Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 130

Chapter 130

Chapter 130

Victoria’s POV

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The speedometer needle climbed, sweeping past eighty, ninety, and hovering right on the edge of a hundred. Under my hands, the steering wheel felt solid, entirely different from the shaky, plastic wheel of my old Civic.

The engine didn’t sputter or scream like it was fighting for its life; it gave a clean, deep purr that seemed to settle right into my bones.

The dark purple hood swallowed the asphalt as the trees on either side of the two-lane highway melted into a

green smear.

“Victoria, if you wreck this thing before I even get the insurance paperwork sorted, I’m haunting you for the rest of your life,” Elijah muttered, his large frame pushed back hard against the cream leather.

One of his hands was white-knuckling the door handle while his eyes tracked the road.

“Can you slow down. You’re driving like you want to kill us.”

“You were the one who told me to see how fast my delusion could run!”

I shouted back, a wild, breathless laugh bubbling up from my chest as I pressed the gas pedal just a fraction deeper, making the car surge.

“Don’t get scared on me now, Carter!”

“I meant on a track, not on a random backroad in the middle of nowhere,” he corrected, trying for a stern look and failing when the corner of his mouth twitched.

“And if we get pulled over, you’re explaining to the state trooper why you suddenly decided to audition for NASCAR.”

“They’ll understand,” I shot back, taking a wide, sweeping curve with a precision that made me feel entirely invincible.

“Come on, Elijah. You don’t build a car like this just to baby it. That feels disrespectful to the engineers. I’ll say it’s a crime against science to drive it under the speed limit.”

I kept my foot down until the paved highway dissolved into a narrow, unmonitored dirt road that wound deep into a dense, quiet forest.

The towering pines closed in around us, blocking out the rest of the world, leaving nothing but the sound of the tires crunching over dry twigs and fallen leaves.

It wasn’t creepy the way forests are in horror movies. It was quiet. Peaceful. So isolated that it felt like we’d stumbled into a little corner of the world no one else knew about.

When the trees finally thinned out near a small clearing that overlooked a valley, I pressed the brakes.

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15:45 Fri, Jul 24

Chapter 130

34

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The car came to a smooth, perfect halt, the nose pointing toward the horizon where the sun was already dipping below the tree line, painting the sky in bruises of deep orange and dusty rose.

I cut the engine. The sudden silence that filled the cabin was thick, broken only by the sound of my own rapid, excited breathing.

My heart was hammering against my ribs, a pure, concentrated rush of adrenaline making my fingers tremble as I finally let go of the steering wheel.

Slowly, I turned my head to look at him.

Elijah was already staring at me. He had unbuckled his seatbelt, shifting his heavy shoulders against the headrest as he watched me with an expression of quiet admiration.

The golden light of the fading sun caught the edge of his jaw, softening the usually harsh lines of his face.

“You really love the car, huh?” he asked, his voice dropping into that rough, private register that always seemed to strip away my defenses.

A massive, unrestrained grin took over my face. I couldn’t stop it if I tried.

“I love it. I love it so much, Elijah.” I took a shaky breath, the reality of the afternoon finally beginning to settle under my skin.

I reached across the console, my hand resting flat against his chest, feeling the steady, solid thump of his heart beneath the dark fabric.

“Thank you. For… everything.”

He winked at me, his fingers reaching up to catch the back of my neck, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw. “Told you, baby girl. I’ll do everything to make you happy.”

I looked at him, and before I could stop them, hot tears blurred my vision, spilling over my lower lashes and tracking down my cheeks.

It wasn’t because of the luxury or the price tag. It was the terrifying, overwhelming realization of how much this man loved me.

In my entire life, my parents and sister were the only people who had ever shown me a love that felt absolute, a love that didn’t demand something in return.

I wasn’t trying to measure his love by material things.

Elijah had spent months showing me how much I meant to him in a hundred different ways that had nothing to do with money.

Even when we were just slight enemies, when we bickered in my cramped apartment and claimed we couldn’t stand each other, he had always been there.

He had protected me, watched over me, and carved out a space for me in his life when he didn’t let anyone

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