Chapter 328: Late Night Race

Tasha shifted slightly on the damp leather of the jacket spread across the grass, her knees pulling up toward her chest as she looked up at Liam through the gloom.

The quiet of the park was back, heavy and thick, broken only by the faint, distant hum of the late-night city.

"Urm, urm" a sound so small it barely made it past her lips, and tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"So," she started, her eyes darting to his before dropping down to the dark fabric beneath her. "Are you going to ask me to be your girlfriend, or do I have to ask if I can be your boyfriend?"

The word tumbled out of her mouth so fast and twisted up that Liam couldn’t stop the small, slow smile that spread across his face.

It started in the corners of his eyes before pulling his lips up, genuine and warm.

Tasha caught it instantly.

Her skin flushed a hot, dark pink that was visible even in the dim light of the overhead branches, and her hands immediately began waving in the air between them as she sat up straight.

"Don’t—don’t look at me like that, okay? You know what I meant!" she stammered, her words colliding into each other as she tried to pull the sentence back. "Forget I said that. Seriously, Liam, don’t worry about it. It was stupid. My brain is completely fried right now, the air is cold, and I am obviously lacking oxygen to my head. Just completely wipe that from your memory, okay? Pretend I said something entirely normal and sophisticated."

Before Liam could say a word to ease her out of the sudden spiral, a harsh, buzzing vibration cut through the space.

The screen of his phone lit up brightly on the grass near his discarded trousers, casting an intense blue glow across the dirt.

He reached down, picked up the phone, and tapped the glowing screen.

A text message from Kelvin popped up directly across the display, complete with a pinned GPS location right underneath it.

Kelvin~ Get over here right now. Important. Don’t lag.

Liam stared at the map pin.

The red marker sat right on the edge of Old Mill Road, a narrow, cracked stretch of asphalt running six miles out past the industrial district.

"I know this place," Liam muttered, his thumb tracing the screen. "It’s that old access route behind the freight yards. Nobody uses that road anymore. The city stopped maintaining it two years ago because the sharp runoff turns kept washing out the gravel shoulders."

Tasha let out a sharp, dramatic shiver, her elbows coming in tight against her bare ribs as she looked over at him. "Alright, well, as fascinating as city road maintenance is, we should probably get going anyway. I am currently sitting here completely naked, and I am freezing my ass off."

Liam pocketed the phone and nodded. "Alright."

They both stood up, the cool night air hitting their bare skin like a sudden splash of water.

Tasha reached down and snatched her bra from the grass. As she hooked her arms through the black straps and reached behind her back to fasten the clasp, her bare breasts shook with the motion.

They were full and heavy, pale against the dark backdrop of the trees, the tips hardened into tight dark points from the biting wind.

The movement sent a soft, natural bounce through her chest as she pulled her arms back, settling the weight of her bust into the cups before bending over to scoop up her shirt.

Her rounded ass lifted higher as she leaned down, the curve of her hips completely bare and pale under the broken moonlight.

She pulled her top over her head, her chest swelling against the thin fabric as she smoothed it down, then stepped into her trousers, tugging them up over the full contour of her thighs and zipping them shut with a fast metal snap.

Liam pulled his own trousers up, buckled his belt, and threw his dark jacket back over his broad shoulders, the fabric still holding the faint warmth of his back.

When they were both fully dressed, Liam stepped back slightly toward the edge of the tree line. He extended his hand out toward the open path, his arm extended low in a quiet gesture.

"After you," he signaled.

Tasha gave a quick nod, pulling her hair out from the collar of her jacket, and stepped out onto the gravel path first.

Liam fell into step a pace behind her shoulder. The walk back to the parking lot was spent in total, heavy silence.

It was not a cold silence, but rather the quiet weight of two people who had just completely wrecked each other’s boundaries in the middle of a public park and had no idea how to phrase the aftermath.

They reached Tasha’s car parked near the entrance gate.

She pulled her keys out, the remote unlocking the doors with two sharp beeps.

"Call me when you get back?" she asked, turning around with her hand resting on the driver’s side door frame.

"I will," Liam said, keeping his hands jammed deep into his jacket pockets. "Drive safe."

"You too."

She slipped into her car, the engine starting up with a quiet purr, and pulled out onto the main street.

Liam watched her red taillights vanish around the corner before turning toward his own dark sedan parked under the street lamp thirty yards away.

He climbed inside, pulled the heavy door shut, and hit the push-to-start button. The engine turned over with a deep, mechanical hum.

He punched Kelvin’s pinned location into the dashboard navigation screen, backed out of the space, and hit the main avenue.

The drive took thirty minutes.

The manicured suburban streets slowly gave way to dark, industrial warehouses, towering rusty chain-link fences, and empty concrete yards.

The sodium streetlights became scarce, spaced hundreds of yards apart, leaving long stretches of pitch-black road in between.

As his car approached the final stretch leading to Old Mill Road, Liam slowed the car down to twenty miles per hour.

Ahead lay an inactive railway crossing, the white paint on the warning signs faded and peeling.

He brought his car up over the raised iron tracks. .

Just as his front tires cleared the steel rails, an unannounced blur of bright purple metallic paint and roaring exhaust blasted straight across his front bumper like a speeding beast.

The shockwave of compressed air slammed into Liam’s car, shaking the frame on its suspension as the dark coupe tore down the empty asphalt at well over one hundred miles per hour.

The deafening scream of a modified twin-turbo V8 rattled Liam’s side windows before the rear red lights of the machine vanished down the dark straightaway in a cloud of burnt rubber and dust.

’What the hell was that?’ Liam thought, his hands gripping the steering wheel tighter as his heart pounded in his throat.

Two hundred yards down the dark road, parked right on the gravel shoulder beneath a dead streetlight, was Kelvin’s car, its hazard lights blinking rhythmically.

Liam pulled up directly behind Kelvin’s rear bumper, put his sedan in park, and cut the engine.

He shoved his door open and stepped out into the cool air, his boots crunching on the loose stones.

Kelvin was leaning back against his car door, wearing an oversized black leather racing jacket with bright red patches sewn down the sleeves, holding a half-empty energy drink.

"Did you see that absolute asshole that just zoomed past here?" Liam shouted over the wind, gesturing back toward the railway tracks. "He had to be doing at least a hundred and twenty on a ruined road!"

Kelvin took a slow sip from his can, a wide, cocky grin spreading across his face. "Yeah, I saw him.

That was Grey in the modified Supra. Beautiful machine, right?"

Liam blinked, staring at him. "Why are you looking like you expected him?"

"Because I brought you here for a midnight run," Kelvin said, stepping away from his door and tossing his empty can into the trunk. "It’s an underground street sprint setup. People bring out their custom builds, clear the back roads, set up staging lines, and run head-to-head for cash and bragging rights. Nothing official, no permits, just raw engine power and fast money."

Liam rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a heavy breath. "I should have guessed. Of course you’d drag me out to some illegal racing strip at midnight."

"Hey, we haven’t hung out properly in days," Kelvin said, throwing his hands up in defense while keeping that easy smile on his face. "I thought you needed to clear your head. But hey, if you’re not down for it, you can always go back home to bed."

Liam deadpanned at him, raising an eyebrow. "Who even are you right now? Since when do you plan late-night outings for my mental health?"

"Hey, hey!" Kelvin laughed, stepping back and holding his hands up defensively. "Don’t make me sound like some sensitive life coach, man! Don’t do me like that."

"You are exactly that kind of person when you’re trying to hide something," Liam said, crossing his arms over his chest. "What actually happened over these past few days?"

Kelvin stopped laughing, rubbing the back of his neck as a sheepish look crossed his face. "Okay, fine. Nothing major, but I did get a serious earful from Kira today. She blew up my phone for an hour. Thanks for that, by the way."

Liam raised his hands quickly, a nervous smile flickering across his face. "Hey, she didn’t say anything to me! I was just at the house to see Tasha, I swear."

"Oh, well, she texted me right after you left," Kelvin said, leaning back against his car again. "Asking why I wasn’t hanging out with you, going off about how I was ghosting everyone, not caring about the group, and how you were generally being left out on your own lately."

"Aww man, sorry dude," Liam sighed, looking down at his boots. "I wasn’t trying to make you look bad or make you feel guilty."

"Nah, it’s totally fine," Kelvin waved a hand, dismissing it instantly. "She’s just being Kira. So anyway... how did it go with you and Tasha? Were you guys actually able to make up?"

Liam looked out toward the dark trees lining the road, remembering the specific heat of her skin under his hands just thirty minutes ago. "Yeah. We were. We made up."

Kelvin eyed him closely, catching the tone in his voice, but let it slide with a low chuckle. "Cool, cool. So... do you still want to head down to the strip even after all that park drama?"

Liam rolled his eyes, looking at his friend with genuine exhaustion. "Stop it. This new thoughtful version of you is really weird, Kelvin."

"Get used to it, buddy," Kelvin laughed, pulling his car keys out of his pocket and turning around toward his driver’s door. "I’m going to be all up in your business even more now. Can’t have Kira ripping my head off again."

Liam slapped his palm flat against his face, dragging his hand down his cheek with a long, muffled groan before turning on his heel to walk back to his own sedan.

Both engines fired up simultaneously, the deep purr of Kelvin’s exhaust echoing off the thick woods.

Kelvin’s car pulled out first, its red taillights cutting through the dark, and Liam followed right on his rear bumper down the winding, ruined asphalt of Old Mill Road.

They drove another mile deeper into the abandoned industrial sector until the dark trees gave way to an massive, open paved lot that used to serve as an intermodal shipping yard.

The transformation was immediate.