“There’s no reason for him to come back, Vi.”
“You’re wrong. I just hope it’s not too late when you realize it.” She walked out of the living room, and I sat up.
“Realize what?” I called after her.
I waited for her answer but she didn’t reply.
There wasn’t anything for me to realize.
I didn’t work at Cummings Racing anymore.
Brooks was back with the crew in Allenton.
There wasn’t anything more.
He was there, and I was here.
End of story.
*
Chapter Ten
Brooks
“She’s pulling to the left. I almost crashed into the wall.”
Roc grabbed my helmet and tucked it under his arm. “Noticed that.”
“Why’s it happening?” I ran my fingers through my hair and watched the crew tearing apart the engine.
“Not sure. Remy is looking at it. It has to be either uneven air pressure, or the alignment is fucked.”
“One of those sounds a whole hell of a lot easier to fix than the other.”
Roc nodded. “Yeah, but if one of us let your car out of there with uneven air pressure, we should all be fired then. That’s a rookie mistake.”
“I would think an out of whack alignment is a rookie mistake, too.”
“Either way, it isn’t anything for you to worry about. We’ll have it good as new on the next pass.”
I pulled my gloves off and tugged down the zipper on my suit. “I only have one pass left, Roc. I haven’t made it into the top sixteen yet.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Roc had been telling me that since my first pass. It was now Saturday, and I had one shot left. “Maybe I should start worrying. Something needs to change.”
“Go relax in the trailer for a bit. I’m going to personally go over the car to make sure it’s as good as it can be.”
I grabbed my helmet from him and shook my head. “I need it to be the best car out there, Roc, not as good as it can be.” I walked away from the car and Roc toward the front of the hauler.
Friday sucked.
Today sucked.
Everything sucked, and it seemed like no one knew how to make things better. The car felt off, and with each pass I did, it sucked even more.
My phone vibrated on the counter when I walked into the trailer, and I knew instantly who was calling. I didn’t want to talk to him. Hell, I didn’t want to fucking talking to anyone.
I tossed my gloves and helmet on the couch and grabbed the phone off the counter. I swiped left and put the phone to my ear. I didn’t even get a chance to say hello before he was barking into my ear.
“What in the fuck are you doing out there? You barely made it off the line before you veered into the fucking wall. Is that the way I taught you to drive?”
I collapsed onto the couch and kicked my feet up on the table. “Hello to you, too, Father.”
“Fuck hellos. My God damn name is on the line right now. You don’t qualify for tomorrow you’ll be the laughing stock of the AC Cola series.”
As if I didn’t know that. “Yeah.”
“I’ll be the laughing stock of the AC Cola series. Did you forget how to fucking drive when you were in bumfuck Egypt these past three days? Swear to Christ, Brooks. It’s like you don’t even know how to drive anymore.”
There wasn’t any point in trying to defend myself. Dad was on a tirade, and I knew from dealing with the man for the past thirty-one years, I couldn’t say anything to make this better. All I needed to do was win the next time I rolled onto the track. Right now, I was two full seconds behind the sixteenth spot. When I sucked, I really sucked. “I got one more pass left, Dad.”
“Thank fucking Christ. I’d like to know what that damn crew of yours is doing to help make you win. That car is not running like it should be.”
Even my dad who was five states away and watching on TV could tell that the car had major problems. “We’re having minor problems right now, but I know it isn’t anything they can’t handle.”
The line was silent, and I could picture my dad clearly with flushed cheeks and a scowl on his face. “Minor problems should not be happening in qualifying.” The call disconnected, and I tossed the phone on the couch next to me.
“Hell of a pep talk, Dad,” I muttered.
Things needed to change. I needed my crew to figure out what was going on with the car, and then fix it. There weren’t any other options.
*
Frankie
“Holy fuck.”
“Where’s his name?”
“Uh, did that just happen?”
Luke, Ash, Violet, Mitch, and Scarlett were all piled on the two couches in Luke’s living room watching the Saturday qualifying for Allenton.
I was speechless. I read over the names of the top sixteen qualifiers again, making sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. His name wasn’t there.
Holy fuck.
Brooks had not qualified. He had missed the sixteenth spot by one point three seconds. His reaction time was great off of the line, but everything seemed to go downhill once his tires crossed the start line.
We had all gathered around the TV watching the qualifiers, hoping that Brooks made it to the big show.
He didn’t.
He wasn’t even close.
In drag racing, if you were more than a second behind the last spot then you were completely fucked.
“He sucked.”
“Ash,” Violet scolded. “That’s not nice.”
He rolled his eyes. “Come on, like I was the only one thinking it.”
I was thinking the same thing, but I knew I was the reason he sucked.
“His car pulled to the left like fucking crazy.” Luke kicked his feet up on the coffee table. “It just kept getting worse with each race.”
“Yeah, you think they could have at least figured out something to fix it.” Mitch scoffed. “Brooks better get his shit straight or he’s gonna become a has-been before he ever becomes a big name.”
Scarlett elbowed me. “What do you think, Frankie?”
I was thinking a lot of things right now, but none of them I wanted to share out loud. “Yeah, he really pulled to the left.”
“That’s all you have to say? A blind man could have said that. I wanna know if you know what is wrong with his car. You did work on it for a few months before you decided to decapitate Brooks.”
I rolled my eyes and peeled the label on my bottle of soda. “There could be a couple of things going on with the car. I can’t really say what it is without looking at it.”
“So, when does your flight leave?” Mitch laughed.
“Pretty sure Brooks will send a private jet for her just to get her there quick as fuck.” Luke stood up and looked down at me. “If that isn’t proof enough that he needs you, then I don’t know what the hell is. You did something to that car, and the only way it’s going to get back to winning is if you get your ass there.”
Nothing like Luke putting the weight of Brooks’ racing career on me. “I didn’t do anything special to it.” At least, I didn’t think I had. I applied what I had learned in school and from working on different pit crews. Wasn’t that what I was supposed to do?