Ami walked through the shocked silence of the crowd and stopped right outside the passenger door of the black Ferrari.
Jerad narrowed his dark eyes. He stared at this woman. Her clothes were damp from the rain, her face was pale, but her eyes burned with a stubborn, reckless fire.
He leaned across the console and looked at her through the open window. "Do you have any idea what getting in this car means?" he asked, his voice dangerously low.
Ami's hands curled into tight fists at her sides. Her fingernails dug painfully into her palms. "I know," she said, her voice steady. "It means I might die."
She didn't look away from his intense gaze. She laid out her terms. "If I help you win this, you owe me five minutes of your time alone."
Dean Reyes, standing a few feet away, let out a loud whistle. He laughed, mocking Jerad for relying on a crazy woman who was clearly desperate for cash.
Jerad ignored Dean completely. He kept his eyes locked on Ami. Suddenly, a deep, dark chuckle rumbled in his chest.
He found this fascinating. The high-and-mighty heiress of the Cleveland family was now offering her life on a silver platter just for five minutes of conversation.
Jerad reached over and hit the central lock. The passenger door unlocked with a sharp click.
"Get in, sweetheart," he said, his tone playful but dripping with cruelty. "Let's see if your life is actually worth five minutes."
Ami didn't hesitate. She pulled the handle and dropped into the deep, heavily bolstered racing seat.
The moment the door shut, the noise of the crowd vanished. The small cabin was filled with the overwhelming scent of Jerad's cold cedar cologne. It instantly triggered the terrifying memory of waking up naked in his bed.
She violently shook her head, forcing the memory away. She glued her eyes to the glowing GPS screen mounted on the dashboard.
Jerad opened the center console and pulled out a strip of black silk. Without a second of hesitation, he wrapped it over his eyes and tied it tightly behind his head.
He turned his head toward her. Even blindfolded, Ami felt the heavy weight of his scrutiny.
Jerad reached into the cup holder and grabbed an unopened plastic water bottle. He twisted the blue plastic cap off and tossed it directly into Ami's lap.
Ami blinked, confused. She looked down at the small blue cap, then back at him.
"Put it between your teeth," Jerad ordered coldly.
"Why?" she asked, her voice tight.
"Because when you start screaming, I don't want you biting your tongue off and bleeding all over my custom leather interior," he stated, completely devoid of empathy.
The sheer insult of his words made Ami's blood boil. She ground her teeth together, feeling a deep, burning humiliation. But she picked up the cap.
She wiped it quickly on her sleeve and placed it between her back teeth. The bitter taste of cheap plastic filled her mouth.
Outside, a loud horn blasted. Instantly, every single floodlight around the track shut off. The world plunged into absolute, suffocating darkness.
The only light in the car came from the faint glow of the dashboard and the GPS screen in front of Ami.
Jerad gripped the steering wheel with both hands. He slammed his foot on the gas. The V8 engine roared like a caged beast.
The radio crackled. A voice counted down. "Three... Two... One... Go!"
The massive G-force slammed Ami back into her seat. The Ferrari shot into the pitch-black night like a ghost.
For the first second, Ami's brain short-circuited. The sheer terror of hurtling blindly into the dark made it impossible to breathe.
She bit down hard on the plastic cap. She forced her eyes to focus on the red dot moving rapidly across the glowing map.
The first sharp turn was fifty meters away.
"Hard right! Drop three gears!" she screamed, the words slightly muffled around the plastic cap.
Jerad didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second. He completely trusted the voice. He slammed the shifter, ripped the steering wheel to the right, and the tires shrieked as they slid perfectly through the dark corner.
