18. Dane
18
DANE
“Fuck you!” Wally screams and lays on the horn like the petulant child he is. Evidently, some people can’t handle losing with grace.
I pucker my lips and blow him a kiss. He recoils in his seat and sneers when I send him another just to fuck with him some more.
“That good enough for you, baby?” A slow smirk works its way across my face. “Or should I give you another for good measure?”
Fury floods his features and convinces his pea-sized brain to jump out of his car. My grin broadens as I motion for him to step closer. If he wants his ass kicked, I’ll gladly be the one to give it to him.
“Always knew you’d be back, Kingsley.” Giancarlo’s voice halts Wally in his tracks and brings a spike to my blood pressure. I barely look over and grit my teeth at the sight of him approaching our vehicles with his bodyguards in tow. “Could never resist the siren’s call.”
My scowl deepens with a scoff. I’ve resisted just fine , I want to snarl, because the alternative isn’t better. I need a fucking distraction .
Admitting the truth won’t do me any fucking favors. It never has. Keeping my trap shut has been my go-to method for a reason. People can’t use your words against you if you don’t give them any ammunition to work with.
“If you’re ever serious about getting back into the fold,” Giancarlo says, stressing out his words with a slow cadence, “you know how to reach me.” There’s a deliberate pause. “Unless you’re finally cowering to your daddy’s demand?”
My bad mood takes a nosedive. He’s baiting me. You’d have to be born yesterday not to see it.
With a sharp exhalation, I stare straight ahead. My damn jaw is so painfully tight, it might snap like a taut rubber band.
I barely entertain the offer before a slither of reason cleaves through my derailing thoughts. I know better. The ounce of sensibility I somehow possess knows I need to keep my fucking head down. Lie low. Stay out of trouble.
Despite everything, I’m still itching for my next fix, for the rush of adrenaline, for the exhilarating sense of control when I’m behind the wheel and burning rubber against the asphalt. I know I’m on the edge of a slippery slope. I can sense my resolve crumbling every time I return to one of these races. If I’m not careful, this will blow up in my face.
Clarity sets in. The realization that this can end with me finally discovering what it’s really like to get a crowbar to the head gives me the strength to decline.
“I’m. Good,” I grit out and lean back against my seat, allowing myself a wry grin. I catch the glower on Wally’s face in my periphery. I bet it hurts his pride to know he’ll never be the best in Giancarlo’s eyes. The daggers he glares at me pale in comparison to the envy coming off of him in waves.
He can trick out his vehicle. Buy all the tacky aftermarket parts he desires. Fuck with his exhaust system all he wants. No matter what he does, it’ll never be enough. He’ll never be enough, and we both know it.
“If you ever change your mind?—”
“Pass.”
“I'll be seeing you,” Giancarlo says, and while I spare him a mirthless huff, unease takes rein in my gut. I hate that he’s fucking right.
The best course of action is to leave, and for once, I follow through. My car pulls away from the crudely drawn finish line and grants some much-needed distance before I do something reckless or stupid that could land me in actual hot water.
Unfortunately, the night's still young. I need a distraction. One that doesn’t involve me pissing off Father Dearest and also helps me get my mind off of what's been bothering me for a while now.
I decide to meet up with Marco and come to regret my decision when I walk through the door and immediately see them together.
Somehow, I forgot she’s friends with the sorority girls who live here. My stance grows tense, and my hands ball into fists as good old-fashioned jealousy surges through my veins.
She’s not my type. I don’t chase the good girls.
Logically, my dick needs to get with the program and quit acting with a mind of its own. And my brain needs to stop presenting the idea of me marching over there, telling Blue Balls to fuck off, and taking his seat.
The air leaves my lungs when she leans into his upper arm and shows him something off her phone. She’s wearing his beanie. Her chestnut brown hair hangs over her shoulder in loose waves. Her thigh is only a few inches from his instead of a healthy and appropriate twenty or thirty miles.
Doesn’t distance make the heart grow fonder or some shit ? He can set off for the North Pole for all I care. In fact, he can go one better and catch the red-eye flight out to the sun.
“Dane,” Marco shouts over the Halloween music and slings an arm around my neck. “Let me introduce you to Karla.”
Karla is this tall and tan sorority girl with a sinful smile that promises nothing but a good time.
And yet, I feel… nothing, which is concerning. How the fuck am I supposed to distract myself from what’s happening on the couch if I can’t even muster up a reaction?
“You know, my roommate thinks you’re dangerous,” Karla tells me while her eyes rove across my chest with the subtlety of a freight train.
I scoff. I don’t give a fuck what people think about me. I’ve heard enough bullshit said behind my back that nothing fazes me anymore.
“So does everyone else, apparently.” My words come out flat as I inadvertently redirect my attention to Reese, and my stomach clenches in a tight knot. All right, fine. So maybe there’s one person whose opinion matters to me.
“But, like, the school wouldn’t have let you back if you were that dangerous. Obviously ,” she continues. For a brief moment, I wonder how I can slink away before she rambles up a storm. “I think she has it out for you ever since you beat up the guy she liked freshman year.”
The muscles in my shoulders go taut. I did not beat that fucker up. Believe me, I would have taken credit for it if I did. “And I should give a fuck about this because?”
“I’m just trying to make small talk.” Annoyance flashes in Karla’s eyes, and I don’t miss the asshole muttered under her breath.
“Dane’s just joking,” Marco says lightly, pulling away from me with a reproachful glare aimed my way. I know he’s trying to hook up with one of her sorority sisters, and the last thing he needs is me dampening the mood. It’s not going to affect his game, though.
I should know. I’ve witnessed him pull girls with no finesse while we were growing up. He was always breaking hearts left and right; never one to settle down. He’s too restless. We both are.
He’s a good guy, though. Despite his shithead dad knocking him around and telling him he’ll never amount to anything all his life, Marco got out of that hellhole relatively unscathed.
He enrolled at Belford U for a reason. He wants to break the cycle of fuckups in his family. Make a name for himself. Turn his life around for the better. Prove his old man wrong.
It’s why he stopped racing before I did. Even though it’s not the same without him around, I’m sincerely glad he called it quits. One of us should be able to look forward to the future.
Since I like the guy, I decide to peace out before my shitty mood ruins his chances with Stacy tonight. “I’m gonna get a drink.”
Karla, thankfully, doesn’t accompany me.
They’re still on the damn couch.
I’ve caught bits and pieces of their conversation throughout the night, and watching ten coats of fresh paint dry is more entertaining than his story about meeting the lead singer to some obscure band I’ve never heard of.
Yet Reese finds it fascinating, but that’s because she’s too nice to realize he’s duller than a butter knife.
She’s laughing and smiling, and he’s puffing his chest like he’s telling her an anecdote about meeting God.
Then she scoots closer to him and twirls a strand of her hair, and a numbing bitterness takes root in my chest. I need to make myself scarce before she recognizes the moment transpiring between them and follows my stupid advice.
“Hey, you’re still here.” My frustration doubles as Karla sidles up to me and leans her weight into my shoulder. Her flirtatious smile shifts into a pout when I shrug her off of me.
“I don’t hook up with drunk chicks,” I state flatly. “Not my thing.”
“So you’re not that much of an asshole,” Karla replies with a smirk.
I say nothing and exhale roughly when a familiar, husky laugh reaches my ears and captures my focus. Karla cocks her head and follows my line of sight before I’m able to reroute my attention to the expensive sound system nearby.
Karla brings her hand to her neck. “Have you heard about what happened to her?”
Suspicion narrows my eyes, but the sympathy shining in hers loosens the knot in my chest. With a shake of my head, I pretend to drink from my empty beer bottle.
She doesn’t seem to notice as she launches into this long-winded tale about how her sorority hosted numerous fundraisers to help pay for Reese’s medical bills two years ago.
Not going to lie, that earns them some respect in my books. Although it’s depressing to hear that they had to resort to so many fucking fundraisers to pay off one person’s medical debt.
The conversation sidetracks, and I don’t know why she thinks I want to hear about her sorority sisters’ petty drama over missing shoes. I’m not in the mood for small talk. She can gossip to anyone else here. It’s not like it’s slim pickings.
The house is so packed that one would think half, if not all, of Belford’s campus is in attendance tonight. She’s got plenty of options to choose from. Also, who gives a shit?
“It’s so sad,” Karla coos, and I offer her a noncommittal grunt. “If you were here last year, you would have seen how terrified she was of people.”
I glance sideways at her when it occurs to me she’s talking about Reese again.
“Or not,” she goes on. “That girl always ran off and hid upstairs whenever people came over.”
“So she’s shy,” I cut in, my teeth clenched in a growl. I have no reservations about calling her out if she starts making fun of Reese for that. She can’t help who she is.
“Yeah, but… she’s been having a rough time.” She points to the base of her neck again.
My mouth pulls into a flat line. I don’t like the idea of my little savior struggling.
Something guarded clouds her features as she glances around the crowded room. She leans in and drops her voice to a whisper. “That’s why the girls and I have been trying to help her. See the guy she’s with?”
My gaze returns to the couch, and my grip tightens around the glass bottle.
“She has a crush on him. A major one. Like, she’s so smitten with him that she makes these heart eyes whenever he’s around.”
Well, isn’t that a swift kick to the balls ?
“What does that have to do with anything?” I grunt. If I want to feel like crap, I can always answer one of my father’s calls. Anything is better than this particular brand of torture I’m being subjected to.
Karla gives the room another cursory glance and drunkenly stumbles closer. “Well, we thought it’d boost her confidence if her major crush asked her out.”
Her words sink in slowly and fill my gut with unease. “So you told him to… go on a date with her?”
Karla’s eyes twinkle. “We paid him to.”
A lump chokes my throat. “Like a prostitute?”
“No.”
“An escort?”
“ No .”
“A gigolo?”
She huffs, exasperated. “Oh my God, stop it. He’s none of those things. We only paid him to take her out on a few dates.”
That would explain why nothing had panned out for her. The guy’s not into her at all.
His loss. If he’s not interested, he can step aside and graciously fuck off. Let her move on from his lame ass.
“But,” Karla continues, tossing her shoulder in a casual shrug. “If one thing leads to another…” She trails off with a meaningful smile.
Blood freezes in my veins. “The hell does that mean?” I almost snarl, and her grin drops. “You’re literally pimping him out?—”
“ No , we’re not,” she protests. “We’re only trying to help?—”
“Help?” My tone is pure venom. I’m so fucking pissed on Reese’s behalf that I forget what I want to say. “What’s going to happen when she finds out he was paid to seduce her?”
The thought of Reese getting hurt by this fucker causes me to squeeze my bottle to the point where it’s a miracle it hasn’t shattered yet. She doesn’t deserve this. On any other occasion, I might find it hilarious that the sorority girls are getting hustled, but not when Reese is involved.
“She won’t find out,” Karla insists. “We have a breakup planned—It’s not that bad.”
“Not that bad? Are you for real?” I scoff. “This is fucked up.”
Karla sniffs, visibly offended. “We're only trying to help her out?—”
“Right.” Before I even think about it, I’m shoving my way toward the couch. Karla grabs my wrist with an alarming amount of strength.
“You can’t tell her,” she gasps, her eyes pleading. “It will break her heart if she finds out the first guy who’s ever shown any interest in her never liked her all along.”
I stop mid-stride and seethe. “She wouldn’t have to experience that at all if you sorority girls didn’t put her in this situation in the first place.”
“ Please, don’t say anything ?—”
With a rough yank, I free my arm from her grasp and walk away.
Fury crawls through my chest as I reach the couch. I’m more than ready to grab the douchebag by the collar of his shirt and fling him onto the wooden coffee table. In fact, my hand forms a fist as Blue Balls looks over and his sentence tapers off.
Just as I’m about to swing my arm back, my line of sight slides to the girl beside him, and time suspends. My temper snuffs out like a candle.
The tacky string lights hanging around the house glow softly in those dark brown eyes, no match for how bright her face becomes when she sees me. She straightens, and without warning, she beams something so sweet and pure that I’m temporarily lost for words.
For a fleeting moment, I cling to the idea that she’s happy to see me. That she’s happy because of me.
And fuck me. It suddenly dawns on me that I can’t hit the guy. I can’t smack him upside the head, either. How will I ever explain that I want to sock him in the face for her ?
I want to be the reason behind that sweet smile. I don’t want to be the one who dims her sunshine by telling her this fucking prick has been pretending to like her for cash. I definitely don’t want to be the guy who deploys a devastating blow to her already fragile confidence.
The last thing I ever want is to hurt her.
Her eyebrows scrunch as she looks on expectantly. My hand drops to my side, and my brain scrambles for something to say, but I’m coming up empty. Especially when she offers me another smile, and fuck. Fuck me .
How can a pair of lips cause that much shock to my system? How can one smile send my pulse into overdrive? How does she manage to make the world feel so much brighter with just her mere presence?
“Reese’s Pieces.” The nickname slips out as inspiration strikes me. “Blue Balls is not the guy for you.”
He chokes, sputtering. “Who’s Blue Balls?”
“What?” Reese stares at me with wide eyes. What are you doing ? she mouths.
A crooked grin comes to my face as I move closer and set the beer bottle down on the coffee table. “Why settle for him when you can be with me?”
“ What ?” Reese wheezes.
“I want you.” I gaze steadily into her eyes as my confession sets me at ease. “And I don’t want to see you waste another minute with this tool when I’m right here, baby.”
Her mouth parts in shock. “Is… Is this a joke?”
Blue Balls pushes to his feet. “Listen here, man?—”
“You know where to find me,” I plow on, “when you’re done with this fucking loser.”
With that, I turn around and make my exit. It’s not until I’m outside that the reality of the situation sinks in, and I let loose a harsh breath.
I’m frustrated—beyond pissed—that I can’t tell Reese anything about him leading her on or how the sorority girls have pimped him out. She shouldn’t be kept in the dark, oblivious to everything going on behind her back. That ain’t right .
But at least she knows one thing, which brings me some small comfort.
I’m dead serious about wanting her.