“Don’t act like you’re the injured party here,” she said.
“No, I’d never do that. I guess this is where the ride ends for you and I, right?”
She wrapped her arms around her waist, wondering how this had gotten so out of control. He just stared down at her and she knew she needed to find some words. Any words, something to say that would make him stay, but in the end she just shrugged her shoulders and watched him walk away.
DAVE WAS BEGINNING to believe some of the rumors he was hearing out of Tucker’s camp about someone messing with his car. The other driver had been such a fierce competitor all year long it made no sense that he’d cheat in such an obvious way and get himself kicked out of the race.
NASCAR had decided not to let Tucker race today in Phoenix. Though a part of him was relieved he wouldn’t be racing against Tucker another part knew that victory wouldn’t be as sweet unless he got it honestly.
With the race a couple of hours away everyone was tense. Dave took a few minutes to himself in his hauler.
What a difference a few weeks made. His father had been at the last two races looking more like his old self than he had in years. This morning Annie looked miserable and Jared looked the same. He tried to get Annie to talk about it but she wouldn’t.
And his team was really doing well. They had the car in the best shape it could be in.
When Dave came out of his hauler he saw Rob Mandelay walking toward him. “Do you have a minute?”
“Not really. I’m getting ready to race.”
“This won’t take long.”
Dave smiled genially and led the way back toward his hauler, but didn’t go inside. He needed to keep this short. Rob was becoming nothing short of a pain in his butt. He’d liked the man but just had no room for him right now.
“I wanted to talk to you about a job.”
“We still don’t have anything open, Rob. I’m aware that you want a job with my team but we’re fully staffed,” he said, offering the man his hand. “As I mentioned we’ll probably need some new guys in January. I’ll call you then.”
“But I’ve already proven my loyalty to you,” Rob stated.
“Ah, what are you talking about?” Dave asked, afraid to guess what Rob had done.
“When you guys got fined for lowering the motor mount, I told everyone that clearly that was Vinnie’s idea,” Rob said.
“Thanks, Rob. But we’re a team. We all work together. I appreciate the support though. Listen I’ve got to get going. We’ll talk again later.”
“There’s one more thing,” Rob added.
“What?” he asked, glancing around the garage area for Mel. He was going to have a long talk with her about staying close by so she could rescue him from people like Rob who didn’t know when to move on.
“I fixed it so you could win the championship. Tucker’s completely out of the way now. I think that deserves some kind of thanks.”
Dave glanced at the other man, afraid to believe what he heard. He took Rob’s arm and drew him farther away from the people milling just a few feet away.
“Why would you do that?”
“I figured if I helped you win then…well, you have to give me a job.”
Rob must have been half-crazy to think that idea would work. All that he’d done was place the blame squarely in his court. Oh, hell, how was Dave going to fix this?
“Don’t say anything about this to anyone else. We’ll talk as soon as the race is over.”
Dave left his hauler area and walked to the garage, not sure what to do. He should say something to the officials but he didn’t want to be implicated in Rob’s scheme. And the race countdown had already begun. He couldn’t afford to get his head out of the game at this point.
But how could he compete knowing that someone had sabotaged Tucker’s car for him? How could he hold his head up as a man and not say anything?
“Dave, we need to talk,” Annie said, coming up next to him. She looped her arm through his and drew him to a stop in the middle of the garage area.
“I can’t now. Let me run this race and then we can talk.”
“I heard what Rob just said to you.”
Dave glanced down at his sister, into eyes that were like his own. “Don’t judge, Annie. I didn’t ask him to do anything crazy.”
“I know that. But we have to tell the officials so that Tucker can have a chance to race.”
“It’s too late for today.”
“It’s never too late for the truth.”
“It is today. I’ll go to them after this race is in the bag.”
She shook her head and gave him a look that would have melted a lesser man on the spot. “I can’t believe this. That’s one step above cheating.”