Page 41 of Intent to Kill
“So I take it that’s T.B. behind us looking angry as fuck?”
Adam nodded again. “Lucky the windows are tinted, right?”
Christ. She’d been back in the thick of it for two weeks. Two weeks! And he’d already dragged her into a world of reckless shit. Reckless shit she wasn’t sure she could stand up to. Not now. Not anymore.
“Adam.” She squeezed her eyes tight shut. “I can’t race T.B. I haven’t driven in five years, he’ll destroy me. He’s the best driver in the city.”
Adam gripped the headrest of the passenger seat as he twisted in his seat to look out the back window. “Second best, baby. He’s always been a Second. Especially to you.”
She chewed on her lip. Fussing between the rearview mirror and the tight suburban streets ahead of her. T.B. hit the bumper again and they rattled forward. She’d have to get out of the suburban streets of the city if she stood any chance. Why thefuckhad Adam roped her into this? It had been years. She couldn’t drive like she used to.
She removed her hands from the wheel long enough to slap at his chest, annoyance overwhelming her.
His pointed glare bounced from the unmanned steering wheel to her hand fisting with anger in his shirt. He smirked at her. Her hands had left the wheel long enough to slap him, which meant whether she believed it or not, she felt totally in control.
“Ughhh.” She pushed the wheel back on course, removing her hands again just to make a strangling motion with her fingers. “Fuck, I could just–”
“Kiss me?” Adam turned in his seat to stare menacingly at her. “Love me? Never get your hands off me?”
“Strangle you,” she clarified.
“I figured.” Adam chuckled lazily and turned back to face forward, relaxing in his seat. “Show him who he’s up against, baby.”
Her eyes flicked down to where his seatbelt remained unchecked, where he rested like the fight was over, like it was an easy escape.
If he still believed like that, the least she could do was try. She placed one hand on the wheel, and the other on the gear shift.
Mercedes shot from the suburban side streets, leaving smoke across the sky as she sped along the overpass that connected to the eastern freeway. Hitting speed bumps that Mercedes refused to slow for, they jolted up and down with the car.
But she knew they could go faster.
She beckoned up another gear, the ball of her foot pushing the pedal to the floor.
She eyed the mirror, T.B. sped up to match her pace. He wouldn’t easily be outdone.
The sunrise threw pink and orange hues across the water under the overpass as she raced for the on-ramp. T.B. snaked out behind her, coming parallel to her and swerving to ram into her side, but she swerved, too, dodging him and pulling ahead.
Hitting the incline’s edge, the car banged as she made it to the on-ramp and up onto the freeway, speeding past the idling cars that were only getting in her way. Mercedes watched as the speedometer continued to climb and she planted her foot farther down on it.
There was a fire growing in her gut, the higher she climbed in speed, the more her stomach dropped. The more her heart raced to grow three sizes in her chest.
That feeling.Thatwas the feeling.
The rush of adrenaline. Deadness in her stomach like she’d left it behind to find again later. The velocity pinning her to the back of her seat. Their lives literally in the palm of where her hands tugged at the wheel.
With the world blurring past her, high on the rush, she couldn’t remember why she hadn’t been behind the wheel in so long.
This was where she was meant to be. Crushing the asphalt and fucking up T.B.’s day by being better. Always better.
“He’s gonna love this one,” Mercedes smiled, violently drifting the car across the median into the opposite lane of traffic. It was the last point that was covered by grass and not concrete, so if T.B. wanted to keep up, he would have to head into oncoming traffic with her, or risk losing them.
Mercedes drove turbulently left and right, darting between the three lanes to avoid the traffic coming at her. She checked her rearview mirror to see T.B. on her tail, also swerving violently to avoid the traffic as he approached.
Adam grabbed onto the edges of his seat, steadying himself as they bounced along with the thrashing of the vehicle. Her foot pushed harder and the speedometer inched higher until T.B. started to look small in the mirror.
As they rallied down the highway, into the path of oncoming cars, Mercedes readied herself to take T.B. to her favorite trick spot. With an intentional drift, she bolted from the highway and into the parklands, thrashing even more under the uneven terrain of the grass. She swerved to avoid trees, banging her head against the roof and crushing her down again as T.B. rose to be hot on their tail.
“You’ll wanna hold on tighter,” Mercedes said to Adam. He looked her dead in the eye, holding her stare for a few fleeting moments and looking like every fantasy he’d ever thought of had materialized in front of him.
