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Leilah Khan’s stomach flipped. At this point in her career, after nearly a decade on the professional race car circuit, this was unexpected. Sure, her body coursed with adrenaline before a qualifying event or a race. The day she didn’t get that excited, anticipatory jolt would be the day she hung up her driving gloves. But taking a civilian out for a high-performance driving experience wouldn’t make her nervous. Yet, the butterflies swirling in her midsection suggested she was, in fact, nervous.
Not nervous, she corrected herself. Eager.
Was eager better? Not really, considering who the client was.
She dismissed the thought and checked the time. The session wasn’t scheduled to start for another twenty minutes. She had plenty of time to pop up to her apartment in the loft over her garage and make herself a calming cup of herbal tea.
As the kettle burbled, she tapped her fingernails—painted a glossy blue today to match the cerulean shade of Serena’s paint—and listened to the satisfying click click of her nails striking the countertop.
It’s fine to be excited, she decided. But she did feel just the tiniest bit silly because the excitement had nothing to do with the fact that she was about to be hurtling around an oval at speeds that exceeded 130 miles an hour, and everything to do with the passenger who’d be in the right seat.
Extraordinarily silly.
The kettle beeped. She dropped a chamomile-ginger tisane sachet into her shiny metal Khan Racing travel mug and poured the hot water over it. As the tea steeped, she returned to the topic of her giddy anticipation. She’d known her passenger longer than she’d been driving—since she was four years old. In fact, she couldn’t access a memory of a time when she didn’t know Ryan Hayes.
Her older brother’s best friend had moved onto her street the summer before Omar started second grade and the two were inseparable by Labor Day. She’d known Ryan for essentially her entire life. He was like a second big brother. Taking him out on track should be like giving Omar himself a ride-along. That’s what her head told her, at least. Her stomach said otherwise. And so did her heart, she allowed.
By rights, Ryan should be background noise in her life. He was her brother’s friend, not her own. At least not until recently. Over the past two years, they’d taken tentative steps out of their roles as kid sister and older brother’s best friend. Then Ryan and Omar both took positions working for Potomac Private Services, and Leilah and Ryan’s paths began to cross even more frequently. She’d been tangentially involved in some operations for Potomac, and her closest woman friends worked for the company. It was only natural that she and Ryan had developed a friendship of their own.
Is it just a friendship, though?
Ryan differed from her brother and the rest of his friends. He differed from the men in the racing world. Quiet. Introspective. Thoughtful. Thoughtful
in the way he interacted with her, but also thoughtful in his approach to the world. He watched, absorbed, and internalized—a distinct contrast to the men and women of action who worked at Potomac, not to mention the other drivers and race team members she spent her days with. An idle thought floated through her mind: What would it be like to spend her days—or nights—with Ryan?
She shook her head with such vigor at the idea that her tight sports hijab threatened to slip. She rested her mug on the counter and readjusted it. Safety first. A loose scarf in the car was a disaster waiting to happen. Despite the butterflies in her stomach, she couldn’t lose sight of the fact that she was solely responsible for Ryan’s safety from the moment they strapped into Serena until the Ferrari was parked back in the garage bay, engine ticking.
She reclaimed her tumbler and headed down the stairs to the garage. As she passed by, she glimpsed herself in the mirror hanging outside the door to her office. She looked like Leilah Khan—confident, self-possessed, and, she allowed, glamorous. Her persona was her shield. It protected her from the petty jealousies, crude comments, and fierce rivalries of the racing world. It was vitally important to embody the public image of Leilah Khan every time she stepped out of her garage. Unfortunately, at the moment, she felt like Sparky Khan, the annoying little sister who’d tagged along behind Omar and Ryan at the playground while they pretended she wasn’t there.
“You are not Sparky,” she reminded herself firmly as she swept through the garage bay. She spoke the words aloud as if giving voice to the statement would make her believe it. Then she paused at the door to square her shoulders and set her chin before striding out into the paddock.
Ryan Hayes turned his head at the sound of a metal door closing and spotted Leilah exiting her garage. She covered the distance between them at a rapid clip with her trademark confident saunter.
“Hey, Sparky,” he greeted her with an easy smile designed to hide the effect she had on him. The tumult his best friend’s sister stirred in him was best ignored.
Her eyes flashed under her thick eyelashes at the nickname, but she reserved her ire for her brother, who was leaning against the hood of the brilliant blue Ferrari parked just outside the garage.
“Off the car. You know better,” she said, snapping her fingers.
Omar straightened to standing and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, sis.”
“Why are you even here?” She furrowed her brow.
Ryan shared her confusion. He didn’t know why they were there, either.
Omar’s grin widened. “This birthday gift is a surprise. Ryan still doesn’t know what it is.”
Leilah gave Ryan a sidelong glance before frowning at her brother. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
Omar shrugged.
As Ryan watched the interaction between the Khan siblings, his own smile crumbled. “What’s not a good idea? Someone fill me in.”
Omar explained, “The guys think you need to cut loose a little for your birthday.”
Ryan tamped down a small flare of frustration. ‘The guys’ would be his colleagues at Potomac. It was no secret that he was an oddity in the private security world, even Potomac. Potomac Protective Services was in a class of its own thanks to the corporate ethos and Jake West’s strict code of integrity. But like the rest of the industry, the company was full of former military—mainly the adrenaline junkies who’d been in the special forces—not to mention former federal agents, like Omar, and former intelligence and security agency operatives, and former law enforcement officers. An attorney, even one who’d served as a prosecutor in the Department of Justice, stuck out. Compared to his coworkers, Ryan knew he came across as staid, careful, and, he admitted, boring.
But his job wasn’t to rush into danger. His job was to prevent it. He was damned good at it, too. And, given the work Potomac specialized in, it was a job that never let up. He thought of the pile of files threatening to topple off his desk and gritted his teeth.
“So we’re here to watch a race in the middle of the workday? Great. My birthday gift is that I get to work all night.” He grimaced and turned toward Leilah. “No offense. I love to watch you drive, but—”
Omar chuckled. “You’re not here to watch a race.”
Ryan pinned his best friend with a look he normally reserved for opposing counsel and recalcitrant clients. “Then why, pray tell, are we here?”
“You’re here to experience
the thrill of barreling around a racetrack at speed. Happy birthday, brother.”
Ryan’s voice came out strangled. “I’m what?” He cleared his throat while praying he’d misunderstood.
Leilah gave him an understanding smile. “If you just go with it, I think you’ll enjoy it.”
He eyed the Ferrari, which sat like a powerful beast waiting to pounce. “I’m not … driving, am I?”
“No, I’m driving. Your job will be to hang on to the dashboard and try not to cry.”
Omar snickered.
Ryan’s mind raced as he tried to think of a way to back out gracefully. It was clear that they’d interrupted Leilah’s schedule. Omar, Jake, and Trent had probably gone through a lot of trouble to arrange this gift and keep it a secret. He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but, at the same time—
“—Stop trying to come up with a way out. You need to do this. We got you this gift because we all agree you need to live a little.” Omar cut him off as though he could read his thoughts.
“You got me an experience that risks death so I can live? Do you see the inherent contradiction?”
“Seize the day, brother,” Omar said. “Try a little excitement.”
Ryan inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. To the Khans, it probably looked like he was trying to control his temper. In fact, he was trying not to puke.
Finally, he spoke. “Did you, Jake, and Trent ever stop to consider that my life is more than sufficiently exciting? Unlike you three boneheads, I didn’t retire from a high-risk career. I’m not missing my fix of danger. I don’t enjoy jumping out of helicopters, pretending to be a drug dealer, or tracking down terrorists. I enjoy the law. Applying established precedent and legal principles to problems in novel ways gets my juices flowing.”
Omar faked a yawn. “That’s sad, my man.”
Leilah checked her watch, then interjected, “Listen, you two. I reserved the track for twenty minutes. The clock starts ticking whether we’re sitting at pit out or not. So, Ryan, you need to decide if you want your birthday gift to be an expensive squabble with my brother or an exhilarating thrill ride with me.”
He turned his attention to the diminutive driver tapping her toe on the pavement. Her eyes glittered with amusement.
“Exhilarating
thrill ride, huh?”
A smile spread across her full lips. “Definitely. But I promise you’ll be safe with me at the wheel.”
“I don’t doubt your skill,” he told her.
It was true. He didn’t. They’d teamed up to help Potomac with a mission before he’d even worked there. He’d been searching the home of a murdered Navy admiral when someone broke into the house. Leilah had been waiting in the SUV, engine running. The moment Ryan ran out of the mansion, she’d flown into action. As they sped away, pursued by armed men, he’d been terrified. But never for a moment had the fear been about her driving. No, the overarching thought running through his mind as their followers shot at them had been that he would never forgive himself if anything happened to the gorgeous daredevil beside him.
Now, looking into her bright eyes, he felt his resistance dissolving. She kept her gaze fixed on him and jutted out her right hip, waiting.
“It’s only twenty minutes?” He asked.
“Yes. Surely you can spare a half an hour away from your legal principles and precedents,” she teased.
He couldn’t believe the words even as he said them. “Yeah. I guess I can.”
Omar clapped him on the back. “That’s the spirit, Hayes. You’re gonna love it.” He turned to his sister. “Can you give him a lift back to campus afterward? I have a meeting starting in a few minutes.”
“No problem.”
“Perfect. And don’t forget to run the in-car camera. We’re gonna pop popcorn and have a screening at the office to watch his reaction.”
Ryan stifled a groan as Omar loped over to his Suburban and climbed inside.
“Ready?” Leilah chirped.
No.
“Yep.” ...
