Page 73 of Demitri

“I haven’t done anything yet.” He smirks. And then he starts the engine. I think I might orgasm right here. Maybe the trick was a Shelby all along. Hell, the rumble coming from under the hood vibrating the seat is doing a damn fine job of getting me close.

“Demitri, take me home.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

DEMITRI

So,a muscle car turns Mia on. Of course, it’s the one I’m going to sell. Fuck, I need to find another one of these babies and get her to help me restore it. The thing is, I do love the car, but the memories attached to it have become too much. I can’t look at this car and not think about my father, something I actively try to avoid.

“Tell me about the car,” Mia demands once we’re on the road. “Why do you hate her?”

“What makes you think I hate it?” I hedge, really wishing we could avoid this conversation completely.

“Really? The way you look at her, firstly. Oh, and the way you barely touch her, and show her no love. There’s no caressing going on over on that steering wheel. Also, the way you call her an it. This is a Shelby.”

“Fuck, you really do see everything, don’t you?”

“Pretty much. So, spill it.”

“It belonged to my father.”

“That would explain it. Why do you have her?”

“He left it alone in a garage on the back of the property for years. It fell into trash, basically, and I brought her back to life.The cars were a secret of his, bought with an alias only a few of us knew. And none of those are still alive to track it down.”

“What are you going to do with her?”

“I have a buyer. In Diamond Cove. Some billionaire guy.”

“If you must sell it to someone, he’s probably a good choice. Richie Rich’s tend to take care of their toys or at least pay someone to do it for them.”

“You aren’t upset that I’m selling it—her?”

“No. I’m upset that you feel like you have to because of the memories tied to her. And while she is my favorite car ever in existence of, well, ever, she’s not mine. She’s yours to do with what you need to.”

“You are extremely understanding and all together confusing.”

She laughs, shrugging. “What can I say? I have multiple ideas and feelings all at the same time. I’m complex, Demitri.”

Now I laugh, looking in the mirror to change lanes. Mia goes quiet, her fingers never breaking contact with the interior of the car. We sit in comfortable silence for a while, then Mia stiffens in the seat beside us.

“Dem.” Her voice is quiet and calm. Too calm. “Look in the rear-view mirror and tell me what you see.”

I do as she requests, and at first I don’t see anything, just the normal flow of traffic. And then I do. Two big, black SUVs speeding through traffic. Normally it wouldn’t be something I cared about, but these SUVs aren’t your normal oversized cars. They scream ‘special’. They’re Russian-made. If I had to guess, I’d say they are UAZ Patriots. They go by a different name here, but that doesn’t matter. What does is that there are two Russian SUVs going high speed on a mountain road.

“You think they could just be assholes speeding on a high accident-pass?” Mia asks.

“Sure. They could.”

“But?”

“But it’s too much of a coincidence that I pull out this car and they follow it.”

“I thought everyone was dead that might know your connection to the car?”

“Maybe I was wrong. But I’m going to need you to activate that watch and let Joker know what’s going on and then hold on, baby, we’re going to see what this ol’ gal can do.”

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