I was too nervous to look away from the driveway in front of me as we approached the gate. I slowed to a crawl before making sure no one was on the road in front of me and then pulled out onto the road. I swung too wide at first, then overcorrected and swung into the wrong lane.
“Shit,” I cursed. “This is harder than it looks.”
“Our sister, the rebel!” Kingston hooted with joy. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Shut up,” Maverik said with a chuckle. “Let her concentrate, or we’ll have to explain to dad how his brand new three-hundred-thousand-dollar investment ended up trashed on the side of the road.”
“What?” I squeaked and reflexively slammed on the brakes. A car should not cost that much money. “Is then engine made of gold or something?”
Kingston laughed and buckled his seatbelt this time. “Where to, sis? Going to meet Abby? Or do you have a secret fuck buddy we should know about?”
“I just wanted to get out,” I lied.
Kingston scoffed, so I offered him something more believable.
“I wanted to check out some ballet schools around here, but your dad wants me to focus on academics instead. Abby said she’d come with me.”
“That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard for sneaking out,” Kingston said, shaking his head in disappointment.
Maverik looked at me knowingly. “No, you looked like you were on a mission.” A smile spread across his face. “Trying to get to the airport so you can confront your friend about his betrayal?”
I seethed at Maverik’s antagonization. We approached a stop sign, and I didn’t want to risk taking my eyes off the road to fight with him. He was right, but I didn’t want to admit that to him. Still, he didn’t need to remind me that he was the reason Ryan wasn’t talking to me, that was just pouring salt into the wound.
“You won’t make it to the airport without our help,” Kingston added cheerfully when I didn’t respond to Maverik’s barb.
Maverik was quiet beside me, and I let the car roll to a stop at the stop sign. This time I got the braking thing down a little better, and my seatbelt didn’t have to lock up to prevent my head from smacking into the steering wheel.
Once I was stopped completely, I turned to look at Maverik. “What’s wrong with you that you take joy in other people’s pain?”
There was a flash of something undefinable in his eyes before he scowled. “It’s not your pain I’m interested in. I want to pull the pink satin ribbon off your eyes so you can see what the world is really like. If you keep wandering around like a little lost lamb, you’re going to get eaten alive by the big bad wolves out there.”
“Why do you care?” I snarled. “You’ve done nothing but try to make me miserable since I got here.”
“Have I?” he asked softly, his eyes dark with an unspoken challenge.
The small seed of doubt that was planted in my mind earlier started to grow a little. I huffed in frustration when a car came up behind us, and I had to put all of my attention on moving forward so I wouldn’t draw attention to myself.
We inched forward at a slow twenty miles per hour, and Kingston groaned. “Did you forget the part about 190 miles per hour?”
“Nope,” I said through a clenched jaw. “I’m just really focused on trying not to murder your brother right now.”
“Turn right up here,” Maverik ordered. “It’s a shortcut to the stadium parking lot. You’ll have more room to practice there.”
“Really?” Kingston complained. “I’m going to have to revoke your cool sister card if you don’t make this joyride a little more exciting.”
I just grinned and kept my eyes on the road. Maverik both annoyed and confused me when he patiently instructed me on how to drive. I was surprised to find that it was a lot easier when I relaxed and let his smooth voice guide me. I focused on driving, determined to learn enough to get me where I would need to go.
“You’re a lot nicer to her than you were to me,” Kingston complained to Maverik before he turned to me. “I think he broke the record for the most swear words in an hour.”
“Katya didn’t constantly slam her foot down on the gas without worrying about being able to stop before she hit something,” Maverik pointed out with a grin.
Kingston grinned right back at him. “Hey, the only times I hit anything was when you were making me try to park between trash cans and shit.”
I laughed, picturing the scene in my head. I could see Kingston being reckless enough to step into a car and gleefully see how fast he could go, only to get frustrated when Maverik made him practice parking instead of racing.
“Hit the highway, sis,” Kingston said excitedly. “If you can handle it.”
I gulped. “Maybe if there weren’t any other cars. And I didn’t have to go that fast. And if I wasn’t driving a car worth as much as a house.”
Kingston laughed. “That’s a no. Get out, and I’ll take over.”
“Not a chance, King,” Maverik laughed. “But I’ll let you drive home later.”
Kingston pouted. “Dad probably has a fucking GPS tracker that will ping him as soon as we get close to the airport. We’ll be lucky if we even make it on the plane.”
“Um, I never said you were right about New York, or that I was going to the airport,” I pointed out. “You just assumed.”
“You didn’t need to admit it,” Maverik chuckled. “It was obvious. If I look in
