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“No. He can’t know. He’d take it off me quicker than he could throw thousands of dollars at a lawyer and call me a destitute whore.”
I didn’t feel the least bit bad of depriving Brick of the last piece of his son left in the world. He’d crushed my entire future over an accident. He didn’t care if I ended up in the gutter. It felt vengeful, but I didn’t want to inflict someone who thought that was okay on my child. My baby would learn morals and ethics—the ones instilled in me by my parents, not the entitlement of the wealthy.
Still shaking my head, I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I won’t have to race again. The winner of last night’s race stuffed the prize winnings in my fire suit, without me knowing.”
Both Willy and Colin looked shocked. “Jesse gave you the forty grand? Why?”
“You can win forty thousand dollars street racing? Holy shit!”
I laughed softly at Colin’s amazement. Yeah, it was a lot. But when the possibilities included death, jail, or getting your car impounded forever, the reward had to be worth the risk. “I don’t know why he did it. The money was stuffed in the sleeve. Maybe he thinks I’m a charity case.”
Willy narrowed his eyes at me. “Tally Palmer, you keep that money. The guy stealthed you anyway; it was basically yours. Do not give it back. Think of it as a gift.”
Yeah, Willy knew me too well. I was definitely giving the money back, and we both knew it. “Sure thing, William.”
He sighed. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
SIX
TALLY
I sat on the money for another two days, as I went back and forth on whether to keep it. I’d hidden it inside of my couch cushion, which wasn’t exactly a revolutionary hiding place, and after forty-eight hours, I was convinced I was five minutes away from an aggravated burglary where it would all be stolen and I’d be fucked again. I was stressed the entire time I did my shifts at the diner. It was awful.
Finally, I caved and called Hayes. It rang a few times, making me start to think he wasn’t going to answer. Maybe that was fate. Maybe that meant I should just?—
“Hello?” His voice was always pleasing. I’d spent hours talking to him while we were out on the road, and the deep, rumbling tone of his voice had sometimes made me forget I was supposed to be digesting his words, not just imagining him talking dirty to me. Very awkward, especially when I’d had a… well, not a boyfriend. I guess we’d had a “situationship.” Hell, Buck hadn’t even wanted to make us public. It was just an unlucky snap posted to social media that had outed us. Either way, we hadn’t been seeing other people, so I’d always felt a little guilty I found Hayes so attractive.
“Hayes? It’s Tally.”
A little puff of laughter echoed in my ear. “I wondered when you’d call. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t.”
I frowned. “You knew Jesse gave me the money?”
“Not until after we got back here.”
I still didn’t understand it. “Why?”
There was some rustling on the other end of the line. “I don’t know, Tally. You’d have to ask him.”
I made a little frustrated noise in my throat. “Well, do you want to give me his number?”
“I mean, I could, but I wouldn’t want to breach his privacy like that. You’ll have to come over and have dinner tonight.”
“So he can give me forty thousand dollars, but not his number?” I asked incredulously, and Hayes just laughed in response. Damn, it was a nice laugh, though. “Fine, I’ll come over for dinner. But I’m bringing that money back. I’m not a charity case.”
The mirth still hadn’t left his voice when he asked, “Do you want me to pick you up, or do you want to drop a fifty on getting an Uber here?”
Damn the bastard. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “I’ll get a rideshare. What’s the address?”
He rattled off an address down in South San Fran, and I promised to be there at seven, before hanging up. Looking at my watch, I decided to take a tiny nap. Growing a human was exhausting.
The incessant vibrating of my phone woke me. Rolling across the bed, I grabbed it. My home screen showed sixty-two missed calls. Fifty-three from Hayes, and nine from Willy.
Looking at the clock in the corner of the screen, I realized it was ten at night. Ah, fuck.
Turns out, it wasn’t my phone that had woken me up, but the pounding thump of the front door. I pulled it open to find a pale-faced Hayes filling my doorway. Behind him was an equally frazzled-looking Jesse.
“Oh Jesus, thank fuck,” Hayes muttered, his phone to his ear. “Will, she’s here. She looks like she was just asleep. What? Yeah, I’ll put her on.”
