I stop at a gas station and ask for directions to the Turn Out. It must be a pretty popular place since the clerk knows exactly where it is. The area isn’t too far away, just outside of town near the foothills. During the drive there, we explain to Payton what happened. Confliction masks her face, as if she doesn’t know whether to be happy about the duel or worried.

“Don’t worry, I’ll win,” I assure her as I pull into the Turn Out.

“But what if you don’t?” Payton asks, slipping on a pair of oversized sunglasses. “Then you’ll end up spending the next month doing them awful favors.”

“We don’t know for sure that they’ll be awful,” I lie, quieting the engine.

“Um, yeah, we sort of do,” Bailey says. “Those guys are straight up evil.”

“Nothing will be bad. Remember the stipulations I made.” I shove open the door and stretch my legs out as I get out of the car.

“There’s always loopholes,” Bailey tells me as I slant the seat forward to let her out.

“Stop talking as if I’m going to lose because I’m not.” I plaster on a cocky grin, but it’s all bravado. “Now get out so I can win a race.”

Bailey swiftly shakes her head. “No way. You’re not doing this alone.”

“You have to get out.” I glance at all of them. “You all do.”

Londyn’s mouth sinks to a frown. “You’re not going to do this alone. We’re refusing to let you.”

“It’s not about doing this alone.” Not entirely anyway. “It’s about the extra weight in the car.” And that this road runs along the side of a shallow cliff that bottoms out into a river.

Londyn’s lips form an O. Then, begrudgingly, she drags her butt out of the car and Payton and Bailey follow. By the time they’ve gotten out, Rhyland’s GTO is pulling into the Turn Out.

Blaise is driving and he pulls up to the side of me, rolling the window down. “I see you found the place.”

I turn and slant against my car. “It wasn’t that hard to find.”

His eyes sparkle amusedly. “Yeah, but I thought maybe you’d use getting lost as an excuse.”

I push away from the car, lean down, rest my arms on the windowsill, and level my gaze with him. “You don’t scare me.”

He sinks his teeth into his bottom lip, his amusement doubling. “We’ll see if you can still say that when you lose.”

I step back, flipping him off, which only elicits a chuckle from him. “So where are we racing to? And where are we lining up?”

“We’ll turn around near that rock up there.” He points at a large rock on the side of a road, just a ways away, then nods his head at the passenger seat where Rhyland is sitting. “And he’ll line us up.”

That’s when I become aware that Jaxon and Alex aren’t with them.

“Where’s the rest of your demon squad?” I move back as Rhyland gets out of the car.

“I told them they couldn’t come.” He slips on a pair of sunglasses. “Figured I’d do you a solid and have there be less of an audience to witness your ass getting kicked.”

“Or did you just not want them to see your ass getting kicked?” I quip haughtily.

He rolls his tongue in his mouth, struggling not to smile. “You’re a fucking handful, aren’t you? Seriously, how many times has your mouth gotten you into trouble?”

“More than I can count,” I admit truthfully. “But I can always handle whatever comes my way, even cocky, pretty boy assholes.”

He straightens, slipping his sunglasses down the brim of his nose, and gapes at me. “Did you just call me pretty boy?”

I shrug innocently. “The name seems pretty fitting, if you ask me. Or do you prefer my other nicknames?”

“You can call me anything you want for now, sweetheart.” He grins at the twitching of my lips. “But when I win, I want you to call me master. In fact, it can be my first favor.”

“I’m going to love watching your face twist in pain when I slam your man goodies with the tip of my boot.” I leave it at that and hike back to my car, ignoring his chuckling as I slide into the torn leather seat of my car.

“Are we ready to do this?” Rhyland shouts as he moves to the center of the road.

Londyn ushers Payton and Bailey to the side and into the shade of the trees as I shift the car into drive and pull forward to where Rhyland is standing.

After Blaise and I line up, I crank up some music, tuning out the outside world as best as I can. Then I stare straight ahead at the desolate road in front of me that stretches between the cliff side. Most of the races I’ve participated in have taken place on back roads that I’ve driven on before. This road is new to me and that gives me a disadvantage, but I try not to think too much about that as Rhyland raises his arms in the air.

“On your mark,” Rhyland starts. “Get set, go!” His arms drop and the squealing of tires floods the air as Blaise and I peel out.

I focus on the road ahead as I speed up, only measuring where Blaise is a couple of times. Every time I look his way, he’s right beside me, so we’re neck and neck. That’s okay. I’m awesome at turn arounds and figure that’s where I’ll lose him.

As I approach the rock, I don’t slow down, speeding up instead. Blaise must hesitate because his car slides out of my view. I mentally give myself a high-five then shove all thoughts aside and focus. I’m approaching the rock fast. If I don’t do this just right, I’m going to end up skidding off course or worse, off the road and into the river.

“Come on, come on, come on,” I chant as I grip the wheel.

When the front end of my nose passes by the rock, I press on the brake and crank the wheel. The timing is perfect and the turn around would’ve been too, but my tire hits a patch of gravel and I start to skid. Cursing like a sailor, I slowly let the car straighten out to avoid over correcting. That shaves off some of my lead and by the time I start racing toward the finish line again, Rhyland and I are side by side. Refusing to lose, I slam my foot down onto the gas pedal. The engine roars as I push the car faster, gripping onto the wheel, determined to win.

“Come on, come on, come on—” I zoom passed the finish line and so does Blaise. “Shit.” I slow down, knowing the race was close. So close that I’m not one hundred percent confident if I won.

That doesn’t mean I’m not going to fake it though.

I turn around and park on the side of the road near my sisters, then jump out of the car with a huge ass grin on my face.

“What’re you smiling about?” Blaise asks me as he gets out of his car. “Kissing me?

“No, I totally won that race,” I scoff. “Now get over her so my boot can get acquainted with your balls.”

He shakes his head, coming to a stop in front of me, and draws off his sunglasses. “No way. I’m the winner so pucker up.”

Rhyland joins Blaise’s side with his phone in his hand. “Actually, I think it might’ve been a tie.”

Blaise and I simultaneously say, “A tie?”

Rhyland holds up his phone. On the screen is a shot of Blaise and I crossing the finish line at exactly the same time.

Londyn moves up to my side with Bailey and Payton right behind her. “So I guess you both lose then.”

“Or both win,” Blaise says, glancing at me curiously.

I grimace over my two options. Either I can declare us both losers in the race and no one wins anything or I agree that we’re both winners, get assurance that the Porterson brothers will leave my sisters alone, and get to kick Blaise in the junk. But that also means I’ll owe him a month’s worth of favors and a kiss. While the idea of doing Blaise favors makes me want to vagina punch myself, I want my sisters to have peace of mind during our time here in Honeyton.

I glance at Blaise. “Fine, we were both winners.”

The corners of Blaise lips twitch into an almost smirk. “All right then. My brothers and I will no longer bother your sisters. Just make sure to be at my house bright and early for my first favor.” He starts to turn away and for the stupidest moment I wonder if perhaps he either forgot about the kiss or was only joking about it. But then he makes a U-turn. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the second part of our deal.”

He stops in front of me, his hand cupping the back of my neck. I want to spit out excuses, want to protest, but backing down isn’t my thing. So, I do the only thing I can. I kiss him first, not letting him have any sort of gratification in this.

Or well, that’s what I tell myself. But the moment our lips connect, he’s kissing me. And I mean, really kissing me, his tongue parting my lips as he angles my head back and kisses me deeply. I nearly groan as warmth spreads through my body, a mixture of angsty lust and fuming irritation.

I’m enjoying kissing Blaise. What the fuck is wrong with me?

Snapping out of my brief trance, I jerk back, gasping for air. His eyelids flutter open and the heated look he gives me makes me want to kiss him again. But then that stupid infamous smirk appears and any desire fizzles.

“You pulled away first,” he says, like that means I lost a battle.

I kind of feel like I did.

I need to get my shit together.

“Yep, I sure did. But only to do this.” Then I kick him between the legs.

He grunts, crouching over in pain.

“Shit, you’re ruthless,” Rhyland mumbles, his eyes wide.

“Remember that.” I point at him then focus on Blaise, hunched over and red faced, clutching his man goodies. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, sweetheart.”

Then I reel around and get in the car, telling myself that I’m okay. That I can handle this. That I can handle tomorrow. That I can handle anything.

“Are you okay?” Londyn asks me the second all of us are in the car.

“Yep, just peachy,” I lie as I steer away from the Turn Out.

Londyn assesses me with a disbelieving frown. She knows me too well.

Silence trickles by and I wonder what my sisters are thinking about, if they’re pitying me or what.

“Well, at least the kiss was hot,” Payton finally remarks, breaking the silence.

I can’t help but smile. At least one thing came out of this ordeal. She’d been so down when we left the house earlier, but now she seems upbeat again.

“It wasn’t,” I lie. “It was disgusting.”

“If you say so,” Payton snickers and so does Bailey.

I grasp the steering wheel tightly, wanting to protest, but the truth is the kiss was hot. Scorching even.

I’m seriously disgusted with myself. Blaise is an asshole! I shouldn’t like kissing him!

Londyn’s expression fills with sympathy. “It’s okay to like the kiss, Had. It doesn’t mean you like him.”

“I didn’t like the kiss,” I lie, frustrated I’m not hiding my feelings very well at the moment.

“Okay.” She squeezes my hand, a pity squeeze I’m sure, then retrieves her phone and checks her texts, giggling at something on the screen.

Bailey and Payton start chatting in the backseat, Bailey telling Payton about all the cute boys she saw in school and how there was a flyer for an afterschool art program that Payton should totally check out.

Their laughter and smiles make whatever tomorrow holds, good or bad—but I’m positive it’s going to be bad—worth it.