Chapter 16
Charly
My heart knocked around in my chest as I pushed my car to the limit.
Racing Baby Q wasn’t going to be easy, and I had known that when I accepted the challenge.
Baby Q, whose real name was Quenesha, had been racing for the last six years, and she was a beast. But if I wanted to be the best, I would have to beat the best.
I had raced plenty of drivers, both male and female, but Baby Q was no joke. She inched ahead of me. My fingers gripped the steering wheel, and my jaw clenched. I tried to loosen up so that I could become one with the car, but I struggled to get out of my head.
I couldn’t lose this race, I just couldn’t.
If I did, I didn’t know if Chopper would want me to remain on the team.
He had already been on the fence about it, even though he had welcomed me to the team.
Dominic shared with me a couple of days ago that he had manipulated that in my favor.
He told me that he’d had all the guys turn down the race, which ended up being my first, knowing that Chopper wouldn’t want to forfeit it.
While I was a bit disappointed in Dominic for doing that, I was also happy that it opened a chance for me to prove to Chopper that I belonged on this team. I was willing to do everything to maintain my place on the team, including beating Baby Q’s hard-to-beat ass.
We passed the old hardware store, and we were neck and neck. I glanced sideways and saw her smiling at me. She pointed ahead, and I turned to see that the light had just turned red and there was a car sitting on the other side.
There was no way that we would make it through the intersection before the car did. If we kept going, one of us would plow into the side of that car and take them out. My heart raced as I tried to determine what I should do with that split second to decide.
I glanced at Baby Q again, and she wore a look of determination as she stared straight ahead. She was going for it. So would I.
“God, please cover us all,” I whispered as I pressed the accelerator to the floor. We both shot through the intersection and narrowly missed the four-door sedan with three people inside. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest as I whispered a “Thank You, Jesus.”
My adrenaline and fear kept my foot on the gas and kept it pressed to the floor. Baby Q must have thought that I wasn’t going to go for it, because she had eased off the gas after we made it through the light. I zoomed past her.
Within seconds, she caught up to me, but it was too late. I passed through the finish line just a bumper ahead of her and within seconds of each other. It was so close that if it hadn’t been for Bear jumping up and down and doing a fist pump, I wouldn’t have known that I’d won.
I hopped out of the car and rushed to Bear. “Congrats, Burnout!” he shouted as he spun me around. When he put my feet on the ground, he turned his phone to me and showed me the video. I had won; there was no doubt about it.
I turned to look at the girl on Baby Q’s team who had been recording for her. She was staring at her phone in her hand and tapping out something. I guess she was letting JP know that Baby Q had lost, either that or letting their team captain know.
“Why did you call me Burnout?” I asked Bear.
“I thought it was a great street name for you. Besides the fact that you show your ass when you do them, that temper of yours is reason enough to call you that.”
I laughed and nodded. “I think I like it.”
“Good.”
Baby Q approached me with her hand outstretched. “Congratulations. You’re no joke.”
“You’re not bad yourself,” I quipped, shaking her hand but glaring at her.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked, looking at Bear.
He glanced at me, and I nodded. He stepped back, and I walked closer to Baby Q’s car with her to put more space between Bear and us.
“What the hell was that? Why did you take that risk?” I demanded.
She smirked at me and replied, “Same reason that you did. I wanted to win. Besides, I wanted to see if you had what it took to win.”
“I do, but why would you ease up on the gas after taking the risk?”
“I underestimated you. I figured your ass would be so freaked out over that near miss that you would slow up, if not stop, to get your heart under control. At first, I didn’t see you go through the light because I had the lead.
I just knew that you didn’t take the challenge.
Others have done it,” she replied with a shrug.
I shook my head. “This isn’t your first time?”
“Nope, and probably won’t be the last.”
“I don’t get it . . . What’s your point?”
“Do you want to race with Lady Jaguars?”
Shock flooded me. Recently, Baby Q and some of the other female racers had formed their own team, since the men wouldn’t include them. I had always gotten along better with males than females, which was why I hadn’t even considered asking them.
I eyed her up and down and then looked at her partner, who had come to stand beside us, Moni, pronounced like money, but short for Monica. She had been known to garner big bets on her races because she was just that good.
I glanced over my shoulder at Bear, who stood with his arms crossed as he stared at the three of us. I was certain that he knew what they wanted. Turning back to the ladies, I shook my head, jerked my thumb over my shoulder, and replied, “Nah, I’m good with my fam.”
Baby Q nodded and then dapped me up. “Good race, sis. If you change your mind, holler at us.”
“Doubt I will, but thanks for the offer.”
I turned and walked back to my car.
“You good?” Bear asked.
“As long as I’ve got my fam, I’m always good.”
“That’s wassup,” he replied, pulling me into a one-arm side hug before he released me and walked back to his car.
I returned to the meet-up spot just in time to see Dominic get ready for his race.
Once again, he was the last race of the night.
Most people came to see him race, so he was usually the last race of the night to keep everyone around.
The usual crowd was there, including the yap masters who didn’t run nothing but their mouths: Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell, Pixie-cut, and Dirty Red.
“Think I’m playing. I’m getting that tonight. He’s been eyeing me lately ever since I hit him up in his DMs,” Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell declared, licking her lips as she stared at Dominic.
“I heard he wasn’t free anymore,” Dirty Red proclaimed in a sly, taunting voice.
“Mm-hmm. I heard old thirst trap finally bagged her man,” Pixie-cut chimed in.
I tried to ignore their bullshit by walking away from where they were standing.
I had been standing where I was since I returned from my race.
They had eased their way over to me with only a few people between us.
I knew they were talking loud enough to get under my skin, and I wasn’t going to let them.
“Girl, please. That bitch ain’t his girl. She’s just a homie-hopper. I heard she was with his brother, and now she’s with him. She’ll be with one of the others on his team next. Mark my words,” Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell stated.
“She’s easy like that?” Dirty Red asked.
“And every one of them knows it. Why do you think she hangs out here? I heard she’s been with every nigga on Easy Money,” Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell stated, referencing another street team.
I spotted Avriella, Tunisia, and Avriella’s best friend, Nikki, on the other side of the road.
I walked away from where I stood to move closer to the race and toward my girls.
The last thing that I needed was to expose myself to a bunch of jealous hos.
The minute that I passed them up, Blondie-ain’t-a-bombshell bumped me with her shoulder.
“Watch yourself,” I stated in a warning tone without turning around.
“Bitch, watch yourself,” she replied and shoved me in the back.
I froze, because I knew like hell she had not put her hands on me.
“You need to beat that ho’s ass,” Dirty Red stated as I turned around.
Everything disappeared from my line of vision except that cheap blonde wig.
My fist grabbed Blondie’s hair and jerked it back, while my other fist beat her face in.
I knew her friends were trying to jump me because I mildly felt their fists on my head and back, but I didn’t care about that.
The only thing I wanted to do was punish Blondie for thinking she could put her hands on me.
Forget all the trash she had been talking; I was furious about her putting her hands on me.
Before I knew it, Tunisia, Nikki, and Avriella were in the fray with me, pulling them heffas off me and whupping their asses too. I dragged Blondie across the gravel, straddled her chest, and kept whaling on her.
I heard people around us shouting, heard a few yelling “break it up,” and I saw people holding up their phones in my peripheral vision.
But none of that was enough to pull me off her.
She had it coming for all the shit she’d been talking.
After today, she would learn that it wasn’t okay to put your hands on people, especially when they hadn’t touched you.
I heard a gunshot seconds before strong hands pulled me off her. I didn’t have to turn around or hear the voice to know who it was. Those big arms crushed around my waist, and that familiar spicy cologne told me everything that I needed to know. Dominic was holding me.
“Ya mama might not have taught ya ass the crucial lesson of keeping your hands to yourself, but you gon’ learn today!” I shouted, breaking away from him and kicking the girl in her ribs.
Dominic lifted me again and pulled me away as Chopper shouted, “Dominic! The fuck, man! We got a race to win and money on the line.”
It was only then that I snatched away and turned around to see that his car was in the middle of the road with the door flung open. The car he was racing was nowhere in sight.
“I’on give a fuck ’bout that shit, my nigga. You think I’m ’bout to sit around and let my girl get jumped?” Dominic shouted.