Both engines continued to rev until the light turned green and both cars peeled down the road. Judge was able to take the lead right away, but Knight gained on him quickly until he shot past him and finished at two car lengths ahead. The whole thing took less than nine seconds. Knight’s crew was cheering and hollering when he arrived back. When Judge made it back, he was pissed. Both men got out of their cars and approached each other. No pleasantries were exchanged, only money being transferred from Judge’s hands to Knight’s.
“Thank you kindly, my man,” Knight said as he made a show of counting the money in his hand. A thousand dollars. He fanned the money out and kissed it before he started looking around until he saw me. “Honey, when are you going to be tired of losers and get with a real man?” He gestured to Judge and his crew. “First Fox and now these guys,” he said with mock disgust. “You disappoint me. A girl like you can do much better.” Suddenly Blake was lunging at him from beside me but was instantly grabbed by several guys and restrained as he screamed out insults to Knight, who actually had enough sense to look worried for a second.
“Enough with this bullshit,” Knight said and walked away shouting. “Woody? Oh, Woody! Your ass is mine. Where are you, you slow motherfucker? I want the number three spot. It’s mine and you know it!” When Woody appeared from the crowd, I noticed that Fox was right behind him and I gasped. Fox’s eyes met mine and went wide with shock.
“There you are,” Knight said and walked right up to them. “I’m calling you out. One week. You’re spot’s mine.”
“Next week is fine with me but you ain’t got a chance in hell at taking my spot,” Woody spat out as his anger visibly rose to the surface.
“Well, you don’t really have a choice either way. You owe me and I’m going to get my money from you one way or the other.” With that Knight proudly strutted over to his crew with fancy matching team jackets and began celebrating.
“Harley, let’s get out of here,” I heard Blake call from behind me, but my eyes were still focused on Fox who was talking to his brother in a low tone and Woody was nodding his head. I wanted him to look at me or say something to me, but he didn’t. It was obvious that Woody needed to be calmed down before he did something stupid, so I turned to walk back to Blake.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I heard a familiar voice to my left and I looked up to stare directly into the face of Mack King.
Chapter Twenty
“Mack?”
“Jesus, where the hell have you been, girl?” He grabbed me tightly to his chest. “You haven’t been answering your phone or returning my calls. I haven’t seen you around and neither has anybody else. I thought you’d really managed to get your crazy ass in trouble this time,” he said against the top of my head.
“I’m okay,” I replied with my voice muffled into his hard chest. Of course, he would be there. If a race of that size was happening, nine times out of ten, Mack was involved.
“Why did you just take off like that?” He pulled back a little to glare at me. It never ceased to amaze me just how gorgeous Mack was. His confidence and the way he owned any space he was in had always mesmerized me.
It’s what attracted me to him in the first place. There was a rough edge to Mack’s personality and he was unapologetic about it.
“Mack, you know why? How many times do we have to do this? We don’t work.”
“Why not?” he asked, clearly waiting for an explanation.
“Let’s not do this, okay?”
“I cheated once, like four years ago.” His mouth drew tight as he threw up an index finger. “I thought we got past that.”
“Once, Mack! Only once? Are you serious?”
“Okay, fine but I still say that you’d broken up with me the times you’re talking about. I can never tell what it means when you storm off and don’t answer my calls for weeks. Weeks, Harley! When I finally make up my mind to interpret that as us being over and try to move on, surprise, you show up whenever you’re good and ready to come back, and like always, I drop everything and everybody for you. Don’t I?”
“Mack, I just can’t,” I said quietly, not able to meet his gaze. He wasn’t exactly wrong about what he’d said, and I felt a niggling of guilt in the pit of my stomach. He drew out a long, frustrated breath in response.
“I will never understand you. God, Harley. I have fucking tried. To hear you tell it, I’m constantly cheating and spewing bullshit about you being my main girl,” He used quotation fingers on the last part. “Is everything my fault? God, you just can’t seem to get over yourself.”
“What? Get over myself?” I screeched. “What about you and the panty stash you keep in the glove box, Mack? Are those just little mementos from all your conquests?” I stared at him expectantly as I twisted my mouth and crossed my arms. He just scoffed and looked away quickly, making it clear that he wasn’t going to answer that.
“How did you get out here, anyway?” Mack asked with irritation in his voice, finally looking back at me. He’d obviously changed the subject on purpose. “I know you don’t have a car.”
“She caught a ride with me,” Fox answered the question as he stepped up to stand next to me.
“What the fuck are you doing giving my girl a ride?” Mack said as he looped an arm around my waist.
“Your girl?” Fox shot a questioning glance at me and I could see the anger and confusion rising on his face.
“Ex-girl,” I replied quickly, and I twisted out of Mack’s grip. “We’ve been broken up for a while.”
“Yeah, but you always come back,” Mack said with all the confidence of a man who knew he was speaking the truth.
“Harley, are you with him?” Fox asked, his eyes only focused on me.