Page 25 of Midnight Racers

A kick to make it swing in the other direction.

I shouldn’t have texted her, but the temptation had been too great.

Eventually, I slid down the wall and fell on my ass, exhausted. What the hell was I supposed to do? Dad literally wanted a piece of me, and I couldn’t cross that line in a work environment.

I crawled back upstairs and put something into the microwave before playing background music to stop the constant train of thoughts in my head. Grandpa used to put music on to allow me to sleep when I couldn’t calm the images and inner dialog that kept me awake.

The music and Netflix worked their magic after a while, and I fell asleep on the sofa that tended to be my bed more than the actual piece of furniture in my bedroom. I woke up with a start to my phone ringing close to my ear.

“Yeah?”

“Someone is currently trying to get into our workshop,” Jordan said.

“It’s probably Charlie again, let her work.” I slumped back on the sofa and covered my eyes with my arm.

“Unless she is around six foot and brandishes a crowbar, then I doubt it.”

I rolled over and looked at the clock on the wall. It was just after five in the morning. “No alarms have gone off on my phone.”

“They haven’t got into the workshop. I’m sitting in my car watching them,” Jordan replied.

What could I say? The guy was an insomniac just like me. “Do I need a cleaner?”

He chuckled. “Not yet. I want to see who the fuck has balls big enough to break into our unit.”

“Why are you awake and wandering the countryside, Jay?”

“Because Megan has been helping Cassandra with her baby, and no offence to Zee, but his spawn is smelly and noisy.”

I laughed at his indignant tone.

“It’s like dog shit,” I told him. “You can lift your own dog’s shit, but the thought of lifting someone else’s is repulsive.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jordan quipped. “I’m off to have a chat with our neighbourhood criminal. If I don’t call back in five minutes, maybe have a cleaner on speed dial.”

“Gotcha.” I hung up and wandered through the house to my office. In it was a system that connected me to the CCTV units of different properties. I brought the units at the warehouse up and watched Jordan saunter across the area outside as if he didn’t have a single care in the world.

There were audio units near the front where the guy was trying to use a crowbar with little effect.

“Can I help you?” Jordan asked, his hands in his pockets as he watched him. To anyone who didn’t know him, you would think he was just out for an early morning stroll and happened upon this asshole.

“No, I was just leaving.” He put his head down and tried to push past.

“Now that’s just rude,” Jordan replied, grabbing him by the arm. “I believe you left your crowbar.”

The guy tried to run but Jordan pinned him to the wall by his throat. “Tell that piece of shit Dale that if he comes within spitting distance of my property again that I’ll rip his intestines out and strangle him with them.”

I hadn’t met Charlotte’s brother or his team, but Jordan had when he went to collect her stuff. Just for good measure, Jordan decided to get some exercise practice in and hand Dale’s goon his ass before picking the crowbar up and hitting his knee with it. He threw it down beside him.

“Consider yourself lucky that I didn’t shove it up your ass.” Jordan turned on his heel and stalked back across the open space we tested the cars in.

I dialled his number on my phone. “Feel better?” I asked when he picked up.

“A bit.” I imagined the smirk on his mouth. He was a bigger asshole than me. “That goon was in the background whispering with Dale when I took Charlie to get her stuff. I never forget a face.”

It was true, the guy had the memory of an elephant and the temper of a pissed off tiger.

“Is he going to be able to walk back to his car?”

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