Harrison didn’t really care about winning this race. He wasn’t a professional driver; the only reason he brought Dark Hole onto the track was to honor Natalie’s
memory.
Adrian slid into the passenger seat of Solarius and glanced over, catching Selene staring at Dark Hole, lost in thought.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Selene blinked, her lashes brushing against the inside of her helmet. With the visor down, Adrian couldn’t see her expression.
“I just don’t like that car,” she admitted quietly.
Adrian’s voice was lazy, almost teasing. “Take first place, and you get to pick any three cars from Harrison’s garage. When that time comes, choose Dark Hole and send it straight to the junkyard.”
Selene couldn’t help but laugh, the gloom that had been clinging to her finally lifting. She remembered the first time she’d seen Dark Hole in the Vaughn family’s garage. The car had caught her eye immediately, and when she noticed the door was unlocked, she’d slid right into the driver’s seat.
She was running her fingers across the dashboard when Harrison yanked her out.
Back then, she’d been pregnant–carrying twins, her belly unmistakable. She landed hard on the concrete floor.
Harrison stood over her by the car door, looking down from above, his presence cold and unyielding, a wall of ice between them.
“Don’t get my car dirty.”
“Harrison, I’m your wife-”
She wanted to tell him she actually knew a thing or two about racing, and how surprised she was to find a custom–built supercar in the family garage. She’d been genuinely excited to meet a kindred spirit.
She’d imagined what it would be like to see Dark Hole and Solarius tearing up the track together.
She was his wife. Why shouldn’t she sit in his car in their own garage?
- 52
Chapter 97
“Dark Hole is worth far more than you are, Selene. Don’t let me catch you touching it again,” Harrison had warned, his voice icy and absolute.
He locked the car door and walked past her without even offering a hand to help.
her up.
Selene reached for the car to pull herself up, but the chill coming off Harrison was enough to make her draw her hand back, as if invisible arrows were threatening to pierce right through her.
She looked over her shoulder from the floor and saw him standing by the elevator, not leaving, just watching–still radiating that same unrelenting pressure.
Her fingers trembled. Whatever courage she’d had to touch the car evaporated.
She struggled to her feet, one hand protectively on her belly, the other bracing herself against the ground. It took all her strength just to stand.
“I was just looking at the route map,” Selene said now, shaking off the memory and voicing her real concern. “The course is complicated… I haven’t raced off–road in six years.”
Racing was nothing like math. In mathematics, you could take your time to think; in racing, it was all instinct. If you hesitated for even a split second, you could end up wrecked, or worse.
“I’ll guide you through every turn,” Adrian promised, buckling his six–point harness. “I’ll call out every bend, every hill before we get there. As long as I’m by your side, Selene, you won’t lose.”
At the starting line, the race lights flickered on, the countdown clock ticking down.
Selene’s sharp, focused eyes locked on the road ahead. The starting horn blared, and dozens of cars shot forward like wild beasts unleashed.
The grandstands erupted.
“Daddy! Go, Flick! You can do it!” Dames cheered, waving a flag from the stands.
Solarius surged ahead, the force of acceleration pinning them to their seats, as if trying to launch them into the sky.
Within seconds, two cars tried to box them in, aiming to force Solarius off the line. In racing, hesitating for just a moment could cost you everything.
But if they didn’t slow down now, a collision was inevitable.
