Page 97 of Send It
“I know,” I sigh. “I know I did. I just couldn’t tell you before the race. I didn’t want to mess with your head right before Nationals.”
He points at his temple, his eyes wild, “You didn’t wanna mess with my fucking head?”
Lincoln hobbles over and steps between us, putting her arm on Reiss’ shoulder. “Let’s talk about this in the trailer.”
I look around at all the people staring and watch as Jackson stands near Landon. My blood is boiling.
“They’ve been fucking around for months,” Landon says loud enough for Reiss to hear but before he can speak, Mira steps from behind where Reiss is standing and blows everything up.
“Shut up, Landon.” She says stepping closer to her brother. “I don’t know why you are so hellbent on messing with Reiss when it’s not him you should be messing with. Jackson drugged me, had sex with me, and got me pregnant.”
Reiss’ face is white as a ghost, confirming that he didn’t know it was Jackson.
Landon drops his helmet to the dirt and all hell breaks loose. He grabs Jackson by the throat and slams him into the ground. Reiss wraps his arm around Lincoln to help her walk and doesn’t say another word to me.
Lincoln’s mom gives me a half smile and I watch as everyone follows Reiss and Lincoln back to the tent at our trailer. They cut my jersey off of Lincoln and her ribs are already starting to bruise up.
“We need to take her to the hospital and have this checked out,” Ryan says. “Make sure it didn’t puncture a lung or anything.”
“I’m fine,” Lincoln says, pulling her shirt down. “Reiss won the title, I'm not going anywhere.”
“Colson,” Ryan says, his voice low. “They want to see you at the registration tent.”
I nod, leaving everyone and walking away. My downfall doesn’t need an audience.
After spending an hour in the AMA tent, I’m suspended from racing for a year and so is Lincoln.
I honestly wasn’t sure if they were going to drop thehammer or not but they are hellbent on making an example out of us.
Deep down, I knew this would happen. I knew that we wouldn’t get away with this and that it would ruin my reputation in racing. I just didn’t care.
Truthfully, I should’ve thought it through a little more. I should have thought about how it would affect everyone else. Lincoln was relentless in wanting to do this and I think I let that blind me. I wanted to spend time with her away from Reiss. I wanted to do this with her and I don’t regret that, but she might when she finds out she can’t race a sanctioned event for a whole year.
I walk out of the tent and into a whole mess back at the trailer with everyone else. Reiss fighting with Lincoln, their mom and dad playing referees. My dad arguing with Ryan over why the world’s greatest and most expensive trainer didn’t realize it wasn’t me. Landon and Mira airing out their drama across the path.
I stand in the middle of it and realize that if it wasn’t for me…none of this would be happening. Everything would be exactly the way it was, Reiss and Lincoln would be closer than ever. My dad wouldn’t be screaming at Ryan for something he had no part in.
I need to get out of here.
I walk inside the motorhome and find Stas laid out on the couch with a battery operated fan in her hand.
“Can I have your keys? I’ll be back before the awards ceremony. I just can’t be here right now.”
“No,” she quips. “You can’t.”
I tilt my brows in because Stas usually has my back, “Why not?”
“Because,” she sighs. “You can’t run from this. Thosepeople are your family, Colson. You need to get out there and fix it.”
My stomach clenches at the thought of losing them, “Reiss is gonna need some time to cool off, and if I go out there now it’s just going to make everything ten times worse.”
She shrugs, “You slept with his baby sister without talking to him about it first.”
Like I don’t already know that.
I let out a low groan, aggravated with Stas but knowing that she’s right. I should’ve been able to control my feelings and how far I took things with Lincoln before I had the guts to discuss it with Reiss.
I push the door of the motorhome open and everyone has fizzled out but Lincoln, who is sitting in one of the folding chairs with ice plastic wrapped around her ribs.
