Page 50 of Blind Spot
My heart knocked around in my chest as I pushed my car to the limit. Racing Baby Q wasn’t going to be easy, and I had known that when I accepted the challenge. Baby Q, whose real name was Quenesha, had been racing for the last six years, and she was a beast. But if I wanted to be the best, I would have to beat the best.
I had raced plenty of drivers, both male and female, but Baby Q was no joke. She inched ahead of me. My fingers gripped the steering wheel, and my jaw clenched. I tried to loosen up so that I could become one with the car, but I struggled to get out of my head.
I couldn’t lose this race, I just couldn’t. If I did, I didn’t know if Chopper would want me to remain on the team. He had already been on the fence about it, even though he had welcomed me to the team. Dominic shared with me a couple of days ago that he had manipulated that in my favor. He told me that he’d had all the guys turn down the race, which ended up being my first, knowing that Chopper wouldn’t want to forfeit it.
While I was a bit disappointed in Dominic for doing that, I was also happy that it opened a chance for me to prove to Chopper that I belonged on this team. I was willing to doeverything to maintain my place on the team, including beating Baby Q’s hard-to-beat ass.
We passed the old hardware store, and we were neck and neck. I glanced sideways and saw her smiling at me. She pointed ahead, and I turned to see that the light had just turned red and there was a car sitting on the other side.
There was no way that we would make it through the intersection before the car did. If we kept going, one of us would plow into the side of that car and take them out. My heart raced as I tried to determine what I should do with that split second to decide.
I glanced at Baby Q again, and she wore a look of determination as she stared straight ahead. She was going for it. So would I.
“God, please cover us all,” I whispered as I pressed the accelerator to the floor. We both shot through the intersection and narrowly missed the four-door sedan with three people inside. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest as I whispered a “Thank You, Jesus.”
My adrenaline and fear kept my foot on the gas and kept it pressed to the floor. Baby Q must have thought that I wasn’t going to go for it, because she had eased off the gas after we made it through the light. I zoomed past her.
Within seconds, she caught up to me, but it was too late. I passed through the finish line just a bumper ahead of her and within seconds of each other. It was so close that if it hadn’t been for Bear jumping up and down and doing a fist pump, I wouldn’t have known that I’d won.
I hopped out of the car and rushed to Bear. “Congrats, Burnout!” he shouted as he spun me around. When he put my feet on the ground, he turned his phone to me and showed me the video. I had won; there was no doubt about it.
I turned to look at the girl on Baby Q’s team who had been recording for her. She was staring at her phone in her hand and tapping out something. I guess she was letting JP know that Baby Q had lost, either that or letting their team captain know.
“Why did you call me Burnout?” I asked Bear.
“I thought it was a great street name for you. Besides the fact that you show your ass when you do them, that temper of yours is reason enough to call you that.”
I laughed and nodded. “I think I like it.”
“Good.”
Baby Q approached me with her hand outstretched. “Congratulations. You’re no joke.”
“You’re not bad yourself,” I quipped, shaking her hand but glaring at her.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked, looking at Bear.
He glanced at me, and I nodded. He stepped back, and I walked closer to Baby Q’s car with her to put more space between Bear and us.
“What the hell was that? Why did you take that risk?” I demanded.
She smirked at me and replied, “Same reason that you did. I wanted to win. Besides, I wanted to see if you had what it took to win.”
“I do, but why would you ease up on the gas after taking the risk?”
“I underestimated you. I figured your ass would be so freaked out over that near miss that you would slow up, if not stop, to get your heart under control. At first, I didn’t see you go through the light because I had the lead. I just knew that you didn’t take the challenge. Others have done it,” she replied with a shrug.
I shook my head. “This isn’t your first time?”
“Nope, and probably won’t be the last.”
“I don’t get it . . . What’s your point?”
“Do you want to race with Lady Jaguars?”
Shock flooded me. Recently, Baby Q and some of the other female racers had formed their own team, since the men wouldn’t include them. I had always gotten along better with males than females, which was why I hadn’t even considered asking them.
I eyed her up and down and then looked at her partner, who had come to stand beside us, Moni, pronounced like money, but short for Monica. She had been known to garner big bets on her races because she was just that good.
