Page 11 of Ride

“Excuse me?” she snapped.

“Kayne’s a kid. If he wants to hang out, I don’t mind.” No, I never planned on spending all my time with the kid, but he was pretty cool when we met, and I could see that he needed a friend.

“Laikin, we used to be friends. I’d hate to curse you out about my child,” Amena continued in a biting tone. I heard background noise from a TV.

“Friends, right. Amena, I have to go.” Not waiting for her to respond, I hung up and tossed it to Talbot to put in the bag, then secured my gloves.

Signaling I was ready to go, everybody moved to the side and I pumped the gas waiting for the countdown to begin.

“Show them what you got,” I mumbled to myself and took off on the track at a high speed, watching the times on the clock maneuver for another few laps before coming back to the garage. Going to get cleaned up, I left the car with the team to check over and showered before meeting the guys.

* * *

“To the new season, bro! You looked good out there,” said one of my pit crew members and best friends, Colson. He was holding a bottle in the air and letting a stripper dance on his lap. After my test runs, we decided to kick back, have a few drinks, and see some ass before my schedule got too busy.

I threw another stack at Remy, the head dancer, and watched her turn around with her ass in front of me. I slapped her ass a few times as she sniggered and crawled back in my lap.

She flipped her long red hair to the side. “Come home with me.”

I caressed her cheek. “Remy, we both know you. It ends up with you running.” The soft curves of her hips in the black thong held a hidden treasure.

I ignored the roll of her eyes and pressed lips. “That was one time, Laikin.”

“One is too many.” A flash bulb went off, which caused me to move her to the side, hop up from the couch, and grasp the sneaky photographer that got in our section. I glared at the security guard who was not doing his job and shoved the guy toward him.

“You motherfuckers never leave me alone!” I slammed the camera on the ground and stomped on it as another camera went off, letting me know that his boys had snuck inside.

I smashed the camera on the ground until it broke.

“Ah shit,” Colson uttered, knowing I hated photographers. Being in the spotlight came with perks, and I handled it well and did the normal interviews and magazines, but constantly getting in my personal business was off-limits.

“Aye, man, you owe me for that,” the photographer spat, trying to grab the broken pieces. I waved for the main bodyguard, Lee, to get him out of here.

“Take him out and make sure he’s squared away.”

I passed him a few dollars to pay him off and reached for the bottle to take a sip, then grasped Remy and brushed against her ear.

“You going to put in work tonight?”

She shivered in my arms. I bit my bottom lip, stared down at her curvy 5’6” frame, and ran my tongue against my lips.

“My boy, we're out.” I slapped hands with Colson, letting him close out with the other crew, and left the VIP and headed down the stairs to our waiting cars. Tonight, I went out with a driver since I knew someone would be coming home with me. Remy and I stumbled into the backseat to avoid more exposure. My driver held the door open, and I helped her hop in, not wasting time.

“What about my clothes?”

“Fuck those clothes. I got you.”

Remy tried to kiss me on the lips, and I moved my head to the side.

“Are you still not going to kiss me on the mouth, Laikin?” Remy's voice sounded like someone had vacuumed a parakeet out of its cage.

“Remy, we’ve been down that road. I don’t do the kissing thing. If you can’t handle the situation, you can get out.”

I leaned forward and tapped the partition to tell my driver to wait when he started the car to leave.

Remy grasped my arm. “No, baby, I just thought we meant more to each other.”

“Since when?”