Page 45 of Midnight Racers

He was still bent over at the waist, his hand trying to cup his injured testicles. He was lucky there was a crowd or I would have made sure he got my warning loud and clear. The guys had kept Charlotte away from me and Dale because she didn’t belong to the other half of our world that was filled with death and pain.

“Are you okay?” Charlotte asked again as I walked away from the car.

“Just telling Dale that I didn’t appreciate his stunt out there. He’s lucky there isn’t more damage to our car or his pocket would be taking a hit.”

Charlotte stopped to watch Dale’s car being hoisted back to base. “Looks like his car is a write-off. They’ll have to try and move the engine into a new shell before the racing season starts.”

We all had spare cars, but preferred to keep a set-up that we’d been working on. I bit my tongue to stop me saying exactly what I was thinking. He deserved to have lost everything out there.

Charlotte tried to keep up with me as I made my way to Jordan, who was still giving off to Charlotte’s father.

“You keep that asshole away from me and my team or I will tie you up in more legal tape that you have scissors to cut through,” Jordan said, his expression suggesting he wanted to start punching people.

“It was an accident,” James tried to defend, putting his hands up in front of him. “These things happen.”

“Fuck off!” Jordan snapped. “We all knew what was going to happen before it did. That means it’s not an accident.”

“We have cameras front, back, and sides of our cars,” I said, joining them. “Would you like to see what happened out there?”

These events were rarely videoed by the organisers since they didn’t have championship points attributed to them. James’ eyes widened, but it was the only sign of his shock at the knowledge we had our cars monitored. Everyone knew that Dale tended to pull shit like that when he thought he could get away with it.

“Dad, we all know that Dale has a temper,” Charlotte said, trying to bring sanity to this madness. “He needs to stop this considering he could have killed himself and Flynn out there.”

James had the good grace to look more than a little guilty. “I’m putting this down as an accident and will debrief the team accordingly.” In other words, he would speak to Dale in private. “The team misses you.”

Charlotte’s laugh sounded forced because I knew what it should sound like and that wasn’t it. “That would be why no one contacted me, not even you, Dad.”

His eyes darted to the side.

Fair play to her for calling his bullshit out… Someone needed to show him that he had treated her like crap.

“We’ve been busy,” he muttered. “There was a lot of work to do when you removed your technology from our cars.”

“What the fuck are you doing talking to this traitor?” Dale had run back to his daddy after his balls ran into my knee.

Jordan spun to face him. “You could have fucking killed Flynn out there!” He grabbed Dale by the scruff of the neck and tossed him against the car team truck.

Been there, done that, so I couldn’t say anything.

Jordan punched him in the face. “You pull a stunt like that again and let me assure you they won’t find any of your remains.”

At least my threat had been discreet.

“You assaulted me!” Dale said, staggering to his feet. “I’ll have you for this.”

Jordan’s lips widened in that creepy grin that men tended only to see before they went to discover if Heaven and Hell really existed. “Really? And where are your witnesses?” he asked, looking around.

Even James Jones had the sense to glance the other way.

Jordan stepped closer to Dale. “This is my world, and let me assure you that problems don’t get overlooked. How’s your goon that visited my factory?”

Dale swallowed, finally realising the danger he was in.

“I hope you’ve kept track of all your team today,” I said, just to antagonise him further. “It would be a shame if you lost two men who put their nose where it didn’t belong.”

Dale and James shared a look, but Jordan and I merely stood staring at them.

“Charlie’s designs belong to us,” Dale said, refusing to give up on his pipe dream of getting her technology back into his car.

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