Page 43 of Merciless

Elijah rolls down the window. “Finish line is the arcade across town.”

I grin.

Of course it’s the arcade. Why wouldn’t it be, since that’s where Eden enjoys going?

“Winner gets her pussy first,” Elijah says.

My smile falls, and I scowl at him.

He smirks and rolls up the window.

That fucking asshole.

I stalk to the GT-R and rip open the door before sitting behind the wheel.

“What’s wrong?” Eden perks up in her seat.

“Everything,” I mumble.

“What?”

Shaking my head, I start the car and line up beside Elijah. Katie and Derrick stand to the side. Katie holds her white shirt above her head as she wears nothing but her polka-dotted bra and denim shorts.

“Hold my thigh,” I say.

“What for?” She glances at the road ahead of us, then at me.

“You’ll see, but I’d hate for you to find out the hard way.”

She won’t. That harness has her locked in and she won’t go anywhere, but I’m greedy for her touch. I only hope she’s naïve enough to fall for my ruse.

Derrick takes the shirt from Katie and counts down from five with his fingers. He tosses it, and before it hits the ground, I stomp on the gas. Elijah’s car rockets forward beside mine, our tires peeling against the pavement and kicking up dust and smoke.

I’m shoved into the seat. Elijah takes the lead. Not for long, though. I’ll allow him to think he’ll win, but it’ll be over my dead body. Not when she’s on the line.

I glimpse Eden sinking deeper into the leather seat and white-knuckling the straps over her chest.

“Hold my thigh, little ghost,” I say loud enough for her to hear over the growling engine.

“Seriously, why do I need—” She lets out a choked gasp as I drift around the corner to a different street. Eden grabs my leg to hold herself steady. If she cleared her head of her panic, she’d realize that she’s going nowhere. For the second time in a span of a minute, I pray she doesn’t realize this.

My lip curves, and I peek at her from the corner of my eye, catching her staring at me, baffled and annoyed.

“I warned you,” I say.

“You didn’t say what, though.” Her hand squeezes tighter as I drift onto another street—the fastest route to the arcade.

Elijah drifts behind me, and he gains more ground with each passing second until he’s beside me in the opposite lane.

“Aren’t you afraid of getting pulled over?” Eden says.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“This is a GT-R R3 with 623 horsepower. A cop can’t keep up. Besides, did you forget the weight of my last name?” I peek at her. “Your last name, too. Cops don’t scare me.”

“Then what does?”