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I turned. “Hey Alex—”

“WOAHHH!” He was already cutting me off and dashing across the yard to the side of the Mercedes. I didn’t even need to say anything else before he was jumping up and down, and peering in through the windows.

“Is this Damian’s? He let you borrow it? What for? Can we see the inside?”

I flinched to his comment about “we,” noticing that Serenity made no move to go back inside. In fact, she eased forward towards the car, still attempting to make small talk with me.

“This is really nice,” she said thoughtfully.

I rubbed my hands together for the feeling of it. My nerves were already through the window and Alex was none the wiser. I kind of just wanted to sit and talk with him. Try to get some things off my chest. But I couldn’t. Not with Serenity there.

“Right, well, good news is: I came to show you the car and ask if you wanted to take it for a spin with me.”

Alex squealed, already reaching for the door handle. “Absolutely! Serenity, you’re sitting in the back, I call shotgun!”

My face fell.

Great. Thank you, Alex.

“Are you okay for me to come along?” she asked gently. It almost bothered me how calm she was, how she approached every scenario with such a peaceful demeanor. Especially when I felt chaos erupting within me, 95% of the time.

Alex was already in the car, buckling his seat belt. He looked up at me from the window with big blue eyes and a pout. “You don’t mind if she tags along, Noah, do you?”

I sighed, reaching over and opening the back passenger for Serenity.

“Of course not,” I muttered, and she helped herself inside.

I closed the door for her as she thanked me, and headed to the front seat. I sat down, cringing a bit from the pain in my ribs and the low angle of the car. Alex noticed, and I didn’t even have time to start up the engine before he was already interrogating me.

“How is your injury? Have you been taking your medication?”

I glared at him, but he was too focused on manhandling the interior of the car to notice. We had a literal passenger in the backseat that I didn’t want relaying information back to a certain Thorne, and here Alex was, airing out my dirty laundry. “I am fine.”

“That’s good,” Alex said with a cheesy grin. “So, what were you and Serenity chatting about?”

I thought about my options in my head like a multiple choice question. Her brother, his gift to me, his phone calls…how about…none of the above.

“I was waiting for you, that’s all.” I wasn’t about to get into this in front of both of them.

Serenity stayed quiet in the back seat as I turned onto a nearby access road. There were no cars, no cops—just us.

Perfect.

I pressed down on the gas pedal, downshifting and accelerating with a burst of power into the engine. The car speedometer ticked upwards… 40 …50 … 60…climbing higher.

“Hang on tight,” I said with a smirk, upshifting the car into the next mode and flooring it.

Alex clutched onto the center console with one hand as we sped down the road. “Holy crap this is so cool!”

The steering wheel hummed in my hands and I pushed my foot down further, watching the numbers dial up to 90, then 100 mph, then higher. Guard rails collapsed into ribbons in my vision, and trees blurred into a massive green flood.

Alex was screaming now, maybe more so from fear than excitement, and I wasn’t looking at the numbers anymore, I was enjoying the rush beneath my skin, the tightness in my chest from the adrenaline exploding in my veins. The force of the car had me pushed back into my seat completely, the pressure holding me steady as I flew down the road.

It was freeing.

I didn’t want to freak out my passengers anymore, so I let off the gas, shifting gears yet again to return to a normal speed. I had gotten us back down to about 50mph when my phone started ringing.

Alex was pumping his fist in the air as I looked at the name “Damian” dancing across the car’s screen. My phone was already connected to Bluetooth, so I hit the green button on the steering panel to accept his call.