The heart of Cleopatra

No talking

Chapter thirty three

Cleo stood launching her third set of knives to the poor target. Small doses of frustration were absorbed by each blade. If things weren't bad enough before, now the dead pool grew by at least another hundred names, making it near impossible to hunt them down. But the worst of all is the familiar names.

"Have mercy on the board." Zeus cried as he walked into Cleo's safe space. Cleo looked at him with a narrowed stare and continued throwing her weapons. "Look, I get it. We are in trouble, but it's what we do."

"NO!" Cleo shouted angerly. "We race and fight but we don't get innocent people mixed up in Valencia business."

Zeus' laid back approach vanished. "Innocent? If they were really innocent do you think they'd be on that list?"

"They're there because of us! Don't you get it? Charlie is on there. My Mum is on that list, her husband, her step daughter what could they have possibly done?"

He huffed and looked away. "I don't know Cleopatra, but maybe you aren't the only one who had a secret life. A princess of two worlds, you knew it would catch up with you eventually."

Cleo held her hurt emotions back, weakness is no use right now. "I'm starting to see why my Mum left." She said in a dim tone

"So what? Your leaving?" Zeus said with rising concern, despite their current argument he would never be able to survive without her. He could barely function when she was swept away, it was as if half of himself left.

"At this point. Who knows?" Cleo answered walking towards the door.

"Cleo." Zeus sighed as she past him without even a single glance of eye contact. She kept her sight on the door. "Don't do anything stupid."

Cleo huffed. "We wouldn't want me to go full Cleopatra Valencia, would we?" She sarcastically said stepping out the door.

***

Cleo had tried driving for the best part of an hour driving with no destination in hopes of forgetting the argument with Zeus. They haven't crossed words in such a long time and she remembered why, she hated it. Zeus had good points, but they were things Cleo didn't want to hear and definitely didn't want to agree with.

"Keep doing that and you'll do more damage than good." A voice said making Cleo sigh and pause her current activity of messing with her car.

"Like I'd take car advice from you Malakai." She replied, recognising the voice clear as day.

"You know you shouldn't waste your anger on fixing your car. If I remember rightly you're a better racer when you're fired up."

"So you heard what happened?" Cleo asked pulling herself out from under her car.

Kai stood with his arms crossed and a tilted head. "Well I heard the rounds of bullets and saw you storming out so I took an educated guess."

Cleo rolled her eyes. "Probably the first time your educated guess was right." She muttered even though he could hear her perfectly. "I'm really not in the mood to talk about it Malakai." Cleo said using a rag to clean her dirty hands.

"Who said anything about talking?" He questioned. He continued to swing his keys with a smirk.

"I already asked Adder, there's no decent races." Cleo said shutting his idea down immediately. Races happened nearly every night but unless there was a good buzz it was almost pointless to Cleo as she knew she would win easily.

"We don't need other people. Your biggest competitor is standing right here. So, what do you say, brave enough?" Kai challenged with a smirk that was almost as devious as the girls in front of him. Cleo threw her rag to the side.

"After you princess." She winked walking to the driver's side of her Audi. He chuckled finally seeing the Cleo he knew and secretly loved.

Kai reversed back out of Cleo's hideout leading the way. After a small drive Cleo pulled up next to him at a stop light. He rolled his window down, prompting Cleo to do the same.

"Remember this?" He shouted. Cleo looked ahead with furrowed brows and then all the memories came back.

With a smile she said. "This was our first race."

Cleo had known Malakai since they were young but this empty road was the first location they began their passion of competition. "Don't cut me up this time." Kai warned reminiscing of that same night.

Cleo smirked. "Drive faster then." She advised before she pressed the button to close her window. Kai chuckled to himself, Cleo is the only person who can frustrate him beyond belief and still make him laugh. He too closed his window and focused on the stop light seconds away from changing.

Both victorious racers put their roaring engines in gear, tightening their grip on the steering wheel with complete concentration. Their hunger for winning over took all their other senses. The second the light turned amber Kai put his foot down.

"Cheater!" Cleo cursed but took off with a bigger desire to crush him. She accelerated harder than normal bringing her just behind Kai. It wasn't often that Cleo was behind Kai, she never stayed there for long but even the short duration made her skin crawl. She groaned while shifted but he wasn't going down easy. A tight corner was approaching, one Cleo knew was just about achievable to Kai. She pulled her handbrake up turning calmly as usual, to her surprise Kai aced it with no trouble, until he got cocky and looked back in his mirror. Cleo took her chance and weaved around, his face fell when she became level.

"HOW?" Kai shouted to himself as he watched Cleo's sleek car storm ahead.

The game of chase continued until Cleo pulled up to the finish line, which this time around didn't have a crowd of cheering racers.

Cleo slipped out her window waiting her opponents arrival. Kai drifted in looking sour as usual. In a bad mood Cleo may be, but it didn't stop her from winning. "You cheated and yet I still crushed you." She smirked.

Kai mocked her from his open window. "Follow me." he said after thinking of the perfect way to end the night.

"Where?" She questioned, once again not trusting his actions.

"Just for once stop doubting me. Let's go." He said. He turned his car around and pulled away. Cleo rolled her eyes but did as he asked and sped off to catch up to him. The two set off leaving black tire marks on the road, heading to the location Malakai has so keen to go to.