“We’ll take it slow,” I said. “I’ll come out to Miami for a week, just so we can test the waters. And if it works—“

“I’ll come out here…” she finished for me, nodding and looking down. “It’s a big risk for me, Mason.”

“I know, and it’s a big risk for me too, but if we’re going to do this, we just got to jump in head first. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“It could not work out, and I’d be dragging a confused baby boy back to Florida, wondering why his life keeps changing around. I’ve got my job to worry about, and a lease at my apartment.”

I rounded the kitchen counter and pulled her close to me. “Don’t worry about that. The shop is grossing a half million per year and only about 20% of that is expenses. Forget about the job, and I’ll pay your lease off. I’d rather you stay home with Travis anyway.”

“Really?” she raised an eyebrow at me.

“Of course.” He leaned in and kissed me. “And if you want to do the pharmacist thing, just do it out here. No pressure.”

She looked like she was lost in thought. “And there’s really no other girls? No exes, no girlfriends, no one that you’re just seeing on the side?”

Mason sighed. “No one, and if you ever question anything or someone from the past shows up, just ask me about it. Please. Don’t just—“

Ding dong.

Layla pulled away a little and looked at me with questioning eyes when the doorbell rang.

“I have no idea…” My stomach turned, and I hoped that it wasn’t that girl who had slept on my couch the other night or Samantha. It seems she was always showing up at the worst times. But I knew it was probably just a salesman or something.

“Hey it’s me!” a voice yelled out.

I recognized it immediately and let out a sigh. “It’s Caleb,” I told Layla as I headed for the door.

I turned the knob on the door, pulled it open and immediately wished I had checked the peephole first. It was Caleb alright, but his face was swollen, he had a busted lip, and there were three large men wearing suits standing behind him. I recognized one of them right away.

Dimitri Black.

“What the hell?” I asked.

Dimitri shoved Caleb, and he came stumbling through the door. The three men followed after him. I turned and saw Layla backing up to the far side of the house, trying to distance herself from the situation as much as possible.

I stood in between Caleb and the three men, holding my arms out as if I was somehow able to fend them off. I knew there was no way I could take them all—Dimitri was a pretty hearty guy, but the two men who were with him were at least 300 pounds each, not to mention, they both had guns tucked inside their belts.

“I fucked up,” Caleb said with a lisp from his swollen lip. “I fucked up, Mason.”

“Somebody tell me what’s going on. Dimitri, what the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in jail?”

“Nice to see you too, Mason.” Dimitri lifted his chin high and rubbed a hand over his crimped, shoulder-length blonde hair.

“I lost the GT-R, bro,” Caleb said.

“What?” I asked.

Dimitri smirked. “Do you know what it’s like to spend time in prison for a murder you didn’t commit?”

I shook my head.

“Well, it’s not fun at all, Mason. But even worse is sitting in prison and getting news that your son was killed in a car accident with another driver and not being able to do a damn thing about it. It’s hell really.”

“So you’re trying to kill someone because of that?” I asked.

Dimitri chuckled. “I told you that I was put in prison for a murder I didn’t commit. The last thing I want to do is murder someone and have real blood on my hands, even if that someone was responsible for my son’s death.”

“No one is responsible for Freddy’s death. He drove off that cliff on his own.”

“From what I hear, the RSX was beating my Porsche that Freddy was driving, and the other car was pretty banged up in the end. I suppose it got that way on its own.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Layla chimed in. “I saw the whole thing.”

“Stay out of this, Layla!” I yelled.

Dimitri chuckled again. “Once I was out of prison, I figured I needed to teach the RSX driver a lesson. The least, and only slightly illegal thing, I could do was take his car. It’s too bad that after your brother agreed to race pinks with me and lost, he decided to run rather than play fair.”

“You lost a pinks race and ran?” I asked Caleb.

“It was stupid. I didn’t want to lose my car, and… I didn’t know who he was.” His voice was gurgly, and it looked like he was on the verge of tears.

“You’re such a fuckup,” I said, shaking my head.

“A fuckup indeed,” Dimitri added. “I had to give him a little pounding to get him to hand over the keys. And when I questioned him about the day Freddy died, what do you know? He said that he didn’t even drive the car. It was you.”

“It was me,” I confirmed. “You can leave Caleb alone.”

Dimitri tapped his foot on the floor. “Well then, I’d love to see what you’ve got. What do you say, we have a little race?”

“I don’t race anymore.”

As soon as I said that, the two big men stepped forward, their waists exposed, making sure that I noticed their guns.

“If you really didn’t have anything to do with my son’s death, then you should have no problem showing me what an amazing racer you are.”

“That’s really all you want? A race?”

“For pinks, of course.”

“And you’ll leave us alone after that?”

“If you beat me, it’ll prove that you weren’t responsible. And if not, I’ve got a couple cars to make up for the loss. It won’t bring my son back, but it’ll give me satisfaction knowing who I took them from.”

I sighed and looked down. “What are you driving?”

“As of about 15 minutes ago, I’m driving a mighty fast GT-R.”

“Fuck you!” Caleb spat.

“Shutup Caleb!” I snapped.

I knew Caleb’s car was fast because I helped him tune it. And I knew Dimitri could drive because I had seen him race before—he was legendary before his jail sentence. I wasn’t sure if I could win against one of the fastest cars I had ever built and one of the best drivers I had ever seen, but with two armed men, a murderer standing in my house and Layla standing right behind me, I knew I had to try.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll race.”