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And for a split-second, I feel like someone’s fisting my collar.
Lips tight, Jessica climbs over Stoli, shoves open her door, and hops down out of her seat.
I stalk over to the passenger side.
“Lucky for you,” she taunts as I swing around the door. “I love his back seat.”
I grip the door hard, but I don’t reply. Looking up, I see Stoli still sitting in the front, too, his deep brown hair expertly coiffed as he stares at his phone.
“Out,” I tell him, so he can hear me through his earbuds.
I know I’m not more important than his girlfriend—or the one before her or the one before her—but I am more important than everyone else. I’m not Kade’s crew. I’m family, even if we’re not related by blood.
Rolling his eyes, Stoli slides out and jumps down, both of them climbing in the back seat with Dirk. Hauling myself up into the raised cab, I slam the door and fasten my seat belt as Kade fires up the engine. Music spills out of the speakers, always too loud for anyone to speak, which is what he prefers. I turn it down, and he punches the gas, the truck speeding out of the parking lot.
No one talks, but I see light from Dirk’s phone screen glowing out of the corner of my eye, behind me. His cologne fills the cab, and I’m always grateful for it, because it covers up the scent of sweat and the slightly sweet tinge, no doubt from Kade’s fruit-flavored condoms that I found in the center console once.
I pick at one of my fingernails. “You think Hunter will be there?”
Kade just shrugs. “Either way, we’ll get him.”
I can’t help but smile to myself.Soooo confident. Hunter hasn’t given us an inch in over a year only to be forced home tonight. He’d have to be an idiot to not anticipate Kade’s move.
“What?”
I look over, seeing Kade watching me. I lose the smile and turn away. “Nothing.”
I feel the three behind us, acting like they’re not listening as two scroll through their phones and Stoli tips back his flask that I can’t see. I hear the liquid slosh, though.
“What happened to your face?” Kade asks.
Leaning back in his seat, one hand on the wheel, he takes my jaw with the other and turns my face to look at the scratches. Warmth spreads under my skin.
“It’s fine,” I murmur.
My chin stings, but I don’t check to see if it’s still bleeding. It can’t be too bad. My parents didn’t notice.
“You’re going to get hurt,” he says.
I pull away, turning forward again. “I said it’s fine.”
“And then you’ll be in traction for six months,” he goes on, “learning how to walk again, forget about racing…”
I turn to look at him, but my tone is as calm as when I order breakfast. “Stop.”
With the number of dumb things he does, his argument has no ground with me.
But Stoli chimes in from behind. “He’s right, Dylan. If your dad told you no, then—”
“Hey, shut up,” Kade barks, eyeing his friend in the rearview mirror. “This is family business. Don’t talk to my cousin like that.”
I scratch my eyebrow, but it doesn’t really itch. Stoli closes his mouth, and everything in the truck silences.
I used to love it when Kade got territorial like that. It made me feel like I was important. He doesn’t do it much anymore. Not since his and Hunter’s falling out last year.
I don’t even know what happened that night. In the blink of an eye, everything changed, and it wasn’t even all that dramatic. They’d always been combative. I was used to it.
But no one expected Hunter to finally leave.
