“Jesus Christ, son. Get your damn heart out of the fucking racecar. You need to be focused, Emmit. You’re going to be the cause of a wreck if you don’t get your head out of your ass!”

I stood quickly and looked around. I had no idea what I was looking for. As I spun around, I looked back at the TV and then down to my phone. Picking up my phone, I opened my voicemail and hit Stephanie’s message.

“Yes, hello. My name is Todd Frank. I’m Emmit’s new assistant. Please kindly remove Stephanie Murphy’s name from this number and replace it with my name. If you need anything or have been waiting on something from Ms. Murphy, please forward that on to me at this number or through email. [email protected]. Have a wonderful evening.”

My hand dropped to the side of my body as I let my phone drop from my hand. Where was Stephanie? Did Emmit fire her? Did she step down now that their affair had been found out?

My hands covered my face as I sat down on the sofa. “Just tell me where in the hell, Malcolm is,” Emmit called out as I looked back down at my phone and picked it up.

I searched through my messages. My fingered hovered over Emmit’s last message to me.

Hitting play, I held my breath and waited to hear his voice play over the speaker.

“Hey. I really wish you’d call me back. I’ve been leaving the same message over and over, hoping like hell you’ll listen to one of them. Can’t do it today, I’m tired and I have to go race. Adaline, I love you. It’s always been only you.”

The message stopped playing as I finally remembered to breathe. “Emmit.” I looked back up at the TV. In that moment, I realized the terrible mistake I had made. I let my fear see things that were never there.

My heart felt as if I had betrayed it this last week. Anger and regret consumed me as I thought how I had let Stephanie push me away. I knew Emmit was faithful. Deep in my heart, I had always known it.

Jumping up, I grabbed my purse and rushed out of the hotel room I’d checked into last night. There was somewhere I needed to be, and this hotel was not it.

As I navigated through traffic, I drove as fast as I could. I needed to get to the track. I drove to Chicago with every intention of going to the race and talking face to face with Emmit and asking for the truth. Why it took me over a week to pull my head out of my ass to do it, I’ll never know.

I had the race playing on my car radio and Emmit’s communication still pulled up on my phone.

“And as we approach the checkered flag, it will be number twenty-four, Malcolm Wallace crossing the finish line with the number thirty-seven of Emmit Lewis coming in second. Lewis has not been very quiet over the radio about the fact that he is upset about Wallace’s pass earlier.”

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” I said as I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. Damn it, what is wrong with me?

“I need to talk to, Wallace,” Emmit said over the radio.

Quickly picking up my phone, I hit the home button and said, “Call, Daddy.”

When it rang, I prayed like hell for my father to answer it.

“Adaline!”

“Daddy!” I yelled out.

“Where in the hell have you been? I’m so mad at you right now I could . . . I don’t know what I could do, Adaline Morgan. I have too much shit going on.”

“I know! I know, Daddy. I’ve been stupid. I need to talk to Emmit right away.”

“Yeah well, I’m trying to stop him from doing something stupid.”

Tears began to build in my eyes. This was my fault. If only I hadn’t run. If I had just stopped for two seconds and thought really long and hard about what I thought I had seen.

“I’m in Chicago, Dad. I’m on my way.”

I could hear my father telling people to get out of his way. “Well, you better hurry. He is flying out tonight.”

Damn it. “I’m going as fast as I can. I’m not that far away.”

“How are you getting in?”

“I still have my badge, Mr. Elliot told me he was giving me one month to make my final decision.”

I heard some more talking and then I heard my father say, “Oh shit. Stop him, Robby!”

Fear raced through my body as my heart sped up. Emmit. Oh God, Emmit, don’t do something stupid.

“Dad? Dad!”

The line went dead the moment I pulled up to the gate. I flashed my badge at one of the two security guards standing there and was waved through. I had no idea where in the hell I was going. Rolling the window down, I yelled out, “I need to get to Emmit Lewis right away. It’s an emergency.”

The second guard quickly waved me over to park. Jumping out of my car, I ran over to his truck and jumped in. “I’m not sure where he is.”

The guard chuckled. “He’s about to start a fight on victory lane.”

My heart dropped and I closed my eyes, “Oh no. Please hurry!” I said a quick prayer I’d make it in time.

It was a short drive to victory lane as the security guard pulled up. I jumped out of the truck before it even came to a stop. “Excuse me, let me through!” I yelled as the security guard led me through the crowd. I could see everyone from both Malcolm and Emmit’s pit crew there.

Emmit and Malcolm were both going after each other as members of their pit crews tried to pull them apart.

“Emmit!” I screamed as I looked for something to get me up higher.

I ran over to a table and climbed up on it. Robert Elliot was attempting to pull Emmit off of Malcolm. One punch landed and Malcolm stumbled back. Screaming to the top of my lungs, I called out, “Emmit!”

Emmit stopped trying to get to Malcolm and turned to look in my direction. Our eyes met and I could see the rage as a shiver ran up my spine. My body came to life as his eyes pierced me. Then he was gone. My mouth dropped open as I saw someone holding something in their hands, security tackled the person and the object he had been holding hit the ground. With all the noise and people yelling, the only thing I heard was my breathing. Then I looked at Emmit who was lying on the pavement, blood pooling at his head.

“No!” I screamed as I jumped down and rushed to Emmit.

As I dropped to the ground I was overcome by the smell of blood. Covering my mouth, I forced myself not to throw up. I was a nurse. The smell of blood shouldn’t bother me at all.

But this was different. This was Emmit’s blood.

And there was a lot of it.

Emmit had been unconscious for the last twenty-two hours. They had taken him down for another cat scan when Malcolm insisted I leave to go eat something. The fact that Malcolm was still here at the hospital spoke volumes to me.

My mind flashed back to when Emmit was in surgery getting the gash in his head stitched up. Malcolm, Richard, and I had talked to a police officer investigating the incident.

“It was one of Malcolm Wallace’s fans. He made his way through the crowd. I guess he was upset about Emmit starting the fight.”

The officer nodded his head and continued to write. “And he picked up the unopened beer can and hit Mr. Lewis over the head with it?”

“Yes,” Robert, one of the pit crew members said.

My stomach turned every time I thought about it. When Emmit hit the ground, his head hit hard, causing another gash.

I dragged in a deep breath before I pushed the door open to Emmit’s hospital room. Malcolm glanced up from the chair he had been sitting in as I attempted to give him a smile. “That was not fast enough to eat, Adaline.”

I shrugged my shoulders and sat down in the chair on the other side of Emmit. Both of us had either been in Emmit’s room or somewhere in the hospital since Emmit was admitted. “I can’t eat, Malcolm. My stomach is too sick.”

Malcolm nodded; I knew he felt the same. Malcolm and Emmit may be rivals, but I knew this was tearing Malcolm apart like it was me. If I hadn’t called out Emmit’s name, he wouldn’t have looked over at me, causing everyone else to see where he was looking. No one saw the fan lifting the beer to hit Emmit until it was too late.