Page 42 of Her Sloth

And just before we turn into Reed Street, the moment I know she’d pull her trick, I use the NOS to get in front of her and cause her to brake. She can’t get past me because there are cars parked left and right at this point, a calculated risk I took.

I get back to full speed, winning this race by drifting into the driveway leading to our garage.

“That was fucking foul play!” she shouts at me as she gets out of the Eleanor.

“Not at all,” I say, grinning as she rounds on me.

“Braking someone out is the lowest low!”

“Nah,” I say. “It’s knowing your opponent.”

“Fuck you,” she says and spits on the ground. And right this moment, I know who she is. Emotional. Rough. Used to shit. Grown up in a world that’s nothing like her. The black sheep, not because she is acting out, but because she was meant for this.

“Someone can’t lose, huh?” I ask her.

“I can, if it was fairly played.”

I chuckle.

“Get your ass inside; we’re having a beer,” I say. She eyes me.

“You sure?”

“Sure,” I say with the hint of a smile on my face.

We get into the house, and when I open the door, everyone stares at us.

“You two sorted it out?” asks my brother. “Or do we get to see a cage fight?”

“Shut your mouth, or I’ll sort you out, jackass,” I tell him angrily. Everyone laughs.

“Welcome to the family,” says Nikki, coming down the stairs from above, beaming at Addy. “Ignore the idiots.”

Addy looks from her at me, slightly irritated.

“It’s what we call the people allowed in here,” I say. “We’re the family. Inner circle of the sorts.”

Her eyes harden; one of her eyebrows twitches slightly.

“You brought me in here?” she asks in an incredulous whisper.

“Yeah,” I say. “You bathed in shit long enough.”

She opens her mouth. Closes it again. And then her eyes get watery.

“Don’t you dare cry again,” I say and push her to the kitchen where my brother hands her a beer.

“Jackson,” he says, holding out his hand.

Addy looks at me and leans slightly in.

“Can I take it or is there a chance I catch the jackass virus?” she says darkly and cracks into a grin.

I, and everyone else, including my brother, laugh. Hard. Probably my first real laughter for a long time.

She takes the beer from him and the hand.

“No offense,” she says innocently. “Only heard the worst.”