"DAMN, WHO WOULD'VE ever thought that Mason's girl was a nurse? I seriously thought that she was one of those leeches that hung around us at the races. Mhh I bet they have fun with the role playing, right Jay." Victor voiced as he and Jason drove back to the garage.
He ended up with second degree burn on his forearm. The doctor cooled it down with various ointments and pain medications and topped the burn off with a burn dressing. The doctor also instructed him to clean it and change the dressing, every couple of hours and the burn would heal itself in approximately in four weeks as long as it's well taken care of.
The idea of doing so much work had Victor inwardly groaning but a guy had to do what a guy had to do.
Jason scoffed at his friend's remark.
"She's still not giving you any play huh?"
"I don't care. I don't even want her anymore." Jason replied with begrudged tone .
'Lies.' Something in the back of his mind said but he ignored it.
Machayla refused to acknowledge his existence after the heated discussion that took place in the hospital's emergency room and it pissed him off even more.
He usually kept his cool and was the laid back quiet type of guy but since Saturday, he just seems to be the total opposite of his actual personality. All the trouble he had gotten into was because of her and her little white lie. He seriously would have left her alone if she had told him that she had a boyfriend and it wouldn't have hurt to mention that it was Mason out of all people... but then again, she didn't know that he raced... did she? After all, she was Mason's girlfriend...
"Yeah sure you don't. Wondered how she ended up with Mason of all people... Speaking of Mason, when are you guys racing?" Victor's demeanor suddenly became serious. He had a bad feeling about dealing with the guy. He seemed too devious for Victor's liking.
"Carter called yesterday. They actually wanted to race last night but I said no. We're doing this shit on my schedule. I can't stand the fuckers anyways so I really didn't even give a damn how they felt about it." Jason growled out.
"You can't stand them and neither can I but keep in mind that if you lose, you're stuck with those idiots. I understand why you didn't just hand the car over back to them because that would've made us look weak and shit but is that Audi really worth losing your spot in our crew? We need you to win our races."
"So that's the only reason yall keep me around? So I can win your races? Fuck you!" Jason knew Victor was just teasing him but now that he thought about it, he really did make an absent minded decision on Saturday and that agitated him very much.
He couldn't understand how one girl could screw his head up in such a short time. The only explanation was that he was lusting after her. It was lust at first sight for him and he was pretty sure it was for her too from the way she squirmed while he was staring at her in the hospital as she tried her best to ignore him.
"But maybe I'm wrong."
"Wrong about what?" Victor asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, I was thinking out loud." Jason didn't even realized that he had spoken his thoughts.
"Riiiight." Victor drew out.
They pulled up in front of the garage and Brandon rushed to the car before they could even step out.
"What happened? Did they have to cut your arm off? I couldn't meet up with yall because that old bat was talking my ear off after I gave her the damn keys to her car. I wanted to strangle her." Brandon fired at them.
"Yo! Relax. I'm fine dumbass. My arm isn't going anywhere. And Jason should've warned you about her tendency to talk our ears off when she comes to pick her car up." Victor assured his cousin while getting out the car.
"What type of friends are you idiots?" Brandon grumbled. "Well anyways, Drake is in the office with the others. He said he wanted to talk to us."
"Bout what?" Jason asked.
Brandon shrugged and headed to the back of the garage where the office was located. "I don't know dude. But he seemed serious."
Jason and Victor eyed each other and followed Brandon to the back. If they didn't know better they would've considered Drake Bi-polar. He had mood swings out of this world and his emotional meter could go from zero to sixty in 3.5 seconds flat.
They walked into the office and Jason closed the door behind him and pulled up a wooden chair to sit on while propping his feet on the desk that Drake occupied. "What's going on Drake?"
"First off, I would like to take this moment to laugh my ass off at this stupid guy for actually torching himself after we constantly warned him about the damn blow torch." Drake said before he bursted out laughing hard. "Let... me... see your arm Vic?... come on, pretty please." He asked while he and the rest of the gang kept laughing at Victor.
"If yall are done laughing then I'll be leaving now." Victor was getting a little peeved and the fact that his arm was still hurting like hell wasn't helping with his mood or the fact that his friends were assholes.
He got up to leave but Drake suddenly spoke up.
"Sit your burnt ass down Victor!" Drake voice rung throughout the room and they all fell silent. Drake had a dark expression on his face which held so much power that it had Victor scrambling to take his seat again.
"Bi-polaaar." Jason whispered under his breath.
"Don't be funny little brother. This shit is your problem to handle anyways so shut the hell up and listen."
Jason scowled. "What the hell are you on about Drake?"
"The Audi you took from Mason is for trafficking drugs. Apparently Mason is doing more than just underground racing. He's messing with a big chain of drug dealers in downtown Miami." Drake paused and stared straight into his brother's eyes. "Watch your ass when you race him this weekend. I have a pretty good idea why he wants you to join his crew so bad. With your driving skills, you are certified to do his dirty work for pickups and drop offs once you're part of the group. Apparently, Carter just ain't cutting it. He needs a new... minion." Drake said the last word with a slight smirk on his dark face.
Dennis whistled and shook his head. "I told you Jay. You ain't got no choice but to win that race or you are going to have a hell of a rough time for the next few months."
"Shit! And you can't back out of the race either. Once everybody hears about you racing Mason, they'll all come out of the wood works to watch. Our whole crew will lose its respect if you back out." Victor piped in.
"Yeah well he should've never been stupid enough to agree with el estupido hijo de puta." Chico said while getting up from where he sat by the window.
"Dude speak English!" Brandon snapped at him.
"Bro don't mind me. I don't tell you shit when you constantly say dude... DUDE!"
Jason sat still in his chair and ignored the rest of the groups' banter while he and Drake locked gaze. Neither blinked. It was like they were having a quiet conversation with only their eyes.
Jason didn't realize that it would get that serious. He knew that one day the underground racing world would catch up to them all. It just caught up to him first. He abruptly stood up and nodded to his brother.
Drake instantly knew what his brother meant. They would continue this talk at his apartment. He watched as Jason left through the door with an angry scowl on his face. He probably was head to... well he didn't exactly know where but he was sure that it was somewhere that he could let off some steam.
*
"Machayla where is your ring?" Mason asked with a dark look etched on his face. He came from work with a frowned on his well chiseled face and Machayla was certain that tonight would be one of those days. He had a dark troubled look in his brown eyes which spoke volumes to her.
Alarm bells were ringing in her head and she was sure that it was her intuition that was warning her to get away from him.
"Well?!" He spat at her. "Where is it?!" He got up from his side of the wide dinner table and strode to her side. She felt the hair on the back of her neck rise and her palms began to sweat.
'Damn it! Should I tell him the tr-'
Her thoughts were cut off by the excruciating pain that she felt when the back of Mason hand's collided with her face sending her off her seat and crashing to the floor.
"Where fuck is the ring Machayla?!!" He shouted at her while she started to sob as she was sprawled out on the glossy bamboo flooring.
"If you don't answer me right now I swear Machayla, you will live a very horrible week this week." He threatened with a thunderous voice that rang through the soulless and empty house. "Now speak!"
"I-I to-I took it off last night." She said through her sobs. She crouched her body up into the fetus position because she thought that he might hit her again. She wished that the almighty would just take her life right there and then. She couldn't handle this horrible life of hers anymore.
About a minute passed until she heard him speak again. "Why?" He barked.
"I- I didn't want to lose it at work." She lied. Suddenly she felt him yank her by the hair and brought her tear soaken face close to his.
"You're a really stupid bitch you know. Did you forget that I am a lawyer while you were coming up with that lie?"
"I'm not!" She cried as she hiccupped. She closed her eyes and prayed that he'd just die but a second later he yanked on her dark maine and a screeched hurdled out of her mouth. She tasted blood from where he backhanded her and her sobs became louder.
"Shut up! Listen Kayla and listen good. The next time I see you without that ring, you're going to be sorry you ever took it off to begin with. Learn your goddamn place and stay there!" He growled out as he shoved her head back down to the ground and walked off without even bothering to finish up his dinner.
Machayla laid on the floor for about an hour bawling her eyes out before she got up and dragged herself up stairs to take a shower. She hated him. She hated him with a burning passion that was growing and spreading throughout her body, day by day.
*
The rest of the week passed by in a blur for Jason. All he thought about was what he had gotten himself into and what he would be facing on Saturday night. He wasn't scared to race. Not at all. In fact he was anxious about the race but what had him worried was the possibilities of losing that race.
He had confidence. Always did. That was something he never lacked whether in the bedroom, on the streets or dealing with car parts but he knew that there was a great chance that Mason was a great driver himself. Nobody has seen him race but surely if he stole all the best racers from most of the crew in Miami's underground scene, he had to have had convinced them with something other than money. The racers couldn't be that greedy.
But then again....
Jason sighed as he took the elevator up to his brother's apartment —yes his brother did have his own place- where he was meeting his friends for a drink. Without knocking he walked into the apartment and a cloud of smoke attacked his lungs.
He started coughing as he inhaled the smoke that wafted in the air from the weed that Drake, Chico and Dennis were smoking in the living room.
"You guys never stop with the marijuana do you?" Jason quipped as he walked straight into the kitchen to grab a beer.
"Smoke one with us Jason. You need to take the edge off for tonight anyways!" Drake shouted at him.
"No I'm fine. I came here to relax not to get high. I need a cleared head for tonight." Jason responded.
"And what better way to clear it out then to get high?" chico answered while chuckling. The weed was getting to him already.
"Where's Vic and Brandon?" Jason asked looking around for his best friend.
"Brandon is on his way and Vic is sleeping till we are ready to leave. The pain killers and anti-biotic are fucking him up." Dennis slurred a bit.
Jason shook his head and sat in the recliner that sat next to the couch where the pot heads were reveling in their most prized possesion and turned on the TV. He smoked a few times with them but he did'nt want to now. He wasn't a druggy like they were. It always did help clear his head and forget about his problems for the time being but should he really?...
"No stupid you should've seen your face when she gave you the finger and walked away." Chico laughed loudly while walking through the halls of drake's apartment building. Their high was almost gone but they were all still a little buzzed enough to act stupid.
They had to be on US-27 at 10:00pm and they were grateful for that because that meant that they had time to sober up from the pot and grab something to eat before the race. They were glad that Drake had the weed because it helped them loosen up and have fun.
Victor stopped by earlier than expected because Brandon told him that the pot would help him feel better more than the pain killers would. After he showed up, they all rolled one and smoked to their hearts desired.
They stepped out of the building and walked to the fast food restaurant that was about two blocks away.
After they ate and sobered up, they walked back to the building and each hopped into their respective racing cars. Jason was racing with the drifter that he beat Carter with, Drake drove the Audi that they won, Dennis the rich kid of their crew also drove an Audi but it was an earlier and more pimped out version of the one that they won, Brandon drove an apple red custom 95 BMW that he replaced all the stock parts out of, Chico drove a Lime green and black Camero that looked similar to the drifter but was equipped for speeding instead of drifting and victor sat in the passenger seat along with him since his driving arm was burnt and still stinged a little.
Drake pulled out in front of them and the rest followed while each sat in their respective car pondering over what might happen tonight.
*
The crowd was about three times the size it usually was tonight. There were more girls in clothes that looked like underwear to Machayla, more guys that seemed drunk, more arrogant assholes fighting over which ride looked better, more flirting and more eyes that turned to stare at her as she stepped out of Mason's custom black and turquoise Benz.
He had insisted on her looking like a video vixen, —her words not his—and pick out her clothes. He said that he wanted everybody to recognize that he had the hottest girl, the hottest car and soon the best racers in his crew. He loved showing off. He reveled in it but Machayla loathed him, what he did and the people he did it with.
Since Monday, she's tried her best to avoid him at all cost and when he asked her why she was doing it, she shrugged and received a punch to her eyes. Another mark she had to try her best to hide with makeup in order for it to go unnoticed.
As she saw five custom cars pulled up to a stop a few feet away from where she stood with Mason, her eyebrows furrowed. She forgot that it was him that Mason was suppose to race. From what she knew about the situation, it made no type of sense to her that they would go through all this trouble over a stupid car or a sexy but ridiculously annoying and pushy driver.
She watched as all five of the car doors opened simultaneously and Jason and his friends stepped out the cars decked out in what seemed to be their signature color, black and scoffed.
'They had to have planned that. Freaking show offs.'
No doubt that they all looked good but for some weird reason her eyes were trained on Jason in particular.
He and his crew sauntered over to where she stood beside Mason and his crew. The hyperactive crowd all of a sudden settled down. The music that blasted through speakers in their trunks were turned off, the guys stopped flirting with the slutty girls and all eyes were on the two crew which stood face to face, waiting for something big to happen.
Jason took a glance her way and locked eyes with her. He seemed as if he was studying her facial features. He frowned. His green eyes held an amber fire in them and then he suddenly smirked at her. She felt heat in the pit of her stomach but it wasn't the same as when she felt it because of fear; this was...lust...desire.
'NO! There is no way that I am lusting after him!'
He was everything she hated but she couldn't help it. Her body was starting to react on its own. She found herself squirming under his watchful eyes and brought out the tip of her tongue and swiped it over the bottom her full lips.
"Do you see something that you like or want?" Mason growled out while smirking at Jason.
Jason looked up onto Mason's face, squinted and chuckeled. "Let's race."
"Yeah. Lets." Carter piped in with a cheecky grin which was highly disturbing to Machayla. She looked over to Sierra and wanted to laugh because she had just rolled her eyes and sneered at her boyfriend's ridiculous antic. Why was such a pretty girl like her with somebody like Carter? The world may never know.
Mason turned to Machayla grabbed her roughly by the waist and smashed his lips against her. She stayed limp in his arms till she felt him squeezed her side to the point where it became painful and she gave in to what he wanted. She gave him entrance to her mouth and wrapped her hands around his neck. He wanted to put on a show and that, he did. She heard the guys in the background whistling and cat calling, egging them on.
She hated them.
*
Jason watched as Mason kissed Machayla and he suddenly felt his blood boiling.With a deep scowl he quickly turned to his brother who stood behind him and pushed passed Drake when he lifted a questioning brow at him.
"Fuck off Drake. I have a race to win." He growled out.
"Alright bro. Just curious to why you have that look on your face." Drake replied as he put his hands up in surrender. His gaze switched over to Mason and his smile disappearred. "Mason we have a race to get too. Let her breathe."
Jason walked back to his car with his crew in tow and leaned on top of the hood.
"You ready Jay." Brandon came and stood next to him.
"Yup. No pep talk today Drake?" He asked his brother.
"Nah. I told you everything I needed to tell you on Monday and I talked to the guys yesterday so we're all good and ready if you are."
Jason locked gaze with his brother and furrowed his eyebrows and once again they had a silent conversation between them. Drake nodded his head telling him to be careful and Jason nodded in understanding.
"I swear you two are the weirdest brothers I know. Get your ass in that car man, before I push you into it." Victor said with a laugh to try and lightened the mood.
Jason shook his head at his friend and climb into the car. He revved up the engine and drove his car to the starting point. Mason drove up a few seconds later beside him and rolled down his window.
"I didn't know guys like you were interested in girls like her. But then again Machayla can make the pope regret his decision now can't she? Too bad she's engaged to me." He snarled at Jason.
Jason froze for a second before regaining his composer and putting on his poker face. 'So she was engaged to him. Who gave a damn!'
But inside he knew that something wasn't right. She once again had another dark mark around her eyes which wasn't there earlier this week.
He turned his head back to the sexy and exotic girl in between both of their cars decked out in a checkered body suit that hugged all her curves and showed just enough cleavage holding two checkered flags, one in each hand.
Carter was a lucky guy.
"OK! Do I have to explain? Yall both know the rules to this. Do not get caught... Especially you Mason. Don't kill each other or yourselves. Make this quick, I have other places to be but no shortcuts. The first to get back here wins. Gentlemen rev up your engines. On three.
1....
2...."
Sierra looked at each driver before she brought the flags down and simultaneously yelled out
"3!"
And they were off.