Page 26 of Danger

But, I need to. I can’t play this game with her. I need to respect her and her father. And everything they’re both trying to do for me.

This race is important. Hell, this fucking career is important and I should be onmyfucking knees thanking them every second of every day.

I sit at the bar, minding my own business when two men step up next to me. “You’re not as great a driver as you think you are,” the taller man spits out.

“And you definitely don’t deserve that Grander piece of Grade A pussy you’ve been given either,” the other man slurs.

“Watch your mouth.” I keep my head down, trying to ignore them both.

“She here with you tonight? Maybe you’d be interested in sharing.”

The other man laughs along with his friend. “Yeah, let her see how a real man would treat her.”

These men are both older, probably about thirty, maybe forty, with beer guts big enough to hold a beer on and a wicked southern drawl even though we’re nowhere near the south.

I keep my head down, not looking to get into trouble here. “I’m just here for a beer, man. Not opinions.”

“Oh, he ain’t here for opinions, Terry,” the shorter man says to the taller man.

I set my beer down, holding up my hands in a surrender. “Look, I’m not looking for trouble here.”

“That Thad Jeffries needs to smoke your ass in Indy. You should go back to whatever pile of shit you came from.”

I crack a smile, and then I twist my hand on my beer bottle, bringing it up over his head and crashing it down over his temple. He goes down and his friend, stunned, watches him go down. I connect my fist to the other man’s pudgy face before pushing them both further down to the ground.

Another fist comes flying from behind me and hits the back of my neck as I sway back on my feet.

And then the next few minutes, or seconds, flashes by in a blur and before I know it I’m being hauled from the bar in handcuffs with a very angry Monterey yelling at me.

Fuck.

All that nonsense I had said to myself about needing to be better went down the drain with the first punch.

The cop puts me in the back of his cruiser and I give him my full cooperation to make this whole process quick and painless.

This is seriously not what I had planned on when I left the room to get a drink. Sometimes it’s not me who gets into trouble, but it’s like I’m a magnet for it.

That maybe I’m more likehimthan I give myself credit for.

That thought stops me cold.

I sit in the back of the cop car, watching as the officer drives through the small podunk town toward what I’m assuming is the police station. My life has been one evolution toward becoming nothing like him. Nothing like anyone.

I’m my own man. My own being. I make my own path, and no one can take that away from me. I picture Monterey’s face as the cop was slapping the handcuffs on my wrists. She looked pissed, of course, but there was pure disappointment swimming in her eyes as she gazed at me too.

I felt like a loser.

I vow right now, in this car, never to have that look splash across Monterey’s face ever again. I don’t ever want to be the one to put it there.

She deserves better.

Chapter12

Monterey

I can’t believe Danger’s being carted off to jail in this small town in Kansas. I’m not sure of the details, but it looked like a very unfair fight when I stepped through the bar and caught the tail end of it.

Danger was being beat up by four men, but I have to say, he was doing very well for being outnumbered.

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