“I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!” the music howled as Mason drove us down the freeway.

And it definitely felt like I was in a real life crazy train. Several cops were behind us, flashing their lights, and if I had a dollar for every time our car came within inches of hitting another… Well, I would’ve had a lot more money than I had then, which was practically nothing.

My mind was racing. What the hell was I going to tell my father if he had to pick me up from the police station? What if we got into an accident and he had to bury me the same way that he buried my mother? I desperately wanted Mason to just pull over, but at the same time, it seemed like the only positive option was for us to somehow get away.

And for some strange reason, I trusted that Mason would actually get us away. I don’t know why. He just seemed so in control, even when the situation was spiraling into something so crazy, something that could go wrong at any time.

“We’re going to count to three,” Mason said and reached under the dash. I could see his eyes glance to the red button in the center of his dash which he previously told me not to mess with, so I had a little bit of an idea of what he was going to do, but I had no idea exactly what would happen.

“1...,” he said, and I mouthed the number along with him but didn’t verbalized, “2…, 3….”

He pressed his finger on the red button, and instantly The Beast shot forward like a rocket ship, the force pushing both mine and Mason’s heads hard against the leather of the seat.

“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” I screamed, as we fled down the freeway, the trees, railing, hills, houses all turning into a blur because we were going so fast. It must have been at least 200 miles per hour.

Mason held onto the wheel hard with both hands, weaving past the few vehicles that were on the straightaway that we were on, making them almost look stationary in comparison with our speed. I’m not sure how long the incredible force lasted—between 5 to 10 seconds, but eventually we started to slow down to a breathable pace—if you want to call having the pedal to the metal in a race car breathable.

I looked behind me and could no longer see any flashing lights, and Mason shifted gears, pulling us off an exit ramp. The tires squealed as we turned onto the main road below the ramp, but Mason actually started to slow down. To the right was a large plaza shopping center with a Taco Bell stationed at the edge. Mason pulled into the Taco Bell parking lot, right between two shadowy parked cars, and then shut off the engine.

Mason ran a hand through his short brown hair and exhaled deeply. “Finally…” he said.

My heart was still racing. “Are we safe here?” I asked.

“Here is as safe as any place. They’ll give up after an hour or so and send their squads back to the Bluff.”

It was finally hitting me just how illegal street racing was. I mean, I knew that it wasn’t legal the first night that I went to The Bluff, but after seeing the hundreds of people gathered up there, the food, the DJ and the normalcy of it all, it almost became more like a carnival from my perspective.

But it was no carnival. It was entirely too real.

And in a weird sort of way that only made it even more thrilling.

I had never broken the law before, not even once. So knowing that I was involved in something that was unlawful made the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand up. Why did everything that was dangerous have to be so fun?

“How about some tacos?” Mason asked, flashing me his bright smile like nothing had ever happened.

“Are you serious?” My jaw was slack. “You can eat after all that?”

He reached over the console and grabbed my hand again, and the moment that he touched me, it felt like he was sending electricity from my hand all the way up my arm. “You’re safe with me,” he said. My heart slowed down instantly, and everything started to calm.

Calm but tingly.

It wasn’t the first time he touched my hand, but the way he squeezed onto it was different than before. It was more purposeful, like he wanted me there with him, like he wanted to protect me, not like he was just trying to keep me composed me like before.

Our eyes locked after he spoke, and I felt like I was being sucked into his deep blue tunnels, and just a moment after my heart had slowed down, it started back up again.

Mason was leaning in closer to me.

It all seemed to be happening so suddenly but at the same time looked like he was moving in slow motion. He lifted his free hand and brushed it against the bottom of my jaw when he was only an inch away and tugged me forward lightly, right before his lips met mine.

I instinctively closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of him, an indescribable smell of clean mixed with what I can only describe as ‘man.’ Whatever it was, it smelled amazing. His lips were so full and soft, and I felt his stubble brush against my lip a bit. That was my favorite part, as I had never kissed a guy who had more than a few wisps of facial hair.

While the touch of his hand had sent electricity up my arm, his kiss sent lightning bolts all up and down my body, especially between my thighs. We didn’t even tongue kiss, but somehow just the simple press of our flesh together turned me on completely. Everything about him turned me on.

We stayed there, locked for several seconds before Mason finally pulled away and looked at me with a serious face that I hadn’t seen since the first day we met and I was trying to cheer him up. It was a look of urgency mixed with a little bit of a concern, but then that face slowly pulled into a loose smile.

“Sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t help myself.”

I was breathing heavily and probably sounded like a cat in heat. “Ugh, it’s okay,” I huffed. “Umm… I haven’t had Taco Bell for a while.”

Mason just chuckled and popped open his door.

We exited the car and headed inside Taco Bell, and I couldn’t help but snicker at how bizarre everything felt. Moments ago we were plowing down the freeway, outrunning the cops, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Now we were in the brightly lit Taco Bell with a guy wearing a purple shirt and a visor taking our order. And who was I with? None other than the hottest guy I had ever met.

And he had just freaking kissed me.

Any other day I would been laying in my bed, dreaming about school the next day. In just a week, everything I knew seemed like it had turned upside down.

Mason gathered our food and we took our time eating, waiting for the heat that was on us to die down.

“So tell me about you,” he said as he crunched down on a taco.

“I’m really boring,” I said.

“I’ve already spent time with you, so I know you’re not boring. But I want to know the other stuff. Stuff I haven’t seen with my own eyes.”

“Umm…” I searched for something to say, and sitting in front of this gorgeous man chowing down on Taco Bell made me scatter brained.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No. I’m an only child.”

“And you live with your parents?”

“Just my dad.”

“And your mom?”

“My mom has passed…”

Mason sat up straight in his chair. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay.” I took a sip of my soda. “What about you?”

“Caleb is my only brother. He still lives at home with my parents.”

“My Dad is super strict. I can’t even imagine what he would have done to me if we had gotten caught tonight.”

“But you’re 18…”

I flicked my eyebrows up and sighed. “Yeah, but I live in his house, and he takes care of me. So for now, I’ve got to play by his rules.”

“Well, you’re breaking the rules now.” Mason took another bite of his taco. “What are you going to do when school finishes?”

“College, I guess. I want to study pharmacology. And Dad is paying for that as well, but hopefully I’ll be living on campus and have a little bit more freedom when the time rolls around.”

Mason nodded, and we continued bantering back and forth for another hour or so, talking about our friends, aunts and uncles, likes and dislikes. The whole time, I felt like I was in two conversations. One was the conversation with him, and the other was an internal conversation with myself, trying to process the kiss in the car or why he was showing so much interest in me all of a sudden. Had Amanda been right that he was interested in me all along, or was it the fact that I put on my sexiest outfit—which wasn’t even that revealing—and did my makeup for the first time in ages that night?

I didn’t know, but I was literally a giddy schoolgirl at that point.