Chapter 3
Dominic
PRESENT DAY
Every muscle in my body was tight and well-tuned into the vibration of the car and the hum of the engine.
We moved as one, and it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.
Dark blurs passed by on either side of me, and though my mind knew that it was the towering green pines, they were unidentifiable in the darkened night at this speed.
I didn’t give a shit how many others he beat before me.
I wouldn’t be the one who lost to him tonight.
I pressed the button to release the nitrous oxide into the engine.
The horsepower and torque weren’t the only things that increased; the determination and the adrenaline flowing through me were like a match to a fuel line.
“Whoohoo!” I shouted, pushing air through my cheeks as my tunnel vision became sharper. I blew through the red light and over the train tracks, even as I heard the sound of the train coming. I barely made it past the crossing gates before they were lowered.
The clacking sound of Chrome busting through the gates barely registered in my mind. My speed continued to climb until the sound of his engine eventually disappeared—until all I could hear was the growl of my car.
I made it to the finish line and waved at my boy, Tremonte “Demon” Scott, who was recording the results, before I continued back to the meet-up spot.
When I climbed out of the car, my crew ran up to meet me.
Every one of them dapped me up and shouted, “Congrats, Reaper! If anyone could do that shit, it’s you! ”
The crowd parted, and my heart swelled at the sight before me. Strength and determination were the only things that allowed me to keep control of my feelings. It didn’t matter how many wins I took home; they all paled in comparison to the feeling that I got whenever she was around.
My best friend, Charly, walked through the crowd and threw herself into my arms and shouted, “Congrats, Dom! There was never a doubt in my mind that you could pull out the win.” She was that light in my life that kept me sane.
I had walked on the edge of darkness for most of my life, but she always brought the light whenever life became too complicated and overwhelming.
I laughed, pulled back, and smiled at her.
“Girl, you know I always do that shit when I got my good luck piece with me.” I leaned down and kissed the top of her head as I looked around at the others who had doubted me but now claimed they hadn’t.
I tried desperately to ignore the feelings stirring inside of me at the feeling of her in my arms and the scent of her in my nose.
All the feelings that Charly stirred within me died down within moments, thanks to the presence of my opponent. Chrome came pulling in, and he was thirty-eight hot.
“The fuck you doing, man? You cheating and shit!”
“The fuck you mean? Don’t come at me like that, dawg!” I exclaimed, walking up to him.
“What the fuck do you got under that hood?” he asked, slamming his hand on the hood of my car.
“Muthafucka, you ’bout to get fucked up in here. They call it grudge racing for a reason, dumb ass.”
“Who the fuck you calling dumb?” he shouted and shoved me.
I chuckled and replied, “You might wanna keep them paws to yourself, dawg. I ain’t the one for all that.”
“The fuck you gon’ do? Whine like a bitch? Or get that yapping ass bitch that’s always under you to do something about it? Somebody needs to bust her in her shit,” he declared and thrusted his head at Charly.
I hit that nigga in the mouth and the jaw so fast. And then I started pounding his head until he went down. He curled in a ball and covered that big ass dome head of his.
“Reaper! Reaper! Chill, man!” My team members pulled me back as I kicked him repeatedly in the ribs and shoulders. They got me just before I aimed my steel-toed boot at his head.
I shook them off me. “Don’t come for me. That nigga had the nerve to talk shit ’bout my day one, and she ain’t did shit to nobody. Can’t stand bitch ass niggas who wanna put their hands on a female.”
“He didn’t do that shit, though, yo,” Jeremy “Novocain” Watson, one of my street racing team members, declared.
“The fuck am I supposed to do? Wait around for him to get it off? Nah, he gon’ learn not to mess with nothing attached to me before he even tries!”
I was furious. The high that I’d been on from racing and winning had come down fast and hard. I felt as if I’d jumped from a plane without a parachute. That shit didn’t feel good at all.
“Aye, clear this bitch out!” Jordyn “Chopper” Fontaine, the team captain, shouted. “Somebody called the folks.”
We heard the cops in the distance. Everyone ran to their cars, and I ran to mine.
Charly ran right behind me and jumped into my car.
She’d have to hold on tight because I had removed everything from the car: the dashboard, carpet, seats, and everything behind the bumper.
The only thing that remained was the driver’s seat.
We did that shit all the time when racing because it made the car lighter.
I’d even changed the brakes to racing brakes.
She was supposed to get a ride with her friend, Tunisia, but TT, as we called her, hadn’t made it to the meet-up spot yet. And I wasn’t taking any chances on leaving Charly behind to wait for her.
I pulled out of the lot, squealing with the rest of ’em, and pulled ahead, going over yards, curbs, and anything else that got in my way.
“Damn, Dom!” Charly shouted from behind me.
“Hold on, baby girl. I gotcha. Not interested in spending the night behind bars.”
“I feel ya, but don’t get a vehicular homicide charge with me back here either.”
I chuckled. “Baby girl, you wildin’.”
I took a few more turns, and within ten minutes, we were pulling into the lot of Black Diamonds night club. It was one of the most hype places to go on a Friday night, and it was also where Charly was scheduled to be on shift in twenty minutes.
The night lit up with the sound of my teammates and their plus ones rolling into the lot with nothing but music and V-8 engines roaring.
When I climbed out of my 1970 Plymouth Hemi Barracuda 426, I reached back and pulled her out of the car along with me.
“You good?” I asked, checking her out all over.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I think,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes.
Everyone crowded around us and congratulated me again.
“Let’s roll inside,” I declared and threw my arm around Charly as she snuggled into my side.
Everyone followed us inside, and we all grabbed the tables closest to the bar. That way, we could still be close to Charly and chop it up with her during her downtime for her shift that would be starting soon.
Five minutes after we arrived, Chopper strode into the club, scanning the crowd until his eyes landed on us. He walked in my direction and bent down.
“Aye, let me holla at you for a sec, Reap.”
I nodded and set my beer down. “A’ight. Watch my drink, Charly.”
Speed teased me. “Nigga, don’t nobody wanna take advantage of yo’ old ornery ass. These women up in here looking for a real one tonight!” He held his glass bottle up, and the other brothers did the same and laughed at my expense.
I shook my head and glanced at Charly, who wore a worried expression. “You good?” I asked her.
“Yeah,” she replied softly.
“A’ight. Be right back.”
I walked to where Chopper stood a few feet away. “What’s good, G?”
“I’on know. That’s what I’m tryna figure out.”
“Whatcha talking about?”
“You and that shit show back there at the meet-up spot. How you gon’ blow up the set like that, big homie?”
“You heard that shit he was talking. Chrome is always in somebody’s face, doing too much.”
“He is, but you’ve always been good at ignoring his ass and telling everybody else to do the same.”
“It’s time somebody set that nigga straight, Chopper, you know that. And it just happened to be me.”
“But did it have to be?”
“What are you saying, Chop?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
He flared his nostrils and bobbed his head slightly, realizing that he was pissing me off, but I knew his ass didn’t care. Chopper didn’t let things like tempers, attitudes, and flexing cause him a moment of sweat.
“I’m saying that what happened tonight wasn’t you.”
“Felt like all me out there tonight. Felt like I was the one he put his hands on and disrespected.”
“And you’ve been known to let shit like that go in the past.”
“Maybe I’m tired of it.”
“And maybe it’s got something to do with your girl.”
“What girl? Charly?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s not my girl. She’s my friend, Chopper, just like you, Freeway, King, Bear, and all the rest of the niggas.”
He shook his head. “The shit’s not the same, homie, and if you can’t see that, then that’s a major problem too.
When we get into shit, you tell us to chill the fuck out.
You tell us to get our paper and let that be our sweetest revenge.
You tell us to shake the dumb shit off because it ain’t worth it in the long run.
But tonight, that bigheaded ass nigga was on some dumb shit, and you let it get to you. That ain’t your usual flow, Reaper.”
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying open your eyes. You’re my friend, and you know that I’ve always got your back, Reaper. But where Charly is concerned, you can’t see shit. You don’t make the best decisions regarding her. She’s your blind spot.”
I waved him off. “Man, get outta here with that. She’s been my best friend since I was—”
“Eight. I know. I know. But you act more like she’s your woman, and if that’s the case, then you need to claim her and let it be known so people ain’t disrespecting her and shit.”
“She’s not my woman. She’s my best friend, and that should be good enough for her to get respect. Or how about the fact that she’s a person, a decent human being who deserves respect.”