Relinquished by K.A. Hunter Page A

me as his girlfriend. It pissed me off at first. Until he explained it was to keep the other guys in the house from bothering me. We had to share a room and eventually, we did end up together, but it was more out of convenience than anything else.
    “It didn’t take long to find out the real reason we were there. We were illegal street racers, which brought a crapload of money in to the guys we worked for.  They stole the cars, and we drove them. It was the stupidest thing, but I’m not gonna lie and say I hated it.” Even talking about it now was giving me a little thrill.
    The corner of his lip raised, when he asked, “Did you ever get caught?”
    I wanted to laugh.  All of this, and his only question was if I ever got busted?  “Not for racing.”
    With a boyish grin, he admitted, “I may have dabbled in the world of street racing myself a time or two.”
    My eyes widened in glee. “No way!”
    “Yeah, but I wasn’t as lucky.  When I was sixteen, I did get caught, which sucked because Dante had to come get me.  My dad was out of the country, and Dante was my only other adult family member.” He made a wry face, lifting his eyebrows playfully. 
    “Oh, I bet he loved springing ya from the joint.” I winked, giggling out loud.  Man, it felt good to joke around with him. With anyone, really.
    Twisting a salt shaker in his hand, he sighed. “Let’s just say, I heard about family image for a long time after that. I do have to give him big brother credit, though. He never told Dad.” Putting the salt shaker back in its place, he turned to me and asked, “So what ever happen to Scott?”  
    I bit the side of my cheek. “I was just about to watch Scott’s race when the cops came barreling toward us.  He and the other driver took off, and the rest of us scrambled.  At the time, I was in the car Scott legitimately owned and got the hell out of there with a cop on my tail.  I knew I’d be in even more trouble if I kept going, so I pulled over a few minutes after I saw the lights and heard the siren.  I was charged with a misdemeanor for being a spectator at an illegal race, but I was the lucky one and was only fined for not having a driver’s license.”
    His grin grew wider, as if I was telling him about a boyhood fantasy every guy had. “Wait, you were driving without a license that whole time? You didn’t get in more trouble for that?”
    “No.” I sighed, knowing the rest of what I had to say would wipe that smile off his face. “The judge took mercy on me.”
    “You must’ve had a kick ass lawyer.”
    Nodding while looking aimlessly out of the window, I huffed out a breath and shared the shitty end of my story. “I was supposed to be the driver that last run, but Scott begged me to let him go. He insisted he was a better match with the last driver and didn’t trust him not to pull some shit on me because I’m a girl. I finally agreed, and he made me stay in his car while he put a helmet on to disguise himself.  We never wore helmets, so that should’ve sent red flags, but Scott wasn’t much bigger than me, and nobody seemed to be paying attention anyway. Before he got out, he told me he was glad he’d met me, and he couldn’t wait to see what my future held.  It was so out of character for him to say something like that.”
    Still makes me wonder…
    My chest tightened as a single tear fell from the corner of my eye. “Scott and the other driver both crashed their cars and died that night.”
    Holden scooted his chair closer to me and held my hands in his. “Jules, I’m sorry.” His eyebrows knitted together, concern covering his face.
    “The report said tire tracks confirmed that a third car was involved, but they never located it.” I pulled one of my hands away and wiped the tears that fell before looking around the room to see if anyone was watching us. If they’d noticed me crying, they were being respectful by not staring. 
    Holden took my hand again as I shrugged my