And Avi hadn’t mentioned the second bomb. The one in the garage.
Tara unlocked the door. “Get in. But if you cross us, Avi, I’ll put you in the dirt next to the dynamite.”
Tara said nothing. She just drove, faster now, the road queen and her uneasy court racing toward a sunrise none of them might live to see. Because on Road Queen , the final twist wasn’t the explosion—it was what came after the finish line.
Tara studied her. A liar’s face, a thief’s hands—but honest eyes. “What’s your play?” Road Queen 11 S3 Tara Lynn Foxx Holly West Avi
sat in the driver’s seat of her ’69 Charger, knuckles white. She was the veteran, the Queen Mother of the asphalt circuit—gravel-voiced, calm, and dangerous. Beside her, Holly West thumbed a switchblade open and shut, her sharp grin never reaching her eyes. Holly was the loose cannon, the one who’d rather burn a bridge than cross it.
The desert highway unspooled like a cracked black ribbon under a bleached sky. Season 3 of Road Queen had been a bloodbath—territory wars, broken alliances, a sheriff who played both sides. Now, the final run for the season’s prize (a clean title to a garage in Santa Fe and enough cash to disappear) was down to four.
stood there, arms crossed, leaning against the hood of a matte-black interceptor. No crew. No backup. Just a long coat and a stare that said, I know where you sleep. Avi was the wildcard this season—a former dispatcher turned rogue fixer, playing no team but her own. And Avi hadn’t mentioned the second bomb
Avi slid into the back, silent as a shadow. The Charger growled to life, veering off the main highway onto a forgotten trail of rock and moonlit dust. Behind them, three miles back, the second switchback erupted in a ball of orange fire—right where they would have been.
Avi’s gaze didn’t flicker. “Because I want the title. Not the garage. The title . Tara Lynn Foxx, you win this, you go clean. I win, I control the routes from Vegas to the border. But if you die? Some desk jockey from the city takes over. No one wants that.”
“Let me ride shotgun. We take the old mining road. Dusty, slow, but alive. At the junction, we split the prize—the cash to Holly, the garage to you, the routes to me.” “Get in
Holly looked at Avi in the rearview. “Okay. Maybe we keep you.”
“I see her.” Tara cut the engine. The silence was louder than the roar.
Their headlights caught a silhouette in the middle of the road.
Holly laughed, a sharp, ugly sound. “And what do I get out of babysitting?”