Chapter 23
Though there were six people racing, it was more accurate to say it
was a
a contest between just the two of them.
The modified cars zipped forward with a whoosh, leaving the spectators at the dam craning their necks, waiting. At about 120 miles an hour, they would be back after covering 60 miles in half an hour.
The Gorman family waited anxiously among the crowd. Marco even instructed his youngest son to follow the race with a helicopter for filming
As the Gorman family’s helicopter took off, several other helicopters followed suit. The camouflaged helicopters disappeared into the night, with only the blinking signal lights visible in the distance.
In a small helicopter, Damian, sitting at the controls, had snapped out of his earlier state of confusion. After setting the helicopter to autopilot, he focused intently on the cars speeding along the winding mountain road beneath them.
Damian exclaimed, Damn, Raymond. If I’m not mistaken, the car in the lead is the girl you’ve been keeping an eye on, right? She’s pretty good, huh? Has she trained professionally?”
When Darmian first learned that Veronica and the others were racers, he had dismissed it. He always thought that girls like them, even if they were racing, probably only went 30 miles an hour for fun.
But when he saw the cars racing on the mountain road, he realized just how badly his assumptions had missed the mark,
The way Veronica took those turns–without years of professional training or having driven over half a million miles, there was no way she could’ve mastered that.
Raymond sat beside Damian in the co–pilot seat, ignoring Damian’s comment as he remained focused, watching Veronica through his night vision binoculars.
Raymond had previously had Veronica investigated. He knew that she wasn’t as simple as the public records made her out to be, that she wasn’t just a girl who had lived in a village for eighteen years.
In fact, the file that had been handed to him was much more detailed. Veronica could race, and she had taken quite a few podium finishes. This was all noted in the file. But Raymond hadn’t expected her racing skills to be this impressive.
Raymond adjusted the magnification of his binoculars and, through the car’s window, caught a glimpse of Veronica’s calm, composed face. The corner of his mouth curved up slightly, a smile he hadn’t even realized was forming.
He thought, Veronica might be young, but she’s absolutely capable of marrying into the Harrington family and becoming my wife
“Hey, what’s that person doing? Trying to start something on purpose?” Damian panicked as he saw Jayla, who was trailing just behind Veronica, constantly trying to bump into Veronica’s car..
Damian almost lost it. “Does she have no professionalism? How can she keep hitting someone else’s car?”
The stretch of road Veronica and Jayla were driving on was particularly dangerous, with the mountain on one side and the reservoir on the other. One wrong move, and it could be a fatal crash.
Raymond’s expression darkened. The smile that had appeared earlier was gone, and his eyes narrowed, his gaze growing colder.
On the ground, inside the car, Veronica heard the sound coming from the rear of her car on the right side. She glanced at the rearview mirror and smiled to herself, thinking. Jayla actually hit my car?”
A sharp screech of brakes split the air. But instead of coming to a dead stop, the car swung into a clean, sweeping turn and cut around to the rear of Jayla’s vehicle.
The front end slammed hard into Jayla’s back bumper, sending the car shooting forward even faster. The trunk caved in with a deep
dent.
But even then, Veronica wasn’t satisfied. She kept her foot on the gas and kept the front of her car pressed against Jayla’s, steering it straight toward the mountain wall.
In mid–air, Damian, who had been defending Veronica earlier, couldn’t help but exclaim, “Holy shit. Your future wife is such a badass.”
1/1
6:41 PM PP.
Chapter 21
Chapter 24
Raymond was delighted by the way Damian addressed Veronica, a flicker of amusement flashing in his eyes.
Damian exclaimed, “Wow, that girl up front has got some guts, too!
On the road, Jayla’s car was being forced into the mountain wall at high speed. There was no way she would go down without a fight. Her dashboard kept flashing warnings that the vehicle was damaged
With the mountain wall right in front of her, Jayla gritted her teeth, unbuckled her seatbelt, and opened the car door.
She grabbed the roof with one hand, stepped on the gas with one foot, and rolled out of the car the moment it slammed into the wall.
With a loud bang, the front of Jayla’s car was completely wrecked, black smoke pouring out from the engine.
Meanwhile, Veronica’s car stopped about thirty feet away from Jayla’s vehicle. Though Veronica was the one responsible, the car she was driving had only a slightly dented front end and was still perfectly functional.
Veronica leaned her head out of the driver’s side window, looking at the disheveled Jayla lying by the roadside, and sneered. “Don’t think you’re the only one who knows how to play dirty
With that, Veronica slammed on the gas again, and the car shot forward like a rocket. As she passed Jayla, she suddenly revved the engine, blasting exhaust right into Jayla’s face.
Jayla clenched her teeth and coughed nonstop. “Damn you Veronica
Jayla had sworn earlier that Veronica wouldn’t live to see the next day. But now she could only watch as Veronica sped off.
As the taillights disappeared into the distance, a twisted smile appeared on Jayla’s furious face. “If you can’t wait to die, then there’s nothing I can do about it,”
Jayla patted the dirt off her clothes, forced herself to stand through the pain, and walked toward the outer edge of the road
Up in the helicopter, Damian shook his head and sighed, “Whoa, girls these days are brutal.”
Whether it was Veronica or Jayla, both had far exceeded his expectations. Damian thought. These girls go all in harder than any guy I’ve seen. Once again, he felt ashamed of his own narrow perspective.
Raymond’s focus wasn’t the same as Damian’s. Raymond had witnessed everything that had just happened down below, but he didn’t think Veronica had done anything wrong.
Raymond thought, Jayla’s clearly the one who lost, so why does she look like she just won? Is there something shady waiting up ahead?
Just as Raymond had that thought, a loud boom suddenly rang out in the distance, followed by roaring flames. “Shit. His heart sank. He realized something had happened to Veronica.
The helicopters that had been trailing overhead all turned toward the source of the fire.
Staring at the blazing fire, Raymond felt like his chest was being ripped apart, every breath burning with pain. Before the chopper could even get close, he grabbed a rope, tied it to the frame, and slid down with one hand gripping tight.
Damian instantly shouted, “Raymond, you’re still injured.”
The convoy on the ground arrived at the same time. Isabel jumped out of the car, saw the scorched wreck on the road not far ahead, and ran toward the flames like she’d lost her mind “Ronie, Ronie.”
Raymond’s tall figure moved toward the burning car. All he could see was the raging fire, but in his mind flashed Veronica’s sly, dazzling eyes, outshining any gem in the world.
In his head, he could see her smiling at him, drawling, “If you keep staring. I’ll start charging. I saved you. Why don’t you repay me with yourself?”
Raymond’s chest felt night and sore, like something was about to burst out. Just as he stepped forward, someone tugged at his pant leg His eyes darkened, filled with killing intent. Another hand, filthy but noticeably slender, lifted from the tall grass. A soft voice, weak and shaky, spoke. “Help. I’m sull alive.”
