Racing Heart/Chapter 6

***Spoiler warning:** Spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own discretion.*

## Chapter

Jeremy arrives at the hotel with Tyler and Tristan, lugging the suitcase behind him. They stopped outside the door, concealed their guns, and Jeremy knocked. He couldn’t suppress the lump in his throat as he waited for Brock to answer the door.

Sure enough, he did answer.

“Finally got the load, pretty boy?” He sneered, admiring the suitcase.

Jeremy didn’t answer. Looking behind Brock, his hert twisted when he saw the love of his life handcuffed at the foot of the bed. He wanted to protect her so badly, but in order to free her he had to make sure the plan was executed flawlessly and perfectly.

“Here,” Jeremy said, giving Brock the heavy suitcase.

He took it and dragged it inside. “And the 200 bucks?” he beckoned.

“It’s in the case,” Jeremy told him. Brock narrowed his eyes. “Well then, let’s see,” he said, opening the case, but as he did, it turns out it was filled with rocks.

“What the fu-“

Before he could finish, Jeremy pulled out his gun and knocked him out by hitting him square in the forehead with the butt of it, and raced into the room where Claudia was being guarded by Zachary. “Jeremy!” Claudia screamed his name as she recognized him.

“Fuck off!” Zachary hissed, throwing a punch at Jeremy. The latter dodged, underhanding his stomach and knocking the wind out of him.

“Fuck!” Zachary screamed, pulling out his gun. He shot at Jeremy but missed, also missing Claudia’s head by only a few inches. Jeremy runs him into the wall and smashes his head against it, knocking him out cold. He also shoots Zachary in the foot in the process.

Jeremy reaches into Zach’s back pocket and pulls out the key to the handcuffs, runs over to Claudia and unlocks them while Tyler undid Teddy’s muzzle, and pulls her into a big hug.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to protect you, baby,” he whispered in her ear, holding her tight. “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have left you here alone and put you in so much danger.”

Claudia buried her face in the crook of his neck, stroking her dark brown locks away from her face. “I had Teddy, Jeremy. You did what you needed to do,” she breathed.

“I’ll never let you go again,” he whispered back.

Jeremy, me, Tyler, Tristan, and the rest of the Vipers stood silently around the table. They were all still processing what had happened and how close they had come to losing me.

Tyler broke the silence. “Is the heroin safely hidden?” He asked Jeremy.

He nodded.

“Good,” he said. Tyler pointed to everyone present. “Every single one of you holds a responsibility, and one responsibility only: To beat the shit out of Kato the second you see him. We can’t let him get a hold of the stash,” he said seriously.

I felt a burst of anger within me. “None of this would’ve happened if you idiots weren’t so hung up on drugs to the point where my life had to be threatened for you to even consider giving them over. But you still didn’t! Even you, Jeremy!” I snarled, whipping around to face my boyfriend.

“I—“ he began.

“I don’t want to hear it!” I shouted defiantly. “If I’m so cheap and worthless in your eyes to where you can’t even give up your precious drugs for my own fucking safety, than fuck you!”

“Claudia, calm down,” Jeremy said quietly.

“No! I’m not going to “calm down”. You clearly don’t care about me enough that you think of narcotics as more important than my own life,” I hissed. “Shame on all of you,” I looked at everyone surrounding the table, then back at Jeremy. “We’re done,” I told him, and turned to go.

“Claudia, wait!” He called after me, tears forming in his eyes. “I’m sorry! I’ll do better, you mean the world to me!” I looked back at his distraught face, but even part of me broke seeing it.

I curled my lip. “Sure.”

“Baby, please…” Jeremy started.

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.

And I left.