The Road Back

Zara stood outside the garage, her fingers curled into fists at her sides. The smell of motor oil and burnt rubber hit her like a punch to the gut, dragging her back to a world she had spent years trying to forget. Engines revved in the distance, their growls a siren song that sent an undeniable thrill racing down her spine. She wanted to hate it. She wanted to turn around and walk away. But she couldn't.

Noor nudged her forward. "Don't just stand there like a ghost. You came all this way."

Zara exhaled sharply and stepped inside. The space was almost exactly as she remembered—dimly lit, cluttered with tools, the scent of adrenaline-laced ambition thick in the air. Her gaze swept over the cars in various states of repair before landing on one in particular, sleek and familiar, covered in a thin layer of dust.

Her car.

A muscle in her jaw tightened. She had left it behind, thinking she would never need it again. Seeing it now, abandoned but waiting, made something ache deep inside her chest.

"Feels like coming home, doesn't it?"

The voice sent a jolt through her. Zara turned sharply, her eyes locking onto Kade. He leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. The years had hardened him. His once-boyish smirk had sharpened into something more calculated, more dangerous.

Zara swallowed down the immediate reaction bubbling up in her throat. "I didn't come back for this."

Kade pushed off the frame and walked toward her. "No, you came back for answers." His gaze flickered to the car. "And yet, here you are."

She didn't need this. She didn't need him. Zara squared her shoulders, meeting his stare head-on. "What happened that night?"

His smirk faltered, just for a second, but it was enough. There it was—the hesitation, the crack in his carefully composed mask.

"You really think you're ready for the truth?" he asked, voice quieter now.

Zara's breath hitched. That was the thing about the truth—it wasn't always what you wanted it to be. But she had already come this far. She wasn't turning back now.

"Try me."

Kade studied her for a moment before exhaling through his nose. He glanced at Noor, who had been silently watching the exchange with a mix of amusement and caution. "You might want to take a walk," he told her.

Noor raised an eyebrow. "Not a chance. I dragged her here. I'm not leaving."

Kade shook his head but didn't argue. Instead, he turned back to Zara. "The crash wasn't an accident."

Zara's blood ran cold. She had suspected it for years, but hearing it spoken out loud made it real in a way she wasn't sure she was ready for.

Her fingers curled around the edge of the car's hood. "Then who?"

Kade hesitated again, and it was in that tiny pause that the weight of everything crashed down on her.

"The Underground Circuit has rules," he finally said, his voice heavy. "But that night, someone decided to break them."

Zara's grip tightened. "And you knew?"

"I found out after." His jaw clenched. "And by then, it was too late."

The rage simmering beneath Zara's skin threatened to boil over. She had lost everything that night—her career, her confidence, her trust. And now she was supposed to believe it had been deliberate? That it had been more than just bad luck?

She exhaled slowly. "Tell me everything."

Kade nodded, but there was something else in his eyes now. Something that looked an awful lot like regret.

And just like that, Zara knew—this wasn't just about the past. This was about something bigger, something still lurking in the shadows.

And she wasn't ready to let it go.