Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I’m going to fuck him up,” Jordan growled before we were halfway across the pits. “No—” This time he laughed. It was an eerie sound, hollow and without emotion. “I’m going to choke that little bitch out, all the way out.”
“I’m down.” Aiden stayed in step with him as I struggled to keep up, practically running with my much shorter stride. “After you drag Eric Marshall’s no-prep-professional ass.”
“A no-prep-professional?” Breanna snorted. “If that’s what he calls himself, then he’s too scared of the street and not good enough to hang with the big dogs.”
“He can’t hang with us here either, too bad we didn’t bring your ’Vette we could have beat his ass twice.” Vic shoved my brother in the shoulder. Though he had a smile on his face, I could see the seriousness in his eyes. Vic’s loyalty meant he didn’t have to know why we hated the guy, just that we did.
This wasn’t about the race or pride, it was about something else. How much more could our little family handle? I stopped in my tracks. A horrible, gut-clenching thought sank into me. Each time, each place, it had been my fault.
The world spun around me. I barely saw Jordan stop and jog back to me.
“Easy, baby.” He pulled me against his chest. “It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of him. I promise you that.”
“No.” My voice was muffled against his chest. “I need—” My words were stolen as my throat tightened. I couldn’t lose anyone else, especially not Jordan.
“You need what?” Beneath the bill of his cap, his eyes darkened with concern.
I needed to breathe, to collect my thoughts, to do something. Anything. “I need you.” I fought the tremors that still threatened. “I need to talk to you…alone.”
He nodded once and pulled me behind him to the rig. I climbed in the truck with the pressure of every eye around us on me. The pressure of everyone’s attention was like lead weights that forced my head down. He climbed in behind me, the throb of the music and engines dulled to a roar as he shut the door.
“Don’t go near him again,” I pleaded.
Jordan, affronted, shook his head. “Have you lost your mind, Raelynn? He hurt you. I can’t let that stand. I walked away, once, because of this race and what it means to everyone. But, I’m not done with him, not by a long shot.”
It was who he was, down to the core of him. They all liked to fight, even Jordan. Like with racing, it was the rush of adrenaline they chased. This went deeper than that. Jordan had built who he was on protecting the innocent, protecting those he loved. He hadn’t been able to protect me then, he hadn’t been able to protect Devin.
I knew him well enough to know that Jordan could make up for it now. He would make up for it now.
I’d lose him when he did. I’d lose him because he wouldn’t stop with choking Caleb. I could see it in the veins that throbbed visibly at Jordan’s temples, and the whites of his knuckles as he held tight to the steering wheel. I was afraid he’d kill the monster of my nightmares.
“I embarrassed him when I left.” I swallowed down the bile that burned its way up the back of my throat. “He wants to pay me back for that. It’s how people like Caleb operate. You know that as well as I do.”
“Yeah,” he drawled the word out, but still didn’t look at me.
“He knows now, he watched us, he knows the one way to hurt me is to take you away from me. Caleb is smart, his dad is some big shot lawyer. They’ve got a shit ton of money. He’d make it happen.”
He swore an oath and finally looked at me. “He can’t take me away from you, Raelynn. I’m with you, always.”
“Yes, he can,” I whispered. “If you hit him. If you hurt him. He’s not like us, he’ll press charges. He’ll go after you. He’ll make sure you’re taken away from me. He’s smart, he’s conniving.”
Jordan leaned over and pressed his lips to my forehead. “I won’t let it happen.”
“How could you stop it?”
When he couldn’t answer me. I opened the door and started to climb out of the truck. “I can’t lose you like that, I can’t. I’ve lost too much, Jordan. I was barely hanging on without you.”
“Raelynn.” He reached for me as I stepped out.
“I can’t, Jordan, I can’t.” I walked away from the truck. I spent the rest of the time in our small pit, curled in a bag chair, as they went through the motions of prerace prep.
Jordan was stoic as he readied the car. Even more so, once we made it to the staging lanes, the lanes immediately behind the track where only the race cars waited as the track is readied. My brother and Hunter flanked me like soldiers. In a way, I guess they were.
I was cold and numb, both inside and out. Caleb had finally found a way to really hurt me, to break me in a way he never could before. I’d fought to get my life back, only to feel it slip through my grasp again.
Prior to the race, Aiden left me just long enough to go with Jordan over to talk to Eric Marshall. For several long minutes, the three of them talked. When my brother and Jordan walked away, Marshall was grinning.
The way he did, like the cat who got the canary, made me feel…dirty.
When Jordan climbed in the Malibu I kissed his lips and pulled the belts tight across his chest, the same way I’d seen my mom do for my dad hundreds of times.
“Don’t look so sad, Raelynn.” He thumbed my bottom lip before pulling on his helmet. “Have faith in me.”
I couldn’t respond, didn’t know how, so I stepped back silently as Aiden and Vic walked him through his burnout and lined him up on the start line. Of course, I had faith in Jordan, but I knew Caleb too. He was dangerous.
Two seconds later, with a deafening roar, both cars took off down the back end of the track. I didn’t have to watch to know who won. I could hear it in the raucous screams of the fans. Jordan was Arkadia’s favorite son, here he was a legend, their Street King. The stands were packed with local fans who’d watched their hero win.
The celebration in our pit was somber, more so than I’d expected. I was too anxious to celebrate. I kept waiting for the next shoe to drop. For Jordan to make true on his promise to hurt Caleb.
I clung to my faith in Jordan, but I’d seen the flash of what he’d almost become in those dark eyes, the wild boy who held onto a car until it ripped his shoulder apart, the cornered dog ready to attack.
My heart stopped when Eric Marshall idled his race car in front of our stall and called out to Jordan, “Rematch on the street? Double or nothing?” When Jordan didn’t give Marshall the response he wanted, he laughed. “What, the King of the Streets afraid to take it there?”
Jordan spit on the pavement and went back to strapping the Malibu to the trailer. “Vic, tell this little bitch where to go. I’ll race him.” He glanced to where Caleb sat on the golf cart that was towing Marshall. “But get that trash out of my sight.” Jordan jerked his chin toward Caleb. “Or I’ll rearrange his face.”
Eric laughed and gestured for the cart to go and they disappeared into the crowd that had gathered.
It wasn’t over. Sickness churned in my stomach.
“Faith.” Jordan stooped down to kiss me. His lips were warm and reassuring against mine. “Have it.”
I battled with my emotions all the way to the canning factory, where my journey with Jordan had started several months before. Being there made me nauseous, but Jordan had insisted I stay with him and not leave his side. Caleb would be here. Jordan’s only reason to race Eric Marshall again, because Jordan had nothing to prove or gain otherwise.
Everything was playing out in stop motion, as it had the night Devin died.
I had tremendous faith in Jordan. This time, though, my fear of what Caleb could cost me was far greater. My biggest regret in those moments was that I’d shared my secrets with Jordan. If I’d kept them to myself, none of this would be happening.
If I’d been stronger, I could have avoided all of this.
There was a line drawn in the sand between different types of people. Where we come from, that line is painted yellow and runs over top of where two lanes of concrete meet. It was the only thing that separated Jordan from Caleb, Eric Marshall’s crew from ours. We had at least doubled in size to face the guys from out of town, including Hunter and his crew, too.
The fear of Caleb touching me, being close to me, didn’t exist when I stood beside Jordan. He protected just with his presence, healed me just by standing beside me. He was my anchor.
Faster and faster my heart raced, over and over his voice in my head told me to have faith.
“Don’t even look at her.”
I forced my eyes up from the yellow line at the rumble of Jordan’s voice. Caleb had been staring at me, and I hadn’t even noticed. I was safe beside Jordan.
I squeezed Jordan’s arm to remind him of what we talked about, of how very much I needed him.
“What are your rules?” Eric Marshall’s grin was toothy but not challenging.
Suddenly, something shifted, something changed in the air around us. That line between us was far more fluid than it should have been. Vic glanced to me, momentarily as confused as I was.
Jordan only smiled.
“Flagger uses a flashlight. Roll up to the line, it’s all on the flagger. He’ll show you how he’s going to do the light before you strap in. So, don’t roll up until you’re ready. The crossroad is six hundred and sixty feet, if you want to run a quarter of a mile I can have one set up farther down.” Jordan was all business.
“I can run an eighth, no problem.”
“Put any money on it, Slater?” Caleb was too cocky, too full of himself.
Jordan’s lips peeled back in a feral smile. “Oh yeah. Whatever you’ve got, I’ll collect when we’re done.”
At that, both cars were readied and brought to the line. This wasn’t the usual Saturday night street race. The tension in the air was thick, a pot of built up anger ready to boil over at any given moment.
I wasn’t the only person waiting on the next shoe to drop.
Vic flagged the race, reviewing step by step with Marshall what he would do and how he would do it. Only when Marshall was satisfied, did both crews get to work lining up the cars. I lined Jordan up, his choice. He wanted his eyes on me as long as possible with Caleb around. I wasn’t going to complain about that a bit. As soon as he was ready, I ran to join my brother behind the start line.
When Vic ran back and hit the switch on the flashlight, Jordan didn’t move. Instead, he shut the engine down as the blue Mustang tore up the road. Caleb was among those running down the lane shouting. His excitement was ironic to me, seeing as how he’d never been into racing before.
Like everyone else, I sat in shock as Jordan slowly climbed from the Malibu, tossing his helmet on the seat.
Marshall’s return trip was quick, he let his crew put the car on the trailer and met Jordan where he stood in silence at his car on the start line. Nobody from our crew had moved, we were all too stunned. Jordan hadn’t even tried to leave the start line.
“You ready to collect, Slater?” Marshall had an easy way about him I hadn’t seen before.
“Oh yeah.” The unadulterated hatred in Jordan’s voice gave me pause. This was a setup.
Eric reached around and grabbed Caleb by the back of the neck and pushed him, stumbling, in front of Jordan. Who suddenly wasn’t alone. My brother, Vic, Hunter, Isaac, and several others lined up beside him.
“Hey, man, I can call the cops!” For the first time, as long as I had known him, genuine fear coated Caleb’s face as his eyes searched wildly for an exit.
There wasn’t one.
“I’ll take that.” Aiden snatched the phone from Caleb’s hand and crushed it under his boot. “The thing is, this is an illegal activity. Not even your friends want the cops out here. I’m sure Eric wouldn’t want to lose his car or spend the next ten to twenty behind bars.”
“Nope.” Eric held his hand out to Jordan. I stood in stunned silence, as Jordan handed over every dime he’d won at The Street King Showdown.
I stepped forward to stop him, but Vic was there, in my way, holding me back. I struggled, to no avail. “Vic? What are you doing?”
“You see, there’s something I’d always heard about Eric Marshall.” Jordan moved toward Caleb, his face contorted in barely controlled rage. “Turns out, he can be bought.”
“Money talks.” Marshall laughed and started back to his truck. His friends went with him. Leaving Caleb alone on that painted yellow line in the middle of nowhere.
“So, since nobody is ever going to admit to being here.” Jordan very slowly wrapped his fingers around Caleb’s throat. “Nobody is going to admit to seeing me do this.”
Caleb struggled, scratching at Jordan’s driving glove.
“I want you to beg me to let go.” Jordan squeezed tighter and lifted, bringing Caleb up off the ground by his throat. The blond, put-together young man that had hurt me so badly, twisted frantically in the air. His legs lashed out and sometimes connected against Jordan’s, but he didn’t seem to care. “I can’t hear you!”
Caleb mumbled something, his eyes bulging, and without warning, Jordan dropped Caleb. He hit the ground gasping. The roar of the Malibu’s engine as Vic and Aiden loaded it up drowned out whatever Jordan said as he knelt on the ground beside Caleb’s sniveling form. Eric Marshall’s crew had loaded up and with the show over, most of ours headed out as well.
Nobody wanted to stick around too long, Jordan was right about the illegal part of these proceedings.
Only Aiden and Hunter remained behind, watching intently.
Jordan unfolded and gestured me over. Vic had long since let me go, but I’d stayed put, frozen in the moment.
“Look at him.” Jordan’s voice was violent and quiet in a way I’d never heard before.
Gooseflesh crawled across my skin, but I did as I was told. On the concrete at my feet, the terror of my nightmares was a heap of mewling, snot-faced man sprawled across that yellow line that had kept him safe not long ago.
The sneer was wiped from his face, as was the classic arrogance born of privilege. The predatory violence, completely erased. I saw him for what he was, and I wasn’t afraid.
“Facing down my demons was the hardest thing I ever did.” Jordan spoke against my ear, words meant only for me. “You’re stronger than I’ll ever be.”
“He’s all yours, boys.” Jordan wrapped an arm around my shoulders and guided us in the direction of his trailer.
Jordan did what I never thought he could do, he walked away from Caleb for me. Jordan could have beaten Caleb to within in an inch of his life. Instead, Jordan walked away with his arm slung around my shoulders.
Whatever he said to Caleb, paired with the throttling, had appeased the anger inside Jordan.
Fear released its grip on my heart, I still had the most important part of my life with me. We didn’t stick around to watch what happened next. I didn’t want to and Jordan didn’t need to. We left everything on that quiet street in the middle of the night.
I had to admit a certain level of relief when I didn’t see Caleb’s face on the news over the course of the next few days. After the fear of retaliation disappeared, the dreams stopped coming, and as time went on I stopped thinking about him at all.
Fall gave way to the crisp air of winter. Begrudgingly the cars were put up for the season.
We all itched for that first warm night. When it came, we’d be out there on a desolate strip of concrete, with the smell of melted rubber and exhaust, and the taste of adrenaline burning our tongues.
Jordan had slayed my demons. And in a way, I guess I’d slayed his too. The shadow in his gaze no longer lingered, the darkness no longer haunted his face. Now when he raced, it wasn’t as if the hounds of hell were after him.
Now it was a race to the finish line…where I’d be waiting.