I leaned back. I had him hooked. It was time to reel him in. “They were there for me. I was at my Escalade and Park called me over. I had to walk across to him. He said it was about you, and I was heading over there.”

“But...no way. I mean, FUCK. Marissa? How’d she get hurt?”

“She ran out in front of me. I’m guessing the truck saw someone coming and went for her.”

“But—”

“Her body flew ten feet. It did an entire flip in the air and they had to reverse out of there or they would’ve hit her again. And your buddy, Park, that truck was his getaway car. He was the bait. They hit the fucking wrong person.”

“But that means,” new horror filled his features, “they wanted to hurt you.”

“Yeah.” I shook my head, impatience clawing at me. “Come on, Nate. What’d you hear? You’re not surprised. That means you heard something. What was it?”

“Nothing. I swear, except…” he trailed off. “No. I mean, no way. But…”

I wanted to stand, but kept myself down. “Either help me or help them. You can’t be neutral.”

“I know, but—” He stopped pacing, and his eyes closed tight. He pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes and shook his head back and forth. “I just can’t believe this. I mean, yes, you hit me, but you’re my friend. I was coming to apologize. Park knew that…”

Park knew that. I shot to my feet. “When?”

“What do you mean?”

“When did he know this?”

“This afternoon. They’d been waiting for me to decide what to do. He came to my room and I told him. I told him the fight was about him, that you didn’t want to be friends with him, but he seemed chill about it. He was happy that I was going to work on our friendship. I swear, Mason. He didn’t seem mad at all.”

“Because you’re the epitome of being perceptive.”

Nate stepped to the side. “What do you mean?”

“A guy like that, what do you think he’s going to do? He thinks he’s the top of the food chain around here and some lowly freshman rejects him? Someone who could be a threat to him later on? Sebastian’s not dumb and he’s not nice. I’m sure he wanted to take out the threat—me—and do it early on.”

“But hurting you would hurt the team. Park loves the team.”

Nate was so dumb. “Right. He loves the team that has hated him since last year. He loves the team when it’s well-known among us how big of a douche Sebastian is. He doesn’t love the team. He tried to get in. He tried to see if he could use me, and it didn’t work. I don’t think he wanted to lose you, but if I’m in your ear, shedding light on how big of an ass he is, you’re probably not going to be the devoted little pledge he wants you to be.”

“But why?”

“Nate, your parents work in the movie business, they produce or whatever. You have more potential power to give him in the future than I do.”

“Oh.”

I sighed and patted him on the back. “Don’t worry. Your brain will catch up. You’ll see. I’m pretty sure I’m right.”

“You usually are.”

Two things happened at that moment. Sam and Logan came through the doors. Both looked fatigued and stressed. Then I heard my name from the hospital hallway.

“Mason Kade?”

I turned. A doctor stood there, dressed in dark blue scrubs, a mask hanging around his neck. He looked the same as my family, tired and stressed. His dark hair had been combed to the side, but parts were sticking up by his ears. As he waited for me, he ran a hand over his face and blinked a few times.

I went to him. “Yes?”

“You’re Mason Kade?”

I nodded. “I am.” Please don’t tell me she’s dead. I didn’t want to hear those words. She would’ve been hurt again because of me.

“She’s awake, and she’s asking for you.”

I closed my eyes and hung my head. Christ. I almost fell to the floor, but caught myself. I nodded. The doctor had been waiting for me. He gestured down the hallway. “If you follow me, I’ll take you to her.”

I turned. Logan and Sam had come closer. Logan shot a confused look at Nate and folded his arms over his chest. Sam never looked away from me. A wave of tenderness came over me. I just wanted to hold her, tell her everything was going to be fine, but I couldn’t. I turned, without saying a word to my family, and followed the doctor. I had a different girl to comfort right now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

SAMANTHA

We were waiting in that lobby for what seemed like forever. I couldn’t handle it anymore and went outside to get away. Nate had seemed dazed when we came in, but he told us what happened. Hearing that Marissa had been hit instead of Mason filled me with so many different emotions. I was grateful it hadn’t been Mason. I was angry at Marissa, even though I didn’t know why. That anger turned to Nate’s fraternity. They wanted to hurt my soul mate. I breathed because of him, and they wanted to threaten that? To hurt him? I wanted to hurt them back. Then all of that faded as I pictured Marissa crumpled on the ground, then in a hospital bed. I’d been there almost a year ago.

I was a mess.

“I thought I would’ve found you on the phone with Jax.”

Logan had come outside. His hands were pushed in his jeans, making them slip down an inch, accentuating his already lean body. As I stared at him, all the bullshit from the year came back to me and I admitted to myself that I could’ve loved Logan. I really could’ve, but it was Mason. It was always going to be Mason. I meant the words I had told Jackson, that all roads would’ve led to him.

He was my life. He was my breath. He was my heart.

I couldn’t lose my heart.

“Sam?”

“Oh.” A husky laugh came out of me. “No. Knowing Heather, she’d be in her car and headed here. I meant it, Logan, when I told you before that it’s the Threesome Fearsome again.”

“Oh.” He sounded sad, but he shook his head and came to lean against the wall beside me. Keeping his hands in his pockets, he leaned forward, his head hanging down for a moment. He glanced up at me and gave me a brief smile. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have a friend. I didn’t mean it like that.”