“Clearly you can’t,” Chase provokes him.
“I can, and I did!” Ryan yells.
Mason crosses his arms. “You should take the money and run, Ryan. We all know you wouldn’t beat Aiden again.”
Ryan takes the bait, getting worked up and defensive. “Of course I could beat him again. I could drive circles around his dumb ass.”
Noah scoffs. “Yeah, right. Think that if it helps you sleep at night.”
Ryan visibly gets angrier. “Fine! I’ll prove it! Another race. Let’s make it four grand just to prove that I’m not fucking around!” He throws Aiden one of the envelopes of two thousand dollars. “I’ll even be generous and give you the two grand back, just because I know you wouldn’t be able to afford another race with the champ.”
Aiden looks at him as if he couldn’t care less. “I didn’t think you could afford to lose that much.”
My head snaps towa
rd Aiden, eyes wide. Shut up, Aiden! You can’t afford to lose that much!
“I won’t be the one losing it,” Ryan answers.
Jonesy claps once to get our attention, rubbing his hands together and reminding us that he’s still here. “All right, then, let’s put your money where your mouth is. You know the rules. All cash up front.”
Ryan takes his original envelope and shoves some extra money into it. He growls at his friends to give him any money that they have until he gets the remaining two grand, and hands the full envelope to Jonesy.
“All right, everyone! Rematch! Place your bets with Gabe now!” Jonesy announces to the crowd, excited about making more commission from the bets.
I grab Aiden’s arm and pull him aside. “Are you crazy? What are you thinking? Let’s just go; you don’t need to bet more money.”
He looks over my head and narrows his eyes at Ryan in the distance, trash-talking with his friends.
“I told you I want more money from him.”
“But what if you lose? That would be four grand that could’ve been spent in so many better ways!”
He looks me straight in the eyes, melting my worries with his powerful gaze. “It’ll be okay.”
“But—”
“Hey!” Ryan yells from where he’s standing with his friends, “You gonna talk all night with your slut, or we gonna race?”
If Ryan was anyone else, the look that Aiden shot him would’ve made them shit their pants in fear. Aiden goes back over to his car and gets in, then emerges with another envelope and hands it over to Jonesy.
“All right, everything looks good,” verifies Jonesy, shoving the new envelopes back in his pocket. “Let’s head over to the starting line and see who wins round two!”
The crowd cheers and many run over to Gabe, Jonesy’s business partner, while others head back to their spots to get a view of the race.
“Aiden, you don’t have to do this,” I plead one more time.
“The deal was made with Jonesy, it’s locked in,” Mason tells me.
The loud roar of an engine interrupts us. “Ready for me to make you my bitch again?” Ryan calls from inside his car, before laughing and driving to the starting line.
“Don’t worry, Amelia.” Aiden smirks. “This will be the easiest four grand I’ve ever made.”
With that, he gets in his car and follows Ryan to the starting line, hopefully the last time his car will ever be behind Ryan’s. We run back over to Julian and Mason’s trucks and get back in place, just catching Aiden and Ryan getting to the starting line. I didn’t think it was possible to be even more nervous than I was the first time I watched Aiden race, but the heavy hammering in my heart is making it abundantly clear that this time is much worse.
“Are we ready for round two?” Jonesy announces, hyping up the crowd.
I must’ve audibly inhaled, because Annalisa looks at me. “He’ll be okay.”