Page 19 of Hit and Run
To TJ:I’m doing great. Tomorrow isn’t good. Wren and I are having a girls night with some of our friends.
From TJ:Well damn. I hope you have a good time. I’ll try again at a later date. ;)
I need to fess up and tell him I’m not interested. He’s nice and good looking, but he’s not the man I want.
10
Shade
The circuit racewas a fucking rush. On average, I was going a hundred and twenty miles an hour. It was neck and neck with Grizz for a good portion until he took a turn off the route, probably thinking it would be a short cut and I never saw him again. With fifteen minutes to the finish line, the cops lit me up and I took off. I didn’t pay much attention to my speed after that, but at some point, I hit two hundred. I made it back to Esterwood, making sure to go by the diner to hit the finish line. Once I did that, I went East a couple of towns over and found an abandoned garage. Pulling in, I shut the car off and instantly hopped out so I could close the door and wait.
I sent a text to Diesel to let them know where I was and to wait forty-five minutes or so before coming to get me. While I was waiting, Ric texted me to congratulate me on my win and let me know we’d meet up later to talk. I let him know where they could pick up the Audi and that was that. Adrenaline coursed through my body. I haven’t had to run from the cops in years. I forgot how much of a rush it was.
When I saw the text from Sienna, it just made everything ten times better. She watched my race. She worried about my safety. I won’t be giving up on trying to get her anytime soon. Once Sketch came to pick me up, we headed straight for the hotel and crashed.
* * *
I wakeup and check my phone— eight o’clock and a text from Ric. Starting our drive home on four hours of sleep will be interesting. I’ll be buying a few energy drinks before we go.
From Ric:Meet at the diner at 9.
I get up to take a piss and get dressed. As I’m moving around the room, Sketch starts to wake.
“What the fuck time is it?” he says, groggy.
“Just after eight. I need to meet with Ric and Axel at nine,” I tell him.
“Fuck,” he groans, getting out of bed. “Are we heading home after that?”
“Hell yeah, we are.” I call Diesel to wake him and Rascal up. He picks up on the third ring.
“What?” he grumbles. I definitely woke him up.
“Get the fuck up. We gotta be at the diner at nine, then we’re heading home,” I tell him. He mumbles something about it being too damn early.
“Rascal, wake the hell up. We gotta go,” he shouts. “We’ll be ready in ten.”
I hang up and make sure I have all my shit packed. Once Sketch and I are both ready to go, we head out to the car. Diesel and Rascal come out minutes later and we leave for the diner. We walk in to find Ric and Axel sitting in the same booth as last night. Only this time, it’s just the two of them.
“Congratulations, Shade! You ran a good race,” Axel says as we reach the table. “Come, sit, order some breakfast. All of you. It’s on us.”
“Thanks,” I reply. The four of us slide into the booth.
“Ace talked you up quite a bit before last night. You proved him right and then some,” Ric tells me. “We’d like to invite you to more races in the future.”
“I would be honored. Racing in an underground circuit had been a dream of mine since I started racing. Being invited to this one was a dream come true and it was a fucking rush,” I admit to him. “Y’all put on a good race with some good competition.”
“Here is your prize.” Axel slides a thick envelope across the table. I pull it to my lap and open it just enough to see a stack of hundreds. I look from the cash to Axel. “Ten thousand dollars.”
“Holy shit,” Diesel says. “Did you know about that?”
“No, I had no idea what or if there was a prize,” I admit.
“That makes this even better,” Ric says. “A true racer, doing it for the love and thrill of it.”
“We’ll be in touch.” Axel and Ric slide out of the booth. They stop to talk to the waitress before leaving. The waitress walks over to our table.
“What can I get for you fellas today,” she asks, smile beaming.
