“You aren’t driving at death speeds. Why?” she asked.

“I assumed you’ve had enough of being an adrenaline junkie today.”

“No. I’ve had enough of being thrown off boats today. Go ahead. I want to know what it’s like to go your death speeds.”

I knew my eyebrows were furrowing hard, and I avoided looking over at her. “Are you going to explain why?”

“Because I want to do it? I want to see what it’s like in the car with you. Go fast. As fast as you can.”

“I mean, less than an hour ago, you were telling me how scared you were of me,” I said, laughing. She was apparently terrified of me, but now wanted to race? “It’s dangerous.”

“You do it all the time!”

“Not with you in the car.”

“Come on. There’s literally miles of no one. Look,” she said, pointing to the road.

It really was an empty road and I could probably go for miles without another person. We were close to town, but this route rarely had people on it. It’s one of the main reasons the crew and I would go this way often. I slowed, trying to decide. I knew I was reckless, but she wasn’t.

But she should know what it feels like if she wanted to.

Before I could think about it more, four cars surrounded us. Circling the car and revving engines.

Daisy grabbed my arm. “What is happening?”

“We’re being kidnapped, or maybe just robbed,” I said with a laugh, my eyes glued on her hand grabbing my arm. I waited and waited, but nothing but warmth spread over me.

“Kye!”

“It’s my friends, relax.” I grabbed the radio, shaking her off. “I’m about to go as fast as I can down this road. Daisy would like to see what happens.”

“Daisy?” Scout asked.

“What’s fast for you, Kye? Like eighty?” Ash said.

“Are you driving?” I asked.

“Yep. Let’s gooooooo.”

“Shit,” I said, already laughing.

“Sorry, she’s all wound up tonight,” Fox said. “She’s going to kick your ass on the road or mine if we stay home, so please give her a real race.”

Ash took their car, revving it up on the passenger side of mine.

“Hey, Daisy!” she said over the radio. “Are you coming over tonight?”

“If she’s not scared to death of all of us, yes, she is,” I said, not even asking her. 

I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but I didn’t even want to risk asking her if she wanted to. I just wanted her to, and I wasn’t sure how to take that.

“Can we go, please?” Jax asked. “I am hungry.”

I rolled my eyes and put the radio back, honking once to Ash before we both took off. 

I pushed the car hard, hitting the shifter until I ran out of gears, hitting a hundred in seconds and still kept pushing. Ash stayed by my side, then hit her nitrous and pulled out ahead of me fast. 

I kept up for another minute before slowing.

We made it back down to seventy before I grabbed the radio again. “That was cheating.”

“I’m supposed to tell you there were no rules. But I agree with you,” Fox said, whispering the last part.

I looked over at Daisy, whose knuckles were white as she gripped the harness. “You okay?”

She didn’t say anything, staring out the windshield.

“Daze?” I reached for her hand, my stomach clenching as my fingers ran along hers before pulling away. 

I slowed down a little more as everyone else caught up. 

“Back to the garage,” Ransom said, veering off at our exit, and we all followed.

“Daisy,” I said again, and she finally looked over at me.

“You do that all the time?”

“Yeah, but it’s hard to get that much open road. When we race at events, we might go faster in shorter times.”

“Faster?”

“Yes.”

“How are you alive?”

“Harnesses, roll cages, well-built cars, various other safety things. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Shocked, but fine.”

“I’m assuming you don’t want to come over now?”

“What, no? I mean, I’m nervous about actually meeting your friends, but I wanted to hang out tonight. I’m surprised you wanted me to.”

“I figured you would be over it after that.”

“Over it? No. Like I said, I’m just shocked. That was…fun.”

I almost hit the brakes. “Did you just say you had fun doing that? You liked something so dangerous and illegal?”