Page 83 of Midnight Racers

The transitions were smooth, the engine seamless, and she followed my instincts as if this car had been built months ago and we’d had time to perfect all the grumbles that come with a new setup.

I lowered the gears and hit my accelerator again to overtake the next car on the track.

“How many more in front?” I asked.

“Three including Dale,” Joshua responded. “The car is performing above expectation out there. Keep an eye on your suspension.”

“Roger that.”

I sped past the next car, counting them off in my head. Dale had pulled the lucky card of being in pole position, and not for the first time I wondered how he managed to get so many lucky breaks to put him in that position in a race.

“He favours his righthand side, and tends to not watch his left in a race,” Charlotte said in my ear. “If you’re going to overtake him, use the widest bend as he veers out to the right and slide past him on the left.”

“Roger that.”

I swerved my car from side to side to confuse him. I feigned trying to overtake him to the right and he nearly took the front bumper off my car. Charlotte was correct—he guarded his right fiercely.

All drivers mapped out the courses and drove them until they knew them instinctively. There were two corners until the widest bend in the race. I tended to prefer to get out front and defend my position, and today was no exception. There wasn’t a car on this track that could outrun this machine if I got past them all.

Dale over-steered a few times, which meant he was watching me in his rear-view mirror. I even eased off a tad to make him think I was happy sitting behind him.

One bend to go…

I took the position directly behind him so he couldn’t predict which way I was going to go. True to form, he swung wide and to the right. I slammed into a lower gear and hit my accelerator with some clutch and sprang forward, undertaking him on the left and holding the tight bend. As the car straightened, I sped forward to leave Dale trailing behind me. I watched him slam his fist into the steering wheel in my rear-view mirror.

We continued our game of cat and mouse, each swerving in the attempt to overtake or block the other. The set-up of his car was good, but it was no match for the speed and manoeuvrability of mine. I pulled away, the exhilaration of the race pumping through my veins.

The race track was my own version of going to church. It was where I felt a connection with the earth because I was free. The constraints of everyday life fell away until nothing remained but me, the car, and the never-ending road. I didn’t need to think about the shitstorm my life had become or how I fought for control every single day.

All my demons ran behind me, trying to keep up, and I hit my accelerator again, allowing the engine its full potential. Too soon, the chequered flag appeared before me, and I heard the screaming of my team in my ear.

We’d won.

Yet, all I could think about was the woman with the wavy blonde hair who was jumping up and down and clapping. She and Megan hugged each other as they continued to hop around. Charlotte smiled at the team congratulating me, coming over with her arms open wide to celebrate. I lifted her and spun her around, her laughter echoing in my ear.

The celebratory mood soured when Dale stomped over, his expression dark and moody like the clouds just before a thunderstorm. He pushed my shoulder, but I refused to give him as much as a millimetre.

“What the fuck do you think you were doing out there?” he shouted in my face. “Blocking is not good race etiquette.”

Jordan appeared beside me, anger radiating from him in menacing waves. Charlotte was at my other side, her small hand gripping my arm as she cowered back from the wrath of her brother. It made me wonder how he had treated her in the past.

“You need to back the fuck up,” I said, my arms folding across my chest.

“What the fuck did you do to his car that you never did to mine?” Dale turned the full brunt of his ire on Charlotte.

“What I always did. The best I could for the team I’m working with.” The tremor in her voice made molten rage pump through my veins. There were too many witnesses or I would have snapped his scrawny neck.

“I’ve spoken to our legal team and we’re going to sue your ass for everything you’ve done to sabotage us,” Dale hissed, his top lip curving in a sneer. “I’ll make sure you never work in cars again.”

“As Charlotte’s legal representative, I would advise you to stop threatening my client with your ludicrous claims and fuck off to whatever rock you crawled out from,” Jordan said in a low drawl.

“And who the fuck are you supposed to be, posh boy? I looked you up, and you know nothing about patent law.” Dale was losing his cool and insulting people.

“Calm down,” I snapped.

He swung to punch me, but this wasn’t my first fight, and I had no intention of this asshole touching me. I caught his wrist in mid-air, twisting his arm behind his back as I kicked his knee closest to me to bring him to his knees.

“Stay the fuck away from me and my team,” I said, pulling his arm further up until he grunted with pain. “You don’t scare me and I have no problem dealing with an asshole like you.”

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