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Liam, Mila, and I cram into a private waiting room at Singapore General Hospital Accident and Emergency. Cole is pacing back and forth like a caged lion, still in his race suit and soaking wet. F1 personnel line the hallways and fill every waiting room on this floor.
As soon as the on-track medical crew cleared him, Cole was in a car racing here, where Alessi was airlifted by medical helicopter.
No one will tell us anything.
All we know, at this point, is that a backmarker spun into Alessi, who was trying to pass him. That caused Alessi to lose control, and Cole, who could see nothing and could not have avoided it, hit Alessi. The impact lifted Alessi’s car into the air, flipped it, and it eventually stopped a quarter mile down the track against a wall.
The horrifying footage is replaying, over and over, online and on every sports television channel. Liam turned the waiting room televisions off as soon as we arrived.
We’ve all told Cole it wasn’t his fault. While he watched the footage once, he isn’t saying much. His every muscle is tense and taut, his fists clench at his sides, his nostrils continue to flare even now, almost an hour later.
I feel guilty to be relieved that Cole isn’t hurt because someone else is. Badly hurt.
I feel guilty that my heart is breaking for Cole right now, who will not be consoled. Even though it’s not his fault, I know he is blaming himself.
Mila clutches my hand in the chair next to me. A tear falls down her eye beside me, which makes me start to tear up again, too. Liam observes both of us, then stands and has me move one seat over so he can sit between us. He wraps an arm around each of us.
“Just let the adrenaline wear off,” he whispers to me as I watch Cole. “He’ll be okay.”
I nod. “I wish they’d tell us something already.”
Anything, any news. Maybe it’s good that they haven’t updated us. Maybe that means he is alive.
The waiting room door flies open. Everyone turns, praying for a doctor or a nurse who will update us, but it isn’t.
“You motherfucker!” A tall twenty-something man storms in the room and screams at Cole in a Scottish accent. He has shaggy brown hair and blue eyes, but unlike Cole’s, this man’s eyes are dark and dangerous and seething right now.
He shoves Cole, hard, up against a wall as Lennox Gibbes, the other Anora driver, barges into the room. “Jack,” he yells at the man shoving Cole.
Mila, Liam, and I jump to our feet when two more people barge in—a blond Scandinavian type who looks ready to murder everyone in the room, and a pretty, dark-haired woman.
Before anyone knows what’s happening, Jack rears his hand back and punches Cole right in the jaw. Cole’s head snaps back for a second, then his icy eyes return to his attacker’s, and he just stands there, not even defending himself.
His chin juts out.
Like he wants to be hit again.
Lennox grabs Jack’s arm as he’s about to hit Cole again. Now Liam, Lennox, and the blond man are all grappling to control him. Jack is raging and trying to pry his arms free from their grips.
“Jack, stop it!” The woman with Lennox screams.
Cole hasn’t moved an inch or said a word. He’s practically taunting, begging this Jack person to hit him again even though it’s taking three grown men to hold Jack back.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” Jack screams.
“It’s not his fault, mate, it’s not his fault,” Lennox yells back at Jack.
The woman who came in with them clearly has no fear because she gets right between all the men and puts her hands on Jack’s face. “Jack, stop. This isn’t helping Alessi. It isn’t his fault. Stop, please stop.”
I’ve seen her before, around the paddock, but I can’t place her. My brain is hardly working right at the moment.
Lennox Gibbes, everyone knows. He’s not only Alessi’s teammate, but the points leader this year, and it’s all but a given he is going to win the championship.
Jack seems to listen to the woman as he stops thrashing and fighting against the three men, though he is still breathing hard and filled with rage. The pain visible on his face is unmistakable.
“Come on, out. Let’s go back,” Lennox tells Jack while he continues to stare hard at Cole. Lennox and the blond get him out of the room, telling the girl he’ll be back as soon as he can.
Liam tries to examine Cole’s jaw, but he shakes his head and turns his back to all of us, going to the window overlooking a dark Singapore sky. I can see all the muscles in his back contracting, his breath laboring.
