The headlights illuminated her gaze; her eyes the same dark green color of an oak tree’s leaves in the middle of summer. They always looked clever, like she was focusing them slightly, like she had a million things churning behind them. And her mouth, her goddamn mouth. It was a sin for a woman to have lips like that.

I could remember perfectly how they’d felt, warm and soft around my shaft as those eyes looked up at me from the floor. That image of her was branded into my brain — how surprised she’d looked when my pierced cock hit the back of her throat, how her eyes had watered as she worked to take me deep.

The tension that had been building in me all week grew even worse. If Jess wanted to watch Alex race, then she was going to watch him lose. I didn’t know why the fuck she considered that bastard her friend. But she’d always surrounded herself with the worst kind of people, like a shield of assholes around her own insecurity.

He probably still thought he had a chance with her. I still remembered the way he used to talk about her, the things he would say when she and her ex couldn’t hear.

That was how this whole damn feud had started. When I’d bashed Alex’s head open with a bottle, it wasn’t just me dealing with some anger issues. It was me dealing with him running his mouth about her, bragging that he’d seen nude photos of her on Kyle’s phone. Whether or not it was true didn’t matter. I’d wanted to fucking kill him and he was lucky I hadn’t.

Jess was a bitch, but Alex was worse. If someone was going to mess with her, it was going to be me or my boys.

I joined Manson, Jason, and Vincent on the far side of the road. Jason didn’t look pleased about the amount of people here, surveying the crowd with the hood of his jacket pulled low. I’d told them they didn’t all have to show up, but they wouldn’t hear of it.

Now that we were out here, I was glad not to be alone. All the people who’d come to watch were friends of Alex. We were on the very edge of town with no one else around. An ideal place for a drag race, but also ideal for an ambush.

“They all look like they came to see blood,” Jason said dryly, shoulders hunching even more as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “This is sketchy as hell.”

“Stick close to each other,” Manson said. “Don’t let anyone bait you.”

I wished someone would bait me. I wanted to hit something, especially as Alex suddenly gunned his engine, yelling out the passenger side window, “Come on, Bent! Let’s fucking go!”

Jason and Vincent stayed near the WRX as Manson walked with me to the car. I settled into the driver’s seat as Alex burned out his tires, smoke pouring across the asphalt.