distance they were travelling, at most the race would have taken about a minute and a half, and they were close enough to the action that they would have heard a crash. But….
No. No buts. Fuck that.
They weren’t giving up.
Not on her.
“She’ll be okay. She will,” Dane insisted. “Emily is one of the best drivers we’ve ever known. Our girl will be okay.”
Eric nodded. “You’re right. She will.” Then the sound of mass panic hit their ears as all hell broke loose. “Let’s get to work.”
The task force swooped in, and with the aid of the local coppers, they managed to arrest several people, either on suspicion of supplying drugs, or a variety of traffic offences.
As expected, many of the hoons got away, disappearing into the darkened suburban streets.
There was simply too many of them, and not enough police resources to go around.
About ten minutes into the chaos, Detective Cross got a call from Detective Bryant.
They had detained Shane and a handful of others at the finish line, but there was no sign of Emily.
And investigators further up the road hadn’t seen her either.
There was no evidence of a crash, no debris.
It was as though she had vanished into thin air.
It was almost another ten minutes before Dane heard a familiar engine rumbling and the tightness around his heart eased. His fear subsided and he called out to Eric. “She’s here. Our girl is here.”
Eric ran over to where Dane stood and together they watched his car come slowly into view, before pulling off to the side of the road. A moment later they were hauling Emily out of the car and checking her over for any injuries.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, smiling as they showered her in kisses. “I told you I’d be okay.”
“Where the bloody hell have you been? We were worried sick.”
“Some idiot came flying out of a concealed driveway and I had to make a hard left onto Lyndon Road, and I couldn’t turn around so I had to follow it all the way up, then cut all the way around Capalaba just so I could loop back up to here.
And don’t even get me started on the traffic.
Doesn’t anyone have anything better to do on a Saturday night? ”
Neither Dane nor Eric could hold in their laughter any longer.
Emily looked so exasperated as she told them about her detour, and they were so relieved that she was truly all right, that they just had to let it out, to let it be known they were happy and no one was going to change that anytime soon.
“I love you, baby,” Dane said, pulling her in for a hug.
“I love you, too,” she said, snuggling against him.
“And I love you both,” Eric said, then kissed the top of Emily’s head. “I love our weird little family.”
“We’re not weird,” Emily said, frowning. But when Dane cocked one brow at her, she added, “Okay, so maybe we’re a little bit weird.”
“And you’re okay with weird?”
“Depends. Are you going to take me home so we can have weird sex now?”
Dane shook his head and laughed again. “Who says we’re taking you home first?”
Even in the moonlight, he could see her pupils dilate, and he’d bet good money her panties were wet through. “Well, in that case,” she purred, “I am very okay with it.”
And so was Dane.
It had taken a while to find their perfect match, a woman who was open to the idea of sharing herself with two men—two brothers—but Emily was it for them. Dane doubted she’d even had a second thought about the whole idea. That was just the kind of woman she was.
Kind and accepting.
Loving.
Theirs.