Taken and Misused.

Most of the crowd had gone to the starting line. When I had asked Nathan why we weren’t going there he told me the end of the race is all that matters. After Darik had established the rules he had come back to where Nathaniel and I were sitting and parked his car next to Nathan’s. All three of us waited while we heard the sounds of revving engines in the distance. Darik had a CB in his car monitoring what the cops were doing, he listened to it for a moment, it was going on about dispatching units to a crash on the interstate and Darik grabbed a small walkie talkie and held it to his mouth.

“We’re all ready to go over here” he said and a static voice replied with a confirmation.

Darik leaned against his car and glanced at me, “you don’t look like the kind of woman who would be comfortable here” he said , catching my attention. “I can see why Vaughn took an interest in you” Darik said as my crystalline eyes caught his.

“Most of the girls he hauls here are absolute trash, good looking but long-term? No” he said and him and Darik both laughed at the joke.

I looked away, what was I supposed to say to that? Thank you? I just cleared my throat and waited for the race to finish, Darik seemed to be really insightful for someone who broke the law on a daily baisis. Nathaniel was like a curious cat.

“Didn’t mean to make you feel out of place or anything Elisabeth” Darik added to his previous comment, his eyes also on the street. “Just saying that you’re probably a good thing for him, he might mature a bit”

Darik said, but this time he sounded serious.

“Unless she’s secretly a murderer” Nathaniel said in an ominous voice.

“Good thing she’s sitting by you then” Darik said with a grin while Nathan laughed a dry laugh.

Suddenly the sounds of engines roaring at their fullest was getting closer and soon four cars came into view, led by a black mustang. Vaughn.

“I would really like to understand why people keep challenging him” Nathaniel said, leaning back onto the windshield of his car.

“The chance they might win” Darik said, shrugging his shoulders as if he had no clue either.

“Why doesn’t that Rodrigo guy like Vaughn?” I asked, watching the cars approach the finish line, eating black after black of street in seconds.

“Rodrigo tried to shoot Vaughn after Vaughn halted Rodrigo’s supreme reign of power here” Nathaniel said, “basically Rodrigo is a sore loser” he added.

“He tried to shoot Vaughn?” I said, my eyes widening.

“Street racing is a world of its own, and it’s not a good one” Darik said all cryptically.

“What do you mean?” I tried to ask but the cars shot over the finish line, Vaughn’s black mustang the first and the other followed a few seconds behind. Vaughn fish tailed his back end around so that he was facing the other cars as the zipped by him, unable to stop with the ease Vaughn had. Rodrigo had been right behind him but he didn’t stop and just revved his engine in an angry way and continued down the street. Now I knew why Nathaniel had insisted we stay at the finish line, while the others had seen the cars take off, we were the first to see who won. Which was indeed the most important part.

“Gotta go” Darik said as he got up with the money each driver had given him, all that money had gone into the purse and the winner, who was Vaughn, got that purse. I was left with only partial answers and a lot of questions.

Nathaniel and I waited for Vaughn to get out of the crowd of people who had surrounded his car, when he did he had the even larger wad of bills rolled up in one hand and was grinning ear to ear.

“What’d you think of that Princess?” Vaughn asked, coming up to me and tipping my chin up with his pointer finger so I met his gaze.

“Let’s not flame your ego too much in one night” I muttered and Nathaniel agreed. Vaughn just chuckled and pulled his finger from under my chin, ruffling my hair instead so I had to smooth it back out.

“Marco is throwing a party, we should go” he said, all excitement and energy. His grin was directed at me after Nathanial agreed with an equally excited remark.

“I suppose” I said, nervous because I had never been to a party. I strongly doubted a birthday ball counted as the type of party they were talking about.

“Wonderful” Vaughn said, clapping his hands together.

“Mr. excitement, how about we get going before the cops get here” Darik called from his car and Vaughn nodded.

“See you two there” Vaughn said, putting a hand on the small of my back to lead me back to where his car was waiting, the engine still on and the keys still in the ignition. He certainly had a lot of confidence to do something like that. After he closed my door for me he went around to the driver side and got in. “Nathan give you a hard time?” he asked, shooting off down the street before any of the other cars.

“No, I thought there’d be people trying to rob me or kill me but it was oddly calm” I said, voicing my earlier fears which I had kept quiet because I had thought Nathan and Darik would make fun of me.

“Everyone knows who they can and can’t touch, and you fall under the “can’t” category” he explained, taking a sharp turn then slowing down a bit as a cop came shooting down the street with its sirens ragging. He flashed me his trade mark smirk and then looked back to the road.
“Why?” I asked, facing him as he drove.

“You’re with me, I don’t think even Rodrigo would try something with you” he said, obviously proud of the authority he held over the racing world.

"It’s so reassuring that your ego was the only thing keeping me safe back there" I muttered but he caught it and laughed, I glanced at him and noticed there seemed to be some sort of excitement in his eyes. They gleamed like silvery blue orbs as they glanced at me. It looked like winning that race had revitalized and refreshed all of his senses. Like he had become a completely different person.

"Don't worry Princess, you're very intimidating, I bet everyone was scared of you" he said in mock reassurance. No, he was still the same annoying Vaughn. I smacked his arm and he laughed again. "Don't distract the driver, I might crash" he said and I scoffed.

"You don't believe me?" he asked and suddenly swerving into oncoming traffic when I didn't answer.

"Vaughn! What are you doing?" I yelled, yanking my seatbelt down and clicking it into place. He was nuts.

"Showing you what would've happened if I were not such an amazing driver" he said, his voice the definition of calm as he maneuvered through the on coming cars with ease. "I would have swerved into this lane from the force of your punch and we would have crashed into that car almost like this" he said, swerving away from an approaching car at the last minute, its horn blared as we shot past and Vaughn drifted back into the right lane. Sirens were already sounding behind us.

"Vaughn! That was not funny at all!" I nearly shouted, putting a hand over my heart and willing it to slow down before I had a heart attack. My bright eyes were wide open and I relaxed back in the seat as Vaughn began to speed up. At least he was in the right lane this time.

"I thought it was hilarious, the look on your face right now is most definitely worth a cop chase" he said, grinning at me. But there were no cops that were going to catch him. Vaughn was already dipping into allies and the sounds of sirens were fading fast. He looked at me again and looked like he was going to say something but I cut him off.

"Eyes on the road!" I said, or rather shouted and he chuckled and looked back at the road.