Stay Awhile (Big Sky Country #2)

Chapter One

Kace Ryker careened around the curve, clocking one hundred and eighty miles an hour. All he had to do was stay ahead of the other cars on his tail. Nothing he hadn’t done before, but this time he would take first place.

He had one more lap to go, and all his dreams would come true. After winning this race, he would be on his way to the pros. Finally. Thanks to tons of hard work, he had an opportunity he’d never had. An owner needed a driver and wanted him.

“Kace, you’ve got Chase Donovan coming in close. He wants to steal the lead, but he has a bad habit of tapping too far right.” Trevor’s voice echoed through the semifitted earplugs inside his helmet. Trevor had been his eyes from above the track for over a year. In that time, he’d gone from just Kace’s spotter to his friend. He trusted Trevor with his life.

“I won’t let him pass in the turn.” Races were won in the turns. Any race-car driver could go fast in a straight line. The best drivers knew how to handle the curves. And he was the best.

“Kace, don’t hit that brake. It’s time to play it safe.”

Donovan, the driver on his tail, wanted to be pulled by the dirty air coming out of Kace’s exhaust and increase Donovan’s drag, giving him the chance to pass in the turn. Kace wasn’t going to allow that even if Trevor thought otherwise.

“You don’t have anything to prove today. You’ve already won the spot on a new team. Stay away from Donovan,” Trevor said.

“Can’t play it safe.” If he tapped the brake at the right moment, he’d take the momentum away from Donovan who would fall back several spots. The victory was his, and it tasted like the juice of a sweet peach running over the lips of a beautiful woman.

“Shit, Kace. Stop being so stubborn. Use the drafting line instead of the brakes. Three cars are faster than two,” Trevor said.

He never second-guessed his instincts. His instincts were what made him a great driver. It would just be a little tap of the brake. He had practiced this move a hundred times. Two hundred. “Relax, Trev.”

He barely lifted his foot off the pedal.

“Kace, don’t.” Trevor’s voice vibrated in his head.

The hit on the right side of his back bumper lifted his tires from the pavement. The front end of his car took flight. He and the car spun out of the lane and toward the safety wall at over a hundred miles per hour. Both feet jammed on the brake even as his brain screamed to pull them back. Another car collided with him and shoved his car into the wall. His head slammed inside the helmet.

Trevor and his crew chief said something, but the roaring in his ears drowned them out.

He needed to get out of the car.

But he couldn’t.

His eyes snapped closed instead.