Chapter 24 Gianna
Gianna
PRESENT
‘I see you haven’t worked on looking less suspicious.’
I jerk my wrist from Ryker’s grasp and narrow my eyes.
His imposing figure towers over me with his stupid black hair and stupid blue eyes.
Even with the mask on, he’s heart-achingly handsome and it gets on my nerves.
He leans against Landon’s car. A shot of heat spears right through my middle, as if it’s cutting me in half, and I fucking hate myself for it.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I seethe, folding my arms across my chest.
‘You sure?’ He opens his palm to show me the removed air caps. I reach to snatch them from him, but he closes his fist and raises his arm.
‘What’s the magic word?’ he teases.
‘Now.’
He lowers to my level, turquoise eyes soldered to mine through the frame of his mask. Despite the amplified music, chattering crowd and clatter of games and rides, I still hear his whisper of, ‘I’ll give you one more chance.’
The tension between us is palpable, but I can’t decide if it’s from hate or desire. Whichever it is, the atmosphere begins to sizzle, so I cave.
‘Please,’ I grind the word out, eyes flaring.
He raises the mask off his face as he gives a lopsided grin. ‘Well.’ He clicks his tongue. ‘Since you asked so nicely.’
When he opens his palm, I take the air caps quickly before someone sees.
He tuts. ‘Still such a Little Suspect.’
I glower. He’s probably not wrong, but I don’t want to admit he’s right either. Besides, it feels good to be mad at him.
He glances at Landon’s vehicle. ‘As fun as it is to rile you up, I have to get you out of here.’
‘Gia!’ X comes running over, breaking our stalemate, with a frazzled look on his face.
‘What’s going on? Why aren’t you at the ticket booth?’
He shakes his head. ‘They just barged through the gates.’ The words come out in staccato breaths. ‘I couldn’t stop them. I—’
His words are cut short by the fierce growls of octane being released into the world. It’s a flare shot across the earth. The vibration hits me, ricocheting through the night like ripples of water, followed by the sound of tyres grinding into the dirt.
‘What the fuck?’ Begging for my ears to be wrong, I push past Ryker and follow the noise. A crowd is forming lines down either side of the speedway track. The track that’s supposed to be off-limits. The track I promised no one would be racing on tonight.
A black WRX fishtails down the straight, followed by a second. A third. And a final fourth. Headlights flash like strobe lights as squealing wheels swerve and circle; there’s an art to doing donuts, and Booker Bay knows it.
The crowd cheers as the dust settles, and the cars take formation at the start of the track, ready to race. Their revs are foreplay for the climax to come.
No.
Ryker joins me and I look up at him, instantly thrust back into the past. An easier time. ‘Ryker, you have to help me get these racers out of here.’
‘I got it, Gianna.’ His voice sounds sure, with a fierceness that rings true. ‘But we need to get you out of here first.’
‘Get me out of here? Why?’
‘Those cars are Landon’s. They were in his garage. If he’s here, it’s not safe.’
I let my frustration out in a snort. ‘I don’t care who the cars belong to! Just help me get these guys off the track without hurting anyone.’
‘Gianna.’ Ryker whips me around. ‘I’ll get rid of them. But I need you to be safe first.’
What is he trying to keep me safe from? The engines get louder, metronomic screams drowned by my own heartbeat pulverising my ears as I stare into Ryker’s unyielding gaze.
‘What’s up, skirt?’
Ugh. Can tonight get any worse?
Just the sound of Landon’s voice sends irritation crawling through my skin, but it’s Ryker’s reaction that catches me off guard.
It happens so fast that I don’t know what comes first, the sound of the crack as Ryker’s fist connects with his nose, the blood that spurts across Landon’s face, or the way Landon lands hard on his ass, stunned.
‘What the fuck, Ryker?’ I grab hold of Ryker’s arm. I can feel the heat vibrating from his body. His fists stay balled at his sides and his eyes have turned completely black as they stay focused on Landon, who wipes the blood from his face.
‘You won’t fuck with her again,’ Ryker rasps.
Again? Is this because of the drift race?
‘Ah, Ryker, old pal.’ Landon smiles nastily. ‘I was wondering how long it’d take you to figure out I was back. I was so worried you weren’t getting my texts.’
‘Then why do you keep hiding?’
‘Hope you don’t mind, I invited some friends.’ Landon lets loose a cocky, crimson-painted smile as he stands and points to the vehicles running donuts on the track. ‘What good is a racetrack if it’s not being used?’
Ryker charges toward him with his right fist balled and ready to land another hit. I wrap my hands around his arm, pulling him back.
‘Ryker, whatever this is, stop.’ I don’t have time to deal with Landon right now. I need to get the racers out of the circuit. ‘I need your help.’
He shrugs out of my grasp, ignoring my plea.
Fed up, I start to turn away. If they want to beat each other senseless for whatever stupid testosterone-filled reason they have, then they can have at it. But then the glint of silver around Landon’s neck stops me in a double-take.
Did I just see …?
Without a second thought, I push past Ryker and reach for Landon’s shirt, pulling at the neckline of his preppy mint polo.
My breath catches.
My heart stops.
I take a forceful blink, refusing to believe what I see: a silver bar with a word engraved along the front.
I peel my eyes from the necklace, feeling walls cave in around me. My stomach heaves into my throat. My pulse threatens to explode from my skin. My body feels like it’s on fucking fire.
I bare my teeth. ‘Where did you get this?’
My fingers wrap around the silver bar, thumb tracing over the grooves of the word. Bullitt. I squeeze the metal tightly.
Landon’s smile fades and he grasps my wrists, reefing my hands off him.
I snatch at his neck again, twisting the necklace in my fingers. ‘I said, where the fuck did you get this?’
Mirth flashes across his eyes. Fury crackles in my brain, surging through the air between us. A cruel smirk twists his mouth. ‘Family heirloom.’
‘Bullshit!’ I shake him. Anger blisters beneath the weight of holding the silver again, knowing that it’s been within reach all this time. ‘Where the fuck did you get this?’
Jace lost it that night. In the fight with the ECU students. That means … could Landon really be …
‘Get off me.’ He leans in, his soft voice dripping with venom. ‘Booker Bay trash.’
Those words …
I feel the blood drain from my face, leaving tingling static in its wake.
Erik Lasso?
My hand falls from his collar. A flood of emotions hits me all at once, feelings I’ve kept locked away since that night. Pain, loss, guilt and rage surge through me. It feels like driving out of a dark tunnel only to end up in heavy rain.
I take in Erik’s dyed blond hair, an inch of mousy brown growing at the roots, and those lifeless green eyes. He’s put on some weight, but I guess he does look somewhat the same.
His cruel eyes pin me down. ‘Recognise me yet, skirt?’
He reaches for me, but I rear back and slap him across the face. His head whips to the side and his eyes turn black. I’m leaving here with that necklace.
I ready myself to hit him again, but there’s suddenly a wall in front of me. A tattooed wall in a black t-shirt.
Ryker.
Ryker grabs Erik by his collar and effortlessly throws him against his car before landing a punch in his stomach. ‘You should have stayed away.’
‘I was getting bored. Thought I’d come back and see the prodigy with the Mustang.’ Erik laughs on the heels of a grunt. ‘After all, her brother was so much fun.’
The screams and shouts around us get louder as a crowd quickly surrounds us. Ryker slams Erik’s body against the car again, leaving a dent in the hood. One of Erik’s lackeys heads toward Ryker, then someone in a hockey mask barrels through the crowd to slam the lackey to the ground. Tyler.
Close by, the wannabe pimp watches on with a cane in his hand. I grab the stick from his grasp and turn to where Erik writhes on the hood underneath Ryker’s hold. I swing the dice-engraved cane to Erik’s head, but he jerks out of the way and the cane shatters the Civic’s windshield.
‘You bitch—’
His cries are cut off as Ryker slams Erik’s body down once more.
I raise the cane again but then mid-swing, the weapon is yanked from my hands. I turn to confront a man in a red skull mask, shaking his head. Renny.
‘What the fuck?’ I cry.
‘This isn’t your fight.’
The crowd screams and there’s a sudden frenzy that’s broken up in the circle around the fight. I hear the sound of sirens in the distance.
‘We got five-oh!’ X bellows over the music. ‘Cops! Cops! Cops!’
Everyone scatters, either rushing to their cars parked on the street or running into the night.
‘We gotta haul ass out of here.’ Renny wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me away from the fight.
‘I can’t leave.’ I fight against him as he pushes our way through the throng of people. ‘It’s my carnival.’
‘That’s why you have to leave, so we can buy some time. Right now, the cops are gonna think you pulled one over the mayor to run a race meet.’ Banging doors and booming engines sound in every direction.
‘Gia, move!’ Renny shoves me in the passenger seat of a truck – a Raptor.
Ryker’s Raptor. I blink when I’m hit with that familiar scent.
I feel like everything is moving so fast but in slow motion simultaneously.
A second later, Ryker opens the driver’s side door, starts the engine and we’re moving.
He locks the doors and manoeuvres his way through a chaotic mess of headlights and exhaust fumes and heads down the street leading to the blast furnaces.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ I cry.
Ryker breathes harshly, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
He tosses something silver at me and I catch it.
Jace’s necklace. I run my fingers over the word engraved in the metal bar and the relief I feel is cellular.
I hold Jace’s necklace against my heart, afraid that if I let go, it’ll slip through my fingers like sand.
I inhale a shaky breath. ‘Why did he have this?’
Ryker’s nostrils flare as his knuckles whiten around the steering wheel.
‘Ryker!’ I demand. ‘Answer me.’
‘Drop it!’ he booms. ‘The less you know the better, Gianna! If I don’t get him, then these last four years will have been for nothing.’
‘What are you talking about? Is Erik who you’ve been after? If this is some stupid college bullshit …’ I lose my words, my mind racing faster than I can keep up with. ‘I need to know what’s going on.’
‘Just. Drop. It.’
I sink back into the seat, feeling bile burn at the back of my throat and tears prick at my eyes. I grip the metal chain tight in my hands. The moments that pass feel like hours, and Ryker sounds hollow when he finally speaks.
‘It was him. Don’t you remember?’