She had to be kidding.

Kyle looked into his rearview mirror and shook his head. Seriously, did she really think she could keep up with him in that little can? Except the traffic lights made sure she could at least follow him part way and no way in hell did he want her in that part of town.

So he did what any responsible best friend would do. The kind that didn't almost kiss her and then continued to obsess about it. But they'd been so close and he felt salty at Chucho for interrupting, him and his stupid warehouse safety protocol.

The only safety he care about right now was Kay's. So he made sure she could keep up with him without making it too obvious, and led her through the dark streets of town, to the edge of it, and stopped in front of a house. Her house.

He waited for about five minutes until she parked behind him. She didn't get out of the car, but stayed in the driver's seat, her hands still on the wheel, her head banging against it as if she couldn't believe she'd fallen for that one.

If he were sane, Kyle would've just driven off and disappeared into the night. He was running late anyway, and the detour wasn't helping. More yelling from Chucho was the last thing he wanted to hear tonight. But, he wasn't sane. He wasn't even sure he'd ever been. So he got off the bike, walked over to her window and knocked on it.

"Having trouble there, ma'am?"

Kay rolled it down and flipped him off, which only made him laugh. Damn, she could be adorable at times. Most times.

"I can't believe I fell for this one," she mumbled, and finally unbuckled her seatbelt. "And you're going to feel just as stupid in a second." She opened the door, knocking it against him.

Kyle stepped back, laughing, but choked on it when Kay darted around him and climbed on his motorcycle. He half expected her to drive off, but maybe she couldn't actually ride one. But her in the backseat was problematic just the same.

"Come on, Kay, get off. I'm late enough as it is."

"Then stop complaining and take me with you."

Flawless logic right there. Except there was no way he was bringing her into that shithole. "I'm going somewhere not nice. It has bugs and rats and aliens." Literally.

"Awesome, sounds like an adventure." Kay searched under the seat, pulled out the extra helmet and put it on. He should've left the damn thing at home.

"I'm serious, Kay. There's no way in hell I'm taking you with me."

She turned to face him, her hands on her hips. "Listen here, Kyle Grant. You're not going anywhere without me. So we either both go, or you swear to me that you're going home, and I'm calling Max to confirm."

Well, shit. It would be so easy to lie and have Max lie too, except Max had no idea about this. That he risked his neck to keep his warehouses safe. And he'd be interested enough to find out what Kyle was up to, which would be a fucking disaster.

Option number two. Use superior physical strength to get her off the bike and toss her inside her house. Risk getting shot at by angry parents who apparently hate your ass already and get her into a ton of trouble.

Okay, he was running out of options. Option three: plead. "Be reasonable. I really have to go."

"You be reasonable. Come on, Kyle, I'll be with you. What could happen?"

Now that was a pertinent argument. He wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. Ever. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you shouldn't be alone tonight."

Yeah, he was done arguing with her. She was made of the strong stuff and could take it. "Okay, fine, but promise me you'll do exactly what I say and won't wander off."

She fist pumped and started doing a wiggling sort of dance with her arms. And even if it was maybe the least sexy thing he'd seen in his life, in that moment, he wanted to kiss her for being so stubborn and annoying and childish and just... perfect.

His ringing phone woke him out of his reverie. It was Chucho again. He picked it up. "I'm on my way."

"Don't keep me waiting, KG. You have ten minutes to get here," he said with his thick Mexican accent, and hung up.

"We have to go." He climbed on the bike and immediately felt Kay's arms wrapping around him. "Just promise you'll listen to me."

"Yes, of course, boss. No step on it before my dad comes out and shoots you."

Okay, good to know that he wasn't wrong about that. He kicked the bike to life and zoomed off towards the warehouse filled part of town. A lot of the metal halls belonged to Max, but there were also a bunch of old abandoned ones. But abandoned didn't mean empty, Kyle had learned that the hard way. They were filled with illegal immigrants who would do just about anything for money.

Chucho was one of them, except he'd actually found a great business. Tuning and betting. And Kyle had become a very profitable asset for his bets. Probably because he was borderline crazy.

They reached the warehouses and Kyle slowed down. It was dark an eerily quiet, but he knew that wouldn't last. The further they drove through the metal graveyard, they could hear the low beat of music and soon, lights were visible between the walls.

Kyle stopped the motorcycle before they entered the circle of light. Kay took her helmet off and stared with wide eyes at the people she could glimpse between two rusty walls. Colorful cars, motorcycles, and people dancing and drinking under the few working streetlights.

"What is this place?" she whispered.

"They call it Santa Venusia." He took his helmet off, too, and checked his watch. Three minutes until his ten minute deadline was up.

"This is Santa Venusia?" She turned to him shocked.

This time, he was just as shocked. "How do you even know about it?"

"William told me about it. My brother." She bit her lip, obviously torn. "He also made me promise never to come here. He said it's full of criminals, rapists, and thieves."

"Eh, it's pretty shady, but it's not that bad." This was the moment he should offer to take her home, but he only had two minutes left. "I warned you. If you want, you could wait here until I'm done."

Her jaw tightened and she frowned. "No way. Not after I made you take me."

"Okay, then we have to work on your outfit."

"What's wrong with my outfit?"

Kyle looked from her classic blue jeans to her denim shirt. At least she had boots on instead of the converse. "You're dressed like a suburban mom."

Kay looked at herself and raised her eyebrows. "If I knew we were going to hang out with drug dealers, I would've worn something raunchier."

"I'll fix that. Now, how much do you like your jeans?" He took out his combat knife from the sheath strapped to his calf.

Kay stared from him to the knife as if he were crazy. Okay, granted, most people didn't carry weapons around like that, but they were in Santa Venusia. She seemed to realize that, because she sighed.

"Not that much."

He climbed off the bike, lifted her leg and started cutting her jeans up.

"So," she started conversationally. "Do you always carry potentially deadly weapons with you?"

"This is nothing. You should see the trunk of my car." He was probably freaking her out. "But it's not like I use them." He went around to destroy the other leg of her jeans.

"This actually looks pretty good," Kay said, admiring his work. "You should totally become a seamstress."

"I'm glad you like it because your shirt is next."

She wrapped her arms around her chest. "Sorry, no can't do. This is my mom's shirt."

That definitely explained the suburban mom look. "Okay, then just take it off."

"Why? Is it socially acceptable to walk around in your lace bra around here?"

Heat shot to his cheeks and shocked the life out of him. He didn't blush. Ever. "I just assumed you had a tank top on or something. We have a problem then."

Kay nibbled on her lip. He still found that distracting. But it also reminded him of the cabin, and talking, and how much she'd liked the band t-shirt which he happened to have on. So he unzipped his suit and pulled off his Uncaged t-shirt.

She gawked at him but managed to catch the shirt when he threw it at her. "This is probably the only thing that would look even worse than my mom's shirt. It's huge."

"Just put it on and I'll fix it." He zipped his suit back up and turned around to give her some privacy. He was probably going to get a major rash from the suit, but who cared at this point?

"But it's your band t-shirt," she whispered.

"Don't worry about it, I have more."

She didn't argue anymore and all the shuffling indicated that she was changing her shirt. He had to remind himself that he wasn't brain dead and had absolutely no reason to accidentally turn around. Once she announced that she was done, he cut off the sleeves of the shirt, then cut it in half from her belly down and tied it around her waist. It actually looked pretty good. She looked hot.

"You definitely should be a seamstress," Kay said, admiring her new outfit.

"Yeah, except I can't even sow on a button. Let's go." His ten minutes were up.

They rolled slowly into the light towards the raised platform at the entrance of the nearest warehouse. People moved out of their way and in no time, Chucho came into view. His fat lips lifted into that annoying smirk of his.

"Don't talk, okay?" he whispered to Kay before he turned off the engine and the two climbed off the bike.

"KG, te estaba espertando," Chucho said merrily as if he hadn't threatened him with property damage to Max's warehouses just a half and hour ago. "Good to see you!"

"I'd say it's good to see you too, but I'd be lying," Kyle answered.

"Come on, now! Who's my favorite rider?"

Chucho probably meant to slap his shoulder, but he barely managed a clap on his shoulder blades. The guy was seriously short and had a seriously big mouth. He also had the annoying habit to start gibbering in Spanish and Kyle's knowledge was limited to basic words.

So when Chucho spoke only Spanish and started pointing at some motorcycles, Kyle got a little nervous. Chucho seemed to notice that he wasn't following because he narrowed his black eyes at him.

"Don't make me repeat myself, KG."

This was obviously punishment for trying to weasel his way out of this. Kyle waved his hand airily, hoping he'd pick up the details from the owners of the motorcycles.

"You have no idea what he just said, do you?" Kay whispered from behind.

"Absolutely none." But it didn't matter because Kay knew Spanish, so he could ask her.

"Aren't you suddenly glad you took me along?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yup."

"The guy with the Honda wants sudden death, the one with the BMW is looking for a drift off while the third guy with an I-didn't-catch-what wants the classic circuit. Now if you understood any of that, great, because I'm just as confused."

"Third bike is a Suzuki, that guy with the BMW is a freaking idiot for trying to drift with that model, and yes, I totally know what that means. You're a lifesaver." Before he knew what he was doing, he bent down and kissed her cheek.

Kay looked at him surprised as he pulled away and jumped when Chucho yelled from right behind them.

"Isn't that cute? Don't tell me I interrupted something when I called."

Kyle opened his mouth to tell him that he did and not to touch Kay because she was with him, but closed it, trying to actually think it over this time and not go with his remarkably stupid instinct. Before he could come up with something, Kay leaned her elbow on his shoulder and loomed over Chucho, totally not intimidated.

"You cut date night short," she said. "And I'm not very happy about it."

Chucho raised his eyebrows and turned to him. "I didn't know you had a girl, KG. You shoulda told me, I mighta made some arrangements."

Kyle prayed he didn't look as shocked as he felt. He wrapped his arm around Kay's neck and pulled her against him. "I tried to tell you it was a bad time. Let's get this over with. Just promise you'll look after Kay."

Chucho smiled honestly. "Of course, of course." He raised his hands and the music stopped. Everyone turned to face him. "Listen up, this is KG's girl, Kay. Let's give her a warm welcome. You mess with her, you mess with me, comprende?"

The crowd cheered in welcome, and then returned to what they were doing. Reggaetón beats started again and Kyle winked at Kay and put his helmet on. She seemed confused and excited. And if Chucho promised to take care of her, she would be safe.

🧩🧩🧩

This is a fun little chapter. Were you expecting anything like this? And finally, no more cliffhanger, lol. Any thoughts on the story are greatly appreciated.

Don't forget to vote and grace me with a comment.