Chapter 22 Liar #2
I gurgled, but I’d been boarding when I couldn’t breathe for a long time.
I grabbed her fist and twisted it, dislocating her elbow and yanking her off the board, leaving her rolling down the pike while I carried on with her board.
Mine was rolling away. Yellow and happy.
She didn’t get my board, so I scooped it up and carried it with me as I kicked away, leaving her screaming obscenities after me.
I came out of the tunnel to a roar of cheers. I’d ditched the red board just inside the tunnel so I didn’t look like I’d intentionally stuck her in there. Although I kind of had. I headed across the long bowl, carving my way down, but at the top of the opposite side, there was Nix.
He looked so good, hair golden and glistening where the sunshine caught it. So handsome and all mine. A worthy prize. I shot up the bowl, but hadn’t landed before he pulled me into his arms and kissed me to the roar of approval from the crowd all around the bowl. Probably his House of Beasts.
I forgot about the rest of the world because his lips were soft against mine, desperately persuasive as he sealed me his. He pulled away, breathing heavy as he cupped my face and gazed into my eyes. My champion. Heroic, golden, fearless, undefeatable.
“I have a confession to make,” he murmured.
My legs were jello, both from the ride and from his kiss. Mostly the latter. “You prefer red to yellow?”
He scowled. “Never. Actually, while your Camaro was in Trixie’s tender care, she may have made a few upgrades.”
I stared at him while my heart beat faster. “Upgrades? Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? Can she fly and float now?”
He shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. No, she turned it into an off-road dream. Also can take highways, but has the shocks for a race. Do you want to finish in your beauty? I’d let you drive, but you don’t know the terrain.”
I snorted. “Wow. Trix cherried up my ride into an off-road vehicle? So is there a tank of special fuel somewhere?”
He looked slightly shifty. “Maybe.”
I put my arm around his waist. “So we’re going to finish the race in my car? I agree, but only if we can blow this popsicle stand and take to the hills afterwards. I want a honeymoon.”
He stared at me then picked me up and carried me down a set of stairs to my yellow Camaro where she parked, with huge tires that I probably couldn’t lift.
“Is that a yes on the honeymoon?”
“Yes. We can go on a camping honeymoon. With a hammock.”
“Two hammocks.”
“Fifty hammocks.”
I grinned at him while he tucked me into the passenger seat, and then was sliding over the hood and taking the driver’s place.
“Be gentle with her,” I said, covering his hand for a beat while he put on his sunglasses and gave me a sweet smile.
“Buckle up, Sunshine. The performance is already done, this is just the encore. Team Death-Hammer has won the day. Let’s just put a cherry on this sundae and go on that honeymoon.”
The race was intense. He seemed relaxed and easy, but the way he took ramps and actually jumped a canyon kind of belied the chill.
I squeaked more than a few times while I held onto the bar and was glad for the three point harness Trixie must have installed.
Seriously. She’d turned my baby into a legitimate trick car.
And Nix knew exactly how to drive her. He knew how to hit other vehicles just right, sending them rolling while my baby barely swerved.
He ate up every vehicle ahead of us, until we were coming down the stretch towards the end.
A ridiculous vehicle, all curves and swoops, like some twenties mobster car with flames coming out of the back, was just ahead of us.
“This is the button,” Nix said, flipping a switch on the console. “Hang on. We’re going to put Horse in the dust.”
“Horse has that ridiculous carriage? You have the weirdest friends.”
He flashed mem a smile. “Horse is my friend? You’re funny. Ready?”
I nodded and then he pushed the button and we were flying. The breath swept out of me while my whole body pressed against the seat and every one of my cells was squeezed.
We pulled ahead of the demon car right before the line in a roar of fuel and rage, along with a screaming audience.
Nix spun my car in a cloud of dust while confetti and yellow smoke filled the air.
I still couldn’t breathe. I had my hand on his arm, my fingers buried into his flesh while he turned to give me his gorgeous smile.
“You’re trying to kill me with a heart attack. You are a crazy driver!”
He leaned closer to peer into my eyes, once again removing his glasses. “Are you okay, Kitten? I’m sorry it worried you. Trixie thought she was helping us be romantic, but I should have realized that you wouldn’t…”
I threw myself into his arms and was kissing him, heart beating so fast as I struggled to bury myself into him.
He was mine. And we’d won. And my car hadn’t ever achieved its full potential before.
And Trixie wanted to help us be romantic together because she wasn’t jealous of us because she was secretly in love with Nix.
And I wasn’t dying, and could actually worry about a heart attack. And I had everything I’d ever wanted.
We broke apart when Jezebel opened the door. “Y’all wanna come claim the prize? No? Sorry I disturbed you.”
I blocked the door when she tried to close it and climbed out over Nix. “Sorry. Just got distracted for a second.”
Nix followed me out, grabbing me with a growl and pulling me against his side. “I’ve got my prize. And it’s not a distraction. Everything else is a distraction.” The way he looked around at the crowd gave me a shiver. Such a beast.
I slipped my arm around his waist and hung onto him. “I dislocated Stina’s elbow.”
“Good.”
“Did you dislocate anyone’s elbows?”
“No. Shattered. Like I’m going to do to the next person who comes between us.”
I inhaled sharply as I looked over at Jezebel.
She gave me a slight smile. “You okay? I can extract you any time he’s getting too needy. I’d ask your father to help. He’s a very capable guy. Also your buddy baby Beastie. That just rolls off the tongue.”
Nix gave her a smile as sweet as sugar. “I’ll tell you what would roll off your tongue if you…” He turned to frown down at me. “Am I too much? I can tone down the possessiveness if you need me to.”
I beamed up at him. “Thank you for asking me. Honestly, I kind of love it. I know that the second I tell you to back off, you will. You’re the guy who stayed with me every night. I love that you can touch me without it bruising. I love every piece of you, including your possessive beast.”
He studied me for a second before he picked me up and set me on his shoulder, walking over to the podium where Horse was looking comfortable in second place beneath Trixie, but still up to her shoulder. He was a very tall guy.
“You’re not going to ask who I commissioned for my sweet ride?” he was asking her in his deep announcer voice, but he looked at me and there was concern in his eyes.
I ignored him, just raised my arms and got cheers from the crowd as Nix climbed up to the first place. There were screams and roars as Nix helped me slide down so I could grab Trixie’s arm and grin at her.
“You did crazy things to my car.”
Her eyes got big and worried. “Was it too much? I can completely restore her if you’d like, but I thought it could use some extra armor to the body, since you never know when you’ll get a rocket shot at you, and then with the armor the engine needed a boost, and with that, may as well adjust the shocks and build out the body a tiny bit… ”
I squeezed her in a hug that made her gasp. Look at me, hugging the Amazonian into submission. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It was super romantic to finish the race with Nix in her.”
“Really?” She gave me a delicate hug like she wasn’t sure I was cured.
“Super romantic,” Jezebel drawled, and then Dirk was there with Pinkie, and that landing was feeling kind of small in the coziest way imaginable.
This was the team Nix loved, and they’d made me part of their world. Every last one of them, even if I was the ultimate weapon.
Nix wrapped his huge hand around mine, swallowing me whole. Exactly where I was supposed to be.
Beastie was on the edge of the crowd, somehow blending in in spite of his gorgeousness.
He nodded at me, probably approval for taking out Stina, but also for finding my place in the middle of a group of extraordinarily dangerous people who could protect me.
Maybe he was even happy that I’d found happiness.
He should be up here with me, but he needed to be out there in the shadows.
“Your boarding was good,” Pinkie said with a cool smile.
I gave her a big hug. “Thanks. I can’t wait to see the bloopers reel. There’s a bloopers reel, right?” I asked Dirk.
He glanced at Pinkie with a raised brow. “There could be.”
Her smile to him was much warmer. “Sounds like it could be a fun girl’s night. Kitten wanted to do a slumber party.”
“I’ll make it a priority.”
The way they were looking at each other was almost obscenely sweet.
Jezebel elbowed Dirk. “Save it for the bedroom, Casanova. There are some happily unattached people on this podium with weak stomachs.”
“If you’d like, I can find a nice cowboy to set you up with,” Pinkie said, giving Jezebel a mean smile.
Jezebel returned it with interest. “He wouldn’t be nice for long. It was a good race, though. Clean, just how you wanted it,” she added to Nix.
He gave her a slight smile, looping his arm around my shoulders. “It was the best race. The hardest won. The sweetest prize.”
I beamed at him and let the rest of the world disappear. We’d fought for each other, in our own arenas, but we’d come together here. Right where we were supposed to be.
Forever.