Page 26 of Losers, Part I

10

Lucas

I’d shown up for the race that night for one reason and one reason only — to win. I didn’t care about giving these lame fucks a night of entertainment. I wasn’t going to put on some big dramatic show. That was what these people were hoping for. They wanted to see Lucas Bent, the guy who couldn’t control his temper, lose control yet again.

But like Manson had said, we’d settle this behind the wheel.

I raced purely for the rush of it. It was one of the least destructive ways I’d found to release my pent-up energy, an outlet for the anxious electricity that made my limbs shake and my mind go hazy. It was this or fighting, this or drugs, and the other guys had done their damnedest to keep me away from both. Bless their bleeding hearts.

The speed and the power of racing was like nothing else. The adrenaline, the split-second decisions, teetering on the edge of complete destruction — I craved it, all of it.

Alex was glaring at me the second I stepped out of the car, and his face darkened even more when I gave him a simple nod and nothing else. He’d invited all these people out here to witness his own humiliation; he just hadn’t realized it yet. He’d even invited…

Fuck. Jessica was here.

I caught myself too late to avoid looking at her. She’d been a goddamn tease since the first time I met her and nothing had changed in the years since. Her short dress left her legs bare, her tits enticingly framed by the bodice. She looked too damn good and it wasn’t fair.

One quick look, and all I could think of was throwing her over the back of my car and fucking her until she screamed my name. Proving to every asshole here, once and for all, exactly where she belonged.

Exactly who she belongedto.

You fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us. You’re either with us or against us. Maybe the others were fine with her little games, but she made me feel like I was going to lose my mind. She walked the knife’s edge of my patience, an edge that had grown so abysmally thin I was shocked she managed to keep her balance.

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 goddamnmouth. 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.”

Iwishedsomeone 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.

“You’ve got this,” Manson said, his voice low as he leaned against the open window. “Remember what he really wants outof this. He’ll be looking for an excuse to fight.”

“So don’t lose my temper,” I said, nodding slowly. “One of my strongest qualities.”

I could see Jess from here, sitting on the guardrail near the bridge. She was looking at me, at us. Her eyes were wide, the smoke from Alex’s tires curling around her feet. Why the hell was she out here, getting involved in something like this? She needed someone to protect her from all this petty shit, from the snakes among her own friends.

I was a fool to even let that thought cross my mind.

“Don’t let her distract you,” Manson said. I didn’t have to give him an explanation for my sudden frustration. He already knew. “Keep your eyes on the road.”

“Why did she even come?” I muttered.