Broken Wings (Dark Legacy #1)(76)

“Can you do me a favor?” Jasper asked, taking me by surprise.

“Uh, sure, what do you need?”

He grinned, and then reached across to a small side table to grab a set of keys. He dropped them into my hand, wrapping his fingers around mine for a moment. “There’s a race on Friday. It’s my race. I’ve won every year since I started. I need you to take my place and keep the legacy alive.”

I blinked, looking down at the fancy keyring with the Lamborghini symbol. “Are you serious?”

I mean, he’d seen me race once and I crashed the fucking car. I still wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have another freak out and do the same thing if I raced again.

Jasper chuckled. “Firstly, it’s just a car.”

Wrong, it was an effing Lambo, but sure.

“Secondly, I watched some race videos of you. Pretty sure my baby couldn’t be in better hands.”

No one called their “just a car” baby. He loved that yellow flashy number, and he was placing her in my hands.

“I’m going to win for you,” I said, determination lacing my words. “Those fuckers will wish they never underestimated me because I’m a chick.”

Jasper laughed. “Might be best if you don’t tell Beck until it’s too late for you to back out.” He turned to Eddy. “Can you make sure she has the cash for buy-in, we want this to look legit as possible.”

Eddy grinned a wicked smile. “You got it big bro! Oh, this is going to be fun.”





20





We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Jasper in his hospital room, and it was the most fun I’d had in a long time. Actually, the whole day had been—with the exception of Beck and Dylan’s little pissing contest.

When Eddy dropped me back off at the Deboise estate, though, my heart began to sink. If luck was on my side, Catherine and Richard would still be in the New York office, but that meant I was all alone in this massive mausoleum.

My golf cart was still at the Beckett house, so I took my time walking across the perfectly manicured grass to get up to the house.

“Miss, you’re home late,” Stewart commented as I let myself in and wandered through to the kitchen. “Good day at school?” He gave my obvious not-school uniform a pointed look, and I blushed.

“Uh, something like that. Are the DNA donors still in the city?”

The elderly servant smothered a smile and nodded. “Yes, I believe they are due to return tomorrow or the next day.”

“Cool,” I murmured, looking around and feeling a bit lost. “Uh, do you think I could order pizza for dinner or something?”

“Absolutely, Miss,” Stewart replied with a warm smile. From a drawer, he pulled out a stack of paper menus and presented them to me. “Master Oscar was particularly fond of Romano’s, but I’ll let you choose. Just call down when you decide and I’ll get it ordered on the house account for you.”

Smiling back at him gratefully, I took the menus and headed up to my room. Nightmares or not, I was determined not to go fleeing into Beck’s embrace again tonight. Sooner or later, I needed to learn to face my demons alone.

After my pizza and a long shower, I decided to tackle some school work in the hope that it would send me to sleep. After about an hour of staring at quadratic equations, my eyelids were drooping like they were coated in lead.

Satisfied that I was tired enough to actually sleep, I flicked off the lights and crawled into the middle of my huge bed. It took a couple of tosses and turns, but eventually I found a comfy position and closed my eyes.

Gloved fingers bit into the soft skin of my neck, squeezing tighter and tighter, cutting off my air supply until—

“Fuck!” I yelled, sitting bolt upright and gasping greedy lungfuls of air. “Fuck, fuck, shit, fuck.” Tears streamed from my eyes, and I began to shake as residual terror washed over me in waves. “This can’t keep happening,” I sobbed into my arms as I hugged my knees.

Dimly, I heard my phone vibrate softly—again—but I ignored it. Beck had been messaging all afternoon, and I’d been clearing the notifications without reading them. He needed to learn that I wasn’t a leg of mutton that he and his friends could fight over like hungry wolves. Checking his messages would have only made my resolve crumble, especially after how sweet he’d been last night in the cinema. The way we had kissed... I groaned, but happily let the confusing, fuzzy emotions push aside the fear that had been dominating me.

Something made a sound outside my windows, and I startled. Sitting there, frozen, I waited. What had it been? It sounded like...

There it was again! It sounded like someone had just pried the intruder mesh off my windows. Holy shit, someone was breaking into my room!

Frantic, I scrambled out of bed and hunted for a weapon. Stupid me, I’d left my beautiful new gun at Beck’s house so the next best thing was a heavy, carved wooden lamp.

I yanked the shade off it, tossing it aside, then brandishing the base like a bat as I waited for my intruder to enter the room.

Seconds later, the window clicked open, and a huge, dark shape slipped through and pushed the gauze curtains aside.

I didn’t hesitate for a second. With a wild battle cry, I swung my lamp and smashed it into the intruder’s head. Or, I tried to. He was taller than I’d expected, and I mostly hit shoulder.