Page 16 of Midnight Racers

My lips twitched as Mum knew me better than anyone else in the world.

“Thanks, Mum. I’ll be up on Sunday for lunch.” She insisted we had Sunday lunch together every week while I was in the country so that we never lost contact in this crazy game of life.

“Stay safe.” She never asked, but Mum had instincts that rivalled a ninja.

I deleted the message as I wasn’t ready to face the past right at this moment in time. Twenty years was a long time to ignore someone and then start to ask for favours. He could go to hell for all I cared.

I lifted a bottle of whiskey and wandered out into my garden. Oblivion sounded good right about now.

***

Chapter Six

Charlotte

I sat hunched over the latest designs I had created for the Ford Sierra rally car, as that was my priority project, even though I wanted to dive into the IndyCar project. I spread out another roll of paper with more schematics on it, using a highlighter to mark the areas that needed attention, since I had spent the afternoon watching recent videos of the car on their test circuit.

My music blared in the background since I found it easier to think in the midst of chaos. Silence allowed my mind to reflect and nothing good even happened when the past came back to haunt me. It needed to remain where it belonged, the present day and the life I had built for myself.

Once, only once, had I ever broken my sacred vow when I first started in this business. Craig had stolen my design and left me nursing a broken heart and injured pride. He now worked in one of the other factories after Dad fired him for selling my design, and had tried to rekindle our relationship on more than one occasion. I’d heard him laughing about trying to seduce me to gain access to my work.

Fuck that. I was worth more than any of them.

Day after day, I put myself back together again until I recreated myself. The woman I became was stronger and more resilient than the previous model. It was the reason I tended to write in code and kept everything on a private cloud that only I possessed the password to access.

Trust wasn’t available, as I just didn’t have the capacity for it inside me anymore. The last of it withered and died while Dale stood with the others and let them talk about me. My own brother had trampled all over me and I now realised it was because he envied my abilities. Mum had said it to me in the past and I refused to believe it, yet now I saw it clearly.

He had always remained friends with Craig, and now I had walked away from the situation, I began to wonder if Dale hadn’t known what was happening all those years ago.

Which brought me to the current situation.

Revenge was a dish best served cold and bloody. The only way to defeat the bullies of my past was to ensure that Flynn’s car was sleeker and faster. Dale refused to accept defeat, and Craig prided himself on being the best engineer in the business.

I replayed the video from the latest test drive, watching the way the car handled on the corners, the sound of the engine, the analysis from the download that allowed me to compare everything. I kept highlighting the schematics, making notes in my own shorthand.

The video showed Flynn emerging from the car, his smile as he pulled the helmet off, and I paused the screen. There was something about him that mesmerised me even from a video. He possessed a magnetism that called to me in a visceral way that I didn’t understand.

I turned off the video and sat strumming my fingers on the table. Since I was discontented, I decided to leave my study and go and get my hands dirty with grease and oil. I thought better with the scent of petrol and oil to inspire me.

The factory was in darkness when I arrived since there was no one working here today. The others worked three days a week, the other two days Jordan had been vague about. I set my tools on the counter and climbed into the car to turn on the engine. It vibrated under me, and I let it absorb into me.

The car was in neutral, so I pressed the accelerator and listened to the tone, lifting and lowering my foot. I stepped out and examined the engine bay, changing what I could at this time, since my new designs needed to have parts ordered for adaptation and other parts made from draft.

I got back in and hit the accelerator again, the purr better than it had been before.

Every car I had worked on had had a distinct sound, and that was how I fine-tuned them. After a while, I went to the engine from Dale’s car. I knew it by touch alone since I had worked on it so many times. I removed all the pieces I had added to it since legally they were no longer allowed to be in his car. After all the work I had done on this, it felt like injuring a friend, but Jordan needed to return it with my technology removed.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered to the engine. It sounded stupid but they always felt like they were alive when they ran, their distinct purr the echo of their heartbeat. “It was never supposed to end like this.”

I covered it with a tarpaulin and left it ready to transport back. I had promised to put it back into the car, but was sure Dale would make a huge fuss about it.

I wandered about the warehouse to gain my bearings, since I tended to spend a lot of my time analysing and preferred not to turn lights on. The store had been stocked by someone with OCD, rows of parts sitting perfectly with the labels out. Normally I had to hunt for what I was looking for. Someone else liked to work the same way I did, and that soothed my nerves.

I returned to the main area and continued to tinker under the bonnet with my tools on a tray beside me. I was singing along to the latest tune on my Spotify list when I reached my hand out. The tool I had been searching for was placed in my hand and I stood up suddenly, banging my head in the process.

“Ouch!” I gasped and came face to face with the man who had haunted me all day.

“At least you’re not a vampire,” Flynn said as I rubbed my head.

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