Laina“No,” I breathed. Everything seemed to unfold before me in slow motion. The crowd was tense, and all seemed to be holding the same breath as the three cars hurtled toward the finish line. The roar of the engines and the crash of the bumpers slamming into each other echoed in my ears as they approached, and all I could think was one thing. This is going to end badly. The three cars passed the line. Mason’s brake lights came on. The crowd gasped. And then Sid and Mark made their move and sent Mason’s car spinning across the track where he slammed driver’s side first into the cement barrier. The passenger side tires lifted off the ground with the impact, and the whole frame seemed to crumple inward, leaving the car looking warped and crooked like a piece of plastic left out in the sun for weeks. I think I might have screamed. I didn’t realize I’d started moving away from the crowd in a desperate attempt to get

MasonFuck. Everything hurt. My head pounded like someone was relentlessly smacking my skull with a hammer. The pressure behind my eyes had me convinced my brain had exploded and was pushing itself out of my head. My ears were ringing like a fucking fire alarm. And it wouldn’t stop. The rest of my body wasn’t better off. My ribs and shoulder and chest ached furiously, and I found myself being gently jostled around and every bump or movement sent little shocks of fiery pain through my veins. I groaned and lifted my hand to my face to try to rub something wet out of my eyes. “Mason?” A woman’s voice called my name from far away. She sounded familiar. She also sounded scared. I tried to open my eyes without success. “Mason? Can you hear me?” I swallowed and rubbed harder at my eyes. The woman pulled my hand away from my face, gently stroked my hair off my forehead and said, “Hold on. We’re almost there.”

LainaMason’s eyes had been closed for a minute or two when Benji returned with a clean bowl of blood free water and a new cloth. I thanked him, dipped the cloth in the hot water, and wrung it out. Then I took the scissors from the coffee table and cut Mason’s shirt off him. Benji helped me pull the fabric away as Rick sank down onto the opposite sofa and watched me work. Mason’s brother was furious. I could see it in the tension in his shoulder; the darkness in his eyes. He wanted vengeance. He probably felt the same way Mason had when we went to the hospital after finding out Rick had been jumped and beaten. Rick was probably even angrier at the sight of Mason’s battered torso. His tanned skin was riddled with bruises. His left side was already purpling, as was his shoulder. He must have slammed into the side of the car pretty fiercely when the car struck the barrier. Luckily, there was no blood. The only place he was bleeding from was his head. “

Mason“Son of a bitch,” I mumbled, shielding my eyes against the glare as I tried to open them in the morning. The brightness was not doing my headache any favors. “Sleeping beauty wakes,” Benji said dryly from somewhere nearby. I groaned and gingerly moved around to prop myself up on my elbows. I managed to open my eyes and looked blurrily around. Benji was sitting on the opposite sofa. He was leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together between them. “How’s your head?” I forced myself to sit up. I made sure to move slowly in case I invited another bout of dizziness, but luckily, none came. “Better.” “How much better?” I rubbed my temples gently and leaned back against the couch cushions. “Like I got hit with a baseball bat instead of a crowbar sort of better.” Benji snorted. “So about the same as last night?” “No. Better than last night. Definitely.

LainaWork was soul-sucking on Sunday evening. All I wanted to do was get back to Mason and make sure he was recovering well. He was all I could think about. It took everything I had to stop myself from calling him. If he was asleep, I didn’t want to wake him up. So I called Rick instead, who told me that he and Benji had been out of the house, but they’d stopped by to check in on Mason around six in the evening. Apparently, he had made it up to his bedroom and was out cold but doing fine. Rick told me that he and my brother were going to head out that night and meet with some car guys to try to find one to race. He promised me he and Benji would stop by my work and give me a key to Mason’s place so I could see him after work. They came by an hour before my shift ended. Benji didn’t seem too thrilled to be handing over a key to Mason’s house, but he did it regardless. “Thanks,” I said as I pocketed it. “I’m off at nine, so I should be th