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Over the loudspeaker, the announcer calls the next set of races. I look at Noah and nod with my chin. “Mount up. ”
Chapter 72
Rachel
THE DRAGSTERS’ ENGINES SCREAM INTO the night. From the top row of the bleachers, Eric looks down on me, waiting. Our money is due to him by midnight. We’re twenty minutes away and five hundred short.
Standing next to the bleachers, I watch from a distance as Echo and Abby wait for Noah and Isaiah to bring her Corvette back around to the side. The engine burned at the line, costing Noah the race and Echo her car.
I suck in my bottom lip as I glance at Echo again. It was her brother’s car. The only piece she has left of her best friend that died in Afghanistan. I think of Gavin, Jack, Ethan and West. Right now, I’m mad at them and they’re mad at me, but it would kill me if they died.
And I cost Echo his car.
Loose rocks roll on the blacktop and Zach appears at my side. “I hear you’re finally taking the race against me. ”
I nod. Isaiah didn’t have to tell me that we’re down to desperate. “What happens if I lose?”
Zach’s eyes shoot up behind me, and I don’t have to follow his gaze to know that he’s looking at Eric. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Zach steps closer to me and whispers, “Don’t take this race. ”
Ironic how Isaiah had tried to warn me away from racing on that first night we met, but I don’t regret a single decision. Because I stuck around, I fell in love with him. “I don’t have a choice. Now tell me what happens if I lose. ”
“You do have a choice,” he pleads. “I thought I did, too, but I don’t now. I have to win and I will. I’ve seen you race before. You don’t have it in you to win. ”
“If I lose, Zach. ”
“He’ll own you. He’ll own Isaiah. Details don’t matter at that point. ”
I suck in air and slowly release it. “I’ll see you at the line. ”
Noah and Isaiah push the Corvette into a vacant spot and when they pop the hood they both curse as smoke billows out. I wander to stand beside Echo and Abby. Echo’s finger taps anxiously against her arm.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. To see something that means so much to her fall apart is heart-wrenching. Knowing that Isaiah and I are responsible is devastating.
“So am I,” she says. “Noah lost two hundred because the ’Vette broke down at the line. ”
“Echo. . . ” How do I say this so she doesn’t deck me, because she obviously doesn’t know. “Fixing the engine on a ’65 Corvette is going to cost a lot more than two hundred dollars. ”
Echo rips her gaze from the car. “We have forever to fix the car. We’ve got twenty minutes to come up with five hundred. You and Isaiah are more important than any car. ”
Abby elbows me. “Shocking, isn’t it?”
“What I don’t get is how this guy knows we’re here. ” Echo looks over at Eric, who seems all too happy with the turn of events.
“Because he’s Satan,” says Abby.
With his shoulders hunched over, as if preparing to tell a loved one the news of a death, Isaiah slowly strides over. “I’m sorry, Echo. I swear to you, I’ll fix it. ”
“It’s okay, Isaiah. I knew what I was getting into. ”
His heavy storm-cloud eyes glance at me. “We’re short. ” Isaiah draws me into him. “This scares the shit out of me, angel. ”
I place a slow kiss against his cheek and a longer one against his lips. “I won’t lose. ”
At least I pray I won’t. The confidence I’m exuding on the outside doesn’t exist on the inside. Isaiah worked hard to prohibit this race, but in the end, couldn’t stop it. It’s on me to save the two of us.
The loss of control, the fact he can’t protect me in this moment, wages war on his face. “If you lose this race, you don’t stop the car. You keep driving. This time you go to the police. You tell them everything. You get someone to protect you. ”
“I won’t leave you. ”
