“This has gone too far.”
My fingers gripped the edges of the seat as I pressed myself further into the seat. “You think?” The Charger lurched over a dip in the road, gaining ground on Carter. “What do you plan to do if you catch up to him? Run him off the road? It’s not worth it. And this car doesn’t deserve to be wrecked over him, no matter how satisfying.”
He released a grim exhale. “I’m sick of his shit, of waiting for him to be accountable for the shit he’s done.”
“No one more than me wants to see him pay.”
“Dammit.” Grayson slammed his hands against the steering wheel. For the second time, I saw my life flash before my eyes as Grayson spun the car around in a one-eighty, taking us back to where the race ended, letting Carter get away.
Quite a crowd had gathered by the time we pulled in and parked. I glanced around, searching for Mads, but it was Brock who found us.
He got in Grayson’s face as soon as he stepped out of the car. “What the hell was that?” I’d never seen them fight before, not like this. And I didn’t want them to start.
Not over me.
I never wanted to be that girl, the one that breaks up a friendship.
Grayson didn’t back down under Brock’s burning glare. He stayed nose-to-nose with him. “She’s fine. So am I, thanks for asking.”
“That’s not the point,” Brock growled. The crowd that had gathered for the race now turned their attention to Grayson and Brock.
“What is the fucking point?” Grayson shot back at Brock. “If you think I’d let anything happen to her, then you don’t know me as well as you think.”
“Stop!” I yelled, shoving my way in between them, a dangerous maneuver, but I didn’t think. I just reacted and hated seeing two people I cared about arguing. This was Carter’s doing, and I refused to let that little shit get in between the friendship these guys had. Their bond was supposed to be fucking unbreakable.
I needed it to be.
Micah stepped to defuse the tension as he normally did. “Well, that was an interesting race. The winner doesn’t usually take off.”
A scowl locked onto Grayson’s lips. “Carter made a surprise appearance.”
All amusement fled from Micah’s handsome face. “That was him in the car at the finish line?”
I nodded.
“Why don’t we let the asshole think you’re helping him?” Mads said to me. “Just hear me out, before the four of you get all ‘me man, hear me roar.’”
The sudden intensity dripping off the Elite thickened the air.
“What if we make him think that Josie is willing to snoop around and find the thumb drive? It would get him to let up on the scare tactics for awhile at least.” Leave it to Mads to hatch a crazy plan.
Grayson blinked, regarding his cousin with a blank expression. “The way your mind works sometimes scares me.”
“You’re not the only one it scares,” she mumbled.
“There are so many things that could go wrong,” Fynn said, being the voice of reason.
We had formed a circle as we talked, closing off the crowd around us, our voices lowering. “So you just want to sit around and see what crazy thing he is going to do to her next?” Mads argued. “At the very least, it might buy us some time, make him believe she has succumbed to his blackmail.”
“She has a point,” Micah agreed, meeting each of the other three guys dark stares. “A person can only handle so much. We need him to think this was Josie breaking point.”
“Absolutely not.” No one was surprised by Brock’s refusal.
“Shocker, the king disagrees,” Mads retorted sarcastically, pulling out a cigarette. Her lighter flared in the dimly lit area.
Brock gritted his teeth. “We’re not using Josie as bait. Not again.”
“And if I volunteer? You’re not using me then. We don’t have any other options that I can see.”