Protective

The Big Date

Lana

"You're really not going to tell me where you're taking me?"

Roman shook his head as he drove on. It had been about five minutes since he picked me up and still he hadn't told me where we were going.

I was angry about that to say the least. It's hard to dress for a date when you have no clue where you're going. I felt a little better after seeing he was only wearing jeans and a jacket.

I was wearing black jeans, knee high brown boots with a thick five inch heel, and a long sleeve black shirt that fell off the shoulder. It was casual enough to match his outfit which I was glad for.

"It's a secret," he smiled, "I'm sure you have your own."

I rolled my eyes, "What if I dressed wrong?"

He looked at me through the corner of his eye, "As if you could ever dress wrong. Besides," he turned the corner, "You dressed fine."

I smiled and chose to stop talking about our current destination. It didn't matter where we were going anyway, because Yeremy was following us.

That was our deal, I got to go on this date, if he got to follow along. I hardly protested, I was still in danger after all and I didn't know Roman well enough to count on his protection.

Who knew what he would to do if Petyr chose to attack now.

I was just glad for the information I got from Violette today. What she said would be the key to taking Roman down but yet I still needed to be careful with her.

Right now she was under my thumb but I didn't truly know where she was going all the times she skipped out on practice. So I enlisted Iosef to find out for me.

Normally, I wasn't allowed to use Iosef's skills outside of being my chauffeur. The man was so much more than just a driver.

He had pledged his loyalty to my fathers father, Feliks, years ago back when Iosef was still in his 20's.

He would be able to find out what Violette had been up to and hopefully it would be information I could nail her underneath my thumb with.

It was where Roman had taken me after the last couple of turns he had made. It was a race car track.

Once he had parked he turned to me and smiled, "You did say you wanted to do something fun."

Yes, I did. I said fun, not dangerous.

I smiled, "Isn't this a little dangerous?"

Roman shook his head, "Don't worry, Lana. I'll protect you, come on."

He ushered me out the car and grabbed my hand leading me to the track. There was no one here but us. The lights were still on however which made me a little less worried.

"Does your family own this track?" I asked.

"Good guess," he nodded, leaning against a car, "The Luciano's are expanding their manufacturing capacity to cars. Don't tell our competitors, though," he pointed at the track, "This is where we test out cars. Sometimes I get to drive them."

"So what are we doing here?" I questioned.

"I was thinking we might drive around, make out, talk, you know normal race track activities," he shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe I'll teach you how to race."

I laughed, "You think I don't know how to drive one of these cars?"

He held his hands out defensively as he laughed, "I'll be honest I'm assuming you don't."

"I'd bet I'm better than you," I said pointedly, "I'm quite capable."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, beautiful. I'm pretty good."

"Wanna bet?" I leaned in.

"What are you offering?"

I smiled, our faces inches apart, "What do you want?"

He kissed me softly before pulling away, "You. Only you."

I laughed, "Tempting. But too easy, don't you think?"

"I do," he agreed, "Alright, so if I win you break curfew and stay with me a little longer."

"And when you lose?" I smiled, "I want the answers to the next Calculus test."

He furrowed his brows at me, "What?"

"Come on, Roman," I shrugged, "Everyone knows that you and your friends have a plethora of documents at your disposal. It's not like it's a secret."

He hesitated for a split second before returning back to his smile, "Alright, deal."

I held out my hand for him to shake but instead he lifted my chin with his finger and kissed me, "You're going down, you know that right?"

"You wish."

_______
Yeremy

I had known there was something wrong with this girl before, but it wasn't until she called me from the inside of a car to ask me how to drive the damn thing. It wasn't even a normal racing car. It was a regular road car.

Could you believe that? Was she crazy or something?

No, of course she was crazy. How else could you explain all of her rash decisions?

"Stop wasting time Yeremy," she ordered, "Tell me how to drive this thing."

I didn't know why she expected me to know how to race cars. I did know, but that was a hell of a gamble even for her.

It took me a minute to explain that the car Roman gave her was no different from stick and considering the fact that she grew up with a garage filled with vintage cars, I knew she knew how to drive stick.

"Stay on the phone with me, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed.

I didn't know if it was because she was nervous but I didn't want her to hang up either. Why did I agree to follow her on this date anyway?

I should've locked her in her room.

To my surprise, Lana was pretty good at driving this car for someone who had her own chauffeur. From where I could see, she and Roman were zipping through the track right next to one another.

"What do you get if you win this?" I asked.

"I get the proof that I need to bring Roman down," Lana replied, "Can you imagine the scandal? Roman Luciano giving out the answers to tests. He'll be expelled."

"And if you lose?"

She sighed, "He wants me to break curfew. Stay here with him longer."

I could imagine what activities Roman intended for them to do in this breaking of curfew.

Prick.

"Well then don't lose," I said, "I don't want to be the one to explain to your brother why you're late."

"Don't worry," she smiled, "I'm going to win in a few seconds."

She wasn't lying. In their last lap, she managed to pull ahead of Roman by a few inches but it was enough.

When she pulled the car to a stop, I could hear her catching her breath, "Wow, I didn't expect my heart to be beating this fast."

"Oh, don't go turning into an adrenaline junkie now," I said, "That's the last thing I need."

She laughed, "As if."

I saw Roman stop his car begin to walk over to hers, "I think you have to go."

"I do," she agreed, "He's done for."

- - End of Chapter - -