Page 46 of Cruel Savior

Both men gave me a quick smile and nodded their heads. I knew going from prospect to full member was a big deal and I imagined they both had to be pretty badass to make the cut. And they were both smoking hot. Where the hell were they finding these guys? I didn't remember Sultan as such a hot bed for hotness back in the day.

Maybe it was the beards and tattoos. I'd always had a weakness for both. This thought made me look in Axel's direction once again. He still had that intense stare focused my way, but this time it made my belly swoop and my whole body light up from thinking about all the ways he'd made me come this morning.

Pull it together, Mandy.

If I didn't control my reaction every time I looked at him, I might find myself flung over his shoulder and carried back into bed. That thought made a shiver work down my spine. One could only hope.

Axel stepped closer and I took a step back. He had a freakish way of knowing exactly what was on my mind.

Instead, I smirked at him and said, "You ready to get your ass kicked?"

Chapter Twenty-Three

Amanda

I laughedat the brother who stood next to the driver's side with a helmet in his hand, held in my direction. "Tell me you're not serious."

"As a heart attack," he replied without cracking so much as a smirk. "VP's orders."

I looked over at Axel on the vehicle next to mine and frowned. He was looking over at me with a satisfied smile across his face. A face not covered by a helmet I noticed. Bastard. I wanted to argue but knew to my bones that the effort would be futile. It also wasn't the hill I wanted to die on. I snatched the helmet from Bear's beefy hand and proceeded to put it on my head and fastened the strap.

I was seriously going to enjoy putting him in his place.I’d done well at the Academy, excelling at all my classes, including both the defensive and offensive driving courses.

I just had to keep my focus and watch the terrain as well as Axel's vehicle. We were only doing two laps so I wasn't going to have a lot of extra time to make adjustments.

"We're going to keep this clean, Turner," Axel called from his vehicle. "There's a trail that runs the perimeter of the property, we'll stick to that as much as possible. And no bar banging."

"Bar banging?" I asked a moment before I realized he was talking about the bars on the back of the vehicle. "No bumping, right?"

He laughed. "Sure, Turner. Although in racing we call it banging."

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with. We have a bad guy to catch, and we're burning daylight."

"Patience, grasshopper. I doubt he's going anywhere. He's pretty fixated."

He wasn't wrong, and to be honest, beating him on this makeshift racetrack sounded like a blast. Something that had been in short supply in my life for a very long time. I started my vehicle and put it in gear, waiting for one of the guys to get us started.

Both vehicles rumbled loudly, effectively disguising the sound of my heart, beating out of control, as a rush of adrenalin pumped through my blood. I was ridiculously excited by all of this. I bit my lips to keep my grin from spreading ear to ear. It wouldn't do for them to see me acting like an idiot. I was about to show them what a badass I could be and I needed the look to go with it.

"Ready?" Tel yelled over the roar of the engines.

I held up my hand with a thumbs up and then put my hands back on the steering wheel. My muscles were stretched so taut I thought they might be on the verge of breaking.

"Set," Tel hollered, raising his hands high in the air. As soon as he brought them down it would be on, and I couldn't wait. I shot Axel one last glance, noticing he had put on a helmet at the last minute. Still trying to suppress my laughter, I gave him my best "you're going down" look before looking forward again.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd been this excited. I was trying to remember for sure when Tel's hands came down and my foot automatically pressed down on the gas. The big, knobby tires dug into the ground, sending dust and dirt flying in every direction as we both tore off from the start line.

Axel immediately pulled ahead, throwing more dirt in every direction, including my windshield, temporarily blocking my view.

I grunted in frustration, but powered through, following my instincts and the shape of his vehicle in front of mine that I could still make out.

He obviously had the home team advantage of being familiar with the course, so my goal with the first lap was to stay right on his tail, not lose too much ground, and learn the track for the second lap. Then as soon as I could, and when he least expected it, I would pass him for the win.

It was obvious by the way he drove he wasn't going to go easy on me and that was fine by me. That would only make my win sweeter when it happened.

We whipped the vehicles around curve after curve and jumped them over the jarring hills in a repeated fashion until I could feel every bone rattle in my body and my teeth grind down on each other like they wanted to wear them down. Physically, it took a surprising amount of strength to keep the vehicle under control.

There were a few tight turns that I braked through more than Axel, giving him an opportunity to pull a little farther ahead. But I could see a straightaway coming up and I hoped to gain some ground during that. Whatever it took, I had to win. I would not get left behind on this case just because they didn't think I was good enough.

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